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Twister: (Mark Mancina) Written by Michael Crichton and
his wife, Ann-Marie Martin, the preposterous but entertaining
Twister
competed well with the likes of
Independence Day and
The Rock
during a busy 1996 summer season. The disaster film contained the same
nonstop pacing as Jan De Bont's previous adventure,
Speed, and
through the sheer energy of that tempo and a few mind-boggling special
effects,
Twister was eye candy at its best. The affable duo of Helen
Hunt and Bill Paxton lead a group of storm chasers on a mission to release a
scientific instrument in the eye of a tornado that promises to yield
incredible new information about the storms. While the disaster flick
achieved mainstream success in both the short and long term, the music for
the film was equally attractive to audiences. For the most part, this
attraction led to the high sales of the rock song compilation album for
Twister. The film was heavy with rock song use, mixing the songs and
hyperactive orchestral score in an often choppy moment to moment set of
transitions. The song compilation album immediately hit the charts at the
film's opening, while score fans were forced to wait several months to enjoy
Mark Mancina's work for the film on its own. Not only was the summer of 1996
a bonanza for big budget action films, but it also served as a formal
introduction to the Media Ventures breakthrough in scoring technology. The
previous year, Hans Zimmer had introduced his electronic scoring mastery for
the first time in
Crimson Tide, arguably in its most successful and
masculine action form. The next summer, both
The Rock and
Twister would extend that sound into the mainstream for good. Much of
the post-production crew for the two scores overlapped. On Mancina's part,
he built upon his style in
Speed and combined the electronic
percussion and guitars with an orchestral, Western-rhythm score that worked
well when allowed to in the film. For traditional score fans, the resulting
sound was easier to grasp than
The Rock due to that loyalty to
orchestra and choir.
As is the problem with many of Mancina's scores, however,
Twister suffers from a hokey feeling of simplicity resulting from the
fact that it neither excels to greatness at either the orchestral nor the
electronic. Mancina, like many who have spun off from the 1990's Zimmer
school of scoring, has the ability to flash greatness in his cues, with
stunning results both in the film and later on album. At the same time, he
is also capable, as heard in parts of
Twister, of spinning some
nearly disastrous counterthemes with his electronics. In this case, the base
orchestral score is very strong, with a more than adequate Western theme for
the story's primary movement sequences, and a handful of substantially
developed subthemes exist to represent the characters. The only weaknesses
of these themes is their unrelenting, repetitive use, squeezed in between
songs in the films as though Mancina was attempting to battle those songs by
making every moment of the score identifiable as a distinct, non-song
element. The first and sixteenth tracks on album (for the opening and
finale) offer robust, rousing performances of the themes, with the opening
presenting the title theme with almost Bruce Broughton-like Western bravado.
Unfortunately, the theme is recycled to its own death throughout every chase
cue, leaving Mancina's best work for the film in the form of the choral
subtheme representing the tornadoes. While most listeners are likely to
remember the score for
Twister by the snazzy electric guitars in the
middle chase scenes, the guitars are best utilized in synchrony with the
L.A. Master Chorale in performing the low rumbles and sinking motif presented
by the bass strings and low woodwinds for the impending arrival of the
tornadoes. These ominous sounds often resemble snarling creatures when
merged with the final sound effects within the film, and are arguably the
best use of music for the advancement of the story. The effect ends the film
with a faint, dying performance that reminds us well that there will indeed
be another tornado season next year.
A certain amount of choral awe, additionally applied
without hindrance in several cues, elevates the score's ability to identify
the film as a genuine summer blockbuster, though none of the crescendos of
vocal power are necessarily as engrossing as those that Zimmer tended to
incorporate at the time. While the score is forced to navigate several
jarring song insertions in the final cut of the film, the score album for
Twister avoids this nonsense until its final two tracks. If not for
the hideous nature of these final two tracks, Mancina's effort on album
would undoubtedly be a four-star one, even with the tiresome repetitive
statements of the themes. The comical "William Tell Overture/Oklahoma
Medley" cue is an unacceptably stupid and barely tolerable minute of
mutation between the William Tell Overture and the title song to the musical
Oklahoma. Why it was necessary to include this terrible vocal
performance in an otherwise decent orchestral presentation is beyond reason.
Likewise, the Van Halen written and performed track at the end of the album,
while beginning with a promising transition from orchestral and choral style
to hard guitars, is simply too long. It languishes in false dramatics for a
whole eight minutes of guitars that don't match any of those used in tandem
with the other players throughout the score. Nevertheless,
Twister
endures as one of Mark Mancina's most memorable and defining scores. The raw
enthusiasm during "Wheatfield" (which, as many fans have noticed, features
some stage sounds at the start) and "Downdraft" was a surprisingly
impressive introduction to the composer for listeners who never caught on to
Speed, and the score remains a fan favorite. The quality of the
recording as mixed on the album is strong, with the chorus and guitars
balanced well with the rest of the ensemble. Overall, it's a simple score in
construct, but a surprisingly enjoyable one despite its sometimes secondary
role behind the songs in the film. The final two tracks on the album,
however, remain a major detraction.
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| Bias Check: | For Mark Mancina reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.1 (in 10 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.08
(in 7,086 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or
film.
