Customer Reviews

The Happening [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Someone wrote in a soundtrack forum once, "Shyamalan's movies have become increasingly bad while Howard's music has become increasingly better." Well, it went something like that.

After seeing the gross Red Band trailer for The Happening, I was wondering what JNH was composing for such a dark, bloody, gory movie. Safe to say, he sticked to what he's done for past Shyamalan films: conveying emotion. James Newton Howard (JNH) downplays the horrors of this film by scoring to the human emotion rather than the unseen, frightening element. That doesn't mean he doesn't underscore the scary moments. You'll find his signature orchestral clusters aplenty here.

The highlights of the album are the cello solos by Maya Beiser, and what I term "the plague" theme. (The "plague" being the thing that attacks people. I don't know what else to call it since the film is yet to come out as of this writing.) "The plague march" (listen on CENTRAL PARK and MRS. JONES) is much like the monster themes of old when the creature or unseen assailant would creep upon the victim before striking. This theme took me back to another great monster theme: "Cloverfield" by Michael Giacchino. The "Main Titles" gives a great intro to the score as its comprised of the major themes of the score. And of course my favorite track has to be "End Title Suite."

My complaint for recent JNH releases for Shyamalan films has been the short running time on the album. This score release from Varese Sarabande is nearly 50 minutes long making it perhaps the longest release for a Shyamalan film. The film is reportedly 90 minutes long so I'm sure we get a near full representation of the score as it will be heard on film.

Haunting. Original. Beautiful. And spooky. This is JNH doing what he does best! Just don't compare it to Lady in the Water. Apples and Oranges.

Since Amazon doesn't have the track listing up yet, here it is:

1. Main Titles (2:18)
2. Evacuating Philadelphia (2:21)
3. Vice Principal (1:56)
4. Central Park (2:58)
5. We Lost Contact (:59)
6. You Can't Just Leave Us Here (1:43)
7. Rittenhouse Square (1:59)
8. Five Miles Back (1:13)
9. Princeton (3:06)
10. Jess Comforts Elliot (2:31)
11. My Firearm Is My Friend (2:59)
12. Abandoned House (1:32)
13. Shotgun (4:27)
14. You Eyin' My Lemon Drink? (4:28)
15. Mrs. Jones (1:44)
16. Voices (1:36)
17. Be With You (3:41)
18. End Title Suite (8:36)
TOTAL: 49:59

Also check out
Signs
The Village

After seeing M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening", I was overall very pleased. The film definitely had a strong Hitchcock feel to it, and the best part was that the "scary" scenes never took place at night. Sure, some of it was disturbing, but it was a realm that Shyamalan had to try - and he did excellently with it. However, the movie wouldn't have been half as good without James Newton Howard's score. Three of the tracks stand out especially in my mind.
The main titles appeared against a background of time-lapse white cloud against bright blue sky, which grew steadily darker - very unexpected, much like the titles of "Signs." Howard's music for this was brilliantly done, and made it all the more unsettling. The theme for "Central Park" made it so the graphic suicides weren't scary, but bizarre and unnerving. Then, there's "Be With You", a tragic and emotional aspect to the score - Elliott (Mark Wahlberg) says that if they're going to die, he wants to be with his wife. The music as they walk out through the wind to each other was a defined climax and most definitely the strongest point in both the film and the score. Second to that is "Jess Comforts Elliott", where Elliot loses it in realization that Jess's father is dead.
The score for this movie is fantastic.

Wonderful score: i have not seen the movie yet but looking forward to the release. However the music by Howard stands tall in its own right. The choice of Maya Beiser the phenomenal cellist made this beautiful, heart breaking score even more sublime. What a wonderful collaboration between a great composer and a super gifted cellist. a must listen!!

The soundtrack to "The Happening" is excellent! Another excellent M. Night Shyamalan and James Newton Howard collaboration. This is an excellent score from Howard. All of the tracks are excellent.

Track Listing
1. Main Titles
2. Evacuating Philadelphia
3. Vice Principal
4. Central Park
5. We Lost Contact
6. You Can't Just Leave Us Here
7. Rittenhouse Square
8. Five Miles Back
9. Princeton
10. Jess Comforts Elliot
11. My Firearm Is My Friend
12. Abandoned House
13. Shotgun
14. You Eyin' My Lemon Drink?
15. Mrs. Jones
16. Voices
17. Be With You
18. End Title Suite

This score has very great music. The title of this review refers to the fact that James Newton Howard has once agian made an astounding score. Sadly,people too often associate the movie with the score interchangeably so that their opinion of the movie reflects the score and vice versa. This review will focus solely on the music in the soundtrack. Howard uses a lot of cello, and the piano plays the eerie, scary theme that is only six repetitive notes. Yes, it can be repetitive, but this score still has many great songs. "Be With You" is a very emotional song with the cello and the piano meeting together to make an eerie, yet peaceful and quiet song, while "Princeton", "Mrs. Jones", and "My Firearm Is My Friend" all display the more aggressive, creepy side of the film with sudden mood changes and fast paced music compared to the other songs. "Main Titles" is a good opening piece that uses the cello extremely well. With songs like "Be With You" and "Main Titles", Howard will make a great deal of money off of this film score. While not Howard's greatest, this one still does a marvelous job of using strings and piano to make music that is appropriate for the movie, but most importantly, still fun to listen to. I recommend this score and give it five stars for its great variety and well written songs.

James Newton Howard is the perfect composer for M. Night Shyamalan's films, even when he doesn't do anything completely original. His scores for these films are always effective, but sometimes a little harder to sit through when you're listening to the CD. All in all, it's good stuff for the committed fan.

As always, James Newton Howard is back scoring Shyamalan's latest flick, and once again, he's hit the nail right on the head. Not only is the music enjoyable to listen to, but as it walks side-by-side with the film, it adds an entirely different dimension to Shyamalan's visuals.

Howard establishes a sort of main theme in the opening track, which is then repeated beautifully throughout the rest of the score in a variety of different styles, moods and sounds. As the soundtrack closes, it strengthens, concluding in the sweeping and emotional 'Be With You,' my favorite song on the CD, and then the end titles.

Eerily beautiful, and beautifully eery...'The Happening' is a worthy addition to any score-collectors collection.

This soundtrack, while the theme was great, didn't really stand out for me. I found all the tracks to be very similar. Dramatic but quiet. As with the movie I guess.

Howard's score for The Happening is similar to his other works, especially those where he teamed up with M. Night Shyamalan. He composed music for The Village, Signs, and The Lady in the Water. Most of the album is quiet and hard to hear without the experience of the film to back it up. When listening to it, it's hard to know when one track ends and another begins. Most of the album seems to be one long track of quiet music. "Mrs. Jones" and the "End Title Suite" are the highlights of the album, but overall it's good, albeit, quiet stuff.

James Newton Howard is one of the premiere composers in the film industry, most recently scoring I Am Legend and Shrek the Third.