Salt

[Carl Wonders]

Just finished listening to your review of Salt (after having seen the film last night). I guess I'm in your group of "people shaking their heads." I didn't think it was bad or anything, it just didn't do much for me either. I think I just had a problem identifying with someone who, depsite their intentions, managed to kill or injure a heck of a lot of innocent people.

I did like the score a lot, however not having read the credits previously, I was pretty much convinced that it had John Powell's fingerprints all over it. I don't remember hearing anything like this from Newton Howard, at least nothing comes to mind.

[cdouglas]

As I indicated in my review, I can understand where you're coming from, Carl. I suppose I didn't have any real issues with it because I was identifying with the film on a purely cinematic level rather than an emotional one. If I had felt like the film really intended for me to take the character seriously and sympathize with her, I would have felt differently. Without getting into spoiler territory, I'll just say that I regarded Salt as more a force of nature driven by particular factors than as a figure of good or evil.

The score did have shades of Powell, didn't it? The only thing that comes to mind as being similar from Newton Howard is that choral cue from Charlie Wilson's War (and even that is pretty far removed). Anyway, I've been listening to the album a good bit the past few days. Still trying to figure out if that choir is saying, "Salt! Salt! Salt! Salt!" or something else...

[Carl Wonders]

Clark, I agree with you and your review. I think I went into the movie expecting something completely different, so my viewing experience suffered a bit. The movie has actually grown on me in retrospect.

And I think the choir is chanting "Salt!" because that was the first thing I thought of when that cue came on in the theater (I'm still debating purchasing the score). The only downside to Newton Howard doing that is that it brought to mind Rosenman's score for Robocop 2..."Robocoooop!"