Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you listen regularly to The Rock and seek a compilation of the best parts of that score slightly restructured into a more listenable package. Avoid it... if the Hans Zimmer style of powerful masculinity, simple harmonies, and synthetic constructs doesn't fit your notion of a period film score. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Man in the Iron Mask: (Nick Glennie-Smith) It had been nearly twenty years since the last of Alexandre Dumas' novels about the famed Musketeers was translated to the big screen. The 1998 film The Man in the Iron Mask represented screenwriter Randall Wallace's directorial debut; his only other film at the helm over the following ten years would be We Were Soldiers. His own screenplay based on Dumas' material would fail in its attempt to squeeze so many plot elements into one film, and with its poor character development and relative lack of action, The Man in the Iron Mask would travel only as far as its five major male leads could take it. Ultimately, that journey wouldn't last long, and part of the film's lack of longevity was due to critics' bashing of the film's modern edge. Wallace was keen on bringing that updated style to 1662 France, and one member of his production team who was thoroughly modern was composer Nick Glennie-Smith. A graduate of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures team, Glennie-Smith had arranged and contributed music for a variety of Zimmer's mid-1990's projects. His most notable role would be in the 1996 score for The Rock, and his was involvement in that score that would land him in The Man in the Iron Mask by Wallace's request. The assignment would immediately raise eyebrows, for Glennie-Smith was obviously one of the last people to be associated with period music at a time when Patrick Doyle, George Fenton, James Newton Howard, and David Hirschfelder were dominating the genre with superior results. Despite suggestions by Glennie-Smith that he looked to Handel and Haydn (among other classical composers) for inspiration in composing this score, any competent pair of veteran film music ears will, by contradiction, identify the inspiration as none other than Zimmer. This score is nothing more than an extension of The Lion King and The Rock, with some poor attempts at baroque dance music that sounds anything other than genuine. Nevertheless, the important aspect of The Man in the Iron Mask to keep in mind was that the masculine sound of Hans Zimmer's Crimson Tide was extremely popular at the time, and as such, this score was greeted with great enthusiasm by listeners wanting to hear the power of The Rock without the wailing electric guitars. In retrospect, The Man in the Iron Mask is far less satisfying. Golden Age film music collectors identified the problems with the score immediately in 1998, and with the stagnant Zimmer sound bothering some of the younger generation in the following years, scores like this one are simply too repetitive. Its themes are extremely simplistic in their harmonic progressions. The primary theme, heard boldly in "Surrounded" and a few places thereafter, is a simple re-working of the title theme for The Rock, with most of the instrumentation left intact. Casual ears, in fact, will not be able to discern any difference between the opening tracks of the two scores. A secondary theme that dominates "The Ascension" shares significant chord progressions with the "wondrous" theme from The Lion King. A flute theme introduced at the end of "All for One" is almost identical in structure and performance to the similar Irish-styled theme in The Rock. Remaining themes in The Man in the Iron Mask will all raise comparisons to other Zimmer scores, including fragments from Backdraft. Most striking is the use of the electronic bass, guitars, synthetic keyboarding, and trademark deep male chorus in a period film; this instrumentation, while combined well with a traditional ensemble (closer in style to The Lion King's combo sound), will simply not suffice for the 17th Century for some listeners. Glennie-Smith and Wallace contemplated licensing symphonic performances of Handel and Haydn for the handful of cues in the score that simply could not use portions of The Rock, but Glennie-Smith decided in the end to attempt recreations himself. This was an unfortunate move, and his lack of style in his baroque imitations causes three almost laughable cues on album. On the positive side, however, Glennie-Smith did indeed take that powerful and modern Zimmer style of action and package it into one of the most easily digestible forms until Zimmer would do so again himself in King Arthur several years later. If you can turn off your brain and forget the score's constantly derivative nature, it's a surprisingly enjoyable listening experience. It may be dumb, but it accomplishes what Wallace wanted. Over its 50 minutes on album, it will provide a "best of" compilation of ideas from The Rock, with filler material that is sufficient outside of the baroque attempts. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 50:34
All artwork and sound clips from The Man in the Iron Mask are Copyright © 1998, Milan Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 3/25/98, updated 7/6/07. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1998-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
