CD Review: Spiderman

Spider-man ****

DANNY ELFMAN

Sony Music Soundtrax

Within the first few minutes of the Sam Raimi/Danny Elfman collaboration Spider-man, one automatically thinks of another of the composer's comic-book character collaborations, Batman. All the ingredients are there: comic-book hero, splashy main title graphics, the tuneful French horn licks. For the first few minutes, everything seems to be going according to plan: building strings, coupled with a bit of Elfman's "new" percussion layers, finally blasting into the French horn-and-choir motif we'd (or at least I'd) been salivating over. But, alas the joy doesn't last long: the satisfying "thematic" sequence quickly dissolves into a soft, thinly scored section of percussion and yet more crescendoing strings. Thus, to the first-time listener, one element seems to be missing from this score: the lack of a definitive "Spider-man" theme.

Rather than being "hit over the head" with an intensely heroic montage, a la Batman, the listener is given a scrambling, somewhat disjointed "main titles" sequence, with small tastes of the glorified theme we'd (or at least I'd) come to expect in a comic-book film. During these small snippets of a discernible theme, seemingly wanting to press through the wavering strings via the wordless choir and blasting horn cues often used in Elfman's work, we are given a glimpse into storyline of the movie: a boy (Peter Parker) starting out already unsure of himself, in the awkward stage that most teens go through, the pain of being ignored by a crush, yet gaining this incredible ability literally overnight. Through time, this boy learns to master his newfound abilities, not without mishaps, and become the hero we all know as Spider-man.
 
The score then vacillates between this "boy-to-man" struggle in the subsequent tracks. "Transformations" begins with the ghost of Parker's eventual destiny of Spider-man present in chromatic strings, layers of ever-building percussion, ending in a surprisingly subdued rush of brass and low strings. These finally de-escalate to a series of "vulnerable," quavering string-and-woodwind moments, coupled with the ever-increasing presence and intensity of impatient low brass and strings (bringing to mind "The Tree of the Dead" in Elfman's Sleepy Hollow).

The definite "crowd-pleaser" of the album is the "Costume Montage" track, in which Parker becomes more of a boy playing dress-up while designing his costume. This track begins with syncopated percussion, grinding electric guitar riffs, oscillating strings, which builds into an immensely satisfying climax of cadential low strings, and electric guitar wails [Elfman's original version of this cue was based on horns and not guitars -- both versions are outstanding.] This track, out of all of them, reminds us that our hero hasn't emerged just yet. Right now, he's just a teenager having a bit of good, clean fun.
 
Throughout the score, we receive a lush, flute-and-violin love theme, playing whenever Parker is near his object of unrequited affection, Mary Jane. However, this theme is secondary (in the score, at least) to the mirroring of the transformation of Parker to Spider-man. This score is not one in which we receive many truly satisfying, sit-back-in-your-seat-and-revel-in-the-glory moments. Ever present are the elements of intense, impatient low strings, subdued low brass, and the feeling of "something isn't quite right" with a character.

The first taste we have of Spider-man really coming into his own during the score occurs in "City Montage." In the film, this track occurs when Parker/Spider-man swings through the city on a "tour" of wrongs to be righted. The track opens with the slow, confident strains of the French horn, coupled with the wordless choir, and the sense that the character of Parker really knows who he is. We are presented several times with ghosts of the Spider-man theme, present in the French horn and choir motifs, during this particular track. Also, this is the track that truly conveys the Green Goblin theme -- a skittering, slithering chromatic string motif, directly followed by the ghost of the Spider-man theme. The fact that the track ends in the "Spidey" theme conveys which character is in charge here.

Thus, the source of conflict is now no longer between Parker and his alter-ego, but rather Parker/Spider-man as a conjoined force, and the Green Goblin. "Parade Attack" is a typical battle sequence, in which the Spider-man theme and that of the Goblin are both hidden under a tense array of driving percussion, pointed low brass executions, and lots of chromatic string cues. This track also brings the "full" Spider-man theme into the listener's perspective: thus, it is the same horn-and-choir motif as repeated before in "Main Titles" and "City Montage," but coupled with snippets of the love theme, extended and building to a dramatic, yet touching, horn-and-string denouement. This track also ends in the full Spider-man theme, thus showing just exactly who won the battle, and foreshadowing the film's conclusion as well.

Spider-man is what I would judge to be a good film score: that is, able to score to the film, and highlight the unknown or unseen elements (as in the "Main Titles"), while still sounding coherent as pure music. The fact that Spider-man did not begin (with the exception of the main titles) with the full Spider-man theme is a testament to Elfman's ability to see what the film is, at least partially, about: the inner conflict of a boy using previously unheard-of powers to turn into a man he's not sure he can, or wants to, become. In Batman, the hero already knew who he was: he WAS the Caped Crusader, and did not to be reminded of that, but the audience, in fact, did -- at least in the "Main Title" sequence. Thus, it is the scoring-to-the-film aspect of Elfman's work that brings about the thematic differences and presentation of Batman and Spider-man.

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