Apocalypse Now (Trinity & Beyond - Soundtrack)

Member Name: berlioz II

Product:	Trinity & Beyond - Soundtrack
Date:	17/06/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Powerful, earth-shattering music of eeriness and destruction

Disadvantages: Pastiche, pastiche

Ever since the detonation of the Trinity atomic weapon in May 1945, the horrible power of the nuclear weapon was unleashed on the world, and the extensive testing of these weapons continued in a heavy feeling of an apocalypse for decades after the war as carried out by the US and Soviet Union in a close competition in the unstable Cold War years. Peter Kuran's 1995 documentary Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie is the dramatic exploration of these tests, beginning from the detonation of the Trinity device and finishing with the last detonations of the Thor missle tests conducted in the Earth's stratosphere in the early 1960s. The documentary itself is a sober history on the creation and testing of these weapons, but it is made in such a way as to oomph the dramatic implications of these massively destructive weapons as being both terrifying harbingers of death, but also strangely alluring and almost beautiful monsters. All the material is comprised of stock footage of the actual tests (mostly colour footage), with a few people interviewed in the middle, and the whole is narrated by William Shatner's hushed voice that all add up to one of the most captivating documentaries I've ever seen.

And to drive the drama of these blasts home, the element that truly bolsters up the implications of this "movie" by no small measure is the powerful music written by the creative team of William T. Stromberg, John Morgan, Lennie Moore and Edgardo Simone. As it is with the footage we see, the music also is a strange mix of apocalyptic moments of full orchestral crescendos complete with choir, perfectly emphasising the destructive power of the bombs we are seeing, juxtaposed with the most soothingly uneasy and deceptively lyrical passages of surreal beauty. The composers (Stromberg and Morgan in particular) are more famous from their re-recordings and re-constructions of Golden Age film music and it goes a way in explaining that the music itself is clearly influenced by the old masters, as well as the music of Bernard Herrmann (and at times Danny Elfman and John Williams). However, far this being a huge rip-off effort of other composers work, they have crafted the music more in the lines of pastiche to the music of the past, which goes well together with the fact that the film is indeed a visually highly stunning "documentary", not a feature film proper.

The tone of the music is largely dramatic and sombre, often building from a more low-key openings to intense or huge climaxes as the explosions of the bombs get nearer. The opening scene of "Monument Site/100 Tons of TNT" sets the scene effectively with its dark choral tones, and from there on the music expands into a corollary of more and more huge music that ebbs and flows from low-key tension, to apocalyptic explosions of sound. The first great highlight comes in the marvellous "Hiroshima/Nagasaki Requiem" that employs huge orchestral and choral majesty to present the first real atomic bomb explosions in a truly epic performance of power and horror with some oriental flavours thrown in, being one of the most apocalyptic pieces of music I've ever heard. The following few tracks detail the usage of hydrogen bombs on naval ships, beginning with the stormy and heroicly perverse "Operation Crossroads", the similarly turbulent "Armada Annihilation", the expansive "Deus Vult" and the desolate "Nautical Graveyard". The essential tone remains the same for the few following tracks with the exception of "Russia Gets the Bomb" that is a hearty and pounding Russian dance filled with Soviet bluster (though this eventually went unused in the film). Also the fanfaric "Operation Ranger-Able" and the hauntingly fearful "Boosting with Tritium/The George Device" are truly wonderful in their combination of fear and otherworldy beauty. The choral expositions of "Castle Bravo" are yet another wonderful little moment that brings out a subtle sense of fear without overdoing it with huge amounts of volume, while the dream-like harp and celesta glitters in "Cherokee Deliverable H-Bomb" makes for a truly eerie feel in your gut (which is often replicated whenever a celesta appears elsewhere in the score).

"The Hood Device" quite clearly takes the basic rhythm from the evergreen Mars of Holst's The Planets, building the track to ever more intense levels, whereas the latter half of "Operation Hardtack/Teak and Orange" makes the sweepingly militaristic action fanfare a la John Williams a truly stunning track. The very Soviet "Russian Monster Bomb" is another wonderful highlight of huge, dark power, while the following, almost deceptively serene, "Christmas Island Tests", with its female chorus, and the slowly building "Thor Missile Tests", that resolves in another fanfaric moment of epicness, leads its way all the way back to the beginning as the "Hiroshima Requiem" is reprised in "China Gets the Bomb" for a powerful conclusion. All in all, this is a stunning score that somehow makes the horrors of atomic weapons actually seem beautiful, yet at the same time never forgets the huge destructive force they contain. It's as Stromberg says in the liner notes "After seeing some of these out-of-control otherworldly creatures unfolding in the heavens, you find yourself caught up in the visuals and soon begin to question your own morality." There's not a lot of cohesiveness to the music past some very slight thematic linkings and the overall tone of the music doesn't vary too much, but it really doesn't matter that much. This is a score that is simply epic and apocalyptic, in both power and desolation, and somehow perfectly captures the essence of these monster bombs, making it a wonderful pleasure from start to finish, regardless of the clear influences of Herrmann and the old film music masters. The orchestrations (as expected from people who are arrangers first) are colourful and varied, while the Moscow Symphony Orchestra performs their hats off, preventing the music from ever getting dull or too repetitive. So anybody interested in the sounds of epic orchestral and choral might are advised to seek this out. Truly a stunner on many levels.


1. Monument Site/100 Tons of TNT (3:00)
2. Newsreel Parts 1 & 2 (2:44)
3. Fat Man and Little Boy (1:49)
4. Hiroshima/Nagasaki Requiem (3:31)
5. Operation Crossroads (1:18)
6. Armada Annihilation (2:13)
7. Deus Vult (2:19)
8. Nautical Graveyard (1:58)
9. Operation Sandstone (2:20)
10. Improved Stockpile Bomb (1:10)
11. Russia Gets the Bomb (1:05)
12. Operation Ranger-Able (2:22)
13. Operation Greenhouse (1:10)
14. Boosting with Tritium/The George Device (2:42)
15. The Atomic Cannon (2:32)
16. Castle Bravo (3:40)
17. Operation Wigwam (1:28)
18. Cherokee Deliverable H-Bomb (1:59)
19. The Hood Device (2:48)
20. Operation Hardtack/Teak and Orange (3:23)
21. Russian Monster Bomb/Operation Dominic (3:07)
22. Christmas Island Tests (2:18)
23. Thor Missile Tests (2:59)
24. China Gets the Bomb (3:31)

Music Composed and Conducted by William T. Stromberg
Additional Music by John Morgan, Lennie Moore & Edgardo Simone
Performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Orchestrated by William T. Stromberg, John Morgan, Lennie Moore & Edgardo Simone
Visual Concept, 1995 (VCECD 01)

© berlioz, 2009

Summary: KABOOOOM!!!