December 17, 2012

  • Review: Red Dawn (Djawadi)

     

     

    Red Dawn *1/2

     

    RAMIN DJAWADI

    20 tracks – 51:19

    Sony Classical 887654209429

    What a difference some 25 years makes.  In 1984, when the first Red Dawn appeared, the story found us on the verge of World War III and the need to fight back against the Soviet Union.  Stuntman Dan Bradley’s feature debut version has a group of teens needing to defend us from an invasion from North Korea.  One of only many goofy shifts which does not feel like much of an improvement on the original.  The film was caught up in the MGM bankruptcy and finally made it to theaters in November.  Basil Poledouris’ score for 1984 is also a far cry from what Ramin Djawadi has provided here.  While some may find this just "aweseome", I feel a bit curmudgeonly about it.  Another example of how generic film music has become even when it can be put together so well.

    The opening title track begins rather quietly before the electric guitars and drumming begins to take over.  A thematic string idea does appear within this texture providing the music some interest.  “Wolverines,” which follows continues to mix this long, somewhat meandering theme in strings while more martial music continues.  Djawadi will use these electronic textures quite a bit in the score where they tend to overpower whatever orchestral effects there might be.  The orchestral instrumentation tends to move in unison with simple chords while lots of rhythmical stuff moves around indicating action.  The music can build into rather tense moments (“Invasion”) where the music comes close to feeling more like a horror genre score.  When the orchestra tends to move they repeat ostinati or slowly increase in sound or move up a scale.  You would think that there would be some attempt at rhythmic variation but things tend to remain fairly straightforward with basic common time syncopations. 

    In short, much of the score follows a pattern heard in similar martial-films of late (Battle: Los Angeles comes most to mind).  Djawadi does have moments in the score where lyric ideas tend to emphasize some need for emotional response which provides some contrast to the action-based music.  He also likes to have rather static textures begin segments where hints at a theme appear in the texture.  But perhaps the thing that is striking is how generic all of this is when all is said and done.  This is a score that could go with anything.   How else would one explain a track called “A Terrible Haircut” sounding like pretty much everything else that precedes it?  You can get the gist of the score from the single longest 8-minute cue, “Follow the Wires.”  The brief “Finale” has some of the better music, too late.

    Red Dawn bears some resemblance to Djawadi’s work on the first Iron Man.  It is a serviceable score for an unnecessary remake filled with unmemorable thematic material and many tropes and clichés common to action films these days.