Demolition Man

Elliot Goldenthal is a composer whose music I cannot often bear to listen to, it's just too interesting and modern and doesn't sound enough like slushy old fashioned film music. Sadly my tastes are not quite wide enough to encompass his unique musical personality into my scope of listening. However, I always want to like his scores and I have at least found one that I think is marvellous. Demolition Man was fairly exciting and graphically violent 'cop gets frozen, cop gets defrosted, kills bad guy, gets girl' type of film. You know the type. Out of all this, Elliot Goldenthal has produced a score that is filled with his typically outlandish orchestrations, mix of industrial synths and blaring brass. There is no main theme as such, just little motifs that fill each track on their own terms while adding to the portentous mixture that ultimately produces the score. There are at least some quieter moments, and even some 'typical' film music gushing toward the end. Guilty as Charged uses eerie strings with out of tune horns to real wind up the tension to a much greater level than most other composers would have managed. While this kind of technique doesn't exactly sound like it'll make great listening, it is a great deal less overly screechy than if it were in the hands of a less talented composer.

Of course a futuristic action thriller is going to have some futuristic action thriller type action cues and these abound, all orchestration in the similar kind of Goldenthal fashion, but different. Similar in style, but not content. Goldenthal is never happy just to have a synth rushing along or percussion trouncing the orchestra, but injects some of the most intricate string and brass parts which is several steps above what would be expected given the time constraints. Just reading the track titles indicates both Goldenthal's curiously pretentious, but conversely humerous approach to the subject matter. Most of this scores are filled with tracks that are named like the movement of a symphony, but these are side by side with titles such as Obligatory Car Chase. This film isn't high brow stuff and he knows it, which only goes to show how much care and attention he's lavished on such a throw away effort. Indeed his scores for the Batman movies are equally intricate and utterly wasted on the crass and hideous movies.

After hearing this, I'm more than willing to give Goldenthal more of my listening time if for no reason than to just get used to his style. There are many elements of his music I love, the incredibly complex orchestration, but then there are the odd screeching moments (which are few and far between here) that I just loath. It's a balance that needs to be achieved, but when it's at a palatable level, his music is some of the most interesting you're likely to hear attached to some of the least interesting motion pictures. Ditch the movie, stick to the score, great stuff.