Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,404
Written 11/27/09
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Buy it... if you seek the most authentic re-recording of Bernard
Herrmann's classic score available, one that best matches the tempos and
ambience of the original.
Avoid it... if you prefer embellishments in interpretation when
hearing fresh performances of older works, including a substantial
beefing up of the ensemble's force and the addition of reverb, neither
of which exists here.
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| Elfman |
Psycho (1998): (Bernard Herrmann/Danny Elfman/Steve
Bartek) Few remakes have attempted to copy their inspiration as
completely as the 1998 Gus Van Sant version of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960
classic Psycho. Ironically, what few changes there are in both
the plot and the technical aspects of remake ruin any chances of success
for the copycat. It's odd to ponder a production meticulously planned
out of love for the original version and how it can, in the process of
trying way too hard to emulate that original, miserably fail. Van Sant
alters the plotline to account for different societal conditions and the
lack of censorship, most notably adding much more nudity and making the
masturbation scene almost comically explicit. In the technical realm,
the film is given a color landscape and a stereo soundscape, along with
slight alterations to focus and other photographic attributes that
sometimes diminish the imitation. Most devastating to Van Sant's
retelling of Psycho was the horrific assignment of nearly
everyone involved in the cast. There is nothing about Vince Vaughn's
performance that can even approach the nervous energy conveyed by
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. That lack of that intangible tension,
not only in the acting but in the entirety of the production, was the
most frequently cited failure by critics, most of whom disregarded Van
Sant's efforts as a misguided waste of time. Not surprisingly, one of
the areas that the director sought to recreate note for note was Bernard
Herrmann's skittish, uncomfortable score, best known for its shrieking
killing motif associated with Bates' mother. Conveniently, Van Sant
enjoyed a working collaboration with composer Danny Elfman at the time
(the composer earned his first Oscar nomination for Van Sant's Good
Will Hunting the previous year). Elfman had long been fascinated
with Herrmann's career and was therefore a good candidate to re-record
the score to match the slightly different synchronization points in the
remake. It wasn't the first time a classic Herrmann work had been
re-recorded for a 1990's film; the 1991 version of Cape Fear was
adapted by Elmer Bernstein far more liberally than Elfman's
"interpretation," however. In fact, "regurgitation" is a better work
than "interpretation" to describe Elfman's work for Psycho. So
loyal is Elfman (and cohort Steve Bartek) to Herrmann's original intent
that he succeeded better than anyone else at re-recording the work. Many
had done so before, including a notable performance conducted by Joel
McNeely, but none was as faithful to the tempo or ambience of the
original.
Anyone familiar with Herrmann's original mono recording
(or the film itself) will know the score. In construct and style, it's
the jumpy, more frantic sibling to
Vertigo, utilizing a string
ensemble in several, usually incongruous layers. The strikes of the
violins for Bates' killing in the name of his mother, joined by the
staggered, pronounced, and deep, descending chords that always follow,
represent the psychotic villain. The Marion Crane character is actually
the recipient of the score's two title identities, which Herrmann
utilized brilliantly to help fool the audience into thinking that Janet
Leigh would be the film's primary star throughout. The staccato rhythms
that open the film and extend into "The Rainstorm" represent her flight
with the embezzled money and her obvious anxiousness. On top of that
motif is a swirling violin theme of slightly romantic harmony that
likely accompanies her dreams of absconding with her lover and her
newfound cash. These two adjoined themes nearly disappear in the second
two-thirds of the film, naturally, only heard in faint fragments (such
as "The Search") when Crane's fate is directly investigated. Outside of
these ideas, Herrmann's score is substantially a collection of
meandering, dissonant string phrases, sometimes accentuated by intense
plucking or the thuds that assemble to form the latter half of the
mother's theme. It's not the kind of score that many will find
digestible on album, despite its obvious quality in context. It has
neither the frightening bombast of the aforementioned
Cape Fear
or the romance of
Vertigo, thus making it a work to appreciate
more than enjoy. Elfman's re-recording, for most film score collectors,
was simply another opportunity to acquire a decent interpretation of
Herrmann's classic. With the original mono recording never pressed onto
official CD (even more than ten years after this remake), fans have
often relied upon various re-recordings (including those done by the
composer himself) to satisfy themselves. Unfortunately, none of these
have been truly satisfying. Either the tempo in these interpretations
was consistently too slow or the sound quality too wet in its level of
reverb. Elfman finally solved these two problems; this version is by far
the best match to the original, albeit in stereo. The score-only album
released for the remake only contained about half of the score, however,
thankfully omitting the wretched electronica-based mutilation of
Herrmann's theme that Van Sant decided, for some inexplicable reason, to
use over the end credits. Still, despite being out of print, this
product remains a very good alternative to the original recording for
those seeking to admire Herrmann's classic. It almost excuses the
existence of the remake as a whole.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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