BATMAN FOREVER

ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL

Rating:

Original Review: When I first learned that Elliot Goldenthal was to take over from Danny Elfman as the Batman composer, my heart sank into my shoes. For me, Elfman was the voice of Batman, and his sensational march was one of the key elements in Tim Burton's two movies. Even the original trailer for Batman Forever featured Elfman's music, and gave me the shivers whenever I saw it in cinemas back in 1995. Then came the film itself - an overblown self-parody that omitted all the parts that made Burton's originals so great. Val Kilmer, while competent in the lead role, never came close to recreating the intensity or mystery Michael Keaton brought to the caped crusader. Tommy Lee Jones was wasted as the schizophrenic villain Two-Face, Nicole Kidman was virtually invisible as Bruce Wayne's love interest, and Joel Schumacher's overbearing direction replaced Burton's handsome gothic architecture with rubber nipples and garish neon, ultimately giving me a headache. And then there was the script...sheesh. I will always maintain that Akiva Goldsman was the man who effectively killed off the Batman franchise.

With hindsight, I think all these different factors contributed to me also giving short shrift to the work of Elliot Goldenthal. My first thoughts about Batman Forever were "it's not Elfman, so it must not be any good". But I was wrong. As one of the hot young composers in Hollywood, and having already contributed to the sci-fi genre in Alien 3 and Demolition Man, Goldenthal obviously had the right credentials. It's just that Goldenthal's music tends to be so unconventional and confrontational, that I did not expect him to write something that could enter popular culture in the same way Elfman's march did. Batman needs a hook, a musical centrepiece that an audience can connect with, and at the time I didn't feel that Goldenthal's paltry fanfare did the job correctly. I was probably so blinkered by my dislike of the movie that I completely ignored Goldenthal's amazing contribution. Having now heard it on disc, I can now fully appreciate it for its brilliance.

The centrepiece of Goldenthal's score is the eight-note brass fanfare for Batman himself which, while not comparable to Elfman's march, still conveys a sense of strength and power in its own right. It is generally heard whenever Batman does something heroic, and features in just about every cue on the album in one form or another. The 'Main Title' introduces the fanfare, accompanying the winged wonder as he swoops in to save a security guard from being flattened by a huge safe Two-Face is trying to remove from a bank. Further great performances in 'Fledermausmarschmusik', 'Victory', 'Descent' and 'Holy Rusted Metal' compound the fanfare's effectiveness.

However, this is not to say that Batman Forever is a one-theme score. On the contrary, Goldenthal continually finds new and exciting ways to work in some of the most bizarrely brilliant music imaginable, ranging from theremin solos to a quartet of skewed dance numbers. The 'Nygma Variations', as well as giving the liner note reader an Elgar in-joke, sees Goldenthal emulating Bernard Herrmann's classic science fiction sound, making great use of the eerie sound of a theremin and skipping from style to style in attempt to capture the insanely obsessive mindset of Jim Carrey's brilliant but unbalanced Riddler character. 'Mr. E's Dance Card' sees Elliot feeding rhumba, waltz, foxtrot and tango rhythms into his synthesiser bank, and twisting and manipulating them beyond all recognition. Two massive set pieces - 'Gotham City Boogie' and 'Under The Top' - allow Goldenthal an opportunity to let rip with his orchestra, counterbalancing the fanfare with a series of increasingly unconventional rhythms and textures to drive the action along, while the sadly brief 'Perpetuum Mobile' pits a driving string beat against a bubbling, almost comical electronic accompaniment.

There is the briefest of love themes in 'Mouth to Mouth Nocturne', possibly one of the most conventionally beautiful cues he has ever written, and which obviously owes a great debt of gratitude to Alfred Newman, while 'Batterdammerung', the conclusive cue, closely resembles his operatic finale from Alien 3, with whirling strings and shrill woodwinds competing with a stately performance of the fanfare. And of course, there are several of the usual Goldenthalian touches and remarks, including the familiar ragged brass fanfares and cacophonous crescendos in which every section of the orchestra seems to be competing with the others to see which can be the loudest and most dissonant.

As good as Goldenthal's music is, I still believe that his work is still inferior to Elfman's sensational scores for the two preceding Batman films, although having now heard Batman Forever away from the truly dire film it accompanies, I find I appreciate it more. As has been stated many times before, Elliot Goldenthal is a truly original voice in Hollywood, whose avoidance of cliché and steadfast adherence to his own voice should be commended. Batman Forever, if taken on its own terms, is easily one of the most approachable and enjoyable scores of Goldenthal's career, with several hugely enjoyable moments.

Track Listing: Running Time: 44 minutes 23 seconds

Atlantic 7567-82776-2 (1995)

Music composed by Elliot Goldenthal. Conducted by Jonathan Sheffer. Orchestrations by Robert Elhai, Elliot Goldenthal, David John Olsen, Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis, Randy Kerber and Shirley Walker. Featured musical soloists Bruce Dukov and Paul Shure. Recorded and mixed by Steve McLaughlin. Edited by Joel Iwataki. Mastered by Vlado Meller. Album produced by Matthias Gohl.

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