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Reviews (10)
17 Jan, 2024
Ivanhoe for Mature Audiences.
A good sensitive and 'authentic' rewrite of Scott's novel, with some excellent performers, notably Ciaran Hinds, Susan Lynch, and an amazing cameo near the end of wonderful Sian Philips as Eleanor of Aquitaine, putting her Plantagenet mummy's boys in their place! Good writing in the personal scenes, plenty of clever editing and sets to bug up the tournament stuff, good locations. And the big themes if the novel all explored, nothing omitted.
05 Feb, 2007
'Alexander': -Vangelis
Vangelis here applies his particular orchestral/synthesizer blend of sensual aura to a very Greek (or should I say Macedonian?) subject matter. Unlike for example the great 'epic' scores of the likes of Miklos Rozsa ('Ben-Hur' etc.) in the 'Golden Age' of scoring, he has eschewed period fragments here and stayed within the format he knows best. It's a powerful score that harks back to his earlier successes like 'Chariots of Fire' or 'Blade Runner' (minus the jazz of course!) An archaic feel is achieved by use of intervals of fourths and fifths, and Eastern cutures are evoked by oriental chanting and Asian rhythm patterns. On the plus side, he evokes the deep sense of Alexander's famed boundless ambition, in an emotional way that is seamless with the music that conveys Alec's Achilles-like 'mother' complex without detracting from his greatness. The music is elegaic but very modern, whilst evoking a sense of the ancient.
More negatively, there is much that is derivative: the Battle of Gaugamela uses the ubiquitous references to Holst's 'Planets' and perhaps has an unsettling similarity to Barry's 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. And as Alexander's army crosses the mountains to the Hindu Kush, our ears and emotions are confused momentarily by, I kid you not, 'Amazing Grace', or at least the first six notes of it! Nonetheless, as 'mood' music, rather than leitmotival, the score captures something of the endlessness (if not eternal) of Alexnader's myth, and the depths of the wellspring of devotion to his cause that we'd expect for this film. Stone's epic was badly received by most critics: despite a sensitivs and incisive analysis of Alexander's motivation and familial psychology, and great period evocations (the battle scenes are stunning) perhaps some lack of charisma from some of the performers brought the film down. Still, Vangelis' evocation, if hardly his best, stands alone as one Hellenist's tribute to another across the centuries ....
15 Sep, 2023
Spain with exquisite pain.
Davis at his most exquisite. Mostly a free adaptation (more a composition than impro) of Rodrigo's Concert d'Aranjuez but more. Classic album.