: (Hans Zimmer/Lorne Balfe) When
screenwriter Peter Morgan translated the famous 1977 interviews of
disgraced former president Richard Nixon by British talk show host David
Frost into a London and Broadway play, several Tony award nominations
were the result. Many liberties were taken with the six hours of filmed
content that caused quite a stir in the media that year, with some
circumstances relating to sequences and exact content rearranged to make
the play more dramatically appealing. When Ron Howard used the same
Morgan screenplay for his 2008 awards-season film adaptation of the
production, he inherited not only the two lead actors from the show, but
also the same historical inaccuracies. Regardless of the finer points
involving the liberties taken with the content,
still
serves to humanize Nixon in a way that the interview broadcasts
succeeded in accomplishing. Rather than treating the reviled former
president as a larger-than-life figure, as had been done in Oliver
Stone's 1995 film about the man, Howard continues to show the
vulnerabilities of Nixon despite his immense and stubborn intellect. The
play obviously had no use for the kind of music that would be necessary
for the film, and Howard turned to his
collaborator, Hans Zimmer, to create music that would
compliment the tone of the interview process without contributing a
melodramatic atmosphere to their otherwise low-key, intelligent
jousting. The music for any film based on the subtle, verbal battles of
two men is a daunting task, and pictures like
are not
generally known for their scores unless that music intrudes on the
content in a negative way.
For avoiding this pitfall entirely, Zimmer and his
long-time associate Lorne Balfe alone earn considerable praise. They
managed to create a largely atmospheric, but not automatically dull
score that accentuates the sense of anticipation in the interview
process without ever rising to levels of dramatic interference that
would draw attention to itself. Some listeners may find this approach
too subtle for their liking, writing off the score as dull when
comparing it to Zimmer's other, far more hyperactive material of the
year. But this score is too surprisingly smart to dismiss it with such
haste. There is little in the score for
Frost/Nixon that breaks
new stylistic ground for Zimmer. Instead, the effectiveness of the
mostly themeless music exists in the careful rendering of those sounds
heard before in the composer's career. This is a score of rhythm. In
fact, everything about it revolves around the concept of momentum. It
senses the importance of the interview and perpetually builds movement
towards the inevitable moment when Nixon finally apologizes to the
country for some of his Watergate-related transgressions. Frosts'
personality is well suited for this sense of growing urgency, as the
interviews would help catapult his status to much higher levels. The
form that these rhythms take depends on the perspective of the
individual scenes, but they can range from Thomas Newman-like electric
bass and clanging of unconventional sounds to the more recognizable
churning on low strings that has defined much of Zimmer's recent career.
Both ends of the spectrum are satisfying. The latter reprises hints of
the ostinato structures heard in
The Da Vinci Code and the
composer's two
Batman scores, exemplified by resilient
performances in "Watergate" and "Pardon the Phlebitis."
More interesting than Zimmer's usual employment of
cellos and bass strings, in many ways, is the more flamboyant side of
this mechanically rhythmic construct, as heard in "Beverly Hilton,"
"Insanely Risky," and "Research Montage." These three cues are highly
engaging in their suave, but still restrained demeanor; their sense of
style creates an allure that has been missing from so many other recent
Zimmer scores that attempt to generate movement through similar
ostinatos. The singular "Cambodia" cue offers the score's only lush
moment of reflection, and it reminds of the highlights of
The House
of the Spirits and other early Zimmer dramas. Aiding in the sense of
the inevitable in
Frost/Nixon is the use of ticking percussion,
especially in the early cues on the album presentation. This "time bomb"
effect contributes to the sense that many viewers had when watching the
interviews that Nixon's overconfidence would eventually lead to a
meaningful admission. Indeed, this effect very smartly weaves in and out
of the mix for specific moments of setup and sparring in the film.
Ultimately,
Frost/Nixon represents what early supporters of
Zimmer's career have been longing for over the past ten years: style and
intelligence in construct and tone. It's ironic that with so much news
generated by the Oscar ineligibility (and eventual eligibility) of
Zimmer and James Newton Howard's popular but intellectually devoid
The Dark Knight, this score by the former and
Defiance by
the latter are far better representatives of the composers at their
best. You indeed need to exercise patience when first listening to
Frost/Nixon, because by its nature it establishes an ambient mood
rather than a truly lasting impression. This is the best that any
composer could have accomplished with this script, and it's especially
satisfying to see Zimmer's name attached to it.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.94
(in 96 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.97
(in 273,970 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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