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okay, i’ve been listening to some of elfman’s earlier late 80s-early 90s work, and i cant help but notice that he hasnt come out with a very upbeat, hyper score. i was watching dick tracy the other day for the first time (which i missed the second half of because i literally fell asleep) and loved the crazy score that came with it. i’ve had to listen to the soundclips from this site over and over because i cant get enough of it. other scores like it in the day include beetlejuice, pee-wee, nightmare before christmas, freeway, the simpsons…but we havent heard scores like these since mars attacks! and flubber…over 5 years ago each. most of the stuff is very serious-sounding and heroic–not like its a bad thing, because everything he writes exceeds superb…but still, will we ever hear the old genre again…maybe with willy wonka?
Yeah, I’ll bet Wonka stands a good chance of returning that older style. And Big Fish before that. Corpse Bride too, if he is involved. But if you look at the movise Elfman’s worked on in the past half decade, it’s not surprising his sound has changed. In the late 80s and early 90s he primarily worked on the left-of-center fringe projects. Some of the them ended up immensely popular, but they were largely individual and highly personalized. In the late 90s he became popular enough that the mainstream offers started pouring in, so he adopted a more commercial sound. I think he’s done an amazing job with this more synth-based style, which has one foot in the pop world, one foot in the contemporary classical world and one foot in the Herrmann-history-of-B-Films world. (Hey, it’s still Elfman music–it’s allowed to have three feet!) But I miss that feeling his earlier works had where it was like opening a magic box each time–where each score maintained such a individual and all-encompassing world view, balancing large ensemble moments with chamber textures and that Kurt Weill / Nino Rota European sensibility. I think the only score in the past five years that’s carried these ideals is Sleepy Hollow, where the writing once again establishes its own world of sounds. POA, Spider-Man and Hulk all tried pretty valiantly to pull this off, but they’re so strongly tied to a pop feel, and so burly and brawny that they lack that sense of scale and scope, I think. They don’t have the nuances, those ambiguous corners that invite exploration. I know they’re blocky and inelegant by design–you can’t really get too wry with big green behemoths tearing up the city–but I do miss that earlier Elfman sensibility. I think Apes could have pulled it off, but #1 the studio was nervous about the project and #2 Elfman was going through a bad personal time. I don’t think it’s a bad score, but it’s very focused on rhythm and energy and motion, without fully establishing a unique sense of place… at least to my ears.
Wonka’s success as a book and as the original film came almost entirely from this sense of place. The story’s almost an afterthought; it’s that wild factory that sells it. So with any luck Elfman will play to this and take us on another trip. As I say, I don’t think he’s changed his approach or “lost it.” He’s just been toiling in much more mainstream projects lately. He’s proved he can handle these with the best, but I think many people are ready to see him surrender the Composer for Hire mantle. He’s at his most unique and interested when he’s close to the edge. Burton, among a few others, lets him go there. I think Big Fish could potentially be a huge winner for Elfman this year. It’s the kind of project he does best, and if the film gets enough steam behind it, Elfman may see himself up for some awards.
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