Batman Soundtrack Reviews Part 3

Part three in a series of pieces examining the various soundtracks that have accompanied the Batman films from 1989-2008.

Batman Forever

and

Batman and Robin

by Elliot Goldenthal

After the mixed feelings and parental outrages for Batman Returns, Warner Bros. wanted a lighter, sillier sequel. Tim Burton, tiring of the concept anyway, stepped into the role of producer, and Joel Schumacher was hired as director of the third Batman film, bringing with him screenwriters Lee and Janet Batchler and Akiva Goldsman and a whole new cast and crew. Val Kilmer replaced Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight; Tommy Lee Jones replaced Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent, now Two-Face; Stephen Goldblatt was cinematographer; and avant-garde composer Elliot Goldenthal would score the film. Joining were Jim Carrey as The Riddler, Nicole Kidman as Batman's love interest, and Chris O'Donnell as Robin.

While Schumacher's over-the-top approach bordering on campy offended some comic book fans, general audiences were vastly entertained. Batman Forever was still a dark film, but it was much lighter and pushed the series much further into fantasy. The writing was much less subtle in its characterizations, with characters pretty much announcing out loud their thoughts, flaws, relationships and complexities (in true comic-book fashion), but these were all well-drawn in their own way. Kilmer was an excellent Batman, Jones and Carrey wildly over-the-top, Kidman ravishing, and O'Donnell a likable Robin. Schumacher also had a strong approach to action scenes; the fights were solid, and the action in general was ambitious, clever, and well shot. None of the action was generic or clumsy. While it wasn't as deep or atmospheric as its predecessors, Batman Forever was more exciting and more fun in its own silly way, and much less uneven.

Batman and Robin, however, was a catastrophe. After the huge box office success of Forever, Warner Bros. wanted to push the commercialism much further -- more villains, more gadgets, more gimmicks, while Schumacher went much, much deeper into his own rabbit hole. The results was an overlong, overstuffed, barely coherent mess that shovelled its camp and effects down the audience's throats. George Clooney's performance as Batman was hollow and bored; you can see his contempt for the silliness throughout, and his approach makes an already problematic film much, much worse. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze and Uma Thurmond's Poison Ivy were colorful villains, but didn't fit in each other's stories well, and diluted each other; the third villain, Bane, was not only downright offensive to comic book fans (the original character was a brilliant, near-unstoppable assassin; the film reduced him to a brainless muscle-man), but was outright unnecessary. Some imaginative effects and action scenes and good performances from Chris O'Donnell and Michael Gough were wasted in a loud, disjointed, empty film that single-handed killed a powerhouse franchise. The behind-the-scenes documentary on the DVD is remarkably revealing, culminating in Schumacher outright apologizing for disappointing everyone.

Both films were scored by Elliot Goldenthal, a composer known for his strange and original approaches to film scores. While his music wasn't as compelling as Elfman's, it strongly supported both films, and, in the case of Batman and Robin, it is ironically one of the better musical representations of the character.

With Forever, Goldenthal decided for whatever reason to abandon Elfman's brilliant main theme. His own replacement isn't nearly as compelling, but it holds up very well on its own. Like Elfman's, it starts quietely, building up to a powerful climax. The sheer massive force of the trumpets, strings, choir, and electronic tones is awesome, and it's a rousing opening, even if it lacks the complexity and emotion of Elfman's version. As the theme winds down for the opening scene, his music takes an odd interlude into metal clangs and scrapes as Batman suits up. While Goldenthal's weirdness gets overbearing later in the score, in this brief moment, it works nicely. After a few moments, the music builds up to an even more bombastic crescendo, giving the soundtrack (and the film) an epic opening.

The rest of the score is consistently effective in the film, but wildly uneven on album. His romantic theme for Kidman's eccentric psychologist Chase Meridian is an appropriately wandering jazz piece; nicely atmospheric, very noirish. It's a highly original approach to the romantic that works beautifully, and gives a much-needed quiet contrast to the rather loud majority of the tracks.

Robin doesn't really get his own theme, but is usually represented by the heroic main themes. The sequence at the carnival, however, explaining his tragic origin, gets its own track. It's a big, noisy track, sometimes exciting but just as often incoherent.

Goldenthal approaches the villains' henchmen similarly to Elfman, with wacky, high-energy percussion. It's not quite as effective, but it works. The main villain themes, however, are less effective. Two-Face's brassy, ballsy theme tends more toward bombast than anything particularly melodic, but it's nothing compared to the Riddler. "Nygma Variations" is a truly warped work of insanity. There's just no describing the craziness of this chaotic mix of synthetic and orchestral noise. It's like being water boarded with sound rather than water. It's like Goldenthal was trying to somehow match Jim Carrey's onscreen energy and nuttiness, and while he sort of succeeds, it results in a piece so unlistenable it's almost a challenge to sit through the whole thing. Original? Yes. Enjoyable? No. Music? Probably not.

Still, when Goldenthal goes for action, he generally succeeds when he doesn't let it descend into total chaos, and Two-Face's theme ties in nicely with these moments. "Fledermausmerschmusik", "Victory", "Holy Rusted Metal", and "Batterdammerung" are exhilarating pieces. "Batterdammerung" is especially noteworthy, a spectacularly crescendo of falling strings to accompany Batman's climactic jump off a cliff to desperately save both Chase and Robin from the Riddler's final death-trap.

Oddly, the soundtrack is missing the final cues, including that accompanying Batman's defeat of the villains. The last track in the film, a rousing restatement of the Batman theme, would be a much more satisfying endcap than Batterdammerung, thrilling as that may be.

Overall, the soundtrack on CD is a mix of lovely noirish jazz, rousing and heroic action, and loud noise for the sake of noise. The balance, unfortunately, is too much to the latter, and while the music supports the film just fine, it's a frustrating CD.

----------

Batman and Robin is widely regarded as one of the worst comic-book adaptations in history, and while it's certainly not the worst (or even the worst big-budget one -- that's easily Superman III), it's not a particularly proud addition. But surprisingly enough, it actually has one of the strongest scores of any Batman film, second only to Elfman's Batman.

Right from "Main Titles", the improvement over Forever is apparent. Forever's titles were among its highlights, but even here, Goldenthal reworks it to be more melodic. Further, he adds a choir, giving it an even greater power. Even the metal clangs at the conclusion sound more organized and meaningful. They may be essentially the same notes, but this version is superior. It's an impressive start.

Where the real improvements show are in the villain's themes. Poison Ivy is represented by jazzy saxaphone, backed by "jungle" underscore. It's not the greatest of villain scores, but it's very easy to listen to, and it mixes into other themes very well. The scenes of Ivy and Mr. Freeze plotting are given a sort of waltz, and Ivy's theme works very nicely in this context.

But the highlight of the score is Mr. Freeze's theme. Thanks to Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, Mr. Freeze was transformed from a silly silver-age villain in the comics to a complex and genuinely tragic character in Batman: The Animated Series. Batman and Robin dilutes his story and ramps up the goofiness TAS went so far out of its way to underplay, but it keeps the same moving background, and it results in a truly lovely theme from Goldenthal. It's a haunting, heartbreaking cue, beautifully choral, devastatingly tragic without being overbearing.

In the more action-oriented tracks, Freeze and his henchmen get plenty of percussion, but Goldenthal blends it superbly into his more heroic themes. "Final Confrontation" is a spectacular piece. It re-uses his "Battadammerung" from Forever, but again, it does it even more dramatically.

In the end, unlike the film, Goldenthal's Batman and Robin is a real success. It still has the eclectic originality Goldenthal is known for, but in one of his most coherent and compelling presentations. The irritating bombast is kept to a minimum, the unlistenable craziness thrown away. Goldenthal's fans may find it slightly too mainstream, but it's a strong, solid score, and well worth buying.

Unfortunately, it's not a commercially available soundtrack. Warner Bros. never released any of Goldenthal's score on CD, only releasing a suite from Forever onto the "Official Soundtrack" of various hard rock songs. Not surprisingly, though, 2-CD bootlegs are out there. This probably does the score a disservice, since the too-complete 2-CD sets include a lot of more repetitious background music. At about 50 minutes, this would be an awesome soundtrack. Savvy music fans can create their own strong version from the overlong bootlegs. It remains disappointing, however, that Warner Bros. never gave an official release to this excellent score, which deserves it far more than certain later scores...

Speaking of which -- next up, Hanz Zimmer and James Newton Howard! Underachieving Zimmer and Howard, unfortunately, but still, Zimmer and Howard!

RATINGS:

BATMAN FOREVER

In film: * * *

On CD: * *

BATMAN AND ROBIN

In film: * * * 1/2

On CD: * * *

Batman Soundtrack Reviews Part 2 - Batman Returns

Part two in a series of pieces examining the various soundtracks that have accompanied the live-action Batman films from 1989-2008.

BATMAN RETURNS
by Danny Elfman

After the phenomenal success of Batman, Tim Burton spun one of his most personal and creative yarns in Edward Scissorhands before returning to the superhero. His follow-up, Batman Returns, was far darker than its predecessor, a grim tragedy enlivened by its offbeat humor with only occasional flashes of heroism. Its heart rests in the romance between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, beautifully capturing two lonely souls finding each other before tearing them apart through their secret lives as Batman and Catwoman. It's a rich yarn, enhanced by wonderful performances by Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfieffer. Its plot rests largely with the film’s other primary villain, the Penguin, a hideously deformed man abandoned by his parents and raised by Penguins in the sewers of Gotham. It’s an ugly (and funny) portrait of loneliness itself. These powerful personal stories are set amidst a backdrop of fantastic atmosphere and stunning visual design that make it a unique and fascinating production.

But for all the film’s success in characterization and thematic depth, it fails in many ways when it comes to the superheroic elements. In Batman, the sheer energy of the film overcame the somewhat clumsy staging of fights and chases, but the more restrained Returns can’t pull that off, and the action sequences are rather lame. It’s also an awfully grisly, gloomy, sensuous, and very adult tale for a PG-13 flick about a guy dressing up like a bat to beat up criminals. Audiences at the time had understandably mixed reactions, with parents decrying its MPAA rating as a joke. Comic-book fans praise its dark complexity to the high heavens (deservedly), while others are left cold by its poor action, not to mention the sheer weirdness of the film (understandably). It’s a strange and uneven film with moments of cinematic brilliance.

Danny Elfman’s score is equally uneven. In its best moments, it’s a remarkable companion piece to Batman; in others, it’s almost unbearably whacked-out.

The opening track starts with the lonely trumpet beginning the Batman theme before turning to Elfman's gloomy Penguin theme. Like before, the instrumentation is very creative, with a brief but spectacular pipe organ solo and haunting vocals reminiscent of the (much brighter) chorals in Edward Scissorhands. In fact, the entire opening feels in many ways like the dark side of that score. It's a terrific piece, alternately brooding and fantastic before finally starting up the still-rousing Batman theme a few minutes in.

There's something missing in the performance, though. For the original, Shirley Walker directed the London Symphony Orchestra; here, Elfman conducted an LA-based orchestra. The original performances of the theme were deep and powerful, full of fire and passion. The London Symph poured their hearts and souls into their performances, and Walker directed them magnificently, and the passion comes through. In Returns, though, it sounds professional but somehow empty; there's none of the sonic depth or fiery performance of the old recording. Still, it's good to hear the old themes.

After the opening, the score descends into mostly murky gloom, punctuated by occasional comic beats. It's weird and unsettling, and while it's appropriate for the penguin, the lack of drive and energy is tiring. It's also not terribly emotional outside of the first and last passages of the score; just sort of interesting. The dismal atmosphere and comic outbursts don't mesh -- which, to be fair, is often true of the film, too, which uneasily brews black comedy, tragic romance, and clumsy fight scenes; the setting is almost always steeped in shadow and German expressionisms, but then throws in a giant motorized rubber ducky for the Penguin to ride around in. It's really strange, and the score reflects this accurately to its own detriment. When the score finally gets around to Catwoman's theme, it's refreshing just to hear something different.

Catwoman's theme uses high-pitched violin screeches to suggest the sounds that cats make, underlaied with gloomy undertones. It nails the concept, and really does sound like a musical recreation of a woman expressing pure feline instincts. It also sounds extraordinarily like a cat's meow.

Now let me be clear about something: a cat's meow is not a pleasant sound. It's a high-pitched squeal with only a single meaning. When dogs bark, it can be scary, but it can just as often be a joyful exclamation. Barks can show a full range of emotion, and it's elating hearing a happy bark. A meow, on the other hand, always means precisely one thing: "You're not paying enough attention to My Lordship." It's as grating as nails on a chalkboard and even more malevolent. The cat wants nothing more than to make everything, including you, smell like him, and you can hear it in his voice. So when I say that Elfman captures this concept perfectly, I mean to say that it's a brilliant achievement that works its purpose nicely in both the film and on the CD, but more than about two minutes of it is almost unbearable.

There's something like twenty minutes of it on the soundtrack. The portions of the score devoted to her get downright painful despite the remarkable creativity. Where it works beautifully is in the climax of the film, where it's mixed with other tones and used sparingly to heartbreaking effect. If only it hadn't been so difficult to get to that wonderful finale.

Every now and then, there's an action cue, but somehow these are never as exciting as they should be. The brass has none of the power it should, and often sounds rather muted. In the otherwise dismal mid-sections of the score, these should be a highlight, but they fall oddly flat.

Inexplicably, the score is missing a theme (or really even an acknowledgement) of the romance. Elfman is capable of heartrending compositions, but didn't even attempt to give the love story its own life.

Whatever the scores many problems, though, the final tracks are well worthwhile. "The Children's Hour" starts with a gorgeous music-box rendition of the Penguin score before finally revving up some real action cues. They're not on the level of Batman's "Charge of the Batmobile" or similar pieces, but they have the excitement the previous such bits lacked. The following two-part "Final Confrontation" is a wild ride of very Elfmanish wackiness -- thrillingly eerie, exciting, and fascinating. "The Finale Part I" at last delivers the full force of tragedy that the Penguin's music has been hinting at throughout, and "The Finale Part II" is a devastating conclusion to Catwoman's tale. Near the end, it transitions to a quiet, haunting statement of Batman's theme before returning to the tragedy.

And then, as the film's final, surprising image comes up, it at last crescendoes into the exhilerating Batman theme in "End Credits." The rest of the track is a suite of the other two primary themes, beautiful and fascinating.

Afterwards, there is the pop song "Face to Face", and interesting oddity Elfman co-wrote for the ballroom scene. It's interesting (and works wonderfully in the context of the film), but doesn't really match the rest of the score. Perhaps if Elfman had used part of the song for a love theme, it would have felt less awkward on the album. Still, it's here for completion's sake.

So, for all its faults, the score does deliver a strong if inferior sequel score in its first 5 and last 20 minutes and has a very interesting albeit off-putting theme for Catwoman in the mid-section. It's a slog getting from the opening to closing, and unlike the previous album, which is a must-buy, this one is really only for Elfman fans and genre completists. Definitely an interesting score, whatever the case.

RATING: * * 1/2

Batman Soundtracks Reviews -- Part One

Part one of a series of pieces examining the various soundtracks that have accompanied the live-action Batman films from 1989-2008.

BATMAN
by Danny Elfman

The release of Tim Burton’s flawed but thrilling Batman in 1989 lit a firestorm of comic-book adaptations that Richard Donner’s spectacular Superman somehow failed to do in 1978. Burton’s dark, stylish approach and the rich contributions of a remarkable cast and crew made for a terrific show, despite some weaknesses in characterization and Burton’s sometimes-clunky action scenes. It became the highest-grossing film of its year, beating such strong contenders as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Lethal Weapon 2. Its success fueled a slew of comic-book adaptations such as Dick Tracy, The Crow and The Mask.

Among the most important contributions to the film was Danny Elfman’s sensational score, a complex and magnificent volley of triumphant brass, wild percussion, a crazed approach for the villain, and a remarkably thoughtful quieter side.

Elman’s theme for the titular hero heard in “Main Title” starts with a lonely, rising trumpet, slowly joined by the orchestra before a stunning outburst of orchestra and choir ignites an exhilarating theme. Much like John Williams’ Superman theme, the melody defines the character so perfectly that it’s hard to think of one without the other. Batman/Bruce Wayne is a complex character, a quiet, brooding, and violent man tortured by tragedy and his own darkness, but always driven to great deeds and heroism. His theme in the score is a rousing trumpet melody that rises in minor and falls in major to capture his duality; he is both heroic and frightening, and this element is perfectly represented. It’s a magnificent overture, and the theme blazes through the various action tracks – most powerfully in “Charge of the Batmobile” – but also moves more elegantly with strings when necessary. It’s a knockout theme.

Elman’s other themes aren’t as unforgettable, but they’re consistently solid. The Joker’s theme is appropriately bizarre, an over-the-top carnival sound that nails the character’s energy, psychotic bursts of violence, and whacked-out sense of humor in an appropriately offbeat way. His own theme climaxes in “Waltz to the Death,” adding a perfectly crazed contrast to the driving action cues surrounding it (and the montage it accompanies in the film of the Joker forcing Vicki Vale to dance with him while Batman fights his henchmen). The henchmen are represented by odd, fast-paced percussions that are lots of fun to listen to.

The quieter side of the score is surprisingly thoughtful. The Joker gets a lyrical bit of weirdness for his more contemplative moments, while a fleeting love theme works to emphasize the short nature of the romance between Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale.

The instrumentation throughout is remarkably creative, layering trumpets in contrast to each other, adding power to the action with a pipe organ, and using a piano for emotions both tender and intense.

The score is perfectly structured; except for the blast of the main theme in the first track, the various themes are built slowly but surely. The first two-thirds is more brooding with only occasional bursts of action before the stunning last third, culminating in the rousing “Finale,” one of the finest pieces of cinematic musical heroism ever created.

Elfman’s Batman score is a truly remarkable work, one of the true classics of film soundtracks, a must for any soundtrack collector or lover of rousing orchestral themes, and a worthwhile effort for anyone interested in this sort of music.

Rating: * * * *