On Saturday, 10 October 2020, The American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC) hosted an online event as part of their Master Class Series, featuring a very special guest: the prolific Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated composer John Debney.

Moderated by composer, arranger, pianist and ASMAC board member, Sylvester Rivers, the master class was cleverly structured into five main topics:

•  Anatomy of a comedy score

•  Anatomy of a rom-com

•  Anatomy of a big action movie

•  How to get inside a director’s head

•  Surviving post-pandemic Hollywood

Famously charismatic and friendly, Debney began the master class with the cheerful statement, ‘Let’s have fun! Let’s have a look inside my crazy musical brain!’

JOHN DEBNEY

A musical chameleon, John Debney has composed music for over 100 films and shows in a variety of genres during his career that spans over three decades, including ‘The Passion of the Christ’, ‘Iron Man 2’, ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘The Princess Diaries’, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, ‘Sea Quest DSV’, ‘A Pup Named Scooby-Doo’, ‘Inspector Gadget’, and ‘The Ant Bully’, to name but a few.

For this class, the composer chose to analyse in detail three big genres: comedy, rom-com, and action. As such, Debney dissected a few of his memorable cues from films like ‘Liar Liar’, ‘Bruce Almighty’, ‘Isn’t It Romantic’, and ‘Iron Man 2’, providing aspiring film composers with advice on how to go about writing music for these genres and important aspects that need to be taken into consideration in each case.

Over the course of three and a half hours, the composer received a plethora of fantastic questions from ASMAC members and attendees alike, graciously answering each and every one of them and offering invaluable advice, as well as words of encouragement to aspiring film composers. He also elaborated on some of the challenges the industry is facing in the time of COVID-19 and how the musicians are adapting.

ASMAC Executive Board President, Gayle Levant, who is also Debney’s long-time friend and harpist on many of his films, joined the composer in reminiscing about their experience of working together. Among other things, she praised Debney for his professionalism, excellent conducting skills, and ability to keep calm in stressful situations.

JOHN DEBNEY PRESENTING DURING THE MASTER CLASS

There were two notable nuggets of wisdom the composer shared with the attendees that are perhaps the most important pieces of advice he has offered during the class. Firstly, Debney encouraged aspiring composers to ‘become the best composer you can become’ by learning all styles of music (even the ones they dislike), studying everything from how to write a melody, to counterpoint, orchestration, conducting and the ranges of each instrument, to work hard, be a good person, treat people well, and to always remain humble.

And secondly, following a question from an attendee regarding the toll that this profession can take on one’s mental health, Debney urged film composers to be disciplined, take care of themselves, make sure they have a great support system and not ‘take it so seriously that it will eat you alive’.

Needless to say, the hours flew by very quickly. The master class was a great opportunity for aspiring composers to get a sneak peek behind the curtain with one of the most successful composers in Hollywood and to learn a few tips and tricks on how to navigate this increasingly competitive landscape.

Now it is perhaps more important than ever to have access to such events, considering the exceptionally challenging times brought about by the pandemic. Not only do they provide attendees with invaluable and entertaining information, but they also help keep the community together and the conversation going on how industry professionals can adapt to the new normal.

To keep up to date with ASMAC future events, visit www.asmac.org, where you can also become a member, or follow their Eventbrite page.

And what a scrumptious hidden gem this is! Parody meets ridicule, and they’re both wrapped up in layers of spoof propaganda, mystery, and action, sprinkled with some comedy and sharp enough sneers to make Ronald Reagan and Nicolae Ceausescu and Mao Zedong cry somewhere deep in the beyond.

Amazon Studios’ ‘Comrade Detective’ (2017) is the show we never knew we needed in these trying times, as people throw words like ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’ around without fully understanding their meaning and complexity. And considering that it was mainly aimed at an American audience, I’d say creators Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka do a fine job of delivering not only the definitions but also the extremes of two political tenets that have been warring for decades: Communism and Capitalism.

‘COMRADE DETECTIVE’ (2017), ©ALEXANDRU IONITA/AMAZON STUDIOS

Pretending to be found footage of an ‘80s cop buddy TV series of the Romanian Communist era, ‘Comrade Detective’ has been curated and dubbed to fit more modern times. It also features a few hilarious introductions from Channing Tatum, who is also executive producer, and author Jon Ronson.

With a throng of beloved comedy actors dubbing the Romanian characters involved and accompanied by what I can only describe as the most decadent and cheesiest soundtrack, the show packs a funny but bitter pill to swallow. It makes light of both sides in terms of politics and ideology. The West versus the East wrestle behind the Iron Curtain of ‘80s Bucharest, Romania, where a killer wearing a Reagan mask wreaks havoc through the city and even through the ranks of local police.

‘COMRADE DETECTIVE’ (2017), ©AMAZON STUDIOS

Enter Gregor Anghel, splendidly portrayed by Florin Piersic Jr. and voiced by Channing Tatum, and Iosif Baciu, played by the uber-talented Corneliu Ulici and voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. One is a jaded detective who doesn’t always play by the rules, but he’s eager to avenge the murder of his dear colleague, Nikita Ionescu, at the hands of the Reagan killer. The other is a more empathetic and eager police officer who transferred from the countryside to the big city in order to avenge the murder of his dear childhood friend, Nikita Ionescu, at the hands of the Reagan killer. Their different personalities collide and become homogenized by their deep Communist values and their disdain of Capitalism.

Directed by Rhys Thomas of ‘Saturday Night Live’ fame, the series is a surprisingly tasteful pastiche that sort of claps back at the likes of ‘Red Dawn’ (1984) and ‘Rocky IV’ (1985) which, according to Mr Gatewood, was essentially propaganda in the United States at the height of the Cold War. Mr Tatum went on to remember his own childhood in the ‘80s, where virtually every movie had a Russian villain. With ‘Comrade Detective’, the writers decided to show the world what life would have been like for the ‘other side’, for the dreaded ‘Commies’—in an anything-but-serious fashion whilst also delivering a remarkably poignant message for America and the West, in general.

‘COMRADE DETECTIVE’ (2017), ©AMAZON STUDIOS

From an ideological perspective, both political establishments get skewered in this series. Russian Communism, for its indoctrination and often absurd, bloody extremes despite its otherwise good intentions, and American Capitalism, for its hypocrisy and lack of self-control, for its greed and absence of social justice. In the end, both dogmas are the villains, and their representatives are simply doing the best they can with what they are given, genuinely believing that their path is the righteous one. Though it pretends to portray the real Communist society of Romania from that period, ‘Comrade Detective’ treads gently when it comes to character development. Credit where it’s due, as Gatewood and Tanaka do a surprisingly good job of portraying a world that very few in the West ever got a chance to truly observe.

‘COMRADE DETECTIVE’ (2017), ©AMAZON STUDIOS

Of course, there are plenty of bloopers and minor inaccuracies, but I’ll forgive it all for how the writers treat their characters from beginning to end. There are twists and there are plenty of turns—not to mention questions. The villain is the psychopathic embodiment of American Capitalism, but we also get a reluctant yet helpful hand through Jane, Secretary-turned-Ambassador for the United States in Bucharest.

There is also a plethora of the chucklesome and the chilling along the way, too. While American viewers might find themselves forced to peer into an exaggerated mirror that shows the ugliest side of their culture, Romanian viewers will have a hard time letting go of the bitter taste of nostalgia. Few people miss that decade.

‘COMRADE DETECTIVE’ (2017), ©AMAZON STUDIOS

In terms of performances, Mr Piersic Jr. and Mr Ulici are exquisite loyal Communist cops with smart-ass jabs and multifaceted pasts. Olivia Nita is an intriguing Jane, additionally spiced up by SNL alumna Jenny Slate’s dubbing. And speaking of voice acting, this series managed to put together an impressive cast that includes Jason Mantzoukas, Fred Armisen, Chloë Sevigny, Nick Offerman, Beck Bennett, and Daniel Craig, to name but a few. The Romanian actors are equally stupendous—I was particularly impressed by Diana Vladu’s Sonya Baciu, Iosif’s loving and fiercely Communist wife. A Mexican proverb says that the house does not rest on the ground but rather on the shoulders of a woman—it certainly applies to Sonya.

With a score composed by Joe Kraemer of ‘Jack Reacher’ (2012) fame, ‘Comrade Detective’ aims to immerse its viewers into the gritty atmosphere of an era long gone. Quality-wise, the series is infinitely better than what Romanian studios would’ve been able to produce at the time. Sam Goldie, better known for his work on ‘Green Zone’ (2010) and ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ (2001), is the cinematographer in charge of rendering this delightfully fun morsel of lampooned propaganda. Worth noting here that the team behind this project, beginning with the writers and going all the way into the set decoration and costume departments, never aimed to spoof Communism as Americans but rather imagined themselves as the Communist Romanians who “created” it.

‘COMRADE DETECTIVE’ (2017), ©AMAZON STUDIOS

A tip of the hat goes to Dan Toader, production designer, also known for ‘What Happened to Monday’ (2017) and ‘The Sisters Brothers’ (2018). Drawing from reality and his own memories of the Communist period, Mr Toader finds the appropriate design and colour tone to make ‘Comrade Detective’ just a smidge more realistic. I find it easier to believe the story and its anything-but-subtle characters when everything around them reminds me of my own childhood.

But all the talents involved aside, I would like to go back to the idea behind this witty production, which was so simply and eloquently described by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in an article penned for IndieWire. It ‘isn’t only making fun of Eastern Bloc Communism. It takes a few shots at Western Capitalism, but in my opinion, that’s not it, either. There’s a different “ism” that I think it’s really getting at—tribalism.’

And in that sense, he couldn’t be more right. Yes, we can make fun of the silly woollen hats and the preposterous propaganda and the appreciation of televised chess matches as though they were Superbowl Sunday games, and we can make fun of the overweight Americans gorging on hamburgers and the summarily dressed American women who snicker at the ways of these backwards Communist ‘pieces of scum’, but we’d be blind to the bigger picture. Both sides wholeheartedly believe that their culture is the best and that everything else isn’t just wrong. It’s evil.

‘COMRADE DETECTIVE’ (2017), ©AMAZON STUDIOS

It’s enough to take a look around today and see how polarized the world has become. The Left versus the Right. Labour versus Conservatives in the United Kingdom. Democrats versus Republicans in the United States. Naturally, no one really likes the politics of life in this day and age, yet it has all become an integral part of our existence. We forget that what we do and who we are—regardless of our creeds and affiliations—wasn’t always this, and it won’t always be this, either. Policies change. The world itself changes.

And though ‘Comrade Detective’ addresses a society that is no longer there, we can’t help but look at it as a thinly veiled warning. It won’t be the resurgence of Communism or the malignancy of out-of-control Capitalism that will destroy us. It will be the aforementioned tribalism and our growing inability to look beyond our bubbles. In that sense, the series does raise a few queries.

How much of what we believe is actually ‘right’? How wrong are we in our ways, and we didn’t even know it? Given what a complicated year this has been thus far, I say it’s time we consider finding answers to these questions.

They say the best stories are true, and that stands surprisingly true in ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ (2019), by David Lowery. Based on David Grann‘s article of the same title from The New Yorker–which later made it into his second non-fiction book, ‘The Devil and Sherlock Holmes’, the movie tells the real life story of Forrest Tucker, charming old man and bank robber extraordinaire.

Written and directed by Lowery, ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ is an homage to both 1970s cinema and Robert Redford, who bows out gracefully in this last acting role at the age of 82, and with a titanic list of cinematic accomplishments. Among them are, naturally, an Academy Award for Best Director thanks to ‘Ordinary People’ (1980), a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (1969).

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

Filmed across the United States–mainly in Ohio and Texas, the film earned a series of glowing reviews, including a 93% score from Rotten Tomatoes, along with a Golden Globe nomination for Robert Redford’s performance. Its festival circuit reception was bright, as well, gathering nominations at the Cork International Film Festival, Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards, and the London Film Festival for directing, cinematography, and Best Film, respectively.

The story follows Forrest Tucker in the sunset of his life, working with his long-time crew of talented and resourceful criminal friends, as he continues to make the best use of his good looks, dapper sense of style, courteous approach and downright devilish charm to rob banks. He is, in fact, so good at what he does, that he doesn’t even use a gun–though he always brings it with him. It only serves the purpose of making a statement, at best. By the time he’s done, the bank managers and tellers only remember how nice he was, as they handed him thousands of dollars in cash.

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

Robert Redford plays Forrest Tucker by bringing in his signature flashing smiles and twinkling eyes, much in the way he played throughout the ’60s and ’70s, and we can’t help but love him for it. His character is tested when he crosses paths with John Hunt, played by Casey Affleck, the policeman who identified Tucker’s robbery patterns in the first place, and when he falls for Jewel, brilliantly portrayed by Sissy Spacek. Jewel loves Tucker, even though she knows exactly what he does for a living.

Danny Glover steps in as Teddy Green, and Tom Waits is John Waller, Tucker’s partners in crime. Green was an escape artist who met Tucker during his 1950s stint in Alcatraz, while Waller was Tucker’s escape mate when they fled San Quentin back in 1979. Thanks to Hunt’s detective work, they eventually became known as the Over-the-Hill Gang.

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

All in all, the cast is beyond illustrious, with four Academy Award winners–Robert Redford, Keith Carradine, Sissy Spacek, and Casey Affleck, plus one nominee, Tom Waits. 

The story takes us to 1981, and its entire production is a combination of classic cinematography methods combined with modern technology, which not only accomplishes a faithful rendition of that time, it also takes us deep into its folds.

Much like Affleck’s character, we, too, find ourselves impressed by Tucker’s ability to elude the law and get bank staff to basically give him the money without a single objection. Of course, only part of that is owed to the true story of Forrest Tucker. The rest is all Robert Redford’s superior acting. Even in the twilight of his career, Redford stands out, capable of becoming a man who fascinated the world and gathered flashy headlines in the media for years.

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

What is most loved about Redford’s portrait of Forrest Tucker is the way in which he brings out the old robber’s philosophy–you see, Tucker didn’t rob banks to make a living. He did it because it made him feel alive. It was his way of experiencing life to its fullest, a constant cycle of stealing and doing time and escaping from high security prisons, simply because he could. Much like Redford, Tucker’s career also spanned decades.

Sissy Spacek’s Jewel captures our hearts as much as it does Tucker’s. Her onscreen chemistry with Redford is simply undeniable, and we cannot help but root for these two as a couple. Despite Tucker’s criminal endeavours, we wish for their happy ending. To some level, even Hunt has a slight hesitation when it comes to capturing him–a man like Forrest Tucker is such a unique character to come across.

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

However, it isn’t just the performances that stand out here. Along with the film score, composed by Daniel Hart, Joe Anderson’s cinematography is a masterpiece of camera movements and montages that are each worth their own round of applause. Worth noting is the fact that Daniel Lowery tends to work with the same industry talents on most of his projects so far–likely because their collaborations have been successful on a professional level, and that he trusts them. For instance, Hart also composed the scores for ‘Pete’s Dragon’ (2016) and ‘A Ghost Story’ (2017), while Anderson did the cinematography for ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ (2013), where Lowery also worked with Casey Affleck. Naturally, ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ was bound by synergy from pre-production.

The cinematography is stupendous, to say the least, as Lowery and Anderson managed to shoot a film with plenty of car chases, crashes and stunts, and made it look and feel authentic, even though they only had an independent film budget to work with. Anderson’s expertise and Lowery’s experience came together to complete one another, delivering a true work of audiovisual distinction.

‘The Old Man and the Gun’ was filmed on Super 16mm film, a challenge to which Anderson rose proficiently. Combined with a series of superb montages and long panoramic shots, the movie was enhanced by the older, classic look with a grainy feel and exquisite colorization by Alex Bickel, best known for his work on ‘Moonlight’ (2018).

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

Zoom shots were key, included by Lowery early on into the script, and seamlessly executed by Anderson. Both knew they would be the best and most heartfelt manner of bringing back the stately charm of ’70s cinema, to which Robert Redford is anything but a stranger. 

Loved by viewers and critics alike, the montages play a crucial part in understanding Redford’s character. A gargantuan amount of work and detailed planning went into them, especially considering the medium they filmed in–Super 18 requires great care and attention, as well as a hefty amount of additional editing in post-production. 

The crown jewel of ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ was definitely the last montage, a masterpiece comprising mostly from scenes where Redford’s character is shot from the back or a partial side, forcing us to imagine a younger Redford without actually seeing him clearly. However, there is one sequence where we do see him, and it was borrowed from one of his older films–specifically, Arthur Penn’s ‘The Chase’ (1966), a classic to this day. This assortment of flashbacks tells us about Forrest Tucker through his numerous escapes from prison, that he is relentless in his quest for freedom to do and live as he pleases.

Moving on from the beautiful cinematography, it is worth giving David Lowery an appreciative nod for the references to Redford’s younger days, including the opening credits which so aptly remind us of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (1969). Such ‘Easter eggs’ were absolutely wonderful additions to what is Redford’s last performance and a sweet farewell that stays true to the onscreen persona he has bewitched us with for so many years.

CREDIT: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION

‘The Old Man and the Gun’ is, by all intents and purposes, the masterful adieu that both Robert Redford and Forrest Tucker deserved. A legend plays a legend in this ‘dramedy’ that weaves threads of the past into the present to depict a single man’s ambition to live his life to the fullest, criminal record be damned.

It will not come as a surprise, then, to learn that Redford was the one who approached Lowery about adapting David Grann’s New Yorker article, though it did take quite a few drafts to create the kind of Forrest Tucker that Tucker himself would’ve wanted to see. The actor then had to step into the man’s shoes, to the collective elation of many.

Despite its independent budget and its modest opening weekend of just $142,000 in a limited release, ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ reached a gross $16 million worldwide budget. It couldn’t have been an easy feat, and it’s reasonable to assume that Redford’s name played a principal role in the marketing strategy, but the success is also attributed to David Lowery’s writing and directing. He is one of the best filmmakers of today, with a wide range of interests and a tendency to make liberal use of multiple media styles to tell stories.

His is a promising talent, and we hope to see more of him soon. Given his current track record, Lowery stands to leave quite the imprint on the world of cinema. There wasn’t a better director for Robert Redford to work with for his last performance, and ‘The Old Man and the Gun’ proves it.