300
Reviewed by Justin Bielawa
February 27, 2007

Tyler Bates has made a name for himself within the horror score circle. His fine (unreleased) score to the retread/remake of Dawn Of The Dead was followed by his lackluster score to The Devil's Rejects. He seems to be stuck in a sort of genre rut and someone needs to save him because 300 is exactly what film score fans dislike about Hollywood.

Borrowing to such a degree that Zimmer's pending lawsuit over Gladiator looks frivolous, Bates lifts music from Gabriel Yared's rejected score to Troy and even more directly from Elliot Goldenthal's Titus. So note for note, that Bates doesn't even bother changing instruments at times - "Come And Get Them" features the same metal clanging that accompanied the entrance of soldiers in the opening of Titus and the phonetic choral in "Returns A King" is not unlike hearing the crunch of a plastic bottle inside the recycling machines at your local grocery store.

There are moments where Bates is given to write his own music (!) and he creates an interesting musical tapestry that while nothing new is at least his own. The synth-n-sample Randy Edelman approach pays off in a couple of tracks like "A God King Bleeds", where a steady beat builds before descending to an unsettling near-silence. Similarly, "Tree Of The Dead" is a building atonal piece with big drums and male choral. While you may not hum the final result of what is obviously the composer's own material, one can give him a little creative elbow room and thankfully not sticking with the temp track all the time.

Yet by the end of the album, "Message for the Queen" sounds like little more than a demo track for the wailing women used in either version of Troy (take your pick as to which one!) and "Remember Us" is nothing more than, sigh, "Finale" from Titus. Bates is not allowed to create anything on his own, without leaning on someone else's work. There is nothing wrong with good plagiarism amongst composers, but there does come a point where it's indigestible. This score goes beyond that.

I'm more likely to levy the director and producers as guilty parties in this case. In a world where film score is driven more and more by what worked before instead of what should work now, composers are kept in a creative choke hold if they want to keep their jobs. Tyler Bates should be hired to be Tyler Bates and not simply reiterate a temp track.

Bernard Herrmann is spinning in his grave right now.

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