DVD Review
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EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION September
2000
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Angela's Ashes
starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlisle
Directed by Alan Parker
COLUMBIA TRISTAR Home Video
[140
minutes approx.]
Amazon
UK
Amazon
US
"When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I managed to survive
at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is
hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the
miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish catholic
childhood."
Back in February this year Film Music on the Web reviewed John
Williams's score for this film. It was my Editor's Choice that month. I gave
it a five star rating (so too did Gary S.Dalkin while Jeffrey Wheeler awarded
it four and a half stars). I hastened to see the film having enjoyed the
Frank McCourt novel (also reviewed on this site.) Now the
DVD permits repeated viewings and a real chance to assess
the John Williams score.
And how well it fits the brave despair of the McCourts. The lovely elegiac
main theme speaks of compassion and even hope of a kind despite the bleakness
of their lives. This theme is pared down, so affectingly, to a solo piano
at moments of deepest melancholy and sadness especially near the beginning
when Angela looses first her baby girl, barely hours old; and then her twin
infant boys fallen prey to the damp of the Limerick slums. Then further on,
the cello takes up the mood of loss when Frank looses his first love to the
consumption. "I felt a hurt in my heart such that I hoped I would never feel
again." The moments of comedy, and, of course there are many, have muted
accompaniments or none at all or have source music such as 'The Dipsy Doodle'.
The most elated, most optimistic music is reserved fittingly for the end
where Frank sails back into New York to a new life.
The features disappoint, as far as this site's interests are concerned, in
that there is not a single mention of the music. However, this need not deter
buyers because the by now almost obligatory documentary on the making of
the film is fascinating with intelligent comment from the stars and director
Alan Parker. He reveals how he found the three young actors who played the
youthful McCourt so well and how he had to reconstruct the Limerick slums
long since disappeared (thanks to EEC funding Ireland is now booming). Best
of all is the contribution of Frank McCourt himself who visited the film
set and was moved to say that he really felt he was revisiting his childhood.
Ian Lace
Apart from the omission of any mention of John Williams and his music in
the features -
