FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Cool Runnings (Hans Zimmer/Nick Glennie-Smith)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you're in search of the most infectiously likable Hans Zimmer score from a fruitful early period in his career that brought many of the composer's outwardly personable and stylish cross-cultural music.

Avoid it... if reggae tones make you cringe, because Zimmer and his associates thoroughly infuse Caribbean stereotypes into this otherwise formulaic sports score of symphonic construct.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Cool Runnings: (Hans Zimmer/Nick Glennie-Smith) Arguably the most heart-warming sensation of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary was the Jamaican bobsledding team, representing a tropical country for the first time in that sport. The team received significant support from other nations' competitors, who offered spare sleds and best wishes to the obviously out of place Jamaicans. The team didn't compete particularly well that year, crashing and famously walking their sled to the finish line during a qualifying run. But it did experience more success four years later in the Olympics in France, where the group finished ahead of several established nations in the sport. The initial publicity earned by the 1988 team led to a Disney adaptation of their tale called Cool Runnings in 1993. Very little of the actual circumstances of the team and their performance at the games is reflected accurately; instead, the studio opted to transform their story into a typical underdog format complete with villains and a melodramatic ending. Despite the disdainful critical response that resulted from the plethora of liberties taken in the mutilation of the real life events, Cool Runnings was a significant box office success, generating more than ten times its budget in grosses. The scoring duties fell upon the ascending Hans Zimmer, who was familiar with assignments that applied soul and gospel tones to African settings but for whom rocking reggae was still relatively fresh. Although the composer had succeeded with flying colors in his entertaining and heartfelt comedy/drama score for A League of Their Own the previous year, Cool Runnings needed an even more flamboyant and genre-bending sound. With the assistance of trusted composing partner Nick Glennie-Smith, Zimmer offered the ultimate in hybrid sports drama scores for this film, addressing not only the cultural aspect, but also adhering to the general formula of sports scores that open modestly and build to a victorious series of crescendos late in the soundtrack. Zimmer and Glennie-Smith were able to emulate the reggae sound comfortably with their keyboards and percussion, though they transcend the enjoyable but predictable boundaries of that approach by also employing an orchestra to emphasize the film's tender, character-building scenes, wild comedy moments, and triumphant conclusion. Occasional contributions by jazzy piano, cool electric guitar and Hammond organ, and vocals of soul will recall previous Zimmer works. Together, these elements, along with a cohesive set of themes, yielded a score for Cool Runnings with more unique style than most of what Zimmer would produce a decade later.

Inherent in the odd mixture of genuine Caribbean reggae tones, Western hoedown comedy, and orchestral drama is the potential for a slew of annoyed listeners. Indeed, Cool Runnings isn't going to appeal to Golden Age film score listeners. But it will be infectious for those who loved the personality usually inherent in Zimmer's early works. The film's sense of humor spills over directly into the score without, with the exception of its two hoedown cues, ever becoming obnoxious. The score's melodic material is divided equally between the themes for the characters (and their early adversity) and the cultural identity associated with the reggae. Several solemn, sweet piano performances of the character theme (which perhaps not surprisingly resembles James Horner's The Rocketeer) eventually build into resounding, fully orchestral statements in the final cues. By then, they are joined by the reggae instrumentation that until that point had performed its own theme of purely entertaining spirit. The highlights of Cool Runnings are indeed the three or four cues in the final reel that combine both instrumental halves and their themes into a redemptive statement of quirky defiance. Some of the progressions will remind listeners of a theme that would develop the next year in Renaissance Man, thought the strikingly different instrumentation in the two scores helps mask those similarities. A thematic burst at about 1:45 into the eleventh track is a clear precursor to Chicken Run. Interestingly, some of the pulsating electronic rhythms heard in the final race cue will actually raise memories of Basil Poledouris' Wind, especially in the tone of the thumping keyboarding and some of its shifts. A singular cue that combines purely organic vintage jazz with Carl Stallings mannerisms and Jerry Goldsmith-like sound effects is the third track on the score's bootleg, truly a unique minute in these composers' collaborations. Disney's commercial album only provided seven minutes of score material amongst its songs, though those two tracks do summarize some of the best moments from later in the score. Still, there is too much impressive music not available on that product, and as with many of Zimmer's scores, a bootleg with over half an hour of the score began trading on the secondary market. Unfortunately, both the latter cue on the commercial album and its equivalent on the bootleg feature some audio distortion and clicking sounds. The meat of the score on the bootlegs exists in thirteen cues, though some append two cues of source material (including a humorous solo take on a famous classical tune on a reggae-programmed keyboard). For those who revel in the smile-inducing creativity that resulted from Zimmer's early collaborations, you'll have a hard time contenting yourself with only the commercial release of Cool Runnings.  ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 37:31

• 1. Opening/The Derby (1:50) • 2. 100 Meter Finals (3:16) • 3. First Jamaican Bobsled Team (1:10) • 4. Convincing Irving Blitzer (0:37) • 5. Training Begins (2:35) • 6. Send Us to the Olympics! (2:31) • 7. Running on Ice (3:41) • 8. Irv's Past Revealed (0:47)

• 9. First Run (2:08) • 10. Pride and Power (1:51) • 11. Qualifying Run (2:57) • 12. The Race (6:05) • 13. Jamaican Heroes (4:22) • 14. Bobsled Jamaican Style (1:45) • 15. End Credits (1:48)

NOTES & QUOTES:

No consistent packaging exists for the bootleg variants.

Copyright © 2010-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Cool Runnings are Copyright © 2002, (Bootleg) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/5/10 (and not updated significantly since).