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Artwork copyright (c) 2004 Twentieth
Century Fox Film Corporation; review copyright (c)
2004 James Southall
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PAPARAZZI Intense,
dramatic score shows Tyler's darker side A review by JAMES SOUTHALL It's deeply ironic that people's natural reaction to seeing
people of even the vaguest fame being relentlessly pursued by merciless
photographers is one of disgust - "fancy invading their lives like
that!" - "can't they leave these poor people alone?" - "why
kind of people would do this anyway?" Well, if that's how you feel
then don't buy the newspapers and magazines featuring the pictures, you
fools. Why in God's name would anyone want to buy a magazine because it
promises to show you "the beautiful home of TV's Donna Blenkinsop"
anyway? Still, people buy them in their hundreds of thousands and then
whinge and moan because the poor "celebrities" who get paid more for a
day's work than most people get paid in a year, and who actively court
publicity, then complain about invasion of privacy, yada yada yada. Go and
wipe the tables in McDonald's for 50 hours a week, you naive tosser, find out
how real people live before saying how awful your own multimillion dollar life
is. OK, that's that out of the way. Paparazzi is about such
people, only taken to (doubtless Princess Diana-inspired) extremes, with the
photographers actually causing serious injuries to members of one famous
celebrity's family. I don't know whether it was director Paul Abascal or composer
Brian Tyler who decided to musically represent the paparazzi as if they were a
plague of insects, but it was truly an inspired idea. I must admit that
when I first read of the idea I expected to hear Tyler coming up with some
Bernard Herrmann-style brass clusters, but that's not the approach he took at
all, instead relying on fast-paced string lines and buzzing woodwind to achieve
the effect. And it works a treat. Elsewhere Tyler serves up something of a more mixed bag,
featuring some action music which is typical of him (though arguably lacks the
flair that he has demonstrated in some of his other works). Sometimes it
seems better-constructed than others, but even when it isn't quite so dynamic,
Tyler impressively creates an oppressive, almost aggressively dark atmosphere
which is absolutely perfect for the points the movie is trying to make.
The composer is never short of a stylish trick or two to pull out of his sleeve
either, and some of his orchestral effects are rather impressive, and elsewhere
there is suspense music written the way it should be, ie as actual music rather
than just droning strings and the like that seems to be served up all too often
these days. With a lovely, emotional theme rearing its head (very)
occasionally as well ("Aftermath" being the prime example) and a
one-off bit of frenzied techno action ("Celebrity Life"), this score
certainly has much to offer. As I said earlier, Tyler works very hard at
achieving and sustaining a mood, and he does it well, but I still have to say
that at an hour the album is much too long. With 15 or 20 minutes shaved
off it would surely make considerably more impact on disc - but then, I get more
emails telling me I'm brain dead because I think some albums should be shorter
than I do about everything else put together (well, except for people offering
me such attractive propositions as fake Rolex watches, valium, viagra and tight
Russian sluts - if I would only part with my credit card details). God
knows what reaction I'd get if I said I thought most modern scores aren't worth
releasing at all! Still, you pays your money, you takes your choice and
there's enough quality here to satisfy Tyler's fans, I'm sure, even though the
temptation to skip past a few tracks may prove irresistible to everyone else. Buy
this CD from amazon.com by clicking here! Tracks |