Interview: THE CONSPIRATOR composer Mark Isham is the true Lincoln Lawyer

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/15/2011
Composer Mark Isham

If there’s a filmmaker concerned with the American conscience, then it would be Robert Redford. Like another pop movie star-turned-director, many of Redford’s deliberately paced, and deeply dramatic films seek out the bonds of family, love of country, and the adherence to its supposed values- whether it be in the Montana fly fishing of A RIVER RUNS THOUGH IT, the subversion of the nation’s favorite QUIZ SHOW, and the tragedy of our Middle Eastern involvement that switches LIONS FOR LAMBS. These are the four pictures among Redford’s eight films (including THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR, THE HORSE WHISPERER, THE LEGEND OF […]Read On »


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CD Review: JANE EYRE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/09/2011
JANE EYRE soundtrack | ©2011 Sony

Such composers as Bernard Herrmann, John Williams and Richard Harvey have dared to see what lies hidden in the stone walls of Edward Rochester’s keep in the twenty and counting EYRE adaptations that have been done for film and television over the last ninety or so years. Now it’s Dario Marianelli’s turn to light the candle and venture through the dauntingly gloomy halls and wind-swept moors in this beautifully done, if somewhat still-life production that takes a more realistic approach to Charlotte Bronte’s now-eternal 1847 story of female oppression and empowerment. With the shining light radiating from Marianelli’s Oscar for […]Read On »


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CD Review: RANGO Original Soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/30/2011
Rango soundtrack | ©2011 Anti Records

After scoring 2-D critters in the African savannah, under the sea and bounding about the tropics of Madagascar, Hans Zimmer takes a three dimensional trip South of the Border to come up with his most delightfully hip soundtrack yet for funny animals- in this case the pistol packing cold bloods and carrion who inhabit the range of RANGO. Applying the same in-your-face zest that gave a major shot of new musical life to the warhorse of SHERLOCK HOLMES, Zimmer has his way with the old west’s movie music clichés, infusing the shoot-out trumpets, electric guitars, player pianos and every other […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE WAY BACK

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/29/2011
THE WAY BACK soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

It’s been a twelve-year trek for Burkhard Dallwitz to re-unite with director Peter Weir since THE TRUMAN SHOW. And while Dallwitz certainly didn’t undergo the trans-continental travails of THE WAY BACK, the stirring empathy that he gives to his second, and long overdue collaboration with Weir certainly pays tribute to the need for freedom, one that drove the film’s characters from Siberia to India. As the soundtrack starts out with an eerie mix between dark orchestral sustains, gnarled chords, subdued ethnic percussion and an overall aura of unknowable doom, you might think you’re listening to a soundtrack about Gulag escapees […]Read On »


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CD Review: LITTLE FOCKERS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER

It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of Randy Newman, even for Randy Newman, given the diminishing returns of the sequels to the undeniably great MEET THE PARENTS. And while the third time isn’t a charm for the at-times amusing LITTLE FOCKERS, composer Stephen Trask certainly does his darndest to make things funny. Given his broadest comedy to score for his fourth pairing with director Paul Weitz after their clever work with IN GOOD COMPANY, AMERICAN DREAMZ and THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT, Trask makes the wise choice of stepping into Randy Newman’s shoes at first. It’s a nice job of […]Read On »


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CD Review: YELLOWBEARD soundtrack (1,000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/17/2011
YELLOWBEARD soundtrack | ©2011 Quartet Records

Composer John Morris has romped through the past with such comedically rousing scores as BLAZING SADDLES, THE LAST REMAKE OF BEAU GESTE and HISTORY OF THE WORLD: PART 1, but Morris’ symphonic lunacy truly hit its swashbuckling height with YELLOWBEARD. Even if this Python-esque pirate spoof displayed more fool’s gold than the comedic riches that Mel Brooks had provided him with, Morris still invests a terrific, glistening majesty to a score that plays like Erich Wolfgang Korngold chasing after Bugs Bunny. Anchoring this infectiously nostalgic score is a march theme that sounds like the start of Warner Bros. logo, with […]Read On »


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CD Review: STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER – Limited Edition

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
STAR TREK V soundtrack | ©2010 La La Land Records

La La Land continues to show long-needed love to great soundtracks from undeservedly maligned sequels, in this case the one where William Shatner assumed both the com, and the director’s chair to have the Enterprise find the all-mighty. Though a lot of this EST-centric probing ended up having its share of goofy moments, the film more often than not did a powerful job of returning the series to its metaphoric sci-fi roots. So it only seemed right for Shatner to have composer Jerry Goldsmith come back to the series for the first time since THE MOTION PICTURE, making this FINAL […]Read On »


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Interview: Composer John Ottman enters the UNKNOWN

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/10/2011
UNKNOWN movie poster | ©2011 Warner Bros.

Among the composers who’ve been chased by international killers, engaged in murderous games of cops and robbers, or have spied on the antics of various psychopaths, John Ottman might consider himself a marked man. Making a huge splash along with film school buddy Bryan Singer as the editor and composer of 1995’s THE USUAL SUSPECTS, Ottman’s way of ratcheting the dramatic stakes up with walls of creeping, orchestra-heavy melody has led his talents to far more visceral ends in the genre with the likes of TRAPPED, CELLULAR and HIDE AND SEEK, topping off his multi-hyphenate hat as perhaps the one […]Read On »


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CD Review: NO STRINGS ATTACHED soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/09/2011
No Strings Attached Score soundtrack | ©2011 Lakeshore Records

For a manly composer, John Debney has frequently been called upon to sound like a honey-haired escort, no doubt due to his talent for effortlessly conjuring the sweet, heavily-stringed romantic vibe that spells “chick flick” score at the box office. Yet Debney’s rapidly been showing the town he’s a jack-of-all-trades, especially with last year’s zanily ferocious scores to PREDATORS and MACHETE. So it’s equally no surprise that Debney can devolve his rom-com sound to the mid-20’s age of NO STRINGS ATTACHED’s likable bed-hoppers, and sound more authentically creative than ever in the genre. The same thing can be said for […]Read On »


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CD Review: BLUE VALENTINE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/08/2011
Blue Valentine soundtrack | ©2011 Lakeshore Records

Where NO STRINGS ATTACHED stands as a date film that’s likely to get you lucky, BLUE VALENTINE practically ensures you’ll never see your lady again, if not one that will plant the seeds for a future divorce with the wife you’ve foolishly taken to see the flick. That being said, BLUE VALENTINE is also certainly one of the best feel-bad relationship films ever made, a continual gut punch to the idea of true love. So it’s only right that its music should be as raw as its downward-spiraling couple’s emotions. What Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear delivers goes even beyond that […]Read On »


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