Straight Into Darkness (2004): The Film

When the soundtrack CD for this film was released, some folk on the internet expressed surprise that Michael Convertino was now scoring videogames. The cover – and title – certainly gave that impression. And this poster art is also seen on the American DVD. Not only is it a bad idea to have a film look like it belongs on an X-Box, but with skeleton-faced cartoon soldiers and evil spirits in the sky, it’s a genuine contender for worst poster in years. In many ways, the film itself can’t recover from it. You can’t, of course, judge a film by its poster. But the problem here is that the film is highly confused about what it wants to be, so having such a misleading poster starts it on a wrong foot that the film can never shake off.

You can also glean all kinds of insights by reading the back of the DVD box. I’m sure they were written by a ‘major element’ of the production itself. From the USA DVD: ‘With the perfect combination of horror and action... a haunting and powerful war film that is unforgettable.’ Hmmm... we’ll be the judge of that. From the UK DVD: ‘On a deeper level, a whirlwind of feelings will overcome you... as it propels the psychological make-up of the soldier’s characters and forces them on.’ Holy cow. I’m not sure what film deserves such a write-up, but needless to say it isn’t this one. I found a review online that was very similar to this kinda thing too. I’m just saying.

Anyway, having said that, I feel awful saying a single negative thing about it. It’s clear that a lot of love and dedication went into this. But you can say all that about Glen or Glenda. Oh, it’s not that bad, but there’s definitely a whiff of Edward D. Wood Jnr about the whole enterprise and the subsequent promotion as some kind of emotional powerhouse. And, like an Ed Wood film, it has been blatantly edited to paper the cracks with quick nonsensical cuts, etc. Stunts, death scenes, etc, look awful. Even a $200 million blockbuster will skimp on the occasional special effect and hide it behind some clever editing. Here it’s totally cackhanded. The budget has been badly handled with certain things which would help it on video shelves (flamethrowers, David Warner) being utilised at the expense of getting some very basic shots. Another Ed Wood-esque element.

Anyway... what’s it about? A World War II film, with Thin Red Line flashbacks and some ‘horrific’ imagery that, taken together, are just confusing. Is the soldier remembering his past or the past of the dead? How does this tie in with the poster? It all leads to two American soldiers being holed up in a building with a bunch of orphans. The twist... Nazis want to break into the building as there are art treasures there. Hmmm... sounds like the script needed plenty of more work. Especially as the looting Nazis blast the building with tanks which would either a) destroy the art or b) seal up the access. Which sadly makes a complete joke of the entire enterprise. One of the leads is even killed by tank fire whilst standing right in front of said building (in a really bad bit of editing – they didn’t shoot the thing properly). Did no one think to just pick up a gun instead? For Picasso’s sake?

Performances are forgettable. Yes, the lead has a thousand yard stare, but it all feels like amateur dramatics and never really the work of proper actors. You have death scenes that are straight out of the A-Team, a script that needed much more work (or, perhaps, a proper writer), and something that is never more than a contrived emotional experience. There’s a misguided notion that making films on a big subject (the horror of war or dead orphans, let’s say), means the film is automatically of merit. You can see this in action most obviously in first films from actors turned directors desperate to show they’re serious. I couldn’t believe when I read Edward Norton was making his debut on a comedy about religion (Keeping The Faith). Didn’t he know the rules of the game? The film was a load of old balls though and he didn’t direct again, so maybe the likes of Robert Redford and Angelina Jolie were right all along. Jolie has just made her debut about the war in Sarajevo. More specifically a rape victim in that scenario. Talk about covering the bases.

The DVD

There is an hour long documentary on the USA DVD, which is quite exhaustive. Writer / Director Jeff Burr’s life and career are explored and it broke down like this: he is a jobbing director, making sometimes awful horror sequels. Then his dad died which a) made him think about what he was doing with himself and b) meant he had a bit of spare cash. Sadly (in my opinion), all this passion and money was misdirected into a project which had ideas way above its station. If I’m right though, it’s clear that everyone in the production team think they were involved in Citizen Kane (as did Ed Wood’s posse). I admired their love for the project. And so wished it was a better film than it was. 

Burr looks significantly older on the post-film interviews than he does on the location footage. From the commentary, it turns out that there was almost 5 years between principal photography and the DVD release. And sadly the documentary jumps from principal photography straight to the film opening, bypassing editing and scoring. Convertino doesn’t appear and isn’t mentioned, although his score looms large over the entire documentary.

The commentary makes it clear that James LeGros was cast as the soldier killed early on so that the audience would think ‘If they can kill the lead, they can do anything’, a la Janet Leigh’s early exit in Psycho. Well, just to add my own viewing experience to the mix – as LeGros was the famous face on a film which had undead soldiers on the poster, I assumed he’d be back as a Zombie. The marketing, not for the only time, made this viewing experience a lot worse than it could have been (and it was already way up against it).

The commentary does include a hilarious anecdote about Burr trying to cast someone in the David Warner role without realising the actor had passed away. The actor’s own agent didn’t know either!

From about 1hr5min on in the commentary, talk turns to the score for a few minutes. The director claims everyone wanted to score it who saw the final cut, but they went for Convertino (described as ‘kinda strange... in a good way’) and that Convertino was screened Sorcerer and Aguirre, Wrath of God to indicate what kind of score he was looking for. Burr also mentions Mark Isham as being atop his wish list, and his admiration for Cliff Martinez’s spectacular score to Soderbergh’s decidedly unspectacular Solaris remake.

A short film Burr made as a kid is also included. It underlines everything else – he’s a passionate guy who loves film. But to be in the Hollywood game properly, he’s going to need to work with a script that matches his passion (written by a genuine screenwriter perhaps), and with a First Assistant Director who wont let him faff around with effects without getting the basic dramatic shots. These are the very basics.

At the end of the commentary, Burr describes the film as ‘a noble failure’ and that he didn’t achieve what he wanted to emotionally. It generates an awkward silence from his producers, like the mass hypnosis has suddenly been broken. Then again, Burr actually signs the film at the end of the credits – we’re told he only does this with his, erm, ‘proper’ films - like it belongs in the Louvre. Where are those tanks?

Wake Wood (2011): The Score

Wake Wood is the one solitary score Michael Convertino has been credited with since 2004. As everything about the man is a mystery, the reasons for his disappearance and reappearance are completely unknown. It’s true that he had worked before with the director (on The Last of the High Kings in 1996), but that was a long time ago and the project hadn’t been the scene of a major Convertino score. And it’s also true that his main collaborators that may have tempted him back have been just as quiet recently. Randa Haines is all but retired from the big screen and Alan Mindell, Convertino’s most frequent hirer of late, hasn’t made a squeek since Milwaukee, Minnesota in 2003. Based on announcements made on release of We Don’t Live Here Anymore, Convertino had a photography exhibit and was planning to direct. Maybe with his sights elsewhere, he didn’t have the time to devote to scoring any more and was perhaps financially secure.

But offered a job in Wake Wood he was, and come back he did. Based on details online, it appears the film may have been complete (with / without score?) as early as 2009, but wasn’t released until 2011. If Convertino had scored it as early as 2009, that means that he was already long since gone again by the time anyone was aware of his comeback. 

It’s a horror score, but done in electronics instead of grand symphonics. Although I’m a fan of orchestral horror (Goldsmith’s Final Conflict, Young’s Hellraiser, too many Howard Shore to mention), there’s no doubt that Convertino’s approach is effective and suits this particular film. Sadly there was no accompanying CD release, but much of the score can be isolated via the DVD and it does sound tremendous on its own. The use of rhythm immediately identifies Convertino as composer, as well as several other flourishes.

Film score fans on the internet seem to spend half their time identifying where a composer repeats himself (or worse, someone else). And it’s true that Convertino does re-employ some old tools. The bells from Mother Night’s ‘Leichentrager Zur Wache’ re-appear for at least the second time (see also Straight Into Darkness) and for a scary moment it sounded like Convertino was going to repeat the track in its entirety (piano and strings also follow Leichentrager for a few notes before it goes off on its own). To be totally honest, I would have preferred not to hear these bells again. Personally, they take me right back to Nick Nolte’s 1960’s New York, although that’s obviously not going to be the majority experience

Wake Wood most definitely continues where he left off. A highly percussive horror score that sounds modern and melodic with no signs of rust. Depending on the source, he’s either around 58 or 51 years old, so no reason for him to be retiring any time soon. Time will tell.

Note: Credits at the end mention a Daniel Newman for 'additional music and music editing'. The score sounds very consistent so I'm unsure if this was something done separate from Convertino, or if Newman assisted him directly. It's also perhaps worth noting that this is another Newman collaborating with Convertino. Is he one of the Family Newmans that have worked with Convertino over the years? I don't know if Convertino is still friendly with any of the Newman clan. Although it will be the subject of the post of its own, Convertino co-wrote a rock album with Thomas 'The Shawshank Redemption' Newman and a few years later scored Tim Burton's Frankenweenie with his brother David. It could, of course, just be a co-incidence.

The following link gives many more details on the film including the note below on the score:

http://www.wakewoodmovie.com/WakeWood_ProductionNotes.pdf

Director David Keating: "The musical score plays a very important role in the film and we've had really positive feedback about it so far. The score was composed by Michael Convertino, an LA based composer who scored films such as Bull Durham, The Last of the High Kings and Things to do in Denver When You’re Dead. I'd worked with him before and we have a really good, collaborative working relationship. He was onboard well before we began shooting and we spoke a lot about the music and about aural reference points. Some of the reference points we used included ethnographic recordings from a Romanian mental institution and recordings of the theremin (an electronic instrument) being played. We listened to a lot of strange, old traditional music but in the end we went for a much more modern feel. I tend to record stuff myself and at one stage my son brought three of his girl friends home from school and we recorded them singing and screaming at the same time. Sounds strange, but it really was the most fascinating creative process."

Wake Wood (2011): The Film

A few unkind words about my opinion of horror films.  They are product, lowest common denominator films made for a quick buck. The genre doesn’t have to be like that, but that’s how it has panned out. It’s not too far from the Adult Movie genre. Films popped out on a conveyer built with laughable scripts, cardboard characters and the appropriate amount of ‘money shots’.  Horror films that also work as ‘proper’ films are few and far between.

It’s not particularly badly made, and above average for the genre, but Wake Wood similarly has very lowly ambitions. Firstly, the film is very obviously a Frankenstein’s Monster, a patchwork of three other horror films – Pet Semetary, The Wicker Man and Don’t Look Now. And the characters are barely two dimensional. Much has been made in the publicity that this is a ‘Hammer’ horror film. It has no significance all these years later. It amounts to nothing more than a sticker on the box.

On the plus side, the cast have a solid pedigree. Aiden Gillen is such a rising star of stage and screen that I’m surprised he said yes to this. I’ve seen him do Mamet in London and Pinter in New York (and oddly enough sat next to him in the audience somewhere else altogether for a one-man play about Richard Burton). He made his name on the  British version of Queer As Folk. That series caught some flak for casting three hetero actors as the gay leads. Which is absolutely ridiculous, of course. Of the three, it was Gillen I was mostly surprised about, given he nailed every single gay mannerism without resorting to anything remotely resembling ‘camp’. That’s what I thought at the time, anyway. But his character here – straight and married – has some of the same ticks. Shoulders pulled way back as he walks, etc, so maybe that was just luck. Like most Celtic actors, he’ll also happily do an American accent but will avoid doing English at almost any cost. Cast Gillen, Peter Mullan or Ewan McGregor in anything English set, and they’ll try to keep their own accent, even if it makes little sense. Cast Gabriel Byrne as an Eskimo, and he’ll argue that his particular Eskimo grew up with a video cassette of The Commitments and somehow has developed an Irish Accent. At least here, Gillen’s supposed to be Irish.

Timothy Spall is simply one of the UK’s finest actors, although has been known to ham it up occasionally. Most famous for his collaborations with Mike Leigh (and in the UK for his single most spectacular turn in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet), he doesn’t even attempt the Oirish accent. Instead he gives a highly restrained performance that seems to be channelling Richard Attenborough of all people. Eva Birthwhistle was an actress I wasn’t familiar with. Again, she has little to work with, but acquits herself just fine. And thankfully the kid – who predictably becomes a demon child from hell – is good and doesn’t destroy the picture (The Omen remake didn’t survive the kid, and Birth was fatally hampered by an unconvincing Cameron Bright).

It’s also been blatantly filmed on digital cameras which don’t do it any favours, especially for a film that has to thrive on atmosphere. Digital looks cheap, pure and simple, except when used on the most expensive Hollywood blockbusters. I can only hope that the money saved here was what allowed them to hire Michael Convertino for the score.

Wake Wood isn’t a total disaster (helped in large part by Convertino himself), but it’s too blatantly derivative to be noteworthy. It’s hard to believe, but it even recycles the hand-from-the-grave template from Carrie, the most overused scene in horror. Even the final ‘twist’ isn’t well handled, with Gillen breaking the fourth wall to look at the audience. Not sure why he does it, and I’m not sure he is either.

This film was viewed on the UK DVD. It is also available on a Region 1 DVD and USA Blu-ray with identical extras. The extras - interviews and deleted scenes - have no Convertino content.

Michael Convertino: An Introduction

Almost nothing is known about film composer Michael Convertino. No interviews are available online, and I can find no references to any in print either. Even anecdotal material from his many collaborators over the last 25 years is extremely thin on the ground. And there is one solitary photograph of the man himself available (as shown above). I'm not even sure how old he is. The main sources claim he was born in 1953, at least one other (possibly more accurate) claims 1960.

Needless to say he has no web presence at all. Which meant that when buying a dotcom address for this here blog, www.michaelconvertino.com itself was ready available. But the man himself remains a mystery. I suspect that he may have done additional work under other names (in music and possibly elsewhere). But any detective work will come much later.

I will be having a look at the films - 32 features and 3 shorts - as well as the scores as only 12 of the scores have been released (3 as 'promos') on CD. Film composers don't have the luxury of hand picking their films like actors and directors. Projects offered are based on their standing in the industry and existing relationships with producers / directors. And Convertino has never reached the very top echelon of Hollywood composers. No real reason for this other than luck. He seems to have a good reputation both amongst his peers and certainly in film music fandom. But when you score an Oscar favourite like Children of a Lesser God with nothing less than searing beauty and don't even get a nomination... maybe the stars aren't in your favour.

For the uninitiated, you could do worse than sample three decades of Convertino with Children of a Lesser God (1986), Mother Night (1996) and We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004), the latter sadly being only available as a 'promo' (it can be found online).

I adore the music. But the quality of the films is variable to say the least. I wont go be going easy on 'em, so be warned.

In addition to the 12 full length CD soundtracks (and a few others with just one or two 'cues'), Convertino's management have released 2 promo CD sets (one 2 disc, and one 3 disc edition). Huge thanks to STACE for providing copies of these which are impossible to find.

Before we get to Wake Wood (2011), his latest score, it's worth noting that this is Convertino's only soundtrack since 2004. With talk of photography exhibits and directorial debuts (which may or may not have taken place), Convertino appears to have retired from film scoring, barring this one return. Which is obviously a real shame, especially as Wake Wood continued where he'd left off in 2004, when he was completely at the top of his game with We Don't Live Here Anymore. But Wake Wood appears to have been complete and waiting release since 2009. So rather than a comeback, it looks like Convertino was already gone again long before this saw the light of day. I will cling to the hope that he changes his mind.