There Will be Blood

[David Coscina 3]

Just listened to Greenwood's score a few times through and frankly, it's inspired. This kind of uncompromising adherence to an overall narrative aesthetic gives me hope for the future of filmmaking in artistic terms in Hollywood. PT Anderson showed a lot of balls in marrying this style of overt modernistic string writing that you'd expect in films like The Shining or The Exorcist and putting it in a period film about an oil tycoon. Bravo Mr. Anderson for telling producers and focus groups alike to F*** themselves.

As for Greenwood, it's obvious he's conservatory trained as the Trevor Rabin's and other rock rejects of the world that have found their way into film scoring as part of their retirement plan wouldn't have a clue as to how to notate this stuff much less think of composing it. this is one case where a former rocker should at least get some kind of recognition for having the balls to write something that's nor necessarily going to go down real well with sensitive audience ears.

The last time I heard something this daring was Alien3 by Elliot Goldenthal.

[mahler3 353]

Had a listen to it too over the weekend, there are some excellent moments within the first couple of tracks but as a whole I was unimpressed, infact some of it was just unlistenable where as Goldenthal's Alien 3 was very listenable.

I'm a huge PT Anderson fan, so i'm really looking forward to seeing the movie. The score may grow on me as is often the case after seeing them both combined.

[Morlock 9]

Already ordered it. I generally like the music in Anderson's films (Magnolia in particular).

[QMM 4]

I'm really pissed he didn't use Jon Brion again (but he did this because he changed his whole crew) and the clips I've listened to are definately interesting, but I'd love to have heard what Brion would have done.

[David Coscina 3]

Already ordered it. I generally like the music in Anderson's films (Magnolia in particular).

um. it's nothing like Jon Brion's whimsical and melodic Punch Drunk Love nor is it steeped in the minimalist consonance of Magnolia. It is a very compelling listening experience however. It's like being inside the mind of Daniel Day Louis' character. A descent into madness is what it sounds like. And it's clear from the previews that his character is more than a little misanthropic. A fascinating musical portrait of a driven man.

The sound or style is very formal BTW. Contemporary concert pieces is what most of the tracks sound like rather than film scores. They have that emotional objectivity to the pieces rather than an emphasis on visercal manipulation.

[Morlock 9]

BTW, EW has an interview with Anderson and Greenwood about the score.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20155516_2...0158721,00.html