The Core (2003)
Music Composed By Christopher Young
Performed By The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra
Conducted By Pete Anthony
Score Produced By Flavio Motalla and Christopher Young
Intrada Special Collection Volume 187
Disc 1=11 Tracks - Running Time: 51:35
Disc 2=10 Tracks - Running Time: 48:50
Total Time: 21 Tracks - Running Time: 100:25
The Core was a big budget reimagining of Journey to the Center of the Earth set in a more modern and apocalyptic version. WIth a terrific ensemble cast that featured Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, D.J. Qualls, Tcheky Karyo, Bruce Greenwood and Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins, The Core is a fun and entertaining thriller that while it might take itself a little too seriously at times yet it does have a sense of humor to boot. The plot of the film is simple, the Earth's core has stopped rotating for some strange reason (this is a major reveal in the storyline so I won't spoil it for you) which has caused birds to slam into things and die, as well as unnatural occurances in the Earth's atmosphere with relentless storms and thunder strikes and earthquakes. Aided by a pair of professors (Eckhart, Karyo), a famed scientist (Tucci), two Air Force Pilots (Swank and Greenwood), a crackpot inventor (Lindo) and the ultimate hacker (Qualls) under the supervision of a Military General (Jenkins) they devise a plan that would take the crew deep into the Earth's core to jump start the Earth's motor again within a short period of time before the worst things imaginable begin to happen. The film was a modest hit when it was released in 2003 and is still a charming big budget sci-fi thriller that is definitely better than alot of the sci-fi films that have come out since.
Adding to the fun of this bombastic (and I use that term lightly) film is a composer who is definitely no stranger to flamboyant material such as this. Christopher Young at the time was now at the top of the ranks of a-list Hollywood composers with the likes of Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Young was riding high on a string of films that included Urban Legend, Entrapment, The Gift, The Hurricane, Swordfish, The Shipping News, Wonder Boys and Bandits that he wrote in a variety of different styles and infectious melodies. For their third collaboration with friend and director Jon Amiel, who prior to this worked on Copycat and Entrapment, Young's music is a big, bold orchestrial jauggernaut with a huge 120 piece orchestra and 40 piece choir that really runs the gambit of a barrage of memorable bombast and exciting energy. The score was the biggest Young had written since his second breakout score for another hit sci-fi thriller, Species, eight years earlier.
Intrada's newly minted Limited Edition gives you everything that Young wrote for the film in which after many, many attempts to condense the score for a respectable album release when the film was released didn't happen. The score itself was a massive beast that was really hard to sever and in trying to sever it, you would've still missed something thrilling or dramatic in scope. That's the particular case of this score that it is a score of major scope that in its full length can definitely wear you out after a while, but it is also another solid example of how Young's brilliance really shines within it. Huge choir with suspenseful wordless vocals, clusters of thrilling brass, lush string works, heavy percussion for rhythmic driving action, and one heck of a march.
"The Core" opens up the album and the film with suspenseful strings aided by brass and harps and then an exciting wordless chorus before crossfading into a heroic march. There is plenty of drama in the score with "in Drucke Ick Moet Stevens", plenty of intense and exciting action like Jerry Goldsmith's in "Origami Lava", "Tactile Shifts", "Mantile Passage", and "Diamonds Are Forever", an apocalyptic theme "A Terror Toccata" featuring some more menacing chorus, optimistic hope and drama "Virgil T", "Cor Cordium" and "Stars Imagined" and the very heroic anthem "The Terranaut March" that is featured throughout the score in various guises as well as this full version of the theme. The score definitely has everything you could want from drama to action and it definitely succeeds on that level because it is a very balanced score and one that is well thought out.
Originally Young released this a promotional CD which was a gift for his loyal fans who really wanted the music and now here is the official and complete, complete version of his music with very detailed liner notes by the always on point Brian Satterwhite and a note from Young himself which is very candid and a major plus to this elaborate package.
The Core is a fun score and yes, it does wear you out in one long sitting, that is if you choose to listen to it that way. The score is like the film, an escapest exercise in bombast and not to mention is still pretty damn good. Definitely recommended.
The Core is available to order from Intrada's website http://www.intrada.com
2-CD world premiere presentation of lengthy 100-minute score by Christopher Young from exciting 2003 Jon Amiel throwback to wild sci-fi/disaster thrillers of yesteryear with top-drawer cast: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, many others. Young prepares 2-CD set with maximum listening pleasure in mind, creates lengthy tracks with considerable musical architecture. Result is arguably composer's most exciting, intense yet melodically-accesible large-scale work to date. Large orchestra, chorus create feeling of major disaster taking place, exciting attempts beneath earth's numerous layers to avoid impending catastrophe that may result. Massive cues, exciting cues, rousing cues... a veritable treasure-trove of powerful music for action score fans! Presented in dynamic stereo from digital session masters courtesy Paramount Pictures. Pete Anthony conducts. Intrada Special Collection release available while interest & supplies remain. - Douglass Fake, Intrada Producer
01. The Core 3:00
02. Resurrection In Descent 6:04
03. In Drucke Ick Moet Sterven 5:14
04. Origami Lava 7:10
05. A Terror Toccata 3:04
06. Tactile Shifts 5:56
07. Project Destiny 5:39
08. Moved To The Core 2:08
09. Virgil T. 3:37
10. Mantle Passage 4:35
11. Cor Cordium 4:52
CD 1: Total Time 51:35
01. Liberte 3:23
02. Diamonds Are Forever 3:17
03. Saknusemm 7:16
04. Intered Servants 4:24
05. Mundus Subterraneous 4:25
06. No Left Turns 5:07
07. Unobtanium 6:26
08. Clouds Imagined 4:44
09. Stellar Phrenology 4:12
10. The Terranaut March 5:42
CD 2: Total Time 48:50
Total Discs Time: 100:25
- Danny Gonzalez
Film Music Examiner NEW YORK-NYC
