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CD Review: Knowing

Composer: Marco Beltrami
Label: Varese Sarabande
Suggested Retail Price: $19.99
Grade: A+




Ever since he made his name in genre scoring with the symphonically horrific slashes of the SCREAM films and the ingenious killer cockroach tango of MIMIC, Marco Beltrami has never stopped providing impressively ominous melodies for all manner of humans, and creatures seeking the end of a given protagonist in such films as THE FACULTY, HELLBOY, CURSED, TERMINATOR 3 and THE OMEN redo. But when happens when Beltrami’s called on to deliver the escalating terror of unstoppable realization, with the endnote being the destruction of the world? The answer might just be the composer’s masterwork with KNOWING, a score that hears the apocalypse with a devastating emotional impact, yet doesn’t forget the creepshow bells and whistles while arriving at the end of days.


KNOWING marks Beltrami’s second collaboration with director Alex Proyas after I, ROBOT, a film that the director’s DARK CITY collaborator Trevor Jones was set to score. What resulted was a decent, if albeit conventional score for Beltrami, especially given the time crunch of his replacement work. And where Beltrami’s Morricone-esque work for 3:10 TO YUMA got him his first deserved Oscar nomination, what the composer still needed for his horror / sci-fi work was an explosive shot of something truly new. KNOWING does this with the biggest bang imaginable. Because given the proper prep time, the Goldsmith-schooled Beltrami knocks it out of the park, creating not only a score that does his old maestro proud, but also has the kind of relentless, rhythmic energy that Jones used to make DARK CITY into one of the best sci-fi films of all time.


Proyas has almost done as good with KNOWING, making a significant rebound from I, ROBOT. And even if Beltrami’s approach is different, that continuously driving sense of urgency is still there as a time capsule’s content drives its hero to the point of mad realization. That Nicolas’ Cage’s reluctant do-gooder is a single dad trying to protect his only son in the midst of catastrophically hopeless odds creates an incredibly deep well of emotion for Beltrami to draw from. As one of the more thematically gifted composers to never stop working since his big break, Beltrami starts here by finding a memorable, descending motif for orchestra and voices, a melody filled with religious portent that ranges from a full symphonic treatment to a few, tender chords on a piano. It’s a motif that informs much of KNOWING without ever once becoming tired. And when the theme isn’t there, Beltrami’s lush, doom-laden strings don’t quite surrender hope, carrying a sadness that still is trying to find some impossible escape.


It’s a lush, old-school approach that can recall Hermann-like dread in “Door Jam,” then pay tribute in “EMT” to the kind of percussive orchestral suspense that Jerry Goldsmith did so well. Doubtlessly both scoring legends would be impressed with the stylistically diverse limbs that Beltrami treads on here. “New York” is a showpiece of pizzacato string writing as Cage’s character tries to alert everyone to an unknown disaster that’s about to befall, the plucked bows building with panic, until a full orchestra joins in the rhythm as the threat of a subway wreck becomes clear. It’s a dazzling piece with the complexity of the “modern” classical music it resembles. At other points, the hollow sound of Tibetan bells instantly convey a sense of haunting dread, while dissonant strings stab with shrieking percussion as the final key in the puzzle horrifyingly reveals itself in “33.” Beltrami’s written plenty of monster reveal music in his career, but perhaps none with the shocking finality of this “holy shit” cue.


Beltrami’s also never been afraid of writing big, from the pounding “Loudmouth” and the pulsating “Thataway!” And KNOWING has just as many effectively tender cues in “John Spills” and “Revelations,” conjuring every emotion from preparing for the inevitable with your loved ones to furiously running like hell from the apocalypse on the horizon. KNOWING delivers beautifully on this continuous combo of shock, wonder and acceptance of the godly forces at hand. Then the musical showpieces of death and transfiguration finally arrive with the Straussian “Caleb Leaves,” “New World Round” and “Who Wants an Apple?” cues that combine the feeling of a bereft, if understanding father with the heavenly awe of “Also sprach Zarathustra” – cosmic majesty that is dwarfed by necessary loss. It makes for some of the coolest “sci-fi” music in memory, delivering as much of a tear-inducing wallop as open-mouthed astonishment, and signify the movement of Beltrami’s grand, melodic writing into the epic firmament of the best space operas, the kind that take on the big, big picture.


Like some of the characters at the end of KNOWING, the inspiration and suspense that Beltrami’s drawn from this unexpectedly stunning film have his talents walking ten feet off the earth. Sure they’ve got to come down for the grittier material he’ll be inescapably scoring after this. Yet I have a feeling that the transcendent, creatively invigorating stardust of KNOWING’s score will likely be staying.


Find out Marco Beltrami’s answers for the apocalypse here

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