 |
|
| Jones |
|
|
Cliffhanger: (Trevor Jones) One of those guilty
pleasures that you often see on television regularly,
Cliffhanger
showcases the vein-popping Sylvester Stallone as a reluctant, mountain
climbing hero who thwarts a stereotypical plot of terrorist hijacking
gone awry in a spectacular remote setting. For many viewers, the film's
campy habits and fallacies of logic are more than compensated for by a
few key positives; first is John Lithgow's delightfully wicked
performance as the treacherous ringleader of the terrorists. Second is
the remarkable photography of the peaks on which the story unfolds.
Finally, Trevor Jones' soaring orchestral score is a prominent aspect of
the film's soundscape, standing alone the overall audio mix for extended
sequences. Still, while the film landed with a splash in 1993, the
competition with
Jurassic Park simultaneously in the theatres
caused
Cliffhanger to fade somewhat into the ranks of less known
action blockbusters. While it was difficult to compete with John
Williams' adventurous score as well, Jones was hot at the time. He had
just emerged from a disjointed project with Randy Edelman,
Last of
the Mohicans, which had ironically turned into an incredible success
in sales of the album for that score. In fact, the award-nominated
Last of the Mohicans would continue to sell so well on CD in the
subsequent decade (and almost completely due to Jones' music and not
Edelman's) that the immediately following
Cliffhanger has been
forced into relative obscurity. Interestingly, with
Cliffhanger
would come a theme strikingly similar to the that of
Last of the
Mohicans, too similar in fact for some listeners to tolerate.
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.
****
| Bias Check: | For Trevor Jones reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 4 (in 14 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.72
(in 21,469 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
