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| Howard |
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| Frizzell |
Dante's Peak: (John Frizzell/James Newton Howard)
With the arrival of the era of CGI special effects in the 1990's came a
new generation of natural disaster films, two of which dealing with
devastating volcanoes in 1997 alone. Neither
Volcano nor
Dante's Peak is high class entertainment, both implausible and
exhibiting eye-rolling destruction ahead of common sense, but the latter
was easily the cinematic disaster story. Humiliated in its showings to
critics,
Dante's Peak required its worldwide box office returns
to cover its bloated budget. Featuring the awkward pairing of the newly
anointed James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, and
Terminator nemesis Linda
Hamilton,
Dante's Peak used Wallace, Idaho (a pretty town, but
one oddly confined by the cliffs that surround it) as the quaint locale
for annihilation by its neighboring, fictional volcano. Brosnan's usual
quiet and confident self leads a team of government geologists sent in
to monitor the volcano, but the mountain beats them to the punch, wiping
out the town named in the story as "the second most desirable place to
live in America." Gruesome deaths accompany the usual plotline of
ignored warnings, mass panic, and entertaining property damage. The
largely non-digital special effects for the production were good enough,
however, to be licensed for subsequent use in documentaries about
volcanic eruptions. His own whirlwind, composer James Newton Howard had
a habit of being over-scheduled in the mid-1990's, committed to more
productions than all of their changing schedules would allow. One such
entry was
Dante's Peak, for which Howard wrote some material
before having to move on to a pair of other assignments due to the
production's rush to beat
Volcano to the theatres. By some
accounts, Howard coined the score's thematic material only, but the
composer later stated, "I was going to do the movie. Then the movie
changed dates, and of course I had another commitment and I couldn't do
it. I'd written not just the theme, but four or five cues." Some records
do attribute sole composing credit to Howard for a least four major
cues.
One of the composer's assistants and proteges at the
time was John Frizzell, who was rather obscure but who was soon well on
his way to becoming a regular composer in the horror genre of the
industry.
Dante's Peak was the second time Howard had written
themes for a picture and then handed the remainder off to Frizzell, the
prior being 1996's
The Rich Man's Wife. For a long time, there
were discrepancies in regards to which of the two primary themes Howard
wrote for
Dante's Peak, though despite the singular "theme"
officially credited to him, both the primary identity for the movie and
the secondary love theme were his work. On the initial commercial album,
the two tracks that could be attributed directly to him, "Main Title"
and "On the Porch," summarize these themes with suite-like efficiency.
The primary theme of the film is one of obvious dread, meant to function
much like Alan Silvestri's similarly rendered, growling ideas for
Volcano. While "Main Titles (Dante's Peak)" affords the idea
immediate, bombastic force with choral backing, the most consistent
conveyance of its progressions exists on more palatable brass throughout
"The Evacuation Begins." Frizzell does a commendable job of
interpolating the theme throughout all facets of the story, from the
suspense cues prior to the action through the somber drama of
"Devastation" and the starkly resolute final moments of the action. Its
applications are frequent and intelligent, though the theme isn't one of
Howard's most memorable, in part because of its deliberate pacing and
frequent expression in sinister, menacing tones. Given the idea's
diminished presence at the end, the theme most likely represents the
volcano itself. The other theme in
Dante's Peak is aimed at the
character interactions in the story, heard on tender piano in "On the
Porch" and revisited in a redemptive, full ensemble variation in "The
Rescue" that sounds significantly similar to the closing moments of
Howard's
The Fugitive. The theme extends from early romantic
connotations in "Porch Talk" to the stoic horn-led lament of "Ruth
Dies." The flute solo in the former cue, reprised in "Magnificent
Explosion," is a melodic highlight of the work, reminiscent of the
tender parts of
Waterworld.
Sadly, these themes suffer from a relative anonymity
that reduces their effectiveness aside from the base functionality of
their orchestration and performance inflection. The emotional connection
between the themes and the listener seems severed by a lack of passion
by the session performers, a circumstance that occurred too often with
Howard's scores at the time, perhaps pointing to orchestration or
conducting issues. Not surprisingly, Frizzell's style did not sound much
different from his mentor's during these years, and there is little
disconnect between their contributions. Unfortunately, that also means
that the same lack of interesting and unique ideas that plagued Howard's
music carry over to Frizzell's. His suspense and action sequences are
about as effectively nondescript as they could be, using predictable
orchestral effects such as slurred brass and prickly piano to denote a
twisted reality in the environment. Frizzell made a career out of
writing music such as this, technically adept and occasionally
interesting but never quite reaching his potential. Electronic
percussive hits advance with the lava, and eerie dissonance created in
part by the ensemble and in part seemingly by synthetic choir is a
somewhat cheap effect. Some of the drum pad-like percussion sounds are
mixed at obnoxious levels in the forefront. The only suspense or action
cue that sustains your interest is "Main Titles (Dante's Peak)," and
that's largely because it is dominated by the main theme. Even that cue,
however, concludes with cheesy ensemble hits that were well past their
prime. Those who study orchestral compositions will find some value in
the interesting trumpet techniques in
Dante's Peak, among other
nuggets, but the score lags behind its peers in sum. Ultimately, it's an
average score, though it should be noted that the initial 30-minute
album from Varèse Sarabande did leave off highlights from a
recording that runs over 80 minutes and was later bootlegged a few
times. A limited 2-CD set from Varèse in 2021 offers that longer
presentation officially, adding both vital music to the first and final
thirds of the score and some noteworthy alternates, including a more
impressively subdued closing in "The Rescue." On the other hand, more of
Frizzell's annoying percussive accents in the middle portions are also
revealed. Still, the expanded set is a superb treatment of this
otherwise proficiently mundane action score.
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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1997 Album: ***
- Music as Heard on the 2021 Album: ****
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 70 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.36
(in 86,418 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1997 album includes no extra information about the
score or film. That of the 2021 album contains notes about both.
