Ravenous was an uphill struggle from the get-go. Ted Griffin’s defiantly oddball mash-up of cannibal gore, Westerns, and black comedy was a wild read on the page but a challenge to visualize with tonal consistency; the script went through dozens of rewrites up to and even during filming. Original director Milcho Manchevski was replaced two weeks into production, and at least one other director left the shoot before Antonia Bird stepped in at the request of costar Robert Carlyle, the lead of her previous film Priest. Admittedly uneven, but full of malevolent wit and amusingly precise performances, Ravenous was a one-of-a-kind opportunity for musicians Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn. Albarn, a veteran of pop and trip-hop acts including Blur and Gorillaz, was first on the project and wrote about 60% of the film’s major cues; Nyman, who was working on Neil Jordan’s The End of the Affair around the same time, took over the remainder, and helped Albarn translate his “very good, instinctive, fresh, and quite stimulating” ideas into playable life. Regardless of who is responsible for what, the final score is its own delightfully unique creation, a crazy patchwork of found recordings, odd vocal effects, and stylized orchestral performances that sounds like nothing else recorded before or since. The score’s tour-de-force highlight is “The Cave,” a stupendous eight-minute cue heard early in the film; beginning eerily as soldiers Boyd (Guy Pearce) and Reich (Neil McDonaugh) enter a dark subterranean cavern, a plucked electric bass effect appears, and rhythmic percussion rises into a jangling frenzy as their search is revealed to be a deadly trap. The entire score is filled with creative and unusual choices, but “The Cave” deserves special mention for its relentless ramp-up from quiet tension to delirious terror.
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Installment Prize! Individuals submitting a comment What do you think? Click here to submit a comment Awesome Websites! Michael Nyman Website Next Installment: Harry Sukman has a visitor at his |
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| READER COMMENTS: | |||
| Howlin' Wolf | The contest period for this installment will run until midnight on Thursday, October 14 when the next installment premieres. |
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| Basil | This looks like a movie that I swear I've heard of before, but I really can't place where I first heard of it... speaking of which, this reminds me of a lot of those Neal Acree 20th Century Fox films made in the 90s, ie Venomous and Ablaze; and Acree's a composer who's sadly underrepresented on CD. Now I'm really curious to check this out, seeing as I've never seen any discussion about this film or its music anywhere else. |
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| Fons | This is difficult. This score reminds me a bit of Westworld. Fred Karlin, Westworld score composer, tried to combined electronic pieces with medieval music and country. It only worked on cellulloid really. Nyman and Albarn have the same task here but this does work. I'm not a fan of the folky excerpts but the orchestral and ambient pieces are the ones i like best. Where does this all come together? I think i need to see this movie just to hear this music in full effect. |
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| Danny G. | One of the more unique aspects of the score is that it reminds you of Deliverance with it's dueling banjos like motif. It makes the film the more creepier with such an interesting approach and that's why the score works on all its merits. |
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| Justin B. | See my site for another rejected score (not commonly known) for the film: RejectedFilmScores.150m.com/list.html Also see the seperate list for people asked: RejectedFilmScores.150m.com/supposedlyrejected.html |
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| F. Sean | I purchased the Ravenous score a few years back and I love it. The soundtrack was the highlight of this film for me and I can not imagine the film without this score. Definitely one of those soundtracks where I can picture in my head EXACTLY what is happening in the film as I listen to each track. |
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| Howlin' Wolf | CONGRATULATIONS F. Sean! You are the winner for this installment - Thank you for adding to 13 CHILLS! We will be emailing you to get shipping info. Thank you to everyone for contributing to this series and for sharing our enthusiasm for film scores. |
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| David Kessler | Ravenous is one of the top highlights during the last 15 years and to think this was a problem movie is hard to understand. Why I love it so much is mainly because of the music which nailed it absolutely right here. Great acting and direction is also something I would point out, but Calquon´s Story and Trek to the Cave are tracks that are amazing and you sense the danger to come along with the music. Ravenous should have won or at least been nominated for an Oscar i.m.o. |
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