Search - John Powell :: The Bourne Supremacy [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Bourne Supremacy Scores over Bourne Identity

NYC Music Lover | New Rochelle, NY USA | 09/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been playing the soundtrack from The Bourne Supremacy (TBS) over and over and I am very impressedhow well this music stands on its own, as well as how well it works in the film. In fact, I believe it is vastly superior to the music for The Bourne Identity (TBI), which sounds more like sketches for TBS.



If you listen to the tracks for TBI on the CD and then see how they work in the DVD, you can hear that Powell was working with weaker material, or at least with weaker development of the original Bourne themes. It's the integration of the music with the movie sequences (e.g., Atonement) which demonstrates the superiority of how he handles his material.



Powell has a tough task, since the Bourne screenplays are not the most powerfully emotional scripts ever written. Rather, they are puzzles, into which cool reserve masks human emotion. In TBS, there really is no emotion after Marie perishes, since Bourne himself is a cipher, whose own life experiences is psychologically supressed. He wants out, but cannot get out, even as far away as Goa.



TBS is filled with grand gestures, which always seem right for the film's sequences: consider his use of strings in the To the Roof sequence, which is largely devoid of other instruments, and is especially reminiscent of pages from Shostakovich...not from his film scores, but from his 8th and 11th Symphonies. Yes, Powell uses a lot of rhythmic drive, especially in his use of percussion. However, the motoric rhythms all seem right: Bourne is a human machine who works according to his instincts, which have been synchronized perfectly due to his training.



As much as I love To the Roof and the Russian car chase scene (Smash, indeed!), it's the Goa, Atonement and Nach Deutschland sequences which are musically most poignant. Why? because they hint at the emotional life of the character which is trying to emerge -- expressions of tenderness, fear, sorrow -- but which yet stay psychologically repressed. The music is cool, yet not quite detached. Powell's use of the vibraphone is especially memorable here.



TBS is a real triumph of music craftsmanship and creativity. It is far superior to the TBI score. I highly recommend it as one of the best scores since last year's memorable Glass score for The Hours."

Brilliant tension - an overlooked gem

Donovan G. Rinker | Cambridge, MA | 06/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The old spy genre still has space for fresh visions. In Bourne, John Powell has crafted one of the most intense soundscapes ever contrived for film.



From one track to the next, the high tempo pieces move with an unrelenting pace. Yet by the end, one acclimates.



Likewise, the natural instruments mixed in with synths form a strange union, at first slightly jarring, as if the soundtrack included video game bleeps, but ultimately, a strange unity. One acclimates.



Finally - the pace, that relentless set of strings that vies with drum rhythms for your attention. Which raises the question: where is one supposed to listen to it? Too fast for helping concentrate at work/study, too slow for working out, and the exhaustive tendency of sustained tension makes listening to it while driving...well, likely to lead one to attempt film stunts.



In short: I like the sound, I've just no idea when to listen. Which fits Bourne perfectly. Contrast to that other JB-spy, whose familiar, sunny "surf music" guitar theme signals some new intrepid feat by the dapper Brit who fits in anywhere; Bourne, on the contrary, fits nowhere. His theme may signal some feat, or some tragedy, or simply the endless tension.



Yet somehow, Powell strikes a fittingly tragic air - a synthetic tragedy, to be sure, like everything else about Bourne. Should our hero escape some new threat, will anyone care? Not likely. But he struggles anyway. The soundtrack treads tenderly on such bleakness, and as such, reflects what soul Bourne retains.



Don't miss this gem: overlooked almost everywhere, not generally useful for passive listening, yet deep and powerful. Perhaps the ideal soundtrack for a power walk."