February 5, 2003

Understandable But...
Galactus

To Gwaihir.

I read your two-fold article on the problems you saw in the movie, and for all of them I could very well understand your view points, for I too thought them initially. But as I have watched the movie again and again, I've started to accept them as they are, for better or worse. The only one point you made that I really found hard to agree with was the one about the score to the film. To begin with, after seeing the movie for the first time and later talking it over with the group I saw it with, I made almost the same comment that you made, mine being something along the lines of "the score seemed less noticeable (and less good) than in the first one". They at the time agreed. And I felt the same way after the next time I watched it. However for Christmas I was lucky enough to receive a copy of the Two Towers sound track (I also got the Fellowship soundtrack the previous year). Anyway, I started listening to it a good bit, trying to go over in my head the music and where it played in the movie, because for those who have listened to the TT soundtrack in detail will notice its far more "compiled" than the Fellowship one was. But back to my point, after listening to it several times over, it began to take a new shape in my head as I listened, and I started to appreciate it more and more. And so it was that after listening to it many times, and then seeing TT again, I finally heard the music during the film and the movie seemed all the greater because of it.

Now for a quick technical comment about the nature of a score in a movie, and the two “camps” that give the most common views. One group of people might tell you that a score, when done correctly, is supposed to blend into the movie, not be noticed in and of itself to a great extent, and just add emotional weight of all kinds to the film that you see on the screen. The other group would say that score needs to stand out in its own right, because a well done score has its own message and it’s important enough to receive as much attention as the pictures on the screen. I’d bet a number of people can recall a movie where they thought the soundtrack/score really made the film great because it was so prevalent.

In either case I think Mr. Shore blended the score a bit too well into the movie, and that’s too bad considering how good I think it actually is, and you as well as I were unable to really appreciate it the first few times around. But if you are able or get the chance to listen to the CD or some MP3's from it, please do so, and I think you will find as I did that the score is as good if not better than the first (as I think) and really is worthy of great praise, and an Oscar would be nice too. And after you are familiar with it, maybe you would see the movie in a better light, as I did.

Sorry for the long length.