DVD Review
| **************************************************************
EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION September
2000
************************************************************** |
Sleepy Hollow. starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci
Pathé/20th
Century Fox Home Entertainment P8986DVD [105 mins]
Special Features include two documentaries (42 mins total) on the making
of the film including a short commentary by Dany Elfman on his music
Amazon
UK
Amazon
US
Regular visitors to this site will recall that our reviewers' panel voted
that Danny Elfman's Sleepy Hollow score should receive Film
Music on the Web's Award as 1999's Best Original Score. Now the film
is out on DVD. Repeated viewing allows the opportunity to observe how well
the score supports the film, enhancing the brooding, mist-laden atmosphere
of the haunted Western Woods and the story's terror and black comedy. Rather
than repeat ourselves, we append below the original soundtrack album review
we published on this site.
The features offer a very interesting insight into the production of the
film: director, Tim Burton's and his actors' comments, locations, set design,
and special effects, especially the elaborate windmill construction and Depp's
(no horseman he) realistic-looking mechanical horse.
From the point of view of Film Music on the Web, there is a brief
section - too brief - dealing with Danny Elfman's
music. Red-headed Elfman, comments to camera: "One of the nice
things about working for Tim is that he never really talks in musical terms
he always talks in terms of how something makes you feel." "…The power
of a horror movies is that it hits you on an emotional level," agrees Burton.
Elfman continues, "… the surreal quality of the landscape…dictated
so much, as it often does in Tim's stories. I knew early on it was going
to be "heavy", the shoot was going to be fun; and that I would have some
fun with a lot of "low stuff". The scene where the horseman breaks into the
family's house is quite chilling and the music had therefore to be really
intense." The music recording sessions are shown and we get a glimpse of
the huge orchestra that Elfman has employed for his thrilling, creepy score.
A very good package
Ian Lace
