Nixon

[MrScratch 294]

I dusted off Nixon over the weekend and listened to it for the first time since, I think, before the millenium. Beforehand all I remembered about it was "The 1960s Turbulent Years" track and the nostalgic lost innocence of "Growing Up In Whittier". Listening to it this past weekend I found it to be an enjoyable dark brooding score with more standout tracks than I originally though. What struck me though is that I cannot picture how this works in the film. I just don't visualize a political biopic with this music. This music for Nixon sometimes sounds like it could have come from the Star Wars prequels.

I've never seen the movie, I'm not a fan of Oliver Stone and I have no intention of sitting through three hours of Sir Anthony pretending to be Tricky Dick. But I am curious, for those that have seen it, does it work in the film? And what does everyone think of this score in general? It seems to me you could mix it in with Star Wars prequel music and it would blend right in.

When I gave it a listen the other day, I did so merely because I felt obligated to after having owned it for so long, but I actually rather enjoyed it and will give a spin a couple more times before letting it collect some more dust.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The short answer:

Very well!

[Maestro 147]

It works wonderfully in a wonderful film. Sir Anthony is probably the finest actor in existence, and this portrayal is fascinating.

[QMM 4]

Score was probably the best part of the movie for me. Having watched it recently I remember the music that comes up when we first see the White House; incredibly dark stuff.

[Vaderbait1 1]

The movie is incredibly scatterbrained and uninteresting, but the music is amazing.

[TownerFan 4,983]

I saw the film just once many years ago, so I can't remember it very well. However, the score works quite well in the film, it's a more traditional approach than JFK (in which the music was conceived almost as library cues for a documentary piece) and there are several interesting pieces like "The Meeting with Mao", in which the music takes almost an operatic overtone. The music gives a very brooding, morose tone to the film. It's probably one of Williams' darkest scores.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

I haven't seen the movie in a long time, but my memory of it is that the score is terrific in the movie. Part of me wishes Williams had worked with Stone more regularly; they did some fine work together.

[Morlock 11]

Music works very well in the film. Particularly the Miami Convention cue.

[A24 4,345]

This movie made me realize that I prefer Hopkins without American accent. After the sublime soundtrack of JFK, this score (and film) came as a serious disappointment to me.

[Incanus 5,715]

As others have said, the score works very well in the film. Dark, brooding but also full of sadness and regret and nostalgia. The score is very melodramatic (The White House Gate, the Miami Convention although the music is a bit dialed down in the scene) in some scenes just for the sake of high drama but it mostly glides under the dialogue to make a comment on the scene in question. A very psychologically charged character portrait score. The music has the duality of Nixon's personality, shifting from happiness and warm nostalgia to sadness and darkness with the him.

Nixon is one of my favourite JW scores of the 90's. I love the darkness and drama of the music, the psychological portrayal of such a tragic character through music. And I guess JW translates feelings of dark grandeur, regret and brooding tragedy into this type of music and the same can be heard in the SW Prequels (ROTS in particular).

[Ollie 1,059]

I don't remember too much of the film. I thought Hopkins was fairly good as Nixon.

The score is good although I prefer the other two he did for Stone. The Turbulent Years is basically Duel Of The Fates as far as structure goes. The Meeting With Mao is another solid cue.

[publicist 4,643]

After the sublime soundtrack of JFK, this score (and film) came as a serious disappointment to me.

And i found it a serious improvement, with Williams obviously scoring the tragedy of a nation instead whitewashing a historical figure with mind-blowing kitschy patriotism without any infusion of reflective cognizance, which murdered JFK for me. Even if he was scoring the myth, in connection with the hysterical conspiration by Stone stuff the movie seemed somewhat goofy.

'Nixon', on the other hand, is far less direct in it's depiction of the presidential figure...and i don't mean the Darth-Vaderish stuff, which wasn't played in the movie anyway, but all of the more reflective moments.

[MrScratch 294]

'Nixon', on the other hand, is far less direct in it's depiction of the presidential figure...and i don't mean the Darth-Vaderish stuff, which wasn't played in the movie anyway, but all of the more reflective moments.

So, the big brassy stuff isn't in the movie?

Is there a lot of music left off of the CD, or is the CD pretty much everything there is?

[Incanus 5,715]

'Nixon', on the other hand, is far less direct in it's depiction of the presidential figure...and i don't mean the Darth-Vaderish stuff, which wasn't played in the movie anyway, but all of the more reflective moments.

So, the big brassy stuff isn't in the movie?

Is there a lot of music left off of the CD, or is the CD pretty much everything there is?

The CD does not contain all the music even though the film has definitely less score than most JW efforts these days. There are few outstanding moments left off the CD. Few examples come to mind immediately. In the scene where Nixon has lost another election and is despairing over it has a wonderful sad piano theme which goes into a great nostalgic piano reading of the Whittier theme as he remembers his father. The subsequent flashback scene of Nixon and his mother, the funeral of Nixon's brother Harold receives an elegaic string theme. All low key lyrical moments.

But all the music on the CD besides The Turbulent Years (which was composed for the trailer) is featured in the film.

It is interesting that Stone and JW decided to use the snare drum tattoo from JFK theme in Nixon in the scene where JFK is seen landing on the Love Field airport. It is a clever musical choice foreshadowing his assassination and forming a kind of musical bridge from JFK to Nixon.

[A24 4,345]

JFK doesn't sound patriotic outside the main theme. And instead of patriotism, I think Williams captured the loss of hope and innocence. And with tracks like The Motorcade, The Conspirators and Arlington, it's a much more unique sounding Williams album. I don't know how you can seriously improve on that. When I first heard Nixon, I heard a third-rate Vader theme and an overall heavy-handed tone without the depth of Arlington. I admit, it's been quite a while since I've seen Nixon. It's possible that time has hardened my negative view.

Alex

[publicist 4,643]

JFK doesn't sound patriotic outside the main theme. And instead of patriotism, I think Williams captured the loss of hope and innocence. And with tracks like The Motorcade, The Conspirators and Arlington, it's a much more unique sounding Williams album. When I first heard Nixon, I heard a third-rate Vader theme and an overall heavy-handed tone without the depth of Arlington. I admit, it's been quite a while since I've seen Nixon. It's possible that time has hardened my negative view.

Alex

For my european ears, loss and hope it ain't what the crystalline trumpet solo and the following string exclamatio in the 'Prologue' offer, more like unabashed patriotism without vengeance. I'll have to confess that i find neither the 'Motorcade' nor 'The Conspirators' stirring stuff, compositionally. 'Arlington' is a nice somber piece but far from remarkable by Williams standards. He did this stuff better in later years, it least to my hearing.

No Alex, i stand by my views. JFK symbolizes Stone completely losing his balance as a responsible filmmaker and the music reflects that.

'Nixon' has moments of great fragility, as in the piano theme which accompanies Hopkins reflective speech at the end of the movie. It's miles more ambigious than anything in JFK.

[A24 4,345]

For my european ears, loss and hope it ain't what the crystalline trumpet solo and the following string exclamatio in the 'Prologue' offer,

To these European ears, the sadness for innocence gone is quite apparent.

'Arlington' is a nice somber piece but far from remarkable by Williams standards. He did this stuff better in later years, it least to my hearing.

Wow, then there's really something wrong with your ears. Arlington is musically and emotionally one of Williams' most powerful efforts. A career highlight. He didn't even do this stuff in his later years. I wouldn't be surprised if Williams can't figure out the harmonies anymore.

And how you are able to miss the brilliance of The Conspirators is beyond me. The track has since then been copied to death. It was even used for a dance act at the Oscars, for crying out loud!!

'Nixon' has moments of great fragility, 'Nixon' has moments of great fragility, as in the piano theme which accompanies Hopkins reflective speech at the end of the movie.

JFK is nothing but fragility.

[publicist 4,643]

Wow, then there's really something wrong with your ears. Arlington is musically and emotionally one of Williams' most powerful efforts. He didn't even do this stuff in his later years.

I find it too simple, somehow. It pushes all the right buttons in the film, but as pure music, i much prefer the adagios he cooked up after 'Angela's Ashes'. But neither 'Nixon' nor 'JFK' are the most thankful assignments for a composer. In both cases the music was pretty much hacked up and while i prefer the more ambigious soundscapes of 'Nixon', neither of these scores has anything approaching the stylistic uniqueness it takes to really 'form' those overlong movies with their cluttered structure.

Is there any president left Stone wants to take apart?

And how you are able to miss the brilliance of The Conspirators is beyond me. The track has since then been copied to death. It was even used for a dance act at the Oscars, for crying out loud!!!

It's functional suspense music with a beat...as gazillions of trailers thankfully will attest. Just no music i'd like to listen to privately.

[Ollie 1,059]

Is there any president left Stone wants to take apart?

Well he is currently filming a movie about our current President.

[A24 4,345]

Wow, then there's really something wrong with your ears. Arlington is musically and emotionally one of Williams' most powerful efforts. He didn't even do this stuff in his later years.

I find it too simple, somehow. It pushes all the right buttons in the film, but as pure music, i much prefer the adagios he cooked up after 'Angela's Ashes'.

Too simple???

Which agagios "after Angela's Ashes" do you mean, then?

I gotta ask this, you're not a musician, right? I don't think Williams ever wrote a more complex adagio than Arlington. It's no longer film music, it's a concert piece.

It's functional suspense music with a beat...as gazillions of trailers thankfully will attest.

Thanks to Williams, who composed it.

[Incanus 5,715]

In all fairness Williams' JFK as a collaboration is a different one from Nixon. In JFK Williams composed music for a film he hadn't even seen for the most part, based almost purely on the script and from what Stone required and what the JFK era evoked in him. Apparently Williams was very moved personally by Kennedy's death (one of the few times he has cried in his adult life, according to him) and responded with a very patriotic theme that reflects the general attitude and air of the era with all its hope and bright future, not white washing Kennedy or personifying him with the music as some heroic monolithic saviour. Yes the film is biased (which film isn't?) but it also asks pertinent questions about the society we live in. At least it makes you think (I hope) and not just watch crazily out for conspiracies around you.

Stone used these suites and themes Williams wrote in a very free manner editing his music into tiny bits although paying attention to the overall thematics Williams had set down. And it is amazing that it still works very well in the movie. And JFK is not a character portrait but a murder mystery at its very core.

Williams' music is playing mostly on the suspence of clues coming together and the conspiracy, not on building a psychological picture of Kennedy or the characters of the film. The music may mourn for the injustice of what happened to a president but it does so with dignity.

Nixon on the other hand is a character portrait (in film and in music) and it is painted in very dark hues by Stone and Williams. Williams goes for both melodramatic and subtle in his score which is gothic and brooding and for the duality of the character. The public Nixon and the private Nixon, the good Nixon and the corrupted Nixon. The less montage like presentation and the working conditions of Nixon were ultimately more typical for a film composer and offered JW an opporturnity to treat each scene with more individual detail and thought that in JFK. The film is very much Stone's homage to Citizen Kane who like Nixon is a man of great promise but who is undone by his unending need to be loved and accepted and to be in control. Just look at the White House Gate scene and say you can't see the gates of Xanadu in it. Williams relishes in an opporturnity to write such dramatic music for a complex character. All the themes originate from Nixon's character, everything is seen from his point of view musically. So it is a very different score in purpose and in nature.

I admire both scores greatly (in and outside the film) and consider them to be some of the best music JW has written.

[Morlock 11]

For my european ears, loss and hope it ain't what the crystalline trumpet solo and the following string exclamatio in the 'Prologue' offer,

To these European ears, the sadness for innocence gone is quite apparent.

'Arlington' is a nice somber piece but far from remarkable by Williams standards. He did this stuff better in later years, it least to my hearing.

Wow, then there's really something wrong with your ears. Arlington is musically and emotionally one of Williams' most powerful efforts. A career highlight. He didn't even do this stuff in his later years. I wouldn't be surprised if Williams can't figure out the harmonies anymore.

And how you are able to miss the brilliance of The Conspirators is beyond me. The track has since then been copied to death. It was even used for a dance act at the Oscars, for crying out loud!!

'Nixon' has moments of great fragility, 'Nixon' has moments of great fragility, as in the piano theme which accompanies Hopkins reflective speech at the end of the movie.

JFK is nothing but fragility.

I am with Alex on this one, 100%. JFK strikes me as one of the purest scores JW wrote. There's so much heart behind every idea in the score. JFK's theme is not patriotism...it's hope. Pure hope. And that in itself is tragic, knowing what happened to that hope. How cruelly it was destroyed. And the destruction is present as well, in 'The Motorecade'. The orchestra is screaming out at the injustice of what's going on. Trying to get us to pay attention with it's cacophany. 'The Conspirators' is more functional than the reast of the heart-bearing of the score....but that piece, along with the 2 note motif Williams extrapolates and places elsewhere in the score, captures the conspiracy, the fact that we were lied to, and that we're still being lied to......

This score brings something out in me, and while I hesitate to attribute my own feelings to Williams...it is no conicidence that he wrote most of the score before seeing the film. As Stone says in his commentary, Williams just had a thing in his heart for Kennedy, and he poured it out here.

Nixon is more functional a score. Yet it still holds great power. Particularly it's two biggest themes, the innocense theme and the purpolsive 'Turbulent Years' theme. While it does bear resemblance to some of Williams more colorful 'evil' themes, I think it lives up to it's name, depicting the fragility of the nation at the time. The Wittihier (SP) theme beautifully captured the portrait (surprisingly compassionate) Stone tried to paint, of potential, of humanity.

All three of JW's scores for Stone are unique in his ouvre, and IMO show JW at his most impassioned.

[A24 4,345]

Yes, and I must stress, John Williams has never expressed "dispair" as well as in Arlington, his Violion Concerto not counting, of course.

I just listened to Nixon again, and this is weird, most of the score would perfectly fit a film like Batman Begins. There's a dark comic book feel to it. Just put in on and try it for yourself. Why not use the trailer of The Dark Knight?

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

The Turbulent Years is basically Duel Of The Fates as far as structure goes.

I would say Battle of the Heroes

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Imperial March.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Imperial March.

Correct!

[Joe Brausam 214]

I personally love Nixon and JFK, I think they are both amazing efforts. Arlington is absolutely mind blowing for me, I've been trying to convince my college's string orchestra to perform it for the past two years but I am only ever met with complaints about it being "too hard". You're music majors, get over it.

BOTFOJ is what really does it for me though, it's probably my favorite score of all time. It has never grown old to me and has never lost its emotional impact.