March 21, 2011

  • Review: The Eagle (Orvarsson)

    Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel The Eagle of the Ninth is the latest in a number of early-period epics appearing on the big screen.  Kevin MacDonald directs this Roman adventure set in 2nd century Scotland and featuring Donald Sutherland, Channing Tatum, and Jamie Bell.  Composer Atli Orvarsson is the latest composer out of Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions to move to toward the top ranks of Hollywood composers; though he began working as an orchestrator and composer alongside Mike Post over a decade ago.  He has had a steady stream of genre films from Season of the Witch, to Vantage Point, and Babylon A.D..  He teamed with Zimmer on a number of high-profile projects before his solo efforts as well (Pirates of the Caribbean—At World’s End, Angels and Demons, and The Simpsons Movie). 

    The score for The Eagle, released here by Silva Screen Records,  pulls in a number of intriguing sounds (ram’s horns, a variety of whistles) to meld Persian musical sounds and Celtic ideas into a orchestral score.  The opening “Testudo” creates an unsettling feel at first before a beautiful melodic idea floats out of the ambient sounds and a low string martial punctuation.  The melodic idea moves into full orchestral mode with guttural choral interpolations and begins to grow into a strange blend of ideas held together by a simple, yet strong brass thematic statement.  Thematic ideas tend to appear in small segments separated by a variety of sounds while the general thrust is quite Zimmer-like.  Orvarsson tends to create sound pictures that add tension and then layers in specific musical ideas that can suggest emotional, character, or narrative support.  “Highlands” and “The Return of the Eagle” are two early cues that lend a Celtic-sensibility to the music while sometimes incorporating unusual sounds.  The latter is an all out Celtic dance number with interesting rhythmic syncopations.  “Honourable Discharge” lengthens a thematic idea over static textures creating some contrast to the louder busy musical moments.  As the score progresses, Orvarsson manages to pull in these various sounds and elements together in interesting ways that work as action music or tense scene support among which a highlight is “Out Swords!”.  All such film need those emotional speech moments and one such accompaniment may be the context for “May Your Souls Take Flight” that definitely has that post-Braveheart plaintive martial quality in a fairly well-crafted cue.  A similar , though more plaintive tone is cast in the later “Eagle Lost, Honour Lost.”  “The Seal People” is a brief unsettling track whose music is used to identify a  particular group in segments of the score.  Most of the ideas for the score are played out by the halfway point and the second half of the release revisits the various sounds and thematic threads with occasional variation in musical support.   Orvarsson is quite good at creating tense musical moments but there is a real need for a break out action segment to release some of this which rarely comes.  “Fleeing the Village” starts out promising with churning strings and propulsive forward motion and regains this strength even after a couple of brief design elements creep in at two-thirds into its music.  “Esca’s Freedom,” the penultimate track provides a brief reflective moment before “Beyond The Territories” returns us to music of the Seal People and other odd sounds. 

    While The Eagle is a well-crafted score with interesting themes and interesting sound colors one cannot help but feel that it is something one has heard before.