ALAN SILVESTRI | Beowulf

Plagiarism. What’s nastily attributed in the world of film music as plain and direct copying of already written/recorded musical material or more lightly as a general recycling of or direct influences from previously existing ideas, themes, motifs or musical styles. It is an accusation often shot conveniently at various composers and their works and particularly the late ones. The arguments backing up such statements often range from plainly groundless and childish to detailed and in-depth discussions on the ethics of music but nevertheless, always crowned by the element of subjectivity.

And we all do that.

A new score comes along which doesn’t bear particular originality or genuine enough ideas to deal with and – sometimes even without directly realizing it – instantly starts the running of calculations in our heads; where have we heard this before? What does it resemble? Is it another one’s music or the composer’s own work we are being reminded of here? These, plus a series of various other logical questions, spring in everyone’s minds and we’re slowly but firmly guided to conclusions which are extremely subjective accordingly, while the vast majority of the outcomes is fundamentally based on our own personal taste and musical background. Through this way, numerous examples of heavily unoriginal works have emerged that are generally accepted by the film music community, sometimes even praised. Edward Shearmur’s The Sky Captain and the world of Tomorrow, John Debney’s Lair and Seaquest DSV, Alexandre Desplat’s Firewall, Zimmer’s Pirates of the Caribbean II and III or a large part of James Horner's outcome through the years and the majority of the scores produced by the Remote Control studios (Transformers, The Island and the list is endless) are a few examples. All works of dubious originality, however enjoying the general approval of the mass of the film music fanbase. These come in violent contrast to other cases like – say – Tyler Bates’ 300, Jonathan Elias’ Pathfinder, Ilan Eshkeri’s Hannibal: Rising and Stardust, the reasons behind such discriminations being evidently polymorphic and miscellaneous. Nevertheless, most of them are purely judged via the afore-mentioned personal factors and of course the source, the composer behind each and every one of those scores. The resulting views and opinions are once again obviously attitudinal, sometimes even unfair.

However, when people talk about the lack of originality in Beowulf, plagiarism isn’t the sole aspect. Although arraigned as directly quoting Silvestri’s own Van Helsing and his work on The Mummy Returns, it is simultaneously well-known that a lot of people have evidently linked Silvestri with the few remaining holdovers of an aspect of film music long abandoned and strongly missed, i.e. the John Williams / Jerry Goldsmith sound of the 80’s and early 90’s. People expected Silvestri to deliver the unexpected, to act in ways contrary to any currents in film music of our days, to surprise, to awe and to feed our nostalgia. With a Robert Zemeckis - Alan Silvestri collaboration like Beowulf, an artificially enhanced through state of the art animation epic adventure about the warrior Beowulf who must fight and defeat the monster Grendel who is terrorizing towns, and later, Grendel's mother, it was screamingly evident right from the beginning that such expectations not only would be raised and fueled but they would also be greater and stronger than any other previous occasion.

In a time when film music fans - and particularly the older generations – are starving for a score carrying the sparkling air of the late Golden Age or when scores like Back to the future prevailed over everything, Beowulf comes as highly disappointing for some.

The score’s actually not bad; rather the contrary. Opening right-away with the main theme on profound brass over a highly energetic orchestra, electric guitar and synth-driven hymn sung by a bold choir, “Beowulf Main Title” simply predisposes the listener for what’s to follow. Re-rendered in similar fashion in “What We Need Is A Hero”, the main theme which is based on 9-note phrases comes along as heavily masculine and prominent, direct and to the point, epic and grand. The impressively crystal-clear choir and the boldly loud and well-metered brass are huge pluses in Silvestri’s Beowulf and so is the dense percussion section. The main theme sounds like a cross between his own Van Helsing and Elliot Goldenthal’s now infamous (due to the “300” controversy) opening from Titus. When coupled with massively-sounding pieces like the furious “Second Grendel Attack “or “I Did Not Win The Race” with its war-like male choir and the clashing anvils, the frantic percussion and the harsh brass section performing the main theme, although hugely effective, they altogether add to the whole “we’ve heard it before” aftertaste.

Passing onto the 2^nd part of the score on album (marked by “I am Beowulf) we proceed a little further down well-known paths with the trademarked Silvestri writing for dramatic choir and orchestra. A secondary theme marked by the slowly building and bold chord processions of heavy dramatic function, larger-than-life choirs of great openings, epic arrangements and climatic cadenzas is interweaved with the afore-mentioned main theme and results into highly recognizable but also addictive thematic statements. “He Has A Story To Tell” and particularly “He Was The Best Of Us”, the latter being a collection of the score’s most touching moments, clearly carry and showcase the very dramatic and humane side of Beowulf.

As a whole, Beowulf is very good as it’s essentially ably composed, professionally performed and produced down to the smallest detail, the awfully cheesy and cheap pop pseudo-Renaissance of the songs excluded. The arrangements by Silvestri are top-notch, the main theme is addictively memorable, the action is impressive and the more dramatic moments are vividly touching, sentimental and effective. Everything we would expect from Silvestri is there; apart what his hardcore fans wanted; 'cause despite being a highly energetic and modern epic action score that will easily satisfy the majority of the film music listeners, Silvestri still walks on predictable and well-known grounds, he doesn’t experiment with either meters (which are steadily 4/4 most of the time), instrumentation (pretty standard and recognizable too although he could have easily left out the cheesy synth elements of the opening piece) or arrangements (which are dense and effective enough but not at all groundbreaking, complex nor inventive) and therefore result into something way standard compared to what diehard Silvestri fans expected from such a consort.

Ultimately, it all comes down to which side you’re standing on; Beowulf is a clear love-it or hate-it situation and we all are called to choose our camp. I, for one, am particularly glad I can play this as loud as I want to and enjoy the hell out of one very addictive epic action score without any ethical burdens on my consciousness.

3 1/2