THE POSTMAN

JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

Rating:

Original Review: Although it was panned by most of the respected film critics as being nothing more than a self-indulgent vanity project, I personally thought that Kevin Costner's epic The Postman was a generally entertaining, if flawed movie. The same could be said of James Newton Howard's would-be epic orchestral score which, while remaining consistently enjoyable, could have been a little better. There are two things about The Postman which struck me straight away: the first is the fact that virtually every cue is unique, and this is both a strength and a weakness. It means that the album never gets boring and constantly surprises the listener with new and interesting melodies, but it also means that, apart from a couple of recurring melodies and motifs, the score never quite seems to have a complete sense of itself. The second is the fact that, although there are only seven tracks in total, most of them are quite long, and this means that there is quite a lot of filler music in between all the admittedly very good good bits. The score opens in great fashion with the 'Main Titles', a wonderfully rhythmic mood-setter featuring heavy percussion, spiky strings, piano chords and a choral backing, before moving on to 'Shelter in the Storm' - a slow, thoughtful cue with prominent flutes which introduce the first rendition of one of the few recurring themes: a stately melody for The Postman himself. 'The Belly of the Beast' has an enormous, brass and percussion-led section to underscore the scenes in the incredible open cast mine to which The Postman is taken, and then turns into the first rendition of another of the score's high points: a grand, confident brass fanfare which is heard whenever Kevin Costner does something heroic. 'General Bethlehem' is much more dark and foreboding than the rest of the score, and actually sounds like it was inspired by the music of Hans Zimmer in parts in the way that Newton Howard uses a combination of orchestra, synths, and a male voice choir; 'Abby Comes Calling' is lovely: starting off slow and low-key, it builds and builds until a full rendition of the film's lush, string-based love theme kicks in after eight minutes. However, the final two tracks are the best of the lot. 'The Restored United States' is a quite electrifying action cue, heavy on Braveheart-like war drums, undulating string figures and brass fanfares, while 'The Postman' acts as an effective summary of the album, recapitulating all the major elements of the score. The songs, performed by Jono Manson and John Coinman, are all very good, and fit in perfectly with the mood of the film. I really like the country and western style, and the lyrics appropriately reflect the messages Costner was trying to convey through his film, about the importance of freedom, and families and returning to your roots. And, yes, Kevin Costner does indeed perform a duet with Amy Grant in the last track, but the surprising thing is that he's actually not a bad singer, and he comes out of the experience with his dignity still firmly intact. I really don't care what bad things people say about this score. OK, so it's not the most innovative or spectacular score you will ever hear, and like I said above, there is quite a bit of orchestral 'noise' between the fanfares and themes, but I like it a lot anyway. It's hardly ever boring, generally entertaining, and quite frequently downright inspiring.

Track Listing: Running Time: 73 minutes 43 seconds

Warner Bros. 9-46842-2 (1997)

Music composed by James Newton Howard. Conducted by Artie Kane. Orchestrations by Brad Dechter, Jeff Atmajian and James Newton Howard. L.A. Master Chorale conducted by Paul Salamunovich. Featured musical soloists Katy Salvidge and George Doering. Recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy. Edited by Jim Weidman. Mastered by Patricia Sullivan. Album produced by James Newton Howard.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.