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Thomas Newman - Bridge of Spies (2015)


crocodile

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It's a fine balance of his lush lyricism (takes very much after Shawshank Redemption, as I expected), some exquisite choral work and his usual quirky shtick. But I think it's a bit inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. He has certainly done better.

Thomas Newman? Inconsequential? Nah. ;)

Karol

Right, but that doesn't mean he doesn't shine with certain projects now and then. And you'd think this would be one of them! But aside from more dramatic substance and structure, there isn't much that sets this score apart from "redundancies" like He Named Me Malala.

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When will it be available in the UK? It's still greyed-out on Spotify.

That's strange, I have a UK account and I was able to listen to it yesterday

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After taking it in a bit more i'd say yeah it's low-key and not very original in any way...though that may be due to the picture...but what did anyone expect here from Williams? Apart from more operatic album versions it would have been, tonally, very much the same.

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I'm pretty comfortable that for all the Spielberg films for Williams to sit out, this was the one.

That most definitely won't be the case with BFG though; Spielberg will be channeling Hook, Harry Potter and E.T. for that one, the kind of film he probably wouldn't bother doing without Williams.

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I'm pretty comfortable that for all the Spielberg films for Williams to sit out, this was the one.

I'm still scratching my head over the comments last spring that were wishing he dropped Star Wars instead for this.

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I'm pretty comfortable that for all the Spielberg films for Williams to sit out, this was the one.

I'm still scratching my head over the comments last spring that were wishing he dropped Star Wars instead for this.

I'd rather hear Star Wars, of course, but I get that. Williams has done the Star Wars thing ad nauseam and at least these Spielberg films allow him to do something different.

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As someone who's not exactly devoted to JW these days, I'm waaaay more interested in hearing a new SW score (for a competent director too) than some random Spielberg score for a sleepy thriller.

What I'm not looking forward to is the 10 millionth performance of the main theme. I can only imagine the reaction from all the SW geeks when the Lucasfilm logo comes on, then BAMMM. I will see this film on rental sometime in the spring.

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But yeah, tonally I found it kind of all over the place without anything to tie it together...there are some individually effective moments, but overall I didn't think it distinguished itself enough which made the moments toward the end where the music is finally given some substantial time to shine out a little jarring. The "Homecoming" cue came almost out of nowhere to me, I thought it was a weird tone to end on. I guess it could be argued that it's a Spielbergian "tacked-on" happy ending, but I felt like there was definitely room for the music to have more weight. Suddenly Newman's sweet "light drama" sound comes in to wash over the last few minutes and it felt at odds with the film. Something about the balance was off, especially considering so much of the film goes without music. Hm.

This.

The best score of 2015? What the fuck, croc?

Did I say that?\

Hey, I didn't know Newman orchestrated Darth Vader's Death.

Karol

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So this was not a plum scoring assignment at all. This is a like Lincoln. The music is very sparsely used and frankly there is little place for music. Its non stop talk for the most part.

Can anyone tell me how much music Williams wrote for Lincoln and how much was featured in the movie?

Anyways, Newman writes a serviceable score but nothing more. A very ordinary respectful score. Though surprisingly my friends came out of the screening and told me the score was really good and I was like what?

But I have no doubt Williams would have elevated this. There is a lot of macabre going-ons in Berlin that Williams would have added some malevolence to. And he would have added a lighter tone to some of the things. There was this one exciting sequence during the building of the Berlin wall that I think Williams would have killed.

So yeah, scoring a Spielberg means an automatic Oscar nomination but no luck for Newman I guess. He better hedge his bets on Spectre.

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So this was not a plum scoring assignment at all. This is a like Lincoln. The music is very sparsely used and frankly there is little place for music. Its non stop talk for the most part.

Can anyone tell me how much music Williams wrote for Lincoln and how much was featured in the movie?

Anyways, Newman writes a serviceable score but nothing more. A very ordinary respectful score. Though surprisingly my friends came out of the screening and told me the score was really good and I was like what?

But I have no doubt Williams would have elevated this. There is a lot of macabre going-ons in Berlin that Williams would have added some malevolence to. And he would have added a lighter tone to some of the things. There was this one exciting sequence during the building of the Berlin wall that I think Williams would have killed.

So yeah, scoring a Spielberg means an automatic Oscar nomination but no luck for Newman I guess. He better hedge his bets on Spectre.

Williams wrote little over 90 minutes of music for Lincoln of which about 40-45 minutes were used in the film but this probably includes all the suites and alternate material.

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No. John kept writing, but Spielberg was never satisfied!

"Don't gimme this lame shit, baldy! This is a Daniel fucking Day fucking Lewis movie! Do better! The ones who could really give me the score I need are all dead! Shape up!"

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Listened to most of the score and it further confirmed for me that I rarely enjoy an entire Thomas Newman OST, but rather individual tracks. I liked the beginning, it lost me in the middle and I skipped over some, and enjoyed the end.

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But yeah, tonally I found it kind of all over the place without anything to tie it together...there are some individually effective moments, but overall I didn't think it distinguished itself enough which made the moments toward the end where the music is finally given some substantial time to shine out a little jarring. The "Homecoming" cue came almost out of nowhere to me, I thought it was a weird tone to end on. I guess it could be argued that it's a Spielbergian "tacked-on" happy ending, but I felt like there was definitely room for the music to have more weight. Suddenly Newman's sweet "light drama" sound comes in to wash over the last few minutes and it felt at odds with the film. Something about the balance was off, especially considering so much of the film goes without music. Hm.

This.

The best score of 2015? What the fuck, croc?

Did I say that?

Favourite... Best... It's all the same in the end... And you're wrong either way.

That's incorrect, Pan-boy!

Karol

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But yeah, tonally I found it kind of all over the place without anything to tie it together...there are some individually effective moments, but overall I didn't think it distinguished itself enough which made the moments toward the end where the music is finally given some substantial time to shine out a little jarring. The "Homecoming" cue came almost out of nowhere to me, I thought it was a weird tone to end on. I guess it could be argued that it's a Spielbergian "tacked-on" happy ending, but I felt like there was definitely room for the music to have more weight. Suddenly Newman's sweet "light drama" sound comes in to wash over the last few minutes and it felt at odds with the film. Something about the balance was off, especially considering so much of the film goes without music. Hm.

This.

The best score of 2015? What the fuck, croc?

Has he been brute forcing again ya reckon?

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When will it be available in the UK? It's still greyed-out on Spotify.

That's strange, I have a UK account and I was able to listen to it yesterday

Still greyed out, and when I search for "thomas newman bridge of spies" I get no results. Do I need a premium account? The most recent of his scores available to listen is Malala.

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When will it be available in the UK? It's still greyed-out on Spotify.

That's strange, I have a UK account and I was able to listen to it yesterday
Still greyed out, and when I search for "thomas newman bridge of spies" I get no results. Do I need a premium account? The most recent of his scores available to listen is Malala.

It may be because I'm living in Spain at the moment... but I made the account the UK

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But yeah, tonally I found it kind of all over the place without anything to tie it together...there are some individually effective moments, but overall I didn't think it distinguished itself enough which made the moments toward the end where the music is finally given some substantial time to shine out a little jarring. The "Homecoming" cue came almost out of nowhere to me, I thought it was a weird tone to end on. I guess it could be argued that it's a Spielbergian "tacked-on" happy ending, but I felt like there was definitely room for the music to have more weight. Suddenly Newman's sweet "light drama" sound comes in to wash over the last few minutes and it felt at odds with the film. Something about the balance was off, especially considering so much of the film goes without music. Hm.

This.

The best score of 2015? What the fuck, croc?

Has he been brute forcing again ya reckon?

I.... will... enjoy.... this... no... matter.... what!

Karol

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It's growing on me. All of it is done very well, but still not very distinct in his oeuvre. And while pleasant enough, the suspense music is rather pedestrian, isn't it?

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Listening now. French horns at 1 minute into Election Protocol--brass stop mutes?

Edit: This is a wonderful score. I'm very familiar with Newman's ouvre from The Rapture to Red Corner and this definitely not him on autopilot.

I know this'll be sacrilege to some, but give me this over Hook or War Horse, any day.

#Newman4BFG

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Seriously, though, I do like this score quite a bit. Not sure if I'd rank it as highly as Charlie did in his review. But I'd still say this is among the best things released this year. Not that competition is particularly fierce.

Karol

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I think I went in with high expectations, believing Newman would blow his load considering he was doing a Spielberg flick and replacing John Williams. But there's nothing remotely remarkable about this score.

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There's suspense music?

The music for the "shady goings" as pub likes to put it.

Listening now. French horns at 1 minute into Election Protocol--brass stop mutes?

Edit: This is a wonderful score. I'm very familiar with Newman's ouvre from The Rapture to Red Corner and this definitely not him on autopilot.

Yup, with the french horns.

It's good stuff, but nothing new. You've heard everything here in superior form elsewhere in his career. I do agree that it is one of the stronger scores of the year, though there hasn't been much to compete with so far.

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