Even
before the release, there was a lot of enthusiastic comments about this
score from veteran Jerry
Goldsmith on the web, which, many of them, I read with a wondering
feeling. It seemed to be a consensus that the first half of the CD was
definitely average, whereas the second half would be his best action score
in years, comparing to Executive Decision and U. S. Marshals,
films with the same director of Star
Trek: Nemesis. There was the
official label release too, not saving compliments to Jerry’s work, rated
as “Goldsmith’s greatest score for Star Trek since Star Trek: the Motion Picture”, “Star Trek’s most aggressive score”, “more epic than anything
the legendary composer had ever written” etc.
Only
after sometime was I to reason about it, and came to the conclusion that
much of it, or nearly all that was being written about it was embedded with
strongly emotional contents, due to reports, months earlier, that the
composer was under chemotherapeutic treatment for prostate cancer. As
someone said, "we should be thankful that the “old man”, even being
ill, is still willing to compose and conduct the orchestra"...
However, I believe Goldsmith, despite his illness and some recent weak
pieces of work, has built an amazing opus that will certainly assure him in
the future to be considered as one of the best score composers ever.
Definitely, he does not need patronizing, as he is still at work, even
having been acclaimed by the orchestra musicians, and his work is on screen
at movie theaters and in our CD players to be enjoyed. Thus, I was careful
enough to listen to the Nemesis
CD many times in order to evaluate it fairly. So, I will be frank: contrary
to what has been broadly said then by Varèse Sarabande in their
advertising, Goldsmith has composed many and many scores better than this,
and his opus is full of more aggressive and epic pieces of work.
This
score’s main feature is to sound, at a first listening, definitely
environmental and gloomy, but also based in a not so inspired reutilization
of some of the maestro’s themes already heard in previous films of the
franchise. As an aggravating circumstance, no remarkable new theme was
created, which has not occurred even in mediocre Insurrection.
The composer made an option to portrait the villain, Shinzon, and his
allies, Remans, with dark and oppressive sonorities, given by the orchestra
and an usual synthesizer base. The first CD track, “Remus”, starts with
the well known fanfare originally composed by Alexander
Courage (in a more intense performance) for the Original
Series, followed by a
military-character motif, percussive and menacing that, however, will hardly
impress the listener. While The
Motion Picture’s Klingon theme was previously used as Worf’s theme, now
he uses The Final Frontier’s
theme (first heard in “The Barrier” – and better developed in “A
Busy Man”) as the android Data and his replica B-4’s theme. As a matter
of fact, this theme had already been featured, in minor scale, in First
Contact and Insurrection. Now
in Nemesis it is featured mainly
in “My Right Arm”, “Repairs” and “A New Friend”. In “Ideals”
there is what is closest to the score’s main theme, an attractive and
nostalgic melody for oboe accompanied by strings, a variation from the motif
heard in the main titles – as if both were two sides of the same coin,
Good and Evil, Picard and Shinzon – also repeated in other moments of the
score. This first half of the soundtrack is thriller music, a maestro’s
tendency lately (including the trombone glissando from The
Edge in the track “Repairs”). There’s more action in “The
Mirror”, beginning in a “bland-thriller” pattern, but soon a more
lively variation of the theme from The
Final Frontier follows, when at least louder strings, percussion, brass
and even xylophone break the apathy. In parts of this track and in “Odds
and Ends” there are traces of Goldsmith’s work in Basic
Instinct, a masterpiece that
had an influence on many later pieces of work and to which the composer
often comes back searching for inspiration. Considered by many the score’s
cream, the beginning of “The Scorpion” reminds me of one of his
best-loved action scores in the 90s, Total
Recall, with rhythmic percussion and synthesizer base. The orchestra
provides a vigorous performance, and at the end the well known theme from
The Motion Picture has a rare (and effective) rendition out of “End
Titles”, which helps concluding the track in a positive way. The beginning
of “Lateral Run” brings back the gloomy, menacing textures created by
the orchestra and synthesizers, later transformed into an aggressive action
material. It is out of dispute that it is interesting, but a bit
bureaucratic and far from “apocaliptical”, as described on the CD notes.
“Final Flight” is the composition with the most dramatic appeal, even
being a bit different from the composer’s usual pattern. It is heard in
Data’s space ride scene and in the final contend. In “A New Friend”
Data’s theme comes back in a more emotional fashion, with good use of
synthesizers, piano and violins. The score ends in “A New Ending”, when,
after a short passage of “Blue Skies”, from Irving
Berlin, there are the fanfare from Courage and Goldsmith’s theme for The
Motion Picture in slower and (why not remarking?) more epic versions.
The motif first heard in “Ideals” follows, the oboe, this time, more
substantially accompanied by the orchestra, which, being a sad melody,
results in a not so memorable ending for the score. Heard in the movie
this effect is minimized, as during the final credits parts of the
composition were replaced by the repetition of more vibrating moments of the
score, like "Final Flight".
Comprehensively,
I have tried to focus on Nemesis’
essence as played on CD. It is out of dispute the fact that it is not
wonderful as said by the label and it is no match to the anthological The
Motion Picture and even The Final
Frontier. On the other hand, it is superior to Insurrection,
which in spite of having a more memorable theme, is weak when considered as
a whole. Besides, Nemesis’
soundtrack seems to get better whenever listened to again, when some of
Goldsmith’s subtleties can be noted, which had been initially unperceived.
There is also a point left to be considered when the subject is soundtracks
in general – the way it works along with the film, which is,
speaking of that, its basic function. It is hard to admit, but there are
cases when the soundtrack is not appealing if listened to separately, but it
is extremely functional along with the film. That is, Nemesis
is the kind of soundtrack whose appropriate evaluation depends on attentive
listening to both separately in the CD and along with the film. By the way,
it is singular that the CD was released in the USA one month earlier than
the film, even more as it was public that there had been changes on
the film edition, scene cuts etc.. As a result, there are themes at the film
not included in the CD, and CD tracks out of the film´s final cut. At
last, I believe that this must be Goldsmith’s last Star
Trek score, which leaves us missing his other, indisputably excellent
and memorable scores, either in CD or on screen.
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