Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,203
Written 2/9/07
Invert Colors
Buy it... if you would be interested in a technically accurate
homage to the style of film scores in high dramas from the Golden Age of
Hollywood.
Avoid it... if you expect any sense of warmth or heart in an
otherwise accurate, but clinical sound.
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| Newman |
The Good German: (Thomas Newman) With mixed
results, director Steven Soderbergh has attempted to make the ultimate
tribute to film noir style. In adapting a recent book by Joseph Kanon,
The Good German portrays the chaos in Berlin immediately after
the end of World War II, with a popular journalist caught in a triangle
of intrigue and suspense involving both the Russians and Americans. The
elements of the twisted love story, as well as the larger ethical and
political issues addressed by the film, play a secondary role to
Soderbergh's attempt to perfectly adapt the picture into such a style
that it looks and sounds as though it was filmed in the mid-40's. All
the equipment used to film The Good German is genuine to the era,
with great pains made to even develop all the Berlin sets in Los
Angeles, as per the custom of the time. Visually, the film's noir style
proved convincing for nearly everyone despite the wrong aspect ratio of
the shooting and, quite inescapably, the nudity and profanity that
wouldn't have been allowed in 40's Hollywood. Unfortunately, the film
has been a catastrophic failure, earning only $1 million in its first
few months of a very limited release that never expanded to a wide
release as quickly as expected. Weak character development is most
commonly blamed for this failure, though an interesting debate continues
about whether or not modern audiences' expectations can be met using
noir stylings alone. The lack of warmth in the characters of the story
is directly reflected by Thomas Newman's almost clinical score for the
film. Given his lineage, Newman is not only a competent choice for this
project, but a sentimental one as well. His instructions from the
filmmakers are blatantly obvious: produce a score that would feel at
home in 1945, an homage to the Golden Age of Hollywood that would
perfectly match the style of the project's visuals. And to that end,
Newman partially succeeds. He uses an ensemble of the regular studio
performers of today's era and arranges them in a very conservative
fashion, without any of the progressive flair or sonic inventiveness
that you often hear in his more recent styles. Collectors of Golden Age
film music will hear many familiar techniques in Newman's recording, but
you'll also note that some of the film's flaws carry over to the music
as well.
In a very technical sense, from the tones of the
orchestration to the relationship between melody and staggered
baselines, Newman offers a score that will remind significantly of the
works of Franz Waxman and Miklós Rózsa. In both the robust
title music (which in traditional fashion blasts into the score
immediately and sends you off with its similar performance at the end)
and the whimsical love theme variant, Newman captures the technical
ambience of the era well. Subtleties and modern complexity are
jettisoned for a score that has few reminders of its own composer's
dominant style. Only in "Kraut Brain Trust" do some of Newman's quirky,
sharp string rhythms betray the Golden Age sensibilities, and, for his
collectors, this cue may very well be a highlight of the entire project.
The only variation instrumentally is a faint mandolin that occasionally
contributes in a marginal mix (as in "A Nazi and a Jew"). A hint of
early Bernard Herrmann stylings exists in the latter portions of the
title theme, and is quite enjoyable in "Kurfurtendamm." The overarching
problem with Newman's score, however, is the total lack of warmth that
it radiates for its own love story. Similarly slighted is the passion of
the post-war locale. True Golden Age scores sometimes lack personal
resonance with modern listeners simply because of their archival sound.
But Newman's score is crystal clear (though in a very dry mix, also true
to the aged sound of the era), and it still lacks convincing warmth. The
film has been criticized heavily for not asking you care about its
characters, and in these regards, Newman doesn't do much to help either.
There is nothing as engrossing in the high string flourishes of the love
theme or dramatic brass statements as Waxman or Rózsa's similar
efforts, making one wonder if Newman placed the same excruciating
emphasis on technicality as Soderbergh, forgetting the depth of a more
romantic personality that often served as the allure of Golden Age
works. With stylings as authentic in movement as those that Newman did
provide for
The Good German, however, it's easy to hear why he
was nominated for an Academy Award (the film's only one) for the effort.
But the score remains cold at heart, and while it's certainly an
interesting listening experience on album, it doesn't involve you
emotionally to the degree that you would hope.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Thomas Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14
(in 37 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.18
(in 60,837 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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