marked the beginning of the end for
the glory days of the great title songs that mirrored the style of the
films' underscores. For the rest of the public, the film offered a tired
and visibly aged Roger Moore in his final appearance as James Bond,
reaffirming that the franchise needed a new direction despite repeatedly
strong profit margins. The quality of the film was actually quite
decent, compensating for Moore's age and his overly dry humor with an
enticing due of villains; creep-master Christopher Walken and the always
bizarre Grace Jones (wouldn't the film had been more interesting if she
had sung the title song?) seek to destroy the San Francisco Bay Area
while using a blimp, of all outrageous getaway vehicles, for their
escape. For composer John Barry, the middle to late 1980's finished his
involvement in the franchise in strong fashion. After a melodic, rich
score for
under his belt, Barry would end his commitment to the
franchise with the remarkably entertaining score for
. Barry's discontent with producer Albert R. Broccoli over
the title song situation would begin with
,
however, and continue to be a problem through all the Brosnan films
scored by David Arnold. The blame for the recent disconnect between song
and score can be traced specifically to Duran Duran member John Taylor,
who approached Broccoli directly about writing the song for
instead of leaving the task to Barry. To the surprise of both
Taylor and Barry, Broccoli agreed. The ultimate irony in this event is
that Taylor was a huge fan of Barry's work, reciting detailed
information about Barry's writing that the composer himself had
forgotten. As such, Barry would actually be invited to be an active part
of the song's creative team, eventually arranging the segments of the
song and providing instrumental direction.
The Duran Duran song would go on to rival "Nobody Does It
Better" from
The Spy Who Loved Me
in terms of popular success. It
would reach #1 on American charts and #2 in the U.K., with the
soundtrack LP album placing in the top 100 on charts in both countries.
The sex appeal of the song at the time was far different from the
established norm of the franchise; instead of relying on melody and
romance for its allure, it sold itself as a straight rock song, complete
with somewhat dated electric guitar rips and an in-your-face snare as
the song's primary elements. Over the years, the synthetic orchestra
hits are really what date "A View to a Kill," forever stamping it with
that cheesy 80's sound. If you dig below the surface of the song,
though, you'll find why many Bond collectors can't seem to tear
themselves from it. The song makes no overt references to the Monty
Norman 007 theme, though when you hear the theme apart from Duran Duran
in the underscore, you realize that the rising and falling three note
motif in Norman's original theme is actually the basis for several
sections of the song. Barry, proving that he probably had more influence
on the song that he'd like to admit to, uses the string backing of the
title performance to insert that rising and falling motif in subtle
fashion. If the synth hits, Simon Le Bon's vocals, and the ludicrous
lyrics deter you from the title performance of the theme (which is also
reprised in shorter length for the end credits), Barry provides three
major references to the theme in his score. The most widely recognized
performances of the title theme in the score are from Susan Milan's
flute, first in a high octave in "Bond Meets Stacey" and then in a far
more seductive lower octave in "Wine with Stacey." Both cues rival some
of Barry's most romantically dramatic solo usages in the 1990's,
including
Cry, The Beloved Country
, and are, for many, the
(unfortunately short) highlights of the score. Another use of the title
theme's chorus sequence exists in bold brass as Bond rescues Stacey from
the burning San Francisco City Hall.
Also a crucial element in
A View to a Kill
is
Barry's revised action motif. He has often recycled these action themes
through the ages, using one across nearly all of Connery's original
films. One of his stronger action themes debuted in
On Her Majesty's
Secret Service
and was rearranged for use in both
A View to a
Kill
and
The Living Daylights
to great effect. Heard here in
"Snow Job," "He's Dangerous," and "Golden Gate Fight," this action theme
is not only effective in usual repetitive Barry structure, but is also
assisted by its instrumentation.
A View to a Kill
would be the
first Bond collaboration with orchestrator Nic Raine, with whom Barry
would produce some of his best scores of the latter stages of his
career. The electric guitar in the action theme for
A View to a
Kill
is tastefully used, allowing the cues to play twenty years
later without sounding considerably dated. A minor theme for the evil
Zoran's blimp (or perhaps his overall deceitful plan) is less effective,
though does feature an appropriately rising construct as the contraption
inflates. Careful listens will reveal pieces of the title song mingling
with this blimp theme as well, especially in the final fight scenes atop
the Golden Gate Bridge. The filler music is decidedly darker than in
many of Barry's previous scores, varying the tone better than most. The
ambience of the score, with the help of Raine, is more diverse, making
even the most mundane snippets of suspenseful underscore interesting at
the least. One of the more odd aspects of
A View to a Kill
,
especially considering the notes already made about the title song, is
the lack of strong presence of Norman's original franchise theme. The
only major performance of the 007 theme exists in the latter half of
"May Day Jumps," and even here, the performance is tepid and sparse.
Compared to the usage of the 007 theme in
The Living Daylights
and especially in David Arnold's more complex interpolations of the
theme, its application within
A View to a Kill
is highly
disappointing.
Throughout the history of the James Bond scores on
album, no single score has been neglected as badly as
A View to a
Kill
. Despite the phenomenal success of the LP, no commercial CD was
ever issued by EMI in America or Europe (likely due to legal reasons,
but that's just speculation). Luckily, EMI Japan was able to release an
album identical to the LP in 1991, but even this album still managed to
elude American collectors who weren't interested in forking out
significant cash for the product. In early 2003, EMI finally re-released
all of the Bond scores through
Goldeneye
for rock bottom prices
(any of them can be bought new for under $10) internationally, and many
cases, additional music was offered. The primary reason for Bond score
collectors to seek these new albums involved the remastering of the
scores from source tapes. Barry's recordings typically sound good no
matter how old they are --it's a trademark of his work-- and
A View
to a Kill
featured good sound on the original EMI release. Some have
reportedly stated that the Japanese product had audible distortion in
several cues, though. While it is muted in places, these distortions
can't be verified. The album has always sounded fine, and still does.
The 2003 remastering, however, is a completely different presentation of
the same score. The volume has been increased in every quarter and the
treble range has been accentuated so thoroughly that the snare drum in
the action sequences sounds extremely tinny. Likewise, the strings
suffer from a strained sound, with the background to many of the softer
cues offering a fair dose of tape hiss. This particularly hurts the two
flute solos. Conversely, though, the electric guitar in the action theme
is significantly clearer. Most disappointing is the continued absence of
several major cues, including one of the score's signature moments; the
bold use of the title theme in the fire sequence (a pun deliberately
played by Barry given the lyrics of the song in that section) has always
been absent from the albums, and the 2003 album does not rectify this
omission. Luckily, Nic Raine recorded a version of it for the Silva
Screen label on their "Bond Back in Action 2" collection (they title the
cue "fanfare"). Overall, the 2003 EMI release is extremely disappointing
in its unnecessary remastering and a resulting tape hiss that makes the
score so tinny in the treble region that anyone accustomed to the 1991
import will be unsatisfied. Overall, the song and score are a guilty
pleasure in the Bond franchise.
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- Music as Written for Film:
****
- 1991 EMI (Japanese) Album:
****
- 2003 Capitol (U.S.) Album:
***
- Overall:
****
| Bias Check:
|
For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is
3.85
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is
3.55
(in 27,219 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|