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| Gregson-Williams |
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| Zimmer |
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The Whole Wide World: (Harry Gregson-Williams) Robert
E. Howard was one of the more inspired fantasy writers of a generation,
conjuring such famous serial characters as Conan the Barbarian, Kull the
Conquerer, and Red Sonja. His youthful, platonic relationship with writer
Novalyne Price Ellis is the subject of the story for
The Whole Wide
World, with the three-year friendship between writers recalled many
decades later by the still-living Ellis. The tumultuous, but undeniably
sweet relationship between the two was strained if only because Ellis
enjoyed writing about naturalistic topics while Howard was, well, stuck in
the imaginary land of Conan. Ellis' book of romantic recollection, "One Who
Walked Alone," was several years in the translation to the big screen, and
while embraced with critical success (especially in response to a strong
early performance by actress Renee Zellweger) at the time of its release,
The Whole Wide World was actually seen by very few people. Director
Dan Ireland asked his friend and collaborator Hans Zimmer to compose the
music for film, and although Zimmer accepted, he introduced Harry
Gregson-Williams as the artist would compose the majority of music for the
film. Gregson-Williams was mainly an arranger who was quickly rising up the
ranks of Media Ventures artists (much like Nick Glennie-Smith at the time)
and doing much of the writing duties for Zimmer. The intriguing aspect of
The Whole Wide World is that unlike other Zimmer co-credited projects
in which the maestro writes a theme/cue or two, Zimmer did nothing for
The Whole Wide World. As Gregson-Williams said back at the time of
the film's release, "Hans didn't write any music for
The Whole Wide
World. In fact he heard my score for the first time at the premiere."
Strangely, though, the director emphatically thanks Zimmer for the score and
Zimmer's name appears atop the credits for the film and album. Another
ghostwriting controversy perhaps? Nothing ever came of it, maybe because of
the project's total obscurity. The score by itself is an early and
interesting look at Gregson-Williams' solo talent.
The influences of Zimmer's styles are clearly evident in
this Gregson-Williams music, with pieces of
Crimson Tide action
motifs appearing throughout the score. There are essentially three sides to
The Whole Wide World: the internal world of each novelist and their
combined love theme. That love theme opens and closes the album, with one
magnificent performance in "The Telegram." While the theme's construction
has a sincere heart, its performance is one of those that greatly needed a
strong orchestral presence to convey that heart, but received synthetic
treatment instead. A sense of authenticity is missing from much of the
score, and despite the restraints naturally existing on a film like this
because of its budget, the score does suffer in its attempts at grand
thematic statement. The romantic underscore for Ellis runs for lengthy
sequences throughout the score, and is never less than pleasant. Here, we
get woodwinds, pianos, and acoustic guitar accompanied by light strings with
a more convincing orchestral result. Contrasting these fluffy cues are the
dark side of Howard's imagination, with bass-heavy synths and deep mock
choruses pounding Conan from pen to paper. These cues are unfortunately too
spread out and harsh in tone compared to the romance to really satisfy fans
of Zimmer's action influences. The score further feels the effects of its
schizophrenia with cues such as "...Let Go of Your Mother" (which features
layers of female and deep male choral vocals) and "Sombrero" (which comes
out of nowhere with a short burst of Latin rhythms). At the very end of the
album, after a reprise of the title theme, a minute of silence is followed
by a hidden reprise of "Conan Emerges," with an even wilder violin
performance tearing into the quiet room. Despite good intentions, and
excellent compositions in individual sections of the score, the overall
package is lacking in cohesion and orchestral authenticity. Poorly rendered
electronics are the true villain here. Be aware that the first printing of
the album for
The Whole Wide World was faulty and would not easily
play; these copies often had Zimmer's name misspelled on the front
packaging. Approach with caution, and be sure to remember that this is
not a Hans Zimmer score.
***
| Bias Check: | For Harry Gregson-Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.09 (in 22 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.24
(in 42,165 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a note about the score and film from director Dan Ireland.
