The Year of Living Dangerously Rating:
Original Review: Dead Poets Society is, and will always remain, one of my all-time favourite movies. To the uninitiated, the film could be misconstrued as being a somewhat dry and dusty character study about, in the words of one of the film's characters, " a bunch of guys sitting around reading poetry to one another". Personally, I feel that this is Peter Weir's masterpiece: it is a film about truths and passion and self-belief, and about having the courage to stand up for your convictions and those of the people around you. The lead performances of Robin Williams as the inspirational teacher John Keating, Robert Sean Leonard as the "trapped" Neal Perry and Ethan Hawke as the shy but passionate Josh Anderson are nothing short of first class, while the Vermont setting not only gives the film beautiful panoramic surroundings, but increases the sense of the pupils isolation, as well as giving an air of authenticity to the stuffy prep school whose motto is "tradition, honour, discipline, excellence", but is amusingly altered to "travesty, horror, decadence, excrement".
Maurice Jarre's music, although somewhat unusual and unique, is nevertheless inextricably linked with the lives of the boys at Welton Academy. The main theme is a solemnly attractive melody, and is heard in three of the album's four original cues. The theme is slow and refined, as if alluding to the supposedly upstanding and forthright nature of the students, but quickly and easily can become an anthem for the free spirit. In 'Carpe Diem' it is performed first by a soft, soothing flute accompanied by ambient synth chords and a gently plucked harp, and is then taken over by the harp itself. The cue for 'Neal' begins with a new melody for the troubled student, another reflective flute solo, before returning to recapitulate the main theme again on harp, while the glorious finale - 'Keating's Triumph' - adds a whole new dimension by incorporating the emotional sound of bagpipes into theme's performance by a full orchestra. This music underscores the final act of defiance and respect the boys show to the now-disgraced Keating - standing upon their desks and calling out the words "O Captain My Captain" - and, although some of the bagpipes sound off-key and have a little trouble keeping up with the speed of the melody, the cue never fails to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
'To The Cave' is the score's other cue, a dark, moody bass-heavy synth piece which accompanies the boys as they make their moonlight dash to the old Indian cave to re-convene the society and, in the words of Henry David Theroux, "suck the marrow out of life". Beethoven's Ode To Joy is used as source music for a football game in which the boys recite pre-match inspirational poetry, and rounds out the Dead Poets section of the CD. Sadly, many important pieces are excluded from this horribly brief Milan release, not least the brutal and eerie cue that accompanies Neal Perry's final attempt to gain his father's attention, and the soft romantic theme that accompanies society member Knox Overstreet in his attempts to woo the beautiful Chris Noël. However, we must be thankful for small mercies, as this is currently the only available recording of Jarre's score.
As much as I love Dead Poets Society, the appeal of the music from The Year of Living Dangerously, however, has completely passed me by. It was written when Jarre was just entering his "electronic" era in 1984, probably as a result of his son Jean-Michel's success in the pop arena with the combination of hit tunes and ethereal synths. The film itself was a critically acclaimed romantic political drama starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and the Oscar-winning Linda Hunt, and told the tale of two journalists caught up in the social unrest of 1960s Indonesia.
Four score cues are included on this CD but, having now listened to them three or four times, it continually strikes me how much I dislike this style of electronic scoring. Although it is steeped in the Asian traditions and aspires to work the sounds and rhythms of the East into his music, rather than beguiling me with vivid Oriental themes, Jarre's music has had the effect of lulling me into a state of total apathy. It's like Vangelis on valium, or an orchestra-less Hans Zimmer after a hard day at the office, with line after line of uninspired synthesised tunes accompanied by sampled woodwinds and percussion to add that "ethnic" flavour. There are some briefly attractive moments, in 'Death of a Child' and 'Kwan', where Jarre has had the good sense to inject some life into the proceedings, but for the rest of the time I would suggest that The Year of Living Dangerously is listened to only as an insomnia cure.
This CD is a French release, and the titles of these films are presented in that language on the CD cover - Le Cercle Des Poetes Disparus and L'Annee De Tous Les Dangers.
Track Listing:
DEAD POETS SOCIETY