Back in October I devoted a post to Mick LaSalle’s enthusiastic review of Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter.” I did not carry through with my hope to see it in the theater. However, I finally did watch it last night on Blu Ray on our big screen TV. I thought the movie was very good, but I didn’t like it as much as Mick LaSalle did.
That being said, it is worth a viewing just to see the incredible set piece depicting the onslaught and aftermath of a massive tsunami. It was awesome.
However, the main purpose of this post is to tell you what I really did not like: Clint Eastwood’s self-composed score. Ouch! I have tolerated his composition in his other movies, but let’s face it, he is not a naturally gifted musician. Anyway, in “Hereafter” we get a further ration of Clint’s melodic musings, which are passable, but nothing memorable. The huge problem is that the music simply does not fit at all with what is happening on the screen, or with the over-arching theme of the film. It’s like someone found a can of film, then went to his CD shelf and with eyes closed picked a CD and declared it would be the sound track for the found film. That would never happen if someone like James Horner had written the score.
Oh, I know, you are going to say “hey, Clint wanted something jazz-oriented and Horner can’t lay down that shit.” No, that’s not it. It would have been far, far, better if Terence Blanchard had done the score, and his jazz cred is unassailable. (I count over 30 film scores in his filmography covering widely different themes and styles.) [I love Terence Blanchard’s work, aside from this discussion. ] Oh, and one other guy who would have written a great score is Hans Zimmer, whose versatility amazes me – can you believe the range of what he has done?
So, Clint, swallow your pride, rein in your ego, and hire a real pro to write the score for your next flick. (But by all means keep making movies!)
