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| Croatia: Gotovina Defence's Gamble Croatia's fugitive general may surrender to the Hague tribunal if Washington releases files on Operation Storm. By Dominic Hipkins in Zagreb (TU No. 257, March 4-9, 2002) Supporters of the war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina are fueling speculation that the fugitive Croatian army general is planning to hand himself over to The Hague tribunal. The political weekly Nacional recently carried interviews with unnamed friends of the fugitive, suggesting he may be prepared to end his eight-month flight from justice. However, Luka Miscetic, the lawyer representing Gotovina, says any surrender is conditional on the US opening its archives to provide material for his defence. This would shed light on America's role in Operation Storm, the Croatian offensive Gotovina commanded in August 1995 that led to the recapture of the self-proclaimed Republic of Srpska Krajina, RSK. Gotovina is held responsible for numerous atrocities that forced the displacement of up to 200,000 Krajina Serbs. Miscetic believes US intelligence archives contain photos from unmanned spy planes and satellite imagery that can prove Gotovina is innocent of these crimes. "If this information was made available by the US it would remove General Gotovina's perception of an unfair tribunal trial," said Miscetic, speaking from Chicago. Although he claims to have had no contact with the general, who went into hiding last June, before his indictment was made public, Miscetic is confident Gotovina is "ready to respond". A US embassy source in Zagreb suggested Washington would look favourably on requests for specific documentation made through official channels. According to Miscetic, the investigators have not yet done this. Miscetic said potential defence witnesses from America had already approached the Gotovina camp, describing them as "former US special forces on the ground during Operation Storm who say they saw nothing wrong [in Storm]". He claims US personnel were in a position to" know everything that was happening" and were not aware of atrocities. Miscetic says the former US ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith, heads the list of US witnesses Gotovina may wish to call. "Galbraith knows there were no town- by- town expulsions," he said. Galbraith told the magazine Newsweek last summer that the Krajina Serbs left ahead of the arrival of the Croatian army. "You can't deport somebody who has already left," he said. Independent observers credit Croatian claims that its military forces were provided with US intelligence. Former BBC Balkans correspondent Martin Bell said, "US help for the Croatian army was an open secret." Gotovina's defence team have argued that audio and video tapes show private US military advisers were present alongside Gotovina on the eve of battle. These tapes supposedly show the man held responsible for the murders or disappearance of hundreds of civilians instructing Croatian troops to adhere to the rules of war. "Only losers kill civilians and we are going to win," Gotovina is alleged to have urged in one recording, preserved along with Gotovina's handwritten battle orders. The testimony of UN peacekeepers - some of whom were killed during Operation Storm - is thought to have been crucial in constructing the Gotovina indictment, particularly concerning the massive artillery assault on the rebel capital, Knin. Alain Fourand, a former Canadian commander of the UN Protection Force, UNPROFOR, wrote to Gotovina to protest that the target "was not a military target," according to testimony leaked to the Canadian press in 1998. Fourand promised to inform international investigators of the barrage, which his colleague Colonel Andrew Leslie criticised as "ethnic cleansing". However, their account clashes with that of Pentagon lawyers who two years ago argued that the shelling was a legitimate military activity. Milorad Pupovac, a Croatian Serb spokesman, says audiences he addressed in Washington on the eve of Operation Storm were resigned to Croatia settling the Krajina issue with arms. "The Americans said talks (on Krajina) were going nowhere," said Pupovac, who warned diplomats a refugee catastrophe could follow. He says caution over a Croatian military attack was overlooked in favour of a speedy end to a war that would lead to the US-brokered Dayton Peace Accords for Bosnia of November 1995. The Dayton deal was conditional on Croatia settling the Krajina affair. It was only after Croatia's July 1995 victory over the Croatian Serbs that a joint Bosnian-Croat and Bosniak offensive in Bosnia was able to roll back Serb gains there and push them towards the negotiating table. At Dayton, the latter had to settle for less than 50 per cent of Bosnia's territory, down from more than two-thirds they held six months before. The Croats claim that the mass deportations of Serbs from Krajina alleged in the indictment were the responsibility of Belgrade. Awkwardly for the Hague prosecutor, such sentiments seem once to have been shared by current spokeswoman Florence Hartmann. A former journalist for Le Monde, Hartmann penned a book suggesting Serbs from Krajina were "evacuated so Milosevic could hold on to territory in Bosnia during (the Dayton) peace negotiations". This suggests that Milosevic urged Krajina Serbs to leave, to make it easier for the Serbs in Bosnia to keep the bulk of their vast gains. The defence may call Hartmann in Gotovina's defence if only to embarrass the tribunal. The defence also points out other weaknesses in the indictment. The charges claims a state of armed conflict existed in Croatia until November 15, 1995, nine weeks after Croatian authorities announced the completion of Storm and the restoration of civilian political control over the region. Most of the murders occurred in the weeks after Storm's official end. This is set out in both the appendix of victims in Gotovina's indictment and the field reports of human rights groups such as the Croatian Helsinki Committee. The general's defence holds that there is a contradiction in their client being held to account for post-battle abuses when The Hague only has jurisdiction over crimes committed during periods of war. The defence will also point out that the indictment was partially compiled with the assistance of Veritas, a body that documents human rights abuses against Serbs. It will say that leading members of the group formerly served as officials in the RSK, whose establishment is condemned as the work of a "joint criminal enterprise" in the Croatia indictment against Slobodan Milosevic. Dominik Hipkins is a freelance journalist based in Croatia. ************************************************************************ Can it be true? A nearly fair report on Gotovina from - wait for it ! - IWPR!!!!!!!!!!!! Tom K's kick arse letter may have had an effect. It mentions Veritas - and! - Hartmann's book. Obviously people are starting to crap themselves over this indictment. "Cover our arses!" is today's motto A lot of Hipkins stuff for the defence seems to have been cribbed from Tom's letter, my work, and the antegotovina.com site generally. No credit of course. Brian Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. 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| Dear folks: George Bogdanich has been getting excellent press. Set forth below is a review of his movie which appeared in today's NY Times. Coincidentally (?), the paper trashed Harrison's Flower's. As I write, I am listening to Bogdanich being interviewed on our local National Public Radio station. You may be able to listen to the interview later today at http://www.wnyc.org/new/talk/nyandco/nyconew Luckily, the interviewer knows about his Serbnet connections and has asked him about that. Set forth below is a letter I wrote to the NY Times concerning the review. John Kraljic Op-ed letters@nytimes.com nb The Horrors of the Balkan Wars as Shrewdly Staged Illusions By STEPHEN HOLDEN One of the many unsettling contentions of George Bogdanich's documentary film, "Yugoslavia, the Avoidable War," is its assertion that many of the most horrendous events in the recent Balkan wars were stage-managed for the news media. A number of the massacres and atrocities reported on television with bodies on display, it maintains, were shrewdly planned illusions concocted by the Bosnian Muslims to inflame international opinion against the Serbs. The city of Sarajevo in particular served more than once as an accessible location for deceptive television coverage. Although it would be inaccurate to label this documentary pro-Serbian, the film, which opens today at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, methodically sets out to demolish much of the conventional wisdom about who did what to whom and who was to blame. It insists that a regional civil war that could have been settled without prolonged bloodshed was turned into a major conflagration by outside interference and national self-interest. As the United States government has tacitly acknowledged by keeping the press at bay in Afghanistan, public relations and the ability to get your version of events across is almost as important as weaponry in modern warfare. The version of a war that is reported on television becomes the official version that in turn motivates crucial political decisions. The film asserts that partly because of American television's need for clear-cut heroes and villains, a scenario of good guys (the oppressed Bosnian Muslims) versus bad (the evil, barbaric Serbs) came to dominate mainstream news coverage of the war. After one reporter heard a Serbian use the words "ethnic cleansing," for instance, the term, with its repugnant genocidal associations, was seized on by the Clinton administration as a buzzword and used to bash the Serbs, when in fact all sides were equally intent on "cleansing" their territories of undesirables. This heroes-and-villains mentality, the film contends, also served American interests by giving the United States an excuse to preserve and strengthen NATO in the post-Communist era when its relevance had become debatable. It allowed us to keep our power base in Europe. The film bluntly calls "an occupying force" the NATO forces (led by the United States) that remain in Kosovo, Bosnia and Macedonia without an official date for withdrawing, and it goes so far as to accuse that 19-nation army of conspiring to commit war crimes. Almost anything we thought we knew about the Balkan wars is thrown into question by the film. Did a highly publicized civilian massacre of Bosnian Muslims by Serbs in Kosovo that prompted NATO to intensify the bombing of Yugoslavia really take place? Or did Bosnian Muslims transport the bodies of dead soldiers (not civilians) overnight to the site and then cry massacre? And what about the numbers? Subsequent investigations, the movie claims, have shown that the tally of casualties at the hands of Serbs, including the supposed mass rapes of Bosnian women, was outrageously inflated. Whether or not you're convinced by the film's assertions, many of which are based on information provided by the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other organizations that investigated reported events after the fact, "Yugoslavia, the Avoidable War" does an impressive job of relating the complicated history of the war and of filling in the background. Some of that background has been overshadowed by the designation of the Serbs as the villains. The Croatians, it reminds us, collaborated closely with the Nazis during World War II in the slaughter of 750,000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in their territory. As for the Bosnian Muslims, the film says there is ample evidence documenting Bosnians' alliance with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Mr. bin Laden was a regular visitor to the office of Bosnia's president Alija Izetbegovic in early 1993, a time when the United States was lauding his commitment to moderation and multiethnic cooperation. As the meticulously chronological account of the Balkan wars unfolds event by event, failed peace initiative by failed peace initiative, "Yugoslavia, the Avoidable War" leads you to a no man's land of doubt. The truth, of course, was never as black-and-white as it is has been painted for us. It rarely is. YUGOSLAVIA, THE AVOIDABLE WAR Directed by George Bogdanich; directors of photography, Michael Moser, Vladimir Bibic, Dragan Milinkovic, David Hansen, Joe Friendly and Predrag Bambic; edited by Mary Patierno; title song, "Road to Hell," by Chris Rea; produced by Mr. Bogdanich and Martin Lettmayer; released by Hargrove Entertainmnet. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, East Village. Running time: 165 minutes. This film is not rated. WITH: Sanya Popovic (Narrator) and Lord Peter Carrington, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Hans Dietrich Genscher, Nora Beloff, Susan Woodward and Ted Galen Carpenter. +++++++++++++++++++ Letters to the Editor The New York Times 229 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036 Re: "The Horrors of the Balkan Wars as Shrewdly Staged Illusions" By Stephen Holden, March 15, 2002 (Movie Review) To the Editor: Stephen Holden notes that it would be "inaccurate" to portray George Bogdanich's film "Yugoslavia, the Avoidable War" as "pro-Serbian." That is certainly a surprise to those of us who have known of Bogdanich's Croat, Albanian and Bosnian bashing ever since the outbreak of the war in Croatia in 1991. That Bogdanich continues in this vein is seen by the supposed reminder of Croatian collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. No doubt Mr. Bogdanich conveniently forgot to mention the substantial role played by hundreds of thousands of Croats in the Yugoslav Partisans. His demonization tactics are further evident by his exponential inflation of the number of victims of the Croatian Ustashe. What is most surprising is that The New York Times, which extensively reported on the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and whose own reporters wrote from first hand experience about the genocide inflicted by Serb forces there would uncritically accept Bogdanich's contentions that the various bombings and massacres of Croat and Bosnian civilians was self-inflicted. Very truly yours, John P. Kraljic President, National Federation of Croatian Americans Write to: letters@nytimes.com Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. 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| From the dead to the living The only good thing remaining in your world is the memory of what it was in my day, and before : so that I am far from chiding you for spending your life, as far as possible, in our society, by rehearsing the memorials which remain of us, and which enable you, even in your day, to employ your time humanly, in the study of wisdom. I did that, too, with intense zeal ; but the earth was then propitious, and my soul was mighty, and every other art and virtue was open to me, as well as the wisdom of the ancients. Life is not a book to read twice : and you cannot exchange the volume fortune puts in your hand for another on a nobler theme or by a better poet. In reading it you should not look ahead, or you will skip too much. (Santayana's Avicenna) Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Postovani, U prilogu Vam dostavljamo poziv za aktivno sudjelovanje u radu 14.medjunarodnog znanstvenog skupa COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS, IUC, Dubrovnik, 2nd -6th, 2002. Molimo Vas da Vasu prijavu o sudjelovanju u radu skupa dostavite najkasnije do 30.svibnja 2002.g. S postovanjem, Prof.dr.sc.Mario Plenkovic Predsjednik Organizacijskog odbora COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS / KOMUNICIRANJE I ODNOSI S JAVNOSTIMA, 14th International Scientific Meeting, Inter-University Centre, 2nd - 6th September, 2002, Dubrovnik. Organizers: Croatian Communication Association, International Federation of Communication Associations, Faculty of Graphic Arts, Faculty of Philosophy Zadar, Informatologia and Inter University Centre - Dubrovnik. Contact: Prof.dr.sc.Mario Plenkovic,President of the Croatian Communication Association, Jurisiceva 5/I,10000 Zagreb, e-mail:mplenkovic@yahoo.com or Marina Vujnovic, Faculty of Graphic Arts, Getaldiceva 2, 10000 Zagreb, e-mail: mousev2000@yahoo.com, mplenkov@grf.hr, Tel.00385-1-2371-080/258; Fax:00385-1-2371-077. Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Gah! just to clarify its on 21 March! Time to come to London, pass onto to Croats (and sympatheziers!) who may be interested.: CSYPN - Lecture by Marcus Tanner, Thursday 21/3/02 Dragi svi, (more details in English below) Povodom desetgodisnjice priznanja Republike Hrvatske Vas pozivamo na predavanje uvazenog autora i novinskog izvjestitelja (The Independent) Marcus-a Tanner-a. Predavanje, u suradnji sa nedavno osnovanim Imperial College Croatian Society, ce biti odrzano 21. ozujka na Imperial College-u, London. Nakon predavanja imati cete priliku kupiti potpisanu knjigu "Croatia: A Nation Forged in War" ciji je autor gospodin Tanner. CSYPN svima toplo preporucuje ovu knjigu. Vise detalja u nastavku poruke. --- What: Marcus Tanner: "Reporting the Croatian War" When: Thursday, 21 March 2002 6.30pm for lecture at 7.00pm Where: Clore Theatre, 180 Queen's Gate Imperial College London SW7 http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=526446&Y=179347&A=Y&Z=1 Dear all, In order to celebrate 10 years of the Croatian recognition, we are please to invite you to a talk by the distinguished author and "The Independent" journalist Marcus Tanner entitled "Reporting the Croatian War". The event, organised in collaboration with Imperial College Croatian Society - ICCS, will take place on 21 March, at 6.30pm for lecture at 7.00pm at Imperial College, London. The talk will be introduced by the BBC's Adrian Chiles, who will chair a Q&A session afterwards. Mr Tanner is a veteran correspondent from Croatia for "The Independent" and author of the acclaimed "Croatia: A Nation Forged in War", which has been reissued in a new, updated edition. He is also the author of "Ireland's Holy Wars". Mr Tanner will give a talk on his experiences on reporting the Croatian war of Independence, during which he will discuss the PR efforts of the Croatian side. Autographed copies of the updated edition of the new edition of "Croatia: A Nation Forged in War" will be available for purchase at the discount rate of £7.00 (normal bookstore price is £9.99). This is an invaluable opportunity to convey an objective perspective to British people. Please come, bring some of your British friends and purchase the book. We hope you will be able to join us for what will be an informative and pleasant evening. Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Tatiana Cameron formerly Matejas, along with her husband Matthew and her sister Sanja will be on EWTN this sunday at 11pm ET or 8 pm PT on channel number 261 DISH NETWORK SATELLITE Television network. EWTN is also on some cable networks or on the website: EWTN.COM on live streaming video. The program is called Life on the Rock, this is Mother Angelica's Catholic network. She sings with her sister during the show and her 18 month old son Dante is also on for part of the 1 hour long program. Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Dragi Nenad, Pozdrav iz Los Angelesa. It is great that you guys put this story: - (E) An American in Vukovar in "Harrison's Flowers"- on the CroWorld site. I work for Universal Pictures and Universal Focus who is doing North American distribution of the movie "Harrison Flowers". The movie is rather properly balanced regarding the Serbian aggression and horrors of Vukovar. I asked our publicity here also to link an offical web site of the city of Vukovar to the film's official site which they did. You can check the film's official web site at http://www.harrisons-flowers.com/ and Vukovar's site is under Links and News section. The movie is opening on 500 screens this weekend and who ever goes to the film's web site would be able to get to the Vukovar's web site and see original Croatian perspective... Bog, Igor Kovacevich Universal Pictures/Universal Focus Acqusitions Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| I noticed the submission from my friend Igor Kovacevic to go see Harrison's Flowers. Well, I just got back from a 10pm Friday night showing at a multiplex that is a 10 minute drive from San Pedro (where nearly 30,000 Croatians live) and aside from my wife and I there were only 4 other people in the theater. I implore all Croatians to go support this film. I must warn you that it can be a difficult and emotional film for us to watch, but it will be a crying shame if we choose to ignore this film -- especially in light of the fact that we are consistently frustrated by how the media has depicted the war. It is a must see picture for Croatians! Aside from a couple of references, this film would be accused of being Croatian propaganda if it were made by one of our filmmakers (the director is French). The West never wanted this type of story told. It somehow better suited them to paint us all with the same brush as they sat on the side and made smug comments about how equally barbaric we all were. It is interesting because it has become so politically correct in Western media to keep a balanced perspective with regard to the war that I was actually shocked by some of the images of Serbian atrocities and by comments of the film's characters regarding Serbian brutality. Funny, I am never shocked when a film depicts Nazis in this way. How gratifying and courageous for a filmmaker to put aside political correctness and show the true aggression perpetrated by the Serbs in Croatia. Bravo to Harrison's Flowers and shame on us if we don't support it! Op-ed I saw the movie last night. There were few viewers at 9:35 at night in New York. Film DESERVES our FULL SUPPORT. Period. If we couldn't make such a film (and that is criticism to our film industry. Big one. Big failure so far), then GO and Support someone's else effort. There are few sentences that we would like to edit, but the film is THE BEST so far. Vukovar and what really happened there. We are forgetting it with the speed of light. It is only 11 years and not 11 centuries since it happened. Nothing big happening on the WAR REPARATION front. Not to go too deep into the subject: Please invite your friend and go to support the film. Through poetic love story, we see the worst and the best of the human race. I will go to see the film AGAIN, inviting others. Not that it was easy to get up at 9 pm, when you want to rest at home with the family. Believe me. But if we all do not take AN EXTRA MILE, nothing will happen in our lifetime. All Croatian RADIO STATIONS should promote the film. All Croatian NEWSPAPERS as well as TV stations. Plus we should do more to thank the creators of the film and the actual heros who went through the hell of war, for us to be able to live to this moment to see some truth on the screen. best, Nenad Bach Editor in chief CROWN Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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| Hej Nenad! Saljem ti jedan link za Lord of the Rings Movie Soundtrack. http://www.moviewave.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/titles/fellowship_ring.html Isto International Movie Database nema podataka o nju http://us.imdb.com/Name?Peric,+Suzana -Marko Dear Marko Suzana Peric is a Croatian woman from Zagreb. A great talent, living in New York and a great friend. She is music editor, but here she even co-produced the record. Suzana worked for major world directors and is very respectable in her profession. Also, she helped me tremendously in 1991, when I produced "Can We Go Higher?". She deserves a separate page just to count her accomplishments. Nenad Composed by HOWARD SHORE Rating **** Album running time 71:22 Tracks 1: The Prophecy (3:54) 2: Concerning Hobbits (2:55) 3: The Shadow of the Past (3:33) 4: The Treason of Isengard (4:01) 5: The Black Rider (2:48) 6: At The Sign of the Prancing Pony (3:14) 7: A Knife in the Dark (3:34) 8: Flight to the Ford (4:15) 9: Many Meetings (3:05) 10: The Council of Elrond (3:49) 11: The Ring Goes South (2:03) 12: A Journey in the Dark (4:20) 13: The Bridge of Khazad Dum (5:57) 14: Lothlorien (4:34) 15: The Great River (2:43) 16: Amon Hen (5:02) 17: The Breaking of the Fellowship (7:21) 18: May It Be (4:16) Performed by THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and THE NEW ZEALAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA and LONDON VOICES and THE LONDON ORATORY SCHOOLS SCHOLA conducted by HOWARD SHORE Featured vocalists EDWARD ROSS ELIZABETH FRASER MABEL FALETOLU Additional music ENYA Lyrics PHILIPPA BOYENS ROMA RYAN HOWARD SHORE FRAN WALSH Orchestrations HOWARD SHORE Engineered by JOHN KURLANDER Edited by SUZANA PERIC NANCY ALLEN SIMON KILN ANDREW DUDMAN MICHAEL PRICE JENNIFER DUNINGTON Produced by HOWARD SHORE SUZANA PERIC Released by REPRISE Serial number 9362 48110 2 THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Mawdor most horrid A review by JAMES SOUTHALL Peter Jackson's ten-hour, three-film adaptation of Tolkein's classic The Lord of the Rings tale must rank among the most ambitious movie projects of all time. Assembling a superb cast and filming the three parts simultaneously, Jackson must be applauded for mastering the sheer logistics of it all before any credit is given for technical and artistic achievements within the movies themselves. The other major popular book adaptation of 2001 (Harry Potter) was handed to Chris Columbus who, like Jackson, has never handled anything on this scale previously nor, to be perfectly honest, given the impression of being able to. Whereas Columbus proved to be a slightly less visionary director than he was explorer some time previously, Jackson can be proud of his accomplishments. The Fellowship of the Ring is a stunning film, succeeding on just about every level. The cast is predictably filled with noted British talent, led by Ian McKellen, who is on commanding form as Gandalf. Ian Holm and John Rhys-Davis are just as good as they always are, and the rest of the cast acquits itself superbly too. Jackson makes fine use of the New Zealand scenery (to the extent that its tourist industry has ballooned out of all proportion) and John Gilbert's film editing ensures that despite its gargantuan length, the film never seems either to be dragging or rushed. Speculation as to who would score the movie was just about feverish for almost a year before the final, surprising, choice was revealed. For a while it seemed like James Horner was a given, and Polish master Wojciech Kilar's name was also attached to the project for some time. However, the only composer approached to write the score was Howard Shore, whose reputation is high among those in the industry but who was - until now - not especially known in the wider world. Shore's music is excellent, make no mistake. He captures the spirit of each scene very well while also maintaining a hold on the wider picture. There are a few motifs associated with characters or groups and the score as a whole is composed in a Michael Kamen-like way, integrating small, perhaps not too obvious, themes and motifs together and creating a broad tapestry based on these elements. Talk about a dream project: wizards, elves, hobbits, dwarves, magic, humour, terror. What composer wouldn't be inspired by it? But this, to me, is an important question, one not considered by the legions of (mostly teenage) film music fans who have lavished praise on the score as the best thing ever. Not to belittle Shore's excellent accomplishment (it is indeed a powerful, moving, thrilling musical work) - but wouldn't it have been virtually as hard not to be inspired by the film as it would have been to be inspired? If Shore's music has a fault, it is that it is all entirely predictable. The composer's never written a score on a comparable scale nor in a similar style before, and yet from start to finish it sounds entirely as one would expect the music for The Fellowship of the Ring to sound. An unusual complaint? Certainly, it may read as such - but for my money, this film is in terms of size, scope and guaranteed popularity the most obvious candidate for a world-beating score since Star Wars a quarter of a century before it. Think of your reaction on first hearing Star Wars (or, for that matter, Ben-Hur) - this movie genuinely offered a similar opportunity for a score to be considered alongside the very finest of all time. Did it get one? Simply, no. The music is exciting when it needs to be, moving when it needs to be, beautiful when it needs to be - but as exciting, moving or beautiful as Star Wars? Not even close; not even close, if truth be told, to First Knight or Mulan, not major scores in Jerry Goldsmith's body of work. One of the major action themes in The Fellowship of the Ring ("A Knife in the Dark", if you want an example) is either borrowed from, or coincidentally very similar to, Goldsmith's The 13th Warrior, an above-average but not earth-shattering score written as recently as 1999 which garnered very little in the way of critical praise or even attention, by virtue of the fact that it was "just another Goldsmith score". But "above-average but not earth-shattering" would pretty well sum up Shore's music here - it's less on the level of "best thing ever" and much closer to the level of "just another Goldsmith score" - not a biting criticism (Goldsmith's still better than anyone at what he does) - but an observation to underline that this music is not the be all and end all of quality film music written in the last decade. It's not sensational. It's good fun, it's very well-written, but at the same time it's repetitive (every time there's a long shot of the fellowship on their travels, the same fanfare - which sounds like a slightly-mutated version of a Miklós Rózsa processional - appears, usually in the same arrangement) and - dare I say it - quite generic. Not generic in the sense that it sounds like a typical Hollywood score - it is better than that - but generic in the sense that it's like a "brand X" version of Star Wars or Legend. This criticism must be read with this in mind: I make it not because I think The Fellowship of the Ring is poor - in any way - but because the fanatical hysteria which has greeted its release is astoundingly over-the-top, and because for such an important film, I think there is a relatively large bunch of composers - not just Williams and Goldsmith, but Kilar, Goldenthal, Kamen, others - who could have written something truly special. As it is, The Fellowship of the Ring is an excellent score, an excellent album (featuring two songs by Enya which have provoked a heated debate, but which for my money are two of the better cues on the CD) - just not, perhaps, what it could have been. Buy this CD by clicking here! Distributed by www.CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! |
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