Casino Royale is out on DVD today, and rather than geek out about all things James Bond, I'd like to pay tribute to one of the best things about this terrific movie, namely the musical score by David Arnold.
Anyone scoring a Bond picture labors under the awesome legacy of John Barry, the house composer for most of the films in the series. (For contractual reasons, the "James Bond Theme" is credited to Monty Norman, but come on!--everyone knows Barry really wrote it.) Even if the Bond movies aren't your cup of tea (or vodka martini, as the case may be), Barry's music is amazing. Pick up a copy of the soundtrack to On Her Majesty's Saecret Service and prepare to be stunned--lyrical orchestral passages mix freely with big-band jazz, proto-electronica smashes into surf rock. Barry's music always supported the films, but actually sounds better on its own.
Other composers filled in on occasion, but Barry quit the series (I was going to say "turned in his license" but I'm trying to avoid geeky Bond references...and I was pushing it with that vodka martini line earlier) for good after 1987's The Living Daylights. The next two entries featured notably substandard scores, but things picked up once David Arnold officially became the in-house composer.
His pre-Bond soundtrack work was a mixed bag, his highest profile gig having been routine scores for several Roland Emmerich crapfests. His first Bond score, for Tomorrow Never Dies, was nothing special, but he hit it out of the park with his next one, The World Is Not Enough.
If, that is, you could hear the music. Like most contemporary movies, the recent entries in the Bond canon have buried the score in the mix, just another element on the aural landscape timidly peeking out occasionally amidst the deafening sounds of explosions and gunshots. Even the sounds of people walking or picking up glasses stand out more prominently than the music.
Happily, Casino Royale gets it right. Arnold's beautiful score--which you might say is acquainted with Barry's work, but in no way indebted to it--is very prominently featured, and is in fact allowed to carry some scenes outright. While taking nothing away from the superb acting (and let me say, Daniel Craig is now officially my second favorite Bond, right after, ahem, George Lazenby) and fine screenplay and direction, it is Arnold's score that elevates this movie from just another series entry to a surprisingly affecting emotional experience; he can do action cues with the best of them, but there is a real romantic sweep to this score that makes it--and the movie it serves--something special.
