With almost every popular motion picture these days there is a
corresponding television production. In the case of Ridley Scott's
Gladiator, USA Network produced a
mini-series based on Attila the Hun, one of the key historical figures
during the collapse of the Roman Empire. Of course, I think the
powers-that-be made a good decision in their selection of Nick Glennie-Smith
as the composer for this film, especially given the fact that the
production had a big enough budget to afford a real orchestra. After all,
who better to score this desire to ride the popularity of
Gladiator than someone who is a former
protégé of Hans Zimmer?
First off, as far as scores to
television movies go, this one is pretty close to the top of the long, and
often putrid, pile. It would have been easy to cut costs and opt for the
all-too-standard synth score, but thankfully the producers saw better and
gave Glennie-Smith the Budapest Film Orchestra to work with. This is a
good choice for two reasons. First, the performances are top notch and the
orchestra even manages to shine through all the synth effects that are
layered upon the music. Second, given the fact that is the Budapest
Film Orchestra, it does give it a more exotic quality that would be
missing from other orchestras, and this works into making the music sound
more appropriate for the film.
While there are some very
interesting moments here, I found the score to move along rather slowly.
The action moments are not as rousing as I wish they were, and while there
are themes interwoven throughout, they are not particularly memorable.
Probably the most interesting track on the album is the Ballet of
Hedonism. There is really no doubt as to what kind of scene it
accompanies, and it sounds rather odd compared to the rest of the score,
but I still found it to be quite remarkable. It's twisted around for
Ildico's Theme and then it comes around again in Wedding Night.
I think Nick Glennie-Smith
took the reasoning behind his hire a little to much to the extreme. Either
that he is intentionally trying to tie into Zimmer's
Gladiator. One of the themes in the
score is a direct descendent of the Earth theme from
Gladiator, although I prefer Zimmer's
more. He even goes so far as to duplicate the Holst-sounding trumpet
sections from Zimmer's battle cues,
which, yet again, not work as well here. I can understand
the desire to do this, but I wish it was handled a little bit better. As
it stands, I find it a little annoying since it makes me wish I was
listening to Gladiator instead.
Those gripes aside, while Nick
Glennie-Smith (I'm getting really tired of typing that name) has still
yet to deliver anything rivaling
The Rock
as of yet (something I beginning to feels deserves more credit to either
Zimmer or Gregson-Williams), he still has a strong showing with
this score, especially in some of his excellent string passages. If you're
looking for something similar to
Gladiator
that's not as loud (or, as some might say, pretentious), then this is
probably for you. It's certainly not a bad score by any means, and
definitely more enjoyable than
Highlander: Endgame, but it still falls short of its potential.
***1/2
