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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you, like most film score fans, are mesmerized by Trevor Jones' more majestic title themes of noble brass and high strings. Avoid it... if you found nothing attractive in Jones' title theme for Last of the Mohicans, a very close cousin to the dominant theme for Cliffhanger. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Jones has proven in the years since that he is one of the kings of lofty, major-key string themes, and although many of them do indeed sound much alike when you compare them, their sheer majesty often outweighs their faults. For listeners who believe Last of the Mohicans to be sacred, then the thematic overlap could very well ruin the Cliffhanger score in sum, though this would be doing an enormous disservice to the remainder of the score, most of which is quite invigorating and harmonically pleasing. Anyone who has seen Cliffhanger will have the title theme imprinted upon their memory for quite some time. Its expansive, melodramatic structure serves two purposes. Obviously, its major-key performances are a perfect fit for the stunning footage of the peaks you witness in the opening sequence. Throughout the film, Jones continues to insert snippets of this magnificent theme whenever a great vista shot is presented. Additionally, it has a tragic element to its strictly-translated minor-key variations, representing the incredible loss that the primary character faces at the outset of the film and his bittersweet return to the same mountains during the terrorists' activities. The most effective minor-key dramatics with this theme grace the middle portions of "End Credits." A crisp and expansive recording of the London Philharmonic adds a vibrant sense of importance to this theme and several other major cues in the score. When the tempo is increased in between primary trumpet statements of the theme, Jones inserts an strangely gregarious sequence that hints strongly of James Horner's The Rocketeer (listen for it at 2:15 in the opening cue). Darker variations of the title theme act as interludes for the tense situations in the plot, as well as an extension of the somewhat downplayed romantic undertones of the story. A theme for Lithgow's crew of criminals has a twist of Michael Kamen's Die Hard music to it, but Jones takes this harmonic theme through ominously clever rhythmic variations with bold brass tones to match the bad attitude. This theme is presented fully in "Tolerated Help," a delightfully menacing cue (if such a thing can exist), and can be heard in fragmented forms in "Icy Stream" and "Helicopter Flight." While the thematic merging in the former cue is more masterful from a technical standpoint, the "Helicopter Flight" cue is a powerhouse that moves with rambunctious, percussion aided rhythms familiar to Jerry Goldsmith's career (in fact, several parts of this score, including the title theme, would seem to have influenced The Edge) and deliberate brass accents in that rhythm that are a trademark of Alan Silvestri's work. The connections to Goldsmith would continue into "End Credits," which features a middle section that will juggle the thematic ideas with a sensibility of class and instrumentation that Goldsmith fans will appreciate. The middle sequences of the score, particularly after the crash landing of the terrorist plane, are irregular in their quality. With the scenes of brutal violence, there are some obnoxious moments of blaring brass and dissonant string shrieks. While the more non-descript cues of treachery and endurance are miles away from the sincerity of a score like Thirteen Days, they fit the simplistic characters of Cliffhanger's plot well enough. There is a very minimal and barely noticeable electronic accompaniment to the score, providing ambience to two or three later cues. In the end, there is no doubt that those who will seek this album (which fell out of print in the late 1990's) are motivated by the memorable title theme. No matter your view of whether or not composers should recycle their own material, Jones' title theme for Cliffhanger stands on its own as a remarkable piece, and an often enjoyable action underscore will maintain your interest in between the theme's statements. ****
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