‘Ey! Ring of Power? Balrogs? Fuggedaboutit! I know a guy…
17 years before “Green Book,” Viggo Mortensen played another public relations specialist with an aversion to bath water in “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll hear music from the first of Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” adaptations as part of an hour of music from movies built around fantasy quests.
For decades, “The Lord of the Rings” had been a kind of Holy Grail for genre fans, and anticipation ran high in regard to when exactly there would be a decent live action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnum opus. Alas, either filmmakers couldn’t acquire the rights, or they were hampered by technological limitations. Though the realization of Tolkien’s richly-imagined world of hobbits, orcs and balrogs eluded many, fantasy films of a derivative nature were thick on the ground. Some were good, some not so good. But many of them had outstanding scores.
“The Dark Crystal” (1982), though produced by Jim Henson and company, was a long way from Big Bird and Ernie & Burt, with some pretty dark scenes. The score by Trevor Jones is first rate, given the full romantic treatment and recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, augmented by Fairlight and Synclavier synthesizers, as well as the occasional period instrument.
“Willow” (1988) allegedly grew out of George Lucas’ desire to film “The Hobbit.” Rather than fork over a sizeable portion of his earnings to the Tolkien estate, he opted instead to take the “Star Wars” approach of synthesizing archetypal images, from the Old Testament through Ray Harryhausen films, to create his own original story. Except the influences weren’t so cleverly assimilated this time. Composer James Horner followed suit, with a score rich in allusions to Schumann, Wagner, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and especially Prokofiev.
The first feature-length adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings” (1978) was literally rendered in animation. The film manages only to cover the first book-and-a-half of the trilogy, and the last half hour or so is probably incomprehensible to anyone who hasn’t read it. It had been director Ralph Bakshi’s plan to divide the trilogy into two parts – already a concession to the studio – but the first film’s modest performance meant there was no funding for a second.
Two-time Academy Award winner Leonard Rosenman was engaged to write the score. Rosenman was responsible for composing the music for the James Dean classics “East of Eden” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” Bakshi had originally wanted to use Led Zepplin songs. He later expressed his dislike for Rosenman’s score, which he found to be too conventional – somewhat ironic in that Rosenman, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg, Roger Sessions and Luigi Dallapiccola, was known for writing some of the most challenging scores in film history, including the uncompromising music for “Fantastic Voyage.”
It would be over two decades before another feature film based upon Tolkien’s source material was mounted. Peter Jackson’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” (2001) is brimful of state-of-the-art special effects, so much so that a great many important details from Tolkien’s novel are lost in the shuffle. Still, Jacksons’ trilogy went on to garner 30 Academy Award nominations, of which it won 17. Howard Shore’s music was recognized with Oscars for the first and third installments. The third, “The Return of the King,” inexplicably went on to become one of the most decorated films of all time.
Prophecies must be fulfilled, order restored, and the land made whole! We’re on a quest for fantasy music, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
