Building on the themes that he composed for Tim Burton's rebirth of the comic book hero Batman in 1989, Elfman once again collaborated with Burton on the somewhat darker 1992 sequel Batman Returns and unveils what many consider to be some of his most intricate compositions.
Scoring A Superhero
There is a universal acceptance for the score to a super hero film to be epic in scope and style and Elfman's Batman scores fail to disappoint. What Elfman has weaved are intricate themes for each character, The Penguin (Danny DeVito), The Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Michael Keaton's reprisal as the title character.
The score begins with Birth Of A Penguin directly drawing the listener into an ominous, dark version of Elfman's by now world famous Batman theme. From here we are introduced to Mr and Mrs Cobblepot (Paul Reubens and Diane Salinger, both having worked with Burton before on Pee Wee's Big Adventure), Oswald's mother and father, and their immediate dismissal of their new born son as abnormal.
The dark tone shifts into an ironic merry choir accompanying the christmas setting of the opening of the film. It plays out like a mocking fairytale as Oswald is dispatched in a wicker basket in the river and floats downstream as the main Batman theme kicks into life and we track the baby's descent into Gotham's sewers. The haunting choral echoes and the baby's scream as he falls into the river forebode both the dark and light sides to the Penguin character that we will later see.
Elfman Exceeeds Expectation With An Intricate And Intelligent Superhero Score
Elfman consistently seems able to mar his musical style with director Tim Burton's hypnotic visual style and the balance works wonders here. The Penguin's lair allows Elfman to create a shady theme for the film's central villain.
As Max Schreck (Christopher Walken) observes, this is a convoluted individual, which is reflected in his eerie yet sombre theme. He is disfigured as a man but we feel pathos for him in his inability to communicate with his deceased parents who abandoned him at birth. This duality makes him an interesting character to give musical expression to. His motivation is always duplicitous but there are successful hints at melancholy in Elfman's various Penguin themes.
Bringing The Cat To Life
The theme for Catwoman presents Elfman on a career high. Selina Kyle's transformation utilises high pitched instruments including violins, which perfectly represent the cats bringing Selina back to life and granting her nine lives. The theme, in its two parts, represents both a loss of control and a regaining of power and lost femininity.
It is no coincidence that Selina becomes a Cat, clad in black PVC leather! The music builds in its intensity until Selina opens her eyes once again and returns to her flat to complete her transformation. Selina Kyle is repressed until Elfman's Catwoman theme elevates her and allows her to become a woman.
Duality Is The Central Theme For Batman, Catwoman And The Penguin
For Batman the sombre theme plays on his life as Bruce Wayne by day, unable to hold onto a relationship due to his secret double life as Batman and his guilt over the death of his parents as a child. For the Penguin his mixed identity adds an extra dimension to a character that could have translated to the screen in a simply comic way were it not for Elfman and Burton.
Finally Catwoman completes the trio of characters and in many respects is the strength of the three. She is the one who holds the final image on screen at the end of the film as she stands erect, staring at the bat signal. In many respects she is granted more status than the stereotypical alpha male figures of the Penguin and Batman.
The Finale wraps up the Penguin's theme as he descends back to the water, essentially his birthplace, and is given an heroic send off by Elfman as if he were a war hero. The score makes a complete circle, concluding with the high pitched Catwoman theme cutting in-between the Batman theme with the foreboding feeling omnipresent till the end.
