Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,249
Written 10/23/04, Revised 10/17/11
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Buy it... if you appreciated the sustained style of tempo and
cyclical structure that Brian Tyler utilized in other suspense scores of
the era (such as Godsend) and have great patience for his subtler
fare.
Avoid it... if you require transparent narrative development of
motifs and more extroverted personality in the tone of your Tyler
scores, because this entry is effectively mundane.
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| Tyler |
The Final Cut: (Brian Tyler) In yet another film
which attempts to merge introspective drama with a touch of intriguing
science fiction, Omar Naim's The Final Cut deals with the premise
that people of the future will have a memory chip implanted in
themselves that will observe every waking moment of their life. When a
person dies, the chip is extracted and a professional known as a
"cutter" will surf through that person's memories and produce a two-hour
film containing all of the best moments of his or her life so that the
family of that deceased person can enjoy the memories together. One of
the better "cutters" is Robin Williams' character, a detached and somber
individual troubled by his own memories, and The Final Cut
allowed Williams to further explore the darker genres he had seemed to
prefer in films since 2002. As a finished product, The Final Cut
suffers from the fact that it creates a variety of fascinating
storylines, theoretical possibilities, and worthy questions without
addressing even a fraction of them. Without the action of the similarly
themed The Minority Report from a few years prior, this 2004 Naim
film simply failed to convince audiences and critics of its sincerity.
The project did, however, capture the interest of composer Brian Tyler,
whose predictable fascination with the morbid subject matter thrilled
the director and led to an amicable and fluid relationship between the
two on this project. Despite his relatively newfound position in the
industry, Tyler had already scored a fair share of suspense films and
stakes his career on them, including those in the most recent year. Both
Godsend and Paparazzi fall under this genre, though
Godsend is far more closely related to The Final Cut than
the latter score. In fact, many of the same underlying techniques
relating to tempo and application of melody are similarly explored in
Godsend and The Final Cut, and listeners who enjoyed the
first will likely find merit in the second. Their accessibility and
general tone are largely the same, despite the latter's tendency to
remind more often of other composers' music. Less openly tense than some
of Tyler's equivalent works, The Final Cut relies upon intrigue
rather than thrills. Despite a few crescendos that lead cues to false
conclusions (as in "Zoe Revelation"), the mass of the score is
orchestrally cyclical and somewhat minimalistic by nature. The sound of
the music differs from the composer's other entries, too, likely due to
the recording of the score in a Washington chapel and the comparatively
dry ambience that surprisingly results.
This score relies upon simple constructs and repeats
them at varying tempos with different sections of the orchestra
depending on the needs of each scene. In these regards, Tyler's concern
is definitely on details, and no enthusiast of Philip Glass' churning
tendencies could easily claim that this music is boring. If there is a
fault to this Tyler style, it is that he establishes a set of motifs, or
two themes in this case, and finely tunes them throughout the score
without ever giving listeners any advanced development or narrative
direction to those ideas. The main theme heard at the start never
compels the listener more than it does at the outset, its frequent
references often stagnant and detached. A secondary theme, heard best in
"Rememory" and performed with considerable heart by solo woodwind,
piano, and cello, receives short treatment due to its resolution-related
purpose. The piano's role in this cue is a bit derivative, emulating the
stark elegance of John Williams'
A.I. Artificial Intelligence and
in other places (like "Inversion") reminding of Craig Armstrong's
standard suspense techniques. The mass of underscore has the same
characteristics of tempo, however, that keep it as interesting as
Godsend. During this period, Tyler seemed to be fond of finding
ways to maintain movement in his music, no matter the number of layers
or emotional intent. Several instruments often meander through figures
in a distant corner of the soundscape at each moment, and in "Eye Tech,"
Tyler launches this sound into fuller, fluttering, Williams-like
movements, especially on woodwinds. Likewise, the woodwind rhythms
present in the performances of the title theme at the start and end of
the score compensate for a rather bland rendering of the relatively
simple, though resounding brass theme. Tyler composed (and wrote the
lyrics for) two source songs for the film which appear on the album, one
a vintage lounge piece and the other a heavy metal blast, and neither of
them is particularly interesting outside of the shock value associate
with their disparate nature. Since they have no relation to the tone of
the score, one has to wonder why they were used to break up it up in two
places on album rather than appear as appendices at the end. More
effective as a source-like piece is "Tattoo Parlor," featuring genuinely
eerie vocal effects. The dry mix brings the individual lines to the
forefront of the soundscape, allowing for better appreciation but likely
causing too flat of a sound for Tyler collectors. If you were to choose
between the album for this score or that of
Godsend, the latter
will likely be more engaging, but the two are very similar in underlying
style. Either way, you get effective though not particularly memorable
suspense music.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Brian Tyler reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.2
(in 41 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.13
(in 19,742 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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