![]() The soft, cooing performances of Dutch composer/vocalist Sunna Wehrmeijer add a sense of heartrending reflection to the aforementioned “I Had To Do That” the desperately tragic “Katniss is Chosen”, and the quasi-religious “Arena Crumbles”, while the hesitantly romantic theme for Katniss and Peeta in “Just Friends” brings back welcome memories of the idyllic parts of his underrated score for The Postman. Cues such as “Katniss”, parts of “I Had To Do That”, “Prim” and the lovely, intimate “We’re a Team” have a slight sense of melancholy about them that really gets into Katniss’s mindset as she starts to truly recognize the injustices in her society. Katniss’s musical identity, and that of her district, is rooted in the music of Appalachia: haunting woodwind solos, fiddles, guitars, dulcimers, and so on. Instead, Newton Howard’s score mixes soft, regional textures and contemporary electronics with some blistering action music, especially in the score’s second half. It’s interesting how this piece, rather than anything James Newton Howard wrote, has become the film series’ defining musical identity, and its lack of multiple performances on the soundtrack may disappoint those who expected it to be more prominent. One thing listeners who have seen the film will notice immediately is the almost complete absence of “Horn of Plenty”, the glorious choral anthem for Panem written by the French-Canadian band Arcade Fire, which appears numerous times in the movie but gets just one 40 second burst on CD. As a result, Catching Fire is a much more rounded score, which builds on the instrumental ideas established in the first film, but seems much more of a well-constructed score than the original. Thankfully, Catching Fire redresses most of those issues Howard was on board from the beginning, working with director Francis Lawrence from the outset, and being given more time to develop his sound palette and thematic identity for the film. ![]() He was originally a late replacement for the first film’s original composer, Danny Elfman, and as such didn’t have a great deal of time to develop many themes or recurring motifs – the resulting first score was disappointingly anonymous, without much individual personality. Returning to write Catching Fire’s score is composer James Newton Howard. ![]() In Catching Fire, Katniss and Peeta have drawn the ire of the corrupt and sadistic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) for defying the Government and for possibly inciting a potential second uprising within the districts in response, Snow orders a second, special games called the “quarter quell” in which former winners of the games must compete again, in a nightmarish new battle arena designed to look like the jungle. ![]() ![]() Jennifer Lawrence returns to the starring role as Katniss Everdeen, a young woman from a post-apocalyptic America who, along with her compatriot Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), survived their participation in the eponymous games – a gladiatorial-style combat tournament involving children from various impoverished ‘districts’, who fight to the death for the entertainment of the wealthy and decadent inhabitants of the Capital, organized as penance for a popular uprising generations previously. Catching Fire is the second film based on the bestselling Hunger Games trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins, following on from the smash hit Hunger Games movie last year. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |