Soundtrack Review: Atonement by Dario Marianelli (2007)
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This is a review of the motion picture score for Atonement by Dario Marianelli.
This is part 2 of my 3 part series of Dario Marianelli scores. The score for Atonement won virtually every award this year except the BAFTA. What is it about Atonement that makes it so delicious in the eyes of reviewers and Joe Public? Is it the originality? The competition? The style? The sound? I’ll give you my view in a moment. Here is the track list of Atonement:
1. Briony
2. Robbies Note
3. Two Figures By A Fountain
4. Cee, You and Tea
5. With My Own Eyes
6. Farewell
7. Love Letters
8. The Half Killed
9. Rescue Me
10. Elegy For Dunkirk
11. Come Back
12. Denouement
13. The Cottage On The Beach
14. Atonement
15. Clair De Lune (by Debussy)
Most of the 15 tracks have a nice length to them and total play time is 50:28. Let’s get straight to the point and find out why this score is so much better than every other score last year according to the critics. First of all, it ties greatly in with the movie and the clever use of a typing machine used as a percussion instrument reinforces that perception. Second of all, it is original in a way. You can’t say there have been many scores like Atonement recently. It has a classic feel to it, and perfect timing because everyone was screaming for something “classic” sounding. People are perhaps tired of all the action scores and Media Ventures-like sounding scores coming out.
When I first listened to it, I wasn’t impressed to be honest. As silly as it sounds, this score stand and fall on the typewriter-ish theme and if the typewriter sound annoys you then you might let it affect the whole perception of the score. It feels a little too dramatic for the movie which had its moments, but it hardly got my pulse racing. This score does not feel relaxing and nice like Pride &Prejudice, but definitely more dramatic. It also has 2 parts to it, tracks 1-7 and tracks 8-15. You can really feel a change with the cue “The Half Killed” which is possibly the best cue on the album. I like that cue better than “Elegy for Dunkirk” which is also excellent. Tracks 1-7 feels a little bit like fillers, and my mind goes: “Come on, get on with it…” then track 8 comes and you feel relieved and happy you listened to this score after all. I was perhaps too harsh of this score before, but now I appreciate it. Although not as good as Pride & Prejudice, Dario Marianelli has created a special score. Listen to Atonement below:
[tags]dario marianelli, soundtrack review, movie score review, soundtrack, movie score, movie music, film score, film music, clair de lune, percussion instrument, action scores, robbies, joe public, atonement, perfect timing, denouement, bafta, love letters, dunkirk, play time, own eyes, debussy, media ventures, elegy, typewriter, originality, motion picture, reviewers[/tags]
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Comments
You’re right about that. Without the score, it wouldn’t be the same. It just goes to show how important music really is in a movie.
Yeah, this was definitely one of the most innovative movie scores of 2007. The typewriter sound tied in nicely to the plot, acting as a unifying motif throughout the film.
The typewriter is too dramatic? Oh boy…that’s a whopper of a claim. First off, on film it’s essential to the pacing of a lot of scenes, really establishing a tempo and musical presence. Second, and this is obviously a divergence of musical tastes here, I think it’s a superb percussive musical device, really giving a unique flavor and matching the racing strings in a few scenes. It’s never overbearing…it certainly reaches louder crescendos in “Briony” and “Come Back”, but it never becomes grating.
As for the rest of the score, it’s one of the most heartbreakingly romantic scores ever produced. Tracks 1-7 are not fillers to me…they break out superb thematic development and really set the tone for things to come. Note the development of Briony’s theme, which starts out with lots of whimsy in “Briony” and by “Farewell” has become dark and menacing. The string work here is superb, both racing and pulling, but mostly lower and dark. Though it leads us down a sad road, it’s still beautiful stuff.
You are right that the second half is where this material soars. The two key pieces you mentioned are the obvious highlights. The Half Killed show us a side of Marianelli we didn’t think we’d see hear: dark brassed-up action. But Elegy for Dunkirk outshines it, whipping out the agonizing theme for loss into a slow build, and once the choir enters, well…you’re just at a loss. And yet so many reviews and people have left out the grand finale, “Atonement”, which throws out Briony’s theme in a new fashion, one that seems somber and slower to reflect the end of the journey of our protagonist, and then really tugs at the heart with the theme of loss getting the whole power of the strings behind it. It’s a stunning work, the kind of film score that elevates the images in front of it, and the kind that sticks with you after the first listen. 5/5
It’s all about opinions. Either you like it or you don’t. The typewriter works well in the movie, but I wouldn’t have cried if it wasn’t there either. Neither the movie or score felt very romantic to me, but again it’s all about taste. I think that whether we like the movie or not has a lot of bearing when it comes to the score, but there are always exceptions. For a top romantic score, listen to Aaron Zigman’s The Notebook. Truly great, but not as great as the movie itself.
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Interestingly, I knew from the trailer that this was going to be an amazing score. Hearing it again is really haunting. It wouldn’t have been the same movie without it. Not even close.
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