This film represents composer\/conductor Howard Shore’s 11th
\ncollaboration with director David Cronenberg. This review
\nrepresents my first try ever at reviewing the original score
\nassociated with a film. (May the force be with us both.)<\/p>\n
Scores can be a challenge in terms of approachability. An
\noriginal soundtrack typically incorporates songs, be they original
\nnumbers created for the film, or existing music borrowed from a
\nvariety of sources. By contrast, the score is pure music, those
\noften unobtrusive background textures that exist solely to add
\nemotional shading and emphasis to the film itself.<\/p>\n
I found after a couple of tries that I simply couldn’t gain
\naccess to this music without benefit of having seen the movie.
\nWhich now leaves me with the challenge of reviewing the music
\nwithout slipping into the trap of reviewing the movie itself.<\/p>\n
In terms of plot, the movie’s trajectory is fairly simple. Bad
\nguys wander into small town looking for an easy mark. Bad guys
\nenter a small town diner where the owner (Viggo Mortensen), a quiet
\nfamily man with a beautiful wife, teenage son and young daughter,
\nworks the counter. Bad guys make trouble, and exit in body bags.
\nFamily man is declared a hero, gets his face plastered across the
\nmedia, more trouble arrives, and a series of complications and hard
\nchoices ensue.<\/p>\n
Shore’s score is equally uncluttered and intense. He sticks with
\na handful of orchestral instruments that present a series of
\nindividual notes and occasional bold themes, focusing on French
\nhorn and alto flute. The utter simplicity of tracks like the
\nopening “Motel” isn’t impressive by itself, but in context it’s
\nobvious how the single, sustained, waxing and waning note
\nemphasizes the viewer’s sense that something is very wrong as, on
\nscreen, the audience meets two lowlifes in the process of making a
\nleisurely departure from a roadside motel that is slowly revealed
\nto have been the scene of a bloodbath.<\/p>\n
Moving through the story, fuller compositions like “Tom” and
\n“Cheerleader” offer introductory themes that have a timeless,
\nalmost iconic feel to them. This makes good sense once you read the
\nliner notes and understand Cronenberg imagined this film as a
\nclassic Western tale of a lone good man’s battle against evil. The
\nsense of foreboding in numbers like “The Road” and “Nice Gate” does
\nequal justice to the mood the director is going for in these
\nscenes, and amply demonstrates why Shore is a popular choice in his
\nfield.<\/p>\n
The challenge for the reviewer remains, though. If I hadn’t seen
\nthe movie, I would have a tough time passing judgment on whether
\nthis music achieved its purpose. Without the film to provide
\ncontext, it feels well-crafted but lacks a reason for existing.
\nTaken with the film, it’s difficult to judge, since I think
\nCronenberg could have made a much better movie if he’d cut a total
\nof perhaps four minutes from a handful of scenes where his cinema
\nverite approach to violence and sex pushes the R rating envelope to
\nthe breaking point. As it is, I left the theater queasy and shaking
\nmy head at the very good movie he just missed making.<\/p>\n
In fairness to Howard Shore, though, I’ll try to stick to the
\nmusic, and there I have nothing but positives to offer. The score
\nto
\nA History Of Violence<\/i>, while largely unobtrusive, serves the
\npurposes of the film and its director quite effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7060],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38621","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-score","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38621"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38621"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}