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PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Monsignor (John Williams)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you desire every last, fleeting piece of John Williams
majesty from the most memorable time in his career, Monsignor a
score of individual melodramatic highlights without a cohesive
personality.
Avoid it... if you would be surprised to hear Williams collect a score's components in haste and apply three completely unrelated themes to a terrible film that could have used a dose of the composer's knack for capturing the true spirit of a tale.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Monsignor: (John Williams) A project destined for
ignominious failure, Monsignor was a 1982 adaptation of a 1975
French novel about a corrupt priest at the Vatican whose dealings in
love and organized crime force the religious hierarchy to intervene.
While such an outrageous view of the Vatican, shot almost entirely in
Rome, seemed like an idea perfect for box office-spurring controversy,
Monsignor suffered so many ills in its production that it was
generally mocked and has since been long forgotten. The most prominent
detriment to the film was the insertion of actor Christopher Reeve into
the role of the priest, his attempt to shake the Superman label never
successful throughout the 1980's and early 1990's. Reducing itself to
the level of an average crime story completely incapable of competing
with similar themes as those in the franchise of The Godfather,
Monsignor could not muster enough genuine dramatic gravity to
make audiences care about a priest who already had some significantly
alienating personality flaws to begin with. The project also revealed
itself to be one of difficulty for composer John Williams, who was
otherwise in the midst of the most successful period in his career. His
commitments to the Boston Pops and the challenging duo of E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi afforded
him only six weeks in the summer of 1982 to write and record his score
for Monsignor. Perhaps sensing the disaster that awaited the
film's final cut (which impressed Twentieth Century Fox so little that
the studio moved it from its prime December release slot to an October
dumping to clear it out of the system), Williams scratched together a
score that seems improvised by his standards. A very short effort
considering the extensive length of his surrounding assignments, the
Monsignor score was dropped in significant portions in conclusive
post-production editing, reducing its placement in the film to less than
thirty minutes and marginalizing its already suspect identity. This
final usage of music should have come as no surprise, for Williams'
score is little more than three hasty themes pasted together in an
incongruent whole that has its strong attributes individually but
understandably suffers as a whole.
The instrumentation of Monsignor is familiar to the early 1980's period of hits for Williams, utilizing the services of the London Symphony Orchestra with accent performances by harpsichord and trumpet. Also representative is the style; every moment of Monsignor, despite structural congruency problems, is distinctly saturated with the composer's general sound, making it an antidote for the composer's awkward misadventure for 1981's Heartbeeps at the time. The highlighting cues of accelerated rhythmic tonality from Williams in this work are filled to the brim with the composer's trademark complexities, a cue like "The Meeting in Sicily" clearly foreshadowing the hyperactive personality of his much later scores for the Harry Potter franchise. Structurally, Monsignor is literally the sum of three completely unrelated themes, switching between them when necessary for obvious variations and never placing the ideas in any confrontational stance with each other. The main theme is one of romantic tragedy, rooted with Mediterranean sensibilities that fit the locale. Evolving from a solo trumpet lamentation in "Theme from Monsignor" (the end credits) and "Monsignor" (the opening title) to an uncertain harpsichord capitulation in "Forgotten Vows" (a nude scene, of course), this theme eventually flourishes with the full ensemble in "At the Forum." The progressions of this idea share many similarities with the somber and melodramatic phrasing of the primary themes in Presumed Innocent and A.I. Artificial Intelligence, the tone of the performances tending to stay closer to the former. Some renditions, especially in "Love Theme," appropriate, not surprisingly, an ending to the theme that resembles Nino Rota's The Godfather. Despite its lack of use in the picture, the immense "At the Forum" is the score's highlight, not only extending the theme's inherent melodramatic progressions to excruciating, full ensemble expressions, but also featuring two simply gorgeous solo piano ramblings that carry over directly from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. If only the remainder of the score exuded the same sense of passion, then Monsignor could have been among Williams' most poignant works. Unfortunately, the other cues exhibit source-like characteristics and lesser borrowing of material from another Williams work to simply fill space. The obvious source-like, attention-seeking cue in Monsignor is a Latin mass heard in "Gloria" and reprised in the strictly orchestral colors and more palatable tone of "Santoni's Compassion." While impressive and an important piece without other sound layers in the film, "Gloria" is perhaps a bit overrated in its liturgical, pipe organ majesty. It's interesting to note that this exhibition of bloated pomp and raw vocal inflection never caught on in Williams' concert circuits. The final theme in Monsignor is one that Williams borrowed from an unfinished concert work meant for the Boston Pops. The "Esplanada Overture," known from his official 1983 concert debut of the piece, is applied as a flighty representation of carefree adventure in this film. Its lofty attitude sounds completely out of place in this score, from "Reunion in Sicily" to "The Meeting in Sicily," and it is perhaps no surprise that this piece was only minimally heard in the final version of the film. The boisterous personality of this borrowed piece definitely has more in common with New England fishing expeditions or even the universe of Harry Potter than the religious drama of Monsignor. Singular cues include a restrained solo horn passage in "Audience with the Holy Father," as generic a Williams cue as possible, and "Appolini's Decision," which concludes with the score's only suspenseful material of metallic, dissonant tone. Overall, Monsignor has plenty of good ingredients but no sense of cohesion, frustratingly sounding like a rush job by the maestro. The work was the last post-Star Wars Williams score to be released on CD, with the heavily rearranged LP contents of 1982 pressed to that medium by Intrada Records in 2007. The label returned to the score in 2019, remastering that album presentation but finally providing the film version of the recording, which offers less exuberant arrangements and a few additional mundane moments late in the narrative that don't stand apart in any way but may still be of interest for Williams collectors. The sound quality of the 2019 product, especially in the improved ambience of the album mixes, is particularly noteworthy, making it an easy recommendation. The quality of "At the Forum" alone outshines everything else in this score and merits a place in the collection of any Williams enthusiast. Not deserving of its unfortunate Razzie award nomination (unlike Heartbeeps), the score is one to appreciate for these rousing individual highlights rather than its effective whole.
TRACK LISTINGS:
2007 Intrada Album:
Total Time: 37:58
2019 Intrada Album: Total Time: 77:03
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of both albums include extensive information about
the score and film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Monsignor are Copyright © 2007, 2019, Intrada Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/12/09 and last updated 2/16/21. |
