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Review of Godsend (Brian Tyler)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you respect Brian Tyler's intriguing thriller work during the period of his emergence and would therefore be interested in an intelligent, rhythmic suspense score for orchestra and solo voice that outshines its film.

Avoid it... if the score's pretty but underwhelming pseudo-religious tones, as well as its stock horror material, were among the reasons why you found fault with the film's wishy-washy sense of purpose.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Godsend: (Brian Tyler) What's worse, cloning your dead child and eventually discovering that he is the spawn of demon seed or making a really horrible movie about it? A universal pounding was delivered to Godsend when it was released in theatres in 2004, not just from critics, but from audiences seeking intelligent examinations of a viable and emotional social issue. Attempting to merge the ideas of A.I. Artificial Intelligence and The Omen into one not-so-pretty picture, Godsend tells the dubious story of an average Northeastern couple whose eight-year-old is killed in a freak accident and who, without thinking much about the consequences, turn their lives over to Robert DeNiro's "Godsend Institute" so that the child can be cloned and grow up all over again. It's funny that anti-cloning groups heavily protested the film, because its story predictably teaches viewers that the clone will be extremely psychologically disturbed and do horrible things, in effect reinforcing the voices against the potential practice. Additionally, the movie can't seem to decide where to take its religious implications (especially with the child being named Adam), and if you are unhappy about the ending, then rest assured that director Nick Hamm (whose career included no significant hits at the time) shot no less than seven alternate endings in which one or two of the parents is killed by the child in multiple ways, and there is even a total blood bath in which everyone dies. What great entertainment! Composer Brian Tyler was already no stranger to either the horror genre or the realm of substandard films in 2004. His mainstream career, in fact, got started with both, and while most fans discovered Tyler with his monumental Children of Dune television score the previous year, that period included a few earlier thriller works that had already piqued the interest of film score collectors. If Timeline was any indication by itself, Tyler wasn't phased by the low quality of the films on which he worked, and even in Godsend you hear the same attention to detail and complicated constructs that make his material interesting to his listeners. A half a dozen names of composers, if not more, could have been mentioned as usual suspects when it comes to scoring films like Godsend, and most of them would probably have produced drab, underdeveloped ambience suitable for the quality of the film. Fortunately, Tyler's take on the project at least has some heart and substance.

While Tyler was somewhat restrained by the genre of Godsend in terms of outward melody and melodramatic depth, he still delivers a surprisingly tonal, varied, and interesting score. He accomplishes this feat through a constantly heightened level of movement in nearly every cue. Instead of building tension through disharmony in lengthy whole notes, Tyler creates suspense through the quick procession of alternating ostinatos, the rhythms throughout Godsend keeping it light on its feet while also utilizing enough disharmony to suffice for the picture's thriller element. By establishing a pseudo-religious, angelic sound for the boy and mutating that sound throughout the score, Tyler is perhaps somewhat responsible for critics and viewers raising unanswered questions about religion in the film; there are several pretty and tender thematic sequences for strings, piano, and yearning solo voice that add a tangible dimension to the religious questions. The false promise of the cloning process receives one of the most inspirational choral treatments of beauty in "To Godsend." Don't seek Godsend if, however, you expect lengthy passages of pleasantries from strings, piano, and voice, because the score also includes its fair share of derivative crashing about in standard atonal fashion for the horror genre. The blasting seems to be emphasized in the last several cues on the album presentation (which is not in film order, perhaps for this reason), and, for the most part, this is stock genre material for the brass and percussion. There are only so many ways you can rattle a cymbal up to a crescendo and give it a good slap at the end. But if you are a fan of Tyler's music during this period of emergence, then the rhythmic portions of Godsend will keep you engaged. Established in the opening titles, the pulsating rhythm in the minor key, sometimes accented by light electronic choral effects laid over the top in an alternating major key, serves to represent the technological and biological aspects of the story well. The application of this rhythm in "To Godsend" is performed with the sound of a beating heart (of sorts, perhaps intentional), and Tyler manages to balance the hope of restoration in early cues with the ominous undertones of evil in the multiple facets of this rhythm. Overall, the album for Godsend runs a bit long at 67 minutes, with roughly 20 minutes of remarkably accessible, suspenseful underscore surrounded by stock horror methods and redundant ambience. An excellent suite of ideas from the score is coordinated in "Godsend End Titles." For a film this bad, Tyler's score may be the one godsend to be gleaned from it, and only the lack of a better album arrangement restrains it from a fourth star.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 67:25

• 1. Godsend Main Titles (3:33) • 2. Adam (1:14) • 3. Zachary (3:46) • 4. Birth (1:46) • 5. Regression (1:53) • 6. Face Down (1:33) • 7. Contemplation (2:52) • 8. Near Miss (2:17) • 9. Not to Me (1:43) • 10. Damp Woods (3:59) • 11. To Godsend (2:26) • 12. Did I Die? (1:04) • 13. New Home (2:21) • 14. Transfigurations (2:56) • 15. Second Opinion (1:34)

• 16. Epiphany (0:54) • 17. Shack in the Woods (2:22) • 18. Photo Discovery (2:21) • 19. First Disturbance (2:10) • 20. Loathing (1:42) • 21. Funeral (1:34) • 22. Crash (2:17) • 23. Draw the Burning Building (3:56) • 24. Curtains (2:07) • 25. Illusion Confusion (2:04) • 26. Comatose (1:30) • 27. Darkroom (1:31) • 28. No Return (1:42) • 29. Completion (1:02) • 30. Godsend End Titles (4:20)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

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