War of the Worlds

Composed by John Williams

01 - Prologue (2:52)
02 - The Ferry Scene (5:49)
03 - Reaching the Country (3:24)
04 - The Intersection Scene (4:13)
05 - Ray and Rachel (2:41)
06 - Escape from the City (3:49)
07 - Probing the Basement (4:12)

08 - Refugee Status (3:50)

09 - The Attack on the Car (2:44)
10 - The Separation of the Family (2:36)
11 - The Confrontation with Ogilvy (4:34)
12 - The Return to Boston (4:29)
13 - Escape from the Basket (9:21)
14 - The Reunion (3:16)
15 - Epilogue (3:11)

Conducted by John Williams

Produced by John Williams

Released by Decca Records on June 28th, 2005

Total Running Time: 47:01

     Steve Spielberg’s War of the Worlds proves to be a frustratingly keen update on the H.G. Wells classic novel. The film possesses many great Spielbergian touches and plenty of disturbingly effective moments (such as the burning train and the aftermath of the jet plane crash). However, screenwriters Josh Freidman and David Koepp, attempting to keep to the original novel’s generally first-person viewpoint, saddle us with a less-than-satisfying main group of characters and never really open us up to the events in the rest of the world. Couple that with a few plot points that are ridiculously stupid, and you have a movie that has enough flaws to keep it from truly becoming a classic.

     Once again, John Williams is at the podium, and by this time I’m afraid I could care less what number this makes for him. This director/composer collaboration will probably never be topped numbers-wise, and will most definitely never be topped in the creative sense. Williams, having just come off the darkly intensified Revenge of the Sith, finds little need to alter his style as War of the Worlds demands even more of it. Given that, it may well be that the year 2005 will be remembered as Williams most “oppressive” period.

     There is little in this score to suggest anything other than complete loss. The opening cue presents unearthly musical wanderings, eventually overtaken by Morgan Freeman’s superb narration. Yes, there is a bit of narration on this recording, but never fear. It only appears on the opening and closing track and it works quite well and doesn’t overlap any notable musical cues. And I must say that Mr. Freeman’s narration of modified lines from the Wells novel (which are only altered to reflect the film’s modern setting) are well delivered and provides a great set up to both the film and the score. What follows after, however, is a set of out-of-film-sequence cues that does away with the building of any tension and plunges us right into “The Ferry Scene”. This is a cue which is found halfway through the film. It’s usual these days to find such an album with cues out of chronological order, and the effect here, while attempting to balance out the tone which varies between dark and darker, the effort to build tension is chopped up and loses its effectiveness.

     Consisting of pounding strings and rumbling horns and percussion, War of the Worlds takes on the appropriate feeling of other-worldly terror. Electronic effects are sparingly used to bolster this effect (take, for example, the harsh “whooshing” in “The Intersection Scene”). One’s enjoyment of this score will definitely rely on the feeling of the hopeless, driving percussion that permeates half of the cues, or the mournful refrains of the family moments that comprises the other half of this dual-nature score. It is in these moments that we get a sense of the Williams that we are most familiar with. The mournful refrains of a family threatened with disintegration (literally), are a continued building of the same idea within Revenge of the Sith, though a bit more graceful this time around as it is not constrained by all the Star Wars trappings.

     With no connection between the two halves, however, this album tends to become disjointed. One moment, William’s is attempting to tap into the emotional undercurrent of the characters (which is never fully realized by the film itself), and the next he is bringing the world as we know it to an end. Both halves are pleasing at moments in and of themselves, but they never truly meld together.

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