This finally arrived in the mail last week. Does anyone who’s seen the movie even remember it at this point? The quality of the film aside, I am always thankful for more John Williams, especially when he’s not squandering his talent on the diminishing returns of “Star Wars” or Indiana Jones.
What’s remarkable, Williams having written and recorded this at the ages of 93 and 94, is how good it is. This is not one of his scores in “heroic blockbuster” mode. The car chase cue is one of the least remarkable tracks on the album. The train scene everyone raves about, for some reason (it makes no sense), is presented in the film without music. Rather, it is the emotional moments and the moments of wonder (in the music, if not the film) that resonate and remind one of what the movie is so sorely lacking.
The film opened on June 12. I ordered the CD from Waxwork Records on June 18. The soundtrack was shipped exactly one month later. This should not be construed as a slam against Waxwork. It’s just the way things are now, and I can’t see how it helps sales. If the product is not available for purchase by your average, moderately-interested person on the street, either immediately in a brick-and-mortar shop or for two-day delivery from an online retailer, how can you expect more than a few thousand sales, mostly to hardcore John Williams fans and die-hard film score collectors? I guarantee Williams’ name alone would generate many times that amount, if only they would make it easier for people to buy it. As it is, it’s not even available on Amazon, save as a digital download.
Quality-wise, I have no qualms. This is a polished product of the sort that used to be put out by the major labels. The sound is immediate, without seeming to be right in your face; the choral contributions and electronic elements blend well with the acoustic instruments. I must say, the bass is quite striking, to a degree I haven’t really noticed in previous orchestral soundtrack releases – although I confess my consumption of newer movie music has diminished, most of my purchases tending toward music of decades past. Considerably past, in terms of most of the classical stuff. If you want to really feel the lower registers – the cellos, double basses, and percussion – “Disclosure Day” has a unique, appealing sound. More important is the content, and there’s plenty here, in terms of emotion and lyricism, for me to enjoy.
Alas, physical media are not the priority they once were. I miss the days of just being able to walk into a record store and buy a soundtrack when it arrived a week or two before a film’s release. Now, if you want the CD, you have to do your research, find out who is distributing it, and jump through the hoops of preorder and postal delivery. The digital downloads for “Disclosure Day” weren’t even available until the day of the film’s release. I really don’t understand this strategy. A successful soundtrack album has always been one more tool with which to sell a film. How many repeat viewings has Williams’ music inspired? But all that is peanuts, I suppose, in a world in which a movie has to make $300 million in order to turn a profit.
When I called Waxwork to request a few tracks to air on one of my radio shows in advance of the official soundtrack release, I was told it wouldn’t be possible; there would be a rights issues, and I would have to contact Universal directly. Everything has become such a corporate labyrinth over the past decades, it’s like trying to infiltrate the Illuminati to get permission from a studio. Don’t even get me started on Disney. At least at Waxwork someone actually answered the phone, and he was normal and pleasant, competent and human and real, the way people used to be. The prospect of having to deal with Universal was not appealing. In the end, I decided to wait the extra week and just air some tracks from the digital download. So yeah, I bought the soundtrack twice.
All this jealously-guarded secrecy surrounding every aspect of the film, and the final trailer basically gives away the entire movie…
My summation is spoiler-free: I can describe my viewing experience as one of anger, at the start, softening, by the end, to disappointment. At least Emily Blunt and John Williams were good, though I have to admit, in the scenes where Spielberg tries to be more contemporary and dystopian, the score does seem a bit out of place. As I say, Williams does emotion and wonder very well. Watching “Disclosure Day” was a reminder of how much those two qualities are lacking in movies today. Even Spielberg movies, apparently.
I can’t believe I am living in a world where you can’t get a CD of a John Williams soundtrack. The guy who broke all records for soundtrack sales and singlehandedly revived the orchestral film score with such verve that it carried into the 21st century. His appeal transcends the collectors’ market, or at least it did. But since everyone’s awareness about anything, beyond what they are fed on social media, seems to have diminished, you have to be 50 years old to remember a better world.
Disney has to be the biggest group of idiots, judging from its handling of Williams’ last soundtrack, for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” – a far less interesting score, save for the delectable “Helen’s Theme,” which is pure golden age, though evidently not appreciated by everyone. As has been the case with the current score, clearly different people expect different things from John Williams. If it doesn’t possess “Jurassic Park” bombast, they’re incapable of recognizing or remembering a theme, apparently. At its best, the music for “Disclosure Day” is gorgeous. I’ve already commented on how the opening track, “Listen,” taps into the spiritual world of Vaughan Williams’ “Tallis Fantasia.” Already, right there, I am sold.
Others have pointed out a kinship between one of the tracks and Williams’ music for Spielberg’s “A.I.,” which, by the way, is easily my most-hated Spielberg film. And while I’m at it, he really missed the boat on creating a prescient sci-fi classic about honest-to-goodness, now-in-the-headlines, anxiety-provoking A.I.! While “Disclosure Day” doesn’t make me violently angry the way “A.I.” did, both movies make me question why I ever liked Spielberg to begin with. But then I remember “Jaws,” “Raiders,” “CE3K,” “E.T.,” and a few others.
“Disclosure Day” is no “Close Encounters,” for as much as it wants to be, and it is certainly no “E.T.” Say what you want about Spielberg’s remake of “War of the Worlds,” at least it was coherent. In 2 ½ hours, “Disclosure Day” has plenty of time to tell its story. But the ideas the screenplay seems to think are the most profound don’t cut very deep, at least in the way they are handled, and plot holes so glaring a ten-year-old child would recognize them are brushed off with a single line of dialogue, if that.
Despite some nice visual touches and some potentially interesting, sadly underdeveloped ideas, there’s more talk than show in what is, after all, a visual medium, and one this director has always exploited better than just about everyone else.
“Disclosure Day” often doesn’t make sense, and I couldn’t understand what any of the critics saw in it, until I realized we have very few actual critics who understand movies anymore, or even basic storytelling. The film proves that, if Spielberg wants to speak to the heart, if he wants empathy and wants us to “listen,” then John Williams is indispensable.
This soundtrack gives me a lot of pleasure, and moves me in a way the movie most definitely did not.
Full Disclosure About “Disclosure Day”
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18 responses
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18 responses to “Full Disclosure About “Disclosure Day””
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Spielberg is no longer Spielberg. Lucas is no longer Lucas. Disney is far and beyond no longer Disney. We used to feast off of Soundtracks that were delectable sources of nutrients and vitamins. Now….sugar and Red 40 and Yellow 5. I long for the time of Herbie The Love Bug and a hungry Lucas and Spielberg. This perhaps makes no sense to younger folk. Hope it makes sense to the crew that grew up with stores that were closed in Sundays.
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Jon Haag Very well put. For the concerns I address here, those were much better days. Not only did we have inane Dean Jones comedies, but Disney would also reissue classic stuff, like “Treasure Island” and “Fantasia,” in theaters. It was an exciting time to grow up, and it was always a treat to go to the movies.
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I wonder if the sales of the vinyl or if there was an actual release on vinyl were handled differently since vinyl seems to be such a collector item thing now. Also if you wanted to play tracks on your show did they release the album on Spotify? A lot of the student DJs here at WUSB use Spotify exclusively because they don’t own any media. And yes that is a depressing news.
That being said I was in no rush to see this film either and I still haven’t seen it a Spielberg doesn’t fill me with interest the way it used to. But without trying to be I complete pest and annoy the crap out of you I would love for you to sit down with me someday and discuss why you hate the movie AI because I kind of love that movie and I’m wondering where is the disconnect for you.
I also know there was a lot of controversy surrounding the production of AI the writing Spielberg picking it up from Kubrick etc but I still don’t understand your point or position on it and I’d love to hear it. At the same time I don’t want to discussion to lead you into cardiac distress!
I was a pleasure to read your stuff Ross stay out of trouble and tell Roy I said hi!
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Phil Merkel “Disclosure Day” is also available on vinyl from Waxwork Records. But it ain’t on Amazon. I still enjoy most Spielberg movies on some level, and I catch them in the theater if I can, even if they’re not always top tier (have yet to catch “Ready Player One,” “The BFG,” and “West Side Story”), but this one was pretty low. I warn you that my “A.I.” rant has been honed to a fine art.
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I actually hated ready player one, I felt Spielberg was basically masturbating to his old films when I watched that! I really liked West Side Story but I think maybe it’s better to have a Robert Wise fest and watch WSS, then Andromeda Strain followed by Star Trek TMP . yeah maybe I should have you on Friday Night free form in the fall and you can discuss (IE RANT) about AI! That actually sounds like great fun and probably would educate me a little as to what I’m missing in AI.
I actually have to make some time to stream the Hail Mary movie with Annette as she loved the book. Disclosure day I’ll see eventually. I’m thinking maybe I fell out of love with a lot of the modern Spielberg films after the disappointing Super 8.
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Phil MerkelI loved Hail Mary too. It’s the scifi epic that I didn’t get with Disclosure Day, very disappointing. Hope you enjoy it.
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Phil Merkel Actually, from what I’ve read, for “Ready Player One,” Spielberg went out of his way NOT to include references to his own films in the nostalgic mélange, which I was sorry to learn, because who shaped the pop-cultural landscape of the ’80s more than Spielberg? Apparently, the effects guys tried to slip in something Indiana Jones oriented, and he demanded it be taken out. Probably because he was anticipating remarks like yours! I don’t know that I am remembering all this correctly. As I say, I have not seen it, and I’m not particularly eager to. It’s also going to take a certain amount of will on my part to finally watch “West Side Story.” We’ve already got the Robert Wise version, which is excellent, and the connective tissue by David Newman sounds nothing like Bernstein. Williams would have done a better job aping his style. But I’ve heard favorable things about the remake, so I should watch it eventually. I have no desire to see “Hail Mary.” In general, that kind of movie has passed me by.
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Phil Merkelif it makes you feel any better, I loved AI too. (Although I wush Kubrick had still been around to do his version).
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I don’t know true how it is, but I heard that Disney interfered with his SW sequel and IJ scores a lot esp. Rise of Skywalker apparently. They discouraged him from creating new themes and instead sticking in and re-using only the old ones. They would also bring in other composers to help finish the score.
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There’s stuff in the Tim Greiving biography about Williams’ experiences with the Disney Star Wars scores. They kept reediting the films while Williams was actually composing, and he had to reconfigure and rewrite massive amounts of material. Filmmakers are used to the Hans Zimmer style of film scoring now, where they can just change everything on the computer, since it’s so repetitive and electronically inflected. Obviously, you can’t do that when writing for a real orchestra without doing a lot of work. It was actually Kathleen Kennedy who finally put her food down and told J.J. Abrams, no more. It was no way to treat a composer well into his 80s that everyone allegedly idolized. Williams was far too nice about it.
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My wife is getting tired of me ranting on the lack of good story telling in modern media. I am starting to get tired of my ranting myself!
I agree with your posting, Ross. Keep fighting the good fight.-
Bill Montgomery Oh, I’m a ranter! I’m actually quite restrained on social media. As someone says in “Disclosure Day,” you are not alone. 🙂
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FYI- Just received the Williams autobiography on your recommendation.
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Don Bethman If I recommended it, it was only with qualifications. Lots of good stuff in there for Williams fans, but the writing can be pretty shaky at times (some passages are better than others), and the editing is some of the worst I have ever seen. Hopefully, you won’t be as frustrated reading it as I was. I took so many notes, I found it near impossible to work everything into a coherent review. I still have a draft of it in Word. Maybe I should go over it again and see if I can pull it together, now that I’ve had some distance. At least the jacket design is nice. It will look handsome on your bookshelf. But seriously, if you’re interested in Williams’ development and early career, there is stuff in there you will never have seen anywhere else. You will walk away with the sense that he has to be America’s greatest living composer, an assertion that would be scoffed at by those who can’t get over the fact that the heroic themes for some of his biggest movies “all sound the same” and “Star Wars” alludes to Holst. Nevertheless, the guy has more talent in his infected toenail than any one of these haters. I hope you enjoy!
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I don’t know much about him other than watching the films, and buying the soundtracks, so I’m sure I’ll get something out of it.
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Don Bethman I’m sure. There’s plenty to chew on, even if it could have used a rewrite!
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Just listened to the Raiders march on the program prior to yours. Bombast aside, William’s love themes are exquisitely beautiful.
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Bill Montgomery I have nothing negative whatsoever to say about the original “Raiders” score. THIS track is the only good thing to come out of the misguided “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLa3a4tQhag
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