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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
"All I can tell you is right now as I'm sitting here is I've been sitting here for three days trying to write a great theme. I think all of that should be in capital letters -- A GREAT THEME. That's what you do at the beginning of these projects. You sit there and you try to write The Great Theme. It's very elusive. It tortures me and it tortures everybody around me. People don't even go near this room while I'm writing The Theme. And I haven't found it yet, so of course I'm in a complete panic, just like always. I always go through this stage. I don't have any time. I on purpose haven't looked at the calendar because that would be too terrifying. It's bad enough trying to write The Theme. It's even worse to try to have reality creep into this process. Reality is definitely the enemy in this case." For both followers of Hans Zimmer's music, as well as those who both respect and follow epic war films, the composer's finished score for Pearl Harbor needs to be evaluated with the above statements in mind. If you were not aware of the rushed circumstance of this score's creation, admittedly caused in part by Zimmer's toil with the composition of the main theme, then you might easily criticize it as an overly-simplistic and inadequate effort. With so much time spent in agony over the creation of the title theme, and not enough time to boost the rest of the score, the listener and movie-goer will get exactly what is the be expected: a great theme and nothing else. The entire score seems stuck in the conceptualization stage, needing another month of orchestration and fleshing out into the full beauty that the film undoubtedly requires. The heart is there, but the body is severely lacking, causing the music to sound underscored and poorly orchestrated for an undersized performing group. The inadequte size of the score may be a result of Michael Bay's request, however like Ridley Scott, Bay is the type of director who unleashes the composer to create the music unbothered until the editing process begins. The album is a delightful listen. It is a lighter rendition of Zimmer's brooding House of the Spirits, which relied on a similar blend of orchestral and synthetic. The "GREAT THEME" is indeed very romantic and emotionally charged in its base, and its lengthy repetitions throughout the score make the rather short album a very pleasant background experience. With the electronics guiding much of the score, the album plays like a Vangelis sort of new age and film music hybrid, with a few flairs of typical Zimmer sampling thrown in for flavor. The greatly unfortunate aspect of Pearl Harbor is that it has absolutely nothing patriotic, warlike, or time-sensitive about it. This music could accompany a Free Willy film without much alteration. I was shocked to discover that one of Zimmer's trusty trademarks, the heroic trumpet solo, which goes back to some of the best, greatly heroic cues of Backdraft and Crimson Tide, is absent throughout 98% of this score. There is also no snare until the very end... no percussive element to represent the (first) bloated and (finally) defeated glory of the Americans. There is no brass worth speaking of in any part of the score, with only a few token trumpet performances represented on the final cue of the album. Outside of a strong, but still inadequate percussive, rhythm accompanying the Japanese preparations for flight, the ethnic side of the score is also very underdeveloped. It is impossible to consider the scope of Zimmer's score for Pearl Harbor without recalling the acclaimed and highly effective Jerry Goldsmith score for the last (and greatest) film ever portraying the events of the attack, Tora! Tora! Tora!. The most obvious difference between the scores and film is the romantic approach taken for the sappy modern audiences of Pearl Harbor as opposed to the straight documentary format of the drama in Tora! Tora! Tora!. The Goldsmith score was ethnically precise and lacked any romantic or upbeat sequences because of the simple, but seemingly forgotten, fact that the Americans were so thoroughly whipped that there was little to be proud of. Zimmer's modern score gets caught up in the romantic hype of the character drama and therefore loses both the ethnic edge and dramatic scope needed for the film. Zimmer provides no sense of loss, no sense of shock, no sense of anger... no sense of anything that the attack survivors were actually feeling. The first Pearl Harbor trailer's use of the third track from Zimmer's The Thin Red Line is a better accompaniment for any particular scene before the attack than what was provided for the film itself. This score gives you no impression that something important --an event that would shape an entire generation, and the only attack ever launched upon American soil-- is happening. It is music that could have worked in Backdraft, House of the Spirits or even Gladiator. Likewise, it is not a score that will stand out in Zimmer's illustrious career. Perhaps the most unbelievable mistake about the score and album is its reliance on the under-educated ears of modern audiences. Zimmer's music is not what a person would have heard in 1941. Nor is the Faith Hill song. The most blatant mistake the handling of Pearl Harbor's music is its total disregard for the time in which it is set. The score was recorded with a very minimal orchestra, with the bulk of sound being added with keyboards across town at Media Ventures. If any one film in the past five years desperately requires a fully orchestral score, then a film about Pearl Harbor would be it. In fact, there was never any doubt in the minds of many critics months ahead of time that the score would have to be orchestral in order to suffice. The reason for this electronic blunder is perhaps the time factor, or perhaps the style of a Michael Bay film. Did someone forget that traditional orchestral bands were actually playing the national anthem on the decks of the ships as the attack commenced? It surely wasn't an electric keyboard. As for the Faith Hill song, it is an obvious attempt by Warner Brothers to take one of its artists and shove a rock song down the throat of a film for which it doesn't work. Doesn't anyone remember the album and score for The Rocketeer, which essentially proved that songs from the period could be very well reproduced for more modern ears? The Hill song is fine. Come to think of it, the song is very good. But do you think that surviving veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack are going to sit around and listen to it? Maybe none of these producers ever heard John Williams' "Hymn to the Fallen" at the end of Saving Private Ryan, a fine example of an orchestral and choral tribute to the fallen soldier. Faith Hill does not compare. This music is not terrible. Hans Zimmer's Pearl Harbor will likely be a deserving and frequent listen for many film score fans. The album is constructed well, although it is short in length and slight on volume. Zimmer did indeed accomplish his task of composing a beautiful theme, which is spectacularly performed with his keyboards and a small orchestra in the fourth track. But he stopped there, perhaps due to time, perhaps due to commercialization, perhaps by mistake. Someone would have a very difficult time convincing me that the studio ran out of money before it could allot the money for a contract with the London Symphony Orchestra on this project. If the underscoring of Pearl Harbor was due to a lack of time, then perhaps we can try to forget a great lost opportunity and move on. If the blunder was made by someone's choice, then the score for Pearl Harbor is an epic failure, an inexcusable and shortsighted move with no respect for history. The only redeeming element outside of the score's great themes was the occasional use of a choir, but even this is underplayed outside of the seventh track. Overall, this score and album will be an extreme disappointment for nearly any historian or fan of serious, dramatic film. Even coming from someone who didn't have high expectations for the score in the first place, I was startled by its misdirection. It isn't bad music; it's simply the wrong music.
Score as Heard on Album: **** Score Rating Overall: ***
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