Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if solid action scores excite you despite their somewhat underdeveloped electronic rendering, or if you wish to hear Mark Mancina's debut on the big stage. Avoid it... if you prefer the more established and matured Media Ventures-related sound that would develop for action films a few years after Speed. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Speed: (Mark Mancina) The Jan De Bont action blockbuster Speed was a financial champion of the 1994 summer season, spurring the careers of its two young lead actors, confirming actor Dennis Hopper as an expert at portraying freaks, and inspiring a sequel on the high seas. The premise of Speed was an original one, forcing a group of frightened urbanites to drive their city bus faster than a certain speed or be destroyed by a bomb planted underneath them. Another would-be composer branching off from the rock group "Yes" (joining Trevor Rabin), keyboardist Mark Mancina debuted in the mainstream with his first major solo film score for Speed. Mancina would eventually be recognized as one of the more successful artists to walk through the doors of Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures composing house (though existing really only on the periphery of that group), and part of that success was due to Mancina's head start on many of the mainstay artists of that production factory. Mancina was heavily influenced by Zimmer's style of combining synthesizers and orchestras, and he continued to develop ideas that crossed between both genres for several years. His score for Speed was effective in its capacity to generate excitement (and it was therefore a strong piece of music for the film), but it is even more of an interesting case study of how the general Media Ventures sound got started. Zimmer had already established his dominance over the synthetic realm, and, by 1994, had produced the largely electronic Beyond Rangoon with an elegant mastery of his machinery. For Mancina's Speed, however, you had the opportunity to hear structural ideas and electronic sampling that was in their infancy. Many of the rhythmic loops, electronic substitutes for real instruments, as well as musical sound effects, are all recognizable from later staples of the Media Ventures studio. Aside from Zimmer, it would take the other similar composers another few years before their electronic output would mature into the form that most listeners grew accustomed to. While The Rock was really the coming out party for such enthusiasts, Mancina's own Twister would offer a more sophisticated blend of that matured electronic sound along with the orchestral ensemble in the same year. The simplicity of the sounds in Speed do not detract from the score's ultimate achievement in the film, but their deficiencies do surface when hearing the score on album. On paper, the music for Speed is well written, with several effective motifs assembled around a decent action theme. This theme is performed with noble intentions as the opening credits role through an elevator shaft. A delicate piano and string performance of this theme is offered in the end titles cue. It is a surprisingly compelling identity for an otherwise brainless film. Short adaptations of this theme appear during the softer sequences in the film, leaving the cohesion of the action material up to Mancina's secondary, underlying motif. This eight-note keyboarded motif is sharp in performance and is varied in tempo throughout the score to fit into nearly every cue. Despite its simplicity, it works better than the title theme in holding the work together. The scenes on board the speeding bus at the heart of Speed inspire the best action music from Mancina for the project, with the rescue cue (appearing in the second position on the album) presenting a lengthy series of satisfying thematic performances. The rhythmic loops are typically strong during the later scenes of the bus' journey, however other portions of the film suffer from an arrhythmic, more dissonant personality. The difficult side of the Speed score is the fact that it is not as fleshed out as it could have been. As mentioned before, the synthesized representations of real instruments were not as well developed in 1994 and thus, some of the jumpy keyboarding and striking electronic cello renderings are badly dated. The percussive elements were already well enough established to compensate for the lack of the Media Ventures bass that rumbled through all of their later action scores. One notable sound effect heard throughout the work is one of declining pitch that very well represents the appropriate sound of a passing air horn. The album presentation is rearranged from film order to emphasize the four or five best cues at the beginning. After these true highlights, the album degenerates into more mindless territory before finishing with the beautiful performance of the title theme over the end credits. Overall, it's a worthy action score, if not a bit underdeveloped, and it represented an impressive debut for Mancina on the big stage. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 40:30
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