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Ennio Morricone's score for Brian De Palma's MISSION TO MARS is a notable example of the composer's unusual and off-center approach to movie music.

Hand him a Western, and he reinvents a stylized Western sound with electric guitars, Jews harps, and choir. Hand him a biblical epic, and he responds with chanted, rhythmic choir. Hand him a remake of a ferocious, classic sci-fi horror film, and he concocts a perfectly passionless tone poem for the frozen Arctic. Hand him a fast moving Mafia revenge tale, and he provides a strident rock and roll score. Hand him a period story set at the dawn of man, and he creates an ethereal score for stylized pop vocalisms.

Hand him a rescue mission to Mars and the result is equally unexpected. Avoiding tried-and-true space movie music, this is a lush and a quiet score. Morricone, as usual, does not score the setting, and you'd never know this was a movie about Mars from just hearing the music. Morricone is again scoring the subtext of the material, the feel of the scene or the visualizations of the story. As with THE THING, Morricone captures a neat desolate feel for the Martian landscape and the dreary journey through space, a feeling that is carried over into those cues centering on the emotions of the crew. The score is slow-paced understated, suggesting, almost in slow motion, the languidity of the space mission and the underlying subliminalities of the characters. But the score is rich in tonality and feeling, if not melody. From its omnipresent static rhythms emerges some of Morricone's most eloquently emotive music of the last few years The music is lyrical but subdued, resplendent but desolate. Emotions in a vacuum... a heart in space. The main theme emerges at the 3-minute mark, a gently rhythmic motif for horns over strings and choir. It bears a lot of resemblance to the style of ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, very introspective music. The electric guitar returns near the end of the cue, plucked quickly in contrast to the slow moving lethargy of the violin melody in typical Morricone fashion.

The organ theme heard in "A Martian" has a resonant tonality quite reminiscent of IL DESERTO DEI TARTARI, bridged by a pretty woodwind, piano, and choir motif which assumes the ascending traveling feel of MARCO POLO or the wistful nostalgia ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. A subtle use of choir embellishes the theme, which becomes an eloquent romantic melody, swelling into a glorious upsurge of orchestra and choir, and then softening to a slow and poignant finish for high-end trumpet A particularly noble variant of the main theme emerges from the score's omnipresent repetitive tonalities in the lengthy (13: 15) and poignant "Sacrifice of a Hero." The cue's restatement of the theme becomes a noble soliloquy from trumpet over snare drum, ultimately overcome by a swarm of buzzing, electronic effects that first counterpoint, then complement, and finally subdue the orchestral sound. The cues varies from emotional warmth to strange dissonance, as woodwinds clash against sustained synth tones and Morricone's trademark suspense motifs - varied taps and tones and figures from various instruments, in turn, from dignified veneration to harsh, dissonant chordal phrasings. Typically, Morricone plays against the film, and the result is probably one of the oddest scores for a science fiction spectacle of the last decade or more. But, then, Morricone was never one to go along with tradition, and the feeling he gives MISSION TO MARS is peculiar and distinctive. The music is, at its heart, very human music, and Morricone underlines what must be at the core of De Palma's science fiction adventure, an affinity and an understanding that must underly any truly effective film story.

- Randall D. Larson

Yes, I agree, Andre. Thanks for bringing this review to the attention of this board. I appreciate it.

chiao!

Jin's having his revenge.

Three Mars movies are lined up,
which will past the enjoyment test?
I think of them all,
Carpenter's will be the best.

All I could think of while I was listening to the score (and watching the movie) was The Black Hole. The only part of the score (as presented in the movie) that I found remotely interesting was the "'Alien-God' presents the universe to retard astronauts" sequence.

And then there is the organ music... no comment on that stuff.

So, umm, does this score sound any better on the album?

I enjoy Mission to Mars very much on the album. The music is beautiful and lush. There's only one Organ dominant track, so if that stuff doesn't suit you, just skip it. The rest of really great... but then again, most of Morricone's romantic stuff is.

Oh... and while this is a sci-fi score, it IS romantic. That's just how the man writes.

Jonathan, while you're at it, check out the sound clips on the site. They'll give you a fairly good idea of what the score is all about:

Mission to Mars

Jeron

PS: TheRiddler has arrived!

And if you DON'T get that mag, by all means beg me to post what I wrote here!

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And no, I made no mention of Mr G in my review (never even crossed my mind)!

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Yeah.... RIGHT........