CD Reviews: Spy Game and The Man Who Wasn't There
Spy Game ***
HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS
Decca 440 016 190-2
20 tracks - 71:25
You know the score by now -- in both senses of the word. A Tony Scott
thriller can only mean one thing -- a pounding soundtrack by Hans Zimmer
or one of his proteges. As such, Spy Game lives up to expectations
(high or low, depending how you view this type of music). But to its credit,
this score manages to shake its way out of its "electronic soundbox" shackles
to offer some colorful percussion and melody.
Tony Scott won't be rehearsing an Oscar speech for Spy Game;
it's not that sort of a movie. Most of Scott's films are populist crowd-pleasers
that wash across the screen with no real threat of a detailed plot getting
in the way of things. So, the fact that Gregson-Williams' Spy Game score
is not profound (instead merely a flashy chorus flanking the on-screen
pyrotechnics) must be a given. But the music on the disc is far better
than one could have hoped for. Gregson-Williams is a talented composer,
as witnessed by his collaborations on Shrek and Antz. I assumed
that Spy Game would give us more techno-beats in line with his Enemy
of the State (again for Tony Scott). Instead, there's a wide range
of tracks that employ instrumentation from countries across the Northern
Hemisphere.
Spy Game is particularly determined to spell out locations by
annotating the movie with local music and instruments. The opening track
is called "Su-Chou Prison," but I could have guessed the title (well, close
enough anyway) just from Guangming Li's Asian twangs on the erhu. And so,
"Berlin" features militaristic (vaguely Russian) pomp, and "Beirut, A warzone"
is punctuated with a wailing Middle Eastern voice. So, while the music
is determined to make each location unique, it does so at the expense of
narrative, creating a fragmented listening experience. Thank goodness for
the simple piano theme, often a precursor to boy soprano Timothy Washburn's
haunting lament (especially on "Operation Dinner Out") that holds these
disparate threads together. This strong and enchanting theme is worth three
of the minor ethnic variants.
At 71 minutes this disc is a bit of an indulgence, and tighter editing
would have helped the different themes stand out more prominently. But
with a bit of judicious tracking on your CD player, it's easy to trim away
the fat and leave some accomplished cues. Perhaps there are just too many
themes jockeying for attention, and the two techno remixes only add more
variety to an already busy mix. This album shows just how wide Gregson-Willams'
range is, but this isn't a compilation record, and eclecticism isn't the
best basis on which sell a score. Next time, less would be more.
Spy Game is the perfect score to a Tony Scott movie, but to borrow
a phrase from a more famous spy, it might just leave you shaken and not
stirred. -- Nick Joy
The Man Who Wasn't There *** 1/2
CARTER BURWELL
Decca 440 016 019-2
14 tracks - 45:43
In every generation, a composer appears who so astonishes with his film-scoring
debut that fans hunger for his next effort -- and yet, as with most people
with such enormous talent, his next effort may take years to materialize.
Finally, after almost seven years of waiting, the brilliant composer of
Immortal Beloved is back with his latest score. The composer in
question is of course Ludwig van Beethoven, and the movie in question is
The Man Who Wasn't There, the Coen Brothers' film noir about a passionless
barber and his very passionate (and adulterous) wife. While the film's
script meanders all over the place, aping such movies as Double Indemnity
and Lolita, it's the mood that hypnotizes, and two men are chiefly
responsible for this. First is veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins, whose
use of shadow and smoke is downright astonishing (just look at how he shoots
the complex landscape of Billy Bob Thornton's face). And then, of course,
there's Beethoven.
Director Joel Coen's choice of Beethoven's piano sonatas is inspired.
Instead of choosing from the broad spectrum of Beethoven's oeuvre, he focuses
mainly on one form, the piano solo, which adds thematic resonance to the
movie as a whole. And, the actions fit the music: watch the way hair falls
to the ground to the tune of Beethoven's somber piano, and you know that
Coen made the right choice.
However, not all the action would have worked with just the piano sonata
to support it, so Coen called his usual collaborator, the equally talented
Carter Burwell, to fill in the holes. Obviously not offended by having
to share billing with Beethoven, Burwell has also adapted his signature
style of mood scoring (as opposed to action scoring) to sound remarkably
similar to the Beethoven. The first time during the film that I remember
hearing music that I knew was Burwell was a half-hour in, when Thornton
enters the department store at night. That piece ("Ed visits Dave") coupled
with the music for the following scene ("The Fight") is Burwell at his
best. As Burwell has composed music to such suspenseful Coen movies like
Fargo, Miller's Crossing and Blood Simple, he knows what
works for such scenes. Here he has the orchestra growling in such a carefully
menacing fashion that it creates suspense without ever raising its collective
voice. Chilling.
Burwell also contributes a nice jazz piece for a party scene, which
sounds in keeping with the 1949 setting, but is slightly jarring coming
in the middle of the album. Not including this piece, the CD has less than
15 minutes of actual Burwell score, which may prompt you to ask if it's
the score that wasn't there. But, truth to tell, this is about par for
the course for a Coen Brothers movie. In fact, Burwell's percussion score
for their last movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? was so minimal
that it wasn't even released. I don't think any of the underscore for The
Man Who Wasn't There was left off this album.
If you don't mind the brevity of the Burwell sections, the preponderance
of Beethovan's sonatas (well played by Jonathan Feldman) and a cue from
that young upstart named Mozart, you'll find this a satisfying album and
a worthy companion to the movie. -- Cary Wong
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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