The Hurt Locker
by Marco Beltrami
and Buck Sanders
The Hurt Locker
Buy online
The Hurt Locker Composed by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Lionsgate Records (2010)
Rating:
5/10
Soundclips below from AmazonMP3
“Much of this score
is jarring and discordant, which takes tremendous skill to pull off.
One misstep, and you have grating ambient noise instead of creative
avant-garde music."
The Art Locker Review by Helen San
THE HURT LOCKER is a tense action drama about one soldier’s addiction to
war, masterfully directed by Kathryn Bigelow (STRANGE DAYS, K19). The
title refers to a place of extreme pain, often used to speak of those
injured by explosions. Following three soldiers in the EOD (Explosives
Ordnance Disposal) squad in Iraq, the story attempts to capture a glimpse
of their heightened fears, hypervigilance, and fragile psyche for the
citizens at home. Although the film’s accuracy has been disputed by Iraq
veterans, there is no question the movie, realistic or not, is
theatrically engrossing. It brings average Americans to the edge of their
seats, as empathetic of the suffering of the EOD squad as we can be.
The film has already earned a Best Director award from the Director’s
Guild of America, beating commercial favorite and Bigelow’s ex-husband
James Cameron (for Avatar) and making Bigelow the first woman to ever win
(in 2010 no less, can you believe it?). This is a good omen for Bigelow at
the Oscars, where she stands a good chance for becoming the first woman to
win a Best Director award there as well. Gender issues aside, I wanted to
give the director an Oscar after seeing the film, before I knew who the
director was. The storytelling, for the purposes of creating unrelenting
suspense and dread, is flawless.
It is no surprise to me then, that THE HURT LOCKER is a critical darling
which has earned a total of nine Academy Award nominations, including one
for Best Picture and Best Music. This is composer MARCO BELTRAMI’s second
Oscar nomination (the first was 3:10 to Yuma) and long time collaborator
BUCK SANDER’s first. Like quite a few movies in Oscar history, once the
Academy falls in love with a film, they nominate it for everything from
sound editing to cinematography to editing to…you guessed it…music. In
such situations, the question burning for film music fans is this: Is the
nomination a reflection of public affection for the feature or the
exceptional quality of the music proper?
No doubt you have heard the phrase, “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”
That’s not trite modesty; it really is an honor. Nominations in each
category are only made by the nominee’s colleagues in the profession.
Acting nominations are made by other actors, editing nominations are made
by other film editors, and music nominations are made by other film
composers. Everyone in the academy votes for the winner, which makes the
win subject to popular frenzy. But the nomination—the nomination
itself—that is a big pat on the back by your professional peers. I might
venture that getting nominated is THE honor. So congratulations, MARCO and
BUCK!
Before I saw the film, my immediate reaction to the score was “Why on
earth did this get nominated?” At first glance, it sounds like stock
suspense and jangle with a few Middle Eastern highlights, well crafted to
be sure, but not something you listen to for fun. The fan (including yours
truly) has to remember that a nomination is not made for the score on CD,
but the score on screen. On screen, the score becomes meaningful and
sentimental beyond the sum of its parts, like a couple’s special song from
their first date.
The mood of the film had nothing as rousing as heroics or as moving as
grief. It was about the routine of danger, the slow treadmill of incessant
stress. Anything mellifluous would have been out of place, like a salesman
at a funeral. Indeed, many of the scenes had no music at all, just
palpable loss, tension, and disintegration.
Where there was music, BELTRAMI and SANDERS did a superb job complementing
Bigelow’s storytelling. They portrayed feelings like fear, strain, and
alienation viscerally, often by using synthesizer rhythms that emulate
heart beats; shrill, scratchy strings to communicate tension and unease;
and ululating Middle Eastern cries to capture the sense of vigilant
paranoia in a foreign land. The title track, “The Hurt Locker” (1), is a
great example of all three elements selling suspense like nobody’s
business. “Hostile” (4) uses the trio again work together to establish the
sense of vigilance and distrust. In another noteworthy track, “A Guest in
My House” (11), the synth rhythms, along with the faux heart beats, were
used very effectively to accompany the main character James running alone
through the streets of an Iraqi city, in fear for his life.
The main motif of THE HURT LOCKER is introduced in “Goodnight Bastard” (2)
with melancholy strings and makes a brief appearance in Hostile. The theme
is repeated with a sharp Middle Eastern-sounding bowed instrument in “Oil
Tanker Aftermath,” (10) and finally in a familiar Western style in “The
Way I Am” (12) when James finally returned stateside. It is a short, but
alluring theme that is recognizable enough to identify with the
characters’ pain without being too melodious, if there is such a thing.
Much of this score is jarring and discordant, which takes tremendous skill
to pull off. One misstep, and you have grating ambient noise instead of
creative avant-garde music. JOHN CORIGLIANO was able to pull it off in THE
RED VIOLIN, weaving a huge threads of disharmony and conflict into an
artistic masterpiece—and he won an Oscar for it. I suspect the composers
of the Academy might be giving BELTRAMI and SANDERS the thumbs up for
having pulled it off again.
When I first commented on this score in the
Tracksounds podcast, I was very
hesitant about this score’s Oscar-worthiness. The more I worked on this
review, the more I became appreciative of the way the composers met the
unique challenges of the film. I can’t put my finger on what X-factor
exists that makes this sound like jangle to one person and inspired art to
another. All I can say is after three listens, I’ve been converted to the
“inspired art” side. This happens sometimes. The last time was HOWARD
SHORE’s COPLAND, which endeared itself to me despite its lack of the usual
commercial hooks. Post-conversion, I rate the score, as heard on screen, 8
out of 10; however, the music, as a stand-alone listen, doesn't rate so
highly.
As much as I admire the other Oscar nominations this year (ZIMMER,
SHERLOCK HOLMES; DESPLAT, FANTASTIC MR. FOX; GIACCHINO, UP; and HORNER,
AVATAR), my vote is for this vanguard Picaso of a score. Sometimes, you
just gotta support the extraordinary that way.
