the other night, my dad and i went to see the new terrence malick film, "the new world". i enjoyed it quite a bit, my dad even said he liked it (although i think it was a bit slow for him). my buddy, vanessa (who didn't like the movie) pointed out several contradictions in the film. i'm not as much of a history buff as she is, what captured me was the beauty and the overall feel of the movie. i thought q'orianka kilcher performed well and she's really pretty. i thought he might, but colin farrell didn't get on my nerves. so yeah, i'd like to see it again. i'd also like to pick up the soundtrack, as some of the music was really lovely.
a couple years ago, i had just heard of a band called explosions in the sky and i had been listening constantly to their albums ("how strange, innocence", "those who tell the truth...", and "the earth is not a cold, dead place"). what attracted me to EITS is their ability to switch gears within their songs. they can be delicate and melancholy one moment, intense and triumphant the next. it also impresses me that they're able to convey these feelings or emotions without words, as they have no vocalist. i'm a big fan of instrumental music.
one of their songs, "have you passed through this night" (from "those who tell the truth..."), has this spoken word part at the beginning. one fansite mistakenly said that it was one of the guys in the band who was speaking. i later found out it was dialogue from a movie called "the thin red line", which was directed by terrence malick. after reading about the movie a bit, i picked up a used copy of the dvd. it's a war flick, but it's not your typical war flick. it juxtaposes the beauty of nature against the ugliness of war. there are a lot of poetic voice-overs, a malick trademark apparently (they're used extensively in "the new world" as well). the scenery is absolutely gorgeous and it's really quite interesting, the way some of the characters sort of withdraw into themselves in order to keep their sanity.
basically, explosions in the sky introduced me to terrence malick and the two are connected in my mind, which would explain the subject matter of this post. a few tracks for you to check out. the first is from the soundtrack of "the thin red line". in the movie, one of the main characters, private witt, has gone awol and is exploring a nearby island. he happens upon some locals and they sing this song in one of the scenes, it's really pretty, i wish it were longer.
a couple EITS tracks, one is the aforementioned "have you passed through this night" which features some of the dialogue from "the thin red line". the other is "a slow dance", from the "friday night lights" soundtrack. i haven't seen that movie, so i can't comment on it. i bought the soundtrack because EITS did most of the music for the film.
download: god u tekem blong (from the thin red line)
download: explosions in the sky > have you passed through this night
download: explosions in the sky > a slow dance
2 comments:
I liked the Slow Dance track, not so keep on the one from Thin Red Line and I couldn't get the other explosions one to work... Oh well.
As for the film, it kinda passed me by. it's only just been released here but it got a bit of a slating from our local listings mag which usually does decent reviews.
"Malick's retelling of the Pocahontas story is full of beautiful vistas of exquisitely framed clouds and geese. And he certainly knows how to stage a battle scene. Unfortunately, he couldn't care less for story, dialogue or characters..." 2/5
It seems to be on pretty limited release too.
i was completely obsessed with that slow dance track the other night. couldn't stop listening to it. i disagree on the movie review, s'all good.
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