Composer
Brian Tyler did something which kind of makes sense in the end,
or it is believed to make sense. In his short but energetic
filmscore career he has written a lot of things, which just
kept on getting better. His score for Panic can be considered
as his first score that set ways towards a minimalistic sound
for a thriller. He became mostly known for these kind of works,
or even in the horror area or something epic like Children of
Dune. Frailty is the best example where he really understood
the characters and was able to translate them into musical terms
with a tremendous underlying texture that was meant to represent
the inner human of these characters. Also note that the composer
took on some jobs where he was writing something for a project
where certain believes where potraited, examples are Godsend
and again Frailty. With The Final Cut all of his previously
written material sort of comes together and fuses into a fascinating
world of great psychological, suspenseful and emotional states.
Which is kind of ironic since he claimed this is just about
his most complex thematic work he wrote, like he was just building
up with his writings waiting for the chance to let it all flow
together.
Note
that I haven’t seen the film, yet but would like to explain
some of the musical choices in contrast with what I do know
of the film. The film tells a story which has a theme that’s
very interesting and has to do with people’s memory. Science
has moved further in development and now people get a brain
chip implanted at birth, a so called Zoe chip. This chip records
every single memory from your life until your death. Then a
cutter is brought into the process, editing all of the deceased
memories into a film, that’s being shown on the funeral.
Now in this case the movie deals with a cutter named Alan Hakman,
who has made a great profession out of process. This character
pretty much lacks emotions and is totally devoted to making
these films, which are his life basically.
The "Main Title" projects that with a high amount
of cold, dark atmosphere with a more under the surface emotional
textures. The minimalistic approach with rapidly chords combined
with various haunting instrumentations really contribute to
what’s important in the story. Hakman makes films of every
person who have died, including criminals, who’s sins
he washes away by cutting their memories down slighty different.
He thinks he’s a sin eater, which explains the scoring
bit called "Sin Eater". Lots of motifs and piano work
that are appropiate forthematic work that also colors this score,
which is overall very gentle and small of character. But Hakman
finds it very hard to feel something for other people. He’s
on a trail of discovery leading back to something in his youth
that must be left unexplained in this review, but that’s
all full of suspense and psychological elements. But from the
moment he definitely begins to feel something, a lighthearted
piano motif plays, for instance in the cue "Rememory"
that covers another funeral session with a movie showing, played
by the sadness of the cello and the piano. In the score there
are a few haunting and tense moments, which are used for basically
a couple of reasons. "Desperate Pursuit" is as clear
as rain. Listening to this tracks kind of excites you, but with
still a restrained factor as percussion drives the tracks mostly.
Large orchestral hits against small orchestral hits with the
occasional involvement of some motifs. Somewhere else in the
score there’s a moment when a faster pace is maintained,
almost like moving into crescendo, but not reaching to some
climax. These kind of moments serve their purpose in the film
and are reprised quite often throughout the score, perhaps in
some cases slighty different. In this one sequence cutter Hakman
is working on one of his films, while the numbers of filmcells
multiply and multiply on a screen and so this happens to be
scored by Tyler with sort of a crescendo movement, not leading
to a climax.
Another
track which does sound interesting and is highly important in
the film is the use of the song "Enchanted Days".
The composer wrote some songs in the past besides his normal
scoring bits for a project, that’s no secret. Now for
The Final Cut he wrote two more songs like the one mentioned
before and "Hollow". Enchanted days is used for two
relevant characters: a woman named Delila and another this guy
named Flecther. The thing with Delila is that she’s the
woman that comes into his life, which is very difficult for
Hakman, since he’s very into his films and nothing else.
The song was used in a sequence which involved blindfolding
Delila. And later on in the film the same song is reprised for
another important sequence with another character named Fletcher.
Tyler wrote the song somewhere around 10 january 2004. When
the film premiered at the Festival of Berlin, there was made
a decision to make another cut of the film, ironically a final
cut. So the song could return slighty different in the new version
which will be officallly launched. Enchanted in feel with nice
vocals from Kathryn Bostics and drums from Tim Davies.
A score that’s entruiging in every way and provides you
with strong thematic work. If in the nearby future these Zoe
chips would be introduced, start hoping the cutter leaves the
memory of this score in your film.
written
by Joep de Bruijn
