Buy it... if you're tired of hearing underpowered and uninspired action music from Michael Kamen's career, for The Iron Giant is immensely resounding in its constructs, performances, and recording.

Avoid it... if you prefer your animation scores to maintain strong thematic coherency instead of providing a different mini-symphony for each cue.

Kamen

The Iron Giant: (Michael Kamen) In an era when animated films were utilizing the best of three dimensional rendering to transcend the limitations of hand-drawn cells, The Iron Giant was an extreme throwback. Warner Brothers had a wretched history of cinematic animation over the previous two decades, and coupled with this film's sparse and flat drawing, it was a momentous surprise when The Iron Giant turned out to be so good. Directed by "The Simpsons" veteran Brad Bird, the film's greatest strength was it honest, well written story. A young boy in 1957 Maine discovers, saves, and befriends a 100-foot robot that has crashed from outer space, teaching him about the world and eventually trying to prevent the robot from running afoul with local populations and the skittish military. Its intelligence and keen sense of pacing, combined with an interesting historical setting and solid exploration of societal mores, launched The Iron Giant to almost universal critical success. The fact that it didn't really compete in the mainstream against Disney and others in the summer of 1999 may have been because the quality of the visuals were so tied to yesteryear, but the fact that the film isn't a musical may have also played a role. The Iron Giant marked the only time that Michael Kamen ventured into the animation genre, but after a decade of somewhat flimsy action scoring, fans of the composer loved what they heard. Some maintain that this score is the very best of Kamen's career, and while on a technical and orchestration level that may be true, the score lacks a cohesive appeal that lasts long after it finishes its run. The director instructed Kamen to capture the essence of Bernard Herrmann for The Iron Giant, and in terms of the complexity of his structures, Kamen succeeded brilliantly. He was in a period of his career when he was heavily involved with symphonies and other non-film music work, and The Iron Giant reflects many of the characteristics of a traditional, classical symphony. Fans of classical music may notice some inspiration from Tchaikowsky, among others.

Two important aspects of the recording process for The Iron Giant have an impact on its character as well. First, its performance by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which contained mostly the same musicians as the City of Prague Philharmonic that soundtrack compilation fans are familiar with, is top notch. The recording of the enthusiastic ensemble is impressively balanced, even during the brief moments of synthetic contributions. During the sequences of full ensemble bombast, the resounding depth and clarity of the percussion and brass sections specifically are astonishing. Secondly, Kamen conducted the score without using a screen with which to synchronize the music with the scenes for each cue. This was done because Kamen's style of writing for the film was that of a free-flowing symphony rather than a Carl Stalling-method of exactly matching the action on screen (despite the playful, Stalling-like "Come and Get It" and "Car and Mouse" cues). When you step back and try to define The Iron Giant as a whole, you don't have the luxury of hearing themes and motifs integrated obviously into the fabric of the score. There is little coordinated development or foreshadowing that occurs throughout the work. Instead, Kamen tackles the needs of each scene individually, using a "stream of consciousness" kind of process to address the emotions of a situation rather than an overarching concept. That said, Kamen does create themes for the robot and for the little boy. The former is given a four-note motif that is heard in "The Eye of the Storm," "You Can Fix Yourself?," and "The Last Giant Piece," while the latter receives a theme in "Hogarth Hughes" that melds into several forms that make up "Bedtime Stories" and other sensitive entries. Both of these themes are typically addressed by woodwinds and other lighter instruments that, with the help of the ample reverb mixed into the score, causes their statements to be masked by surrounding material. If you're looking for obvious superhero-like thematic development, or even any easily discernable motif to take with you from The Iron Giant, you'll be disappointed.

	Only $9.99

Two additional, more general styles inhabit the middle and latter portions of the score. The militaristic sequences are given flute-wailing, snare-ripping marches that play well to the generic, faceless nature of the force. The jazz elements, highlighted by the contributions of a single bass, are a more curious part of the score. Beginning in "We Gotta Hide" and representing the middle section of the album that ties to the Dean character, these modestly swinging vintage jazz cues are incongruous with the surrounding material, and while there's nothing inherently wrong with the way Kamen handled these passages, they do beg to be skipped for the sake of a consistent listening experience. That experience is still, in general, very impressive. One of the problems that Kamen often had with his action material of the 1990's was a lack of power; this was painfully evident outside of the "Overture" in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and in the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon sequels. He finally burst out of that rut with his splendid replacement score for What Dreams May Come, and that electric atmosphere --both harmonic and dissonant-- continues in The Iron Giant. It's disappointing to look back and see that these two superior scores didn't translate into widespread success for X-Men. As for The Iron Giant, it is an awfully impressive album. There will always be lingering questions about the lack of melodic integration and development, however. The score relies on its sheer weight to define itself, and because of its great recording and creative orchestrations, it works. It remains difficult not to speculate about how immensely rewarding The Iron Giant might have been if the themes for the boy and robot were better enunciated. Some might say that such catering is unnecessary and among the impressive aspects of the score. But without readily identifiable themes, the score has no calling card outside of its huge heart. The album is a lengthy 50-minute presentation due to lower re-use fees of the Czech performers at the time, and has a hidden surprise at the end of the final track. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Michael Kamen reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.14 (in 14 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.22 (in 32,684 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.