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| Horner |
Deep Impact: (James Horner) With the concept of the
disaster flick now resurrected for good, 1998 offered two films in the
form of
Armageddon and
Deep Impact that played similarly
on humanity's fear of being hit by a giant rock or comet from space. One
of the few reasons the outwardly sentimental
Deep Impact received
moderate praise was because of its inevitable comparisons to the
laughable
Armageddon. The upstart Dreamworks studio and director
Mimi Leder sought to carry over the masculine appeal of
The
Peacemaker while also infusing the story with enough human interest
sidebars to carry an even larger audience. Unfortunately, as
Meteor proved almost two decades earlier, if you concentrate on
the people rather than the threat, especially with less-than-earnest
acting performances, your film lacks a central resolve with which to
maintain audience interest. The major detraction of
Deep Impact
was its attempt to tell too many stories at once, almost in
The Day
After fashion, whereas giant tidal waves and other pesky nuisances
of a natural kind are far more enjoyable for a summer afternoon.
Dreamworks and Leder must have been pleased to have composer James
Horner on board for this endeavor, for this would be the first score
from the recent Oscar winner after his monumental success for
Titanic. In fact, the release of the
Deep Impact album
fell within a day of the announcement that Horner's
Titanic album
fell out of the #1 position in the Billboard Top 200 Music Charts, where
it had maintained that position for an astounding four months. To say
that expectations for Horner on
Deep Impact were high would be an
understatement and, ironically, while listeners were waiting for a blast
of adventurous breeze from
Deep Impact, Horner would instead hand
them a golden nugget in the form of
The Mask of Zorro shortly
thereafter. Both summer 1998 scores from the composer would feature
trademark "Hornerisms," but while
The Mask of Zorro would extend
those in a uniquely fresh direction,
Deep Impact remained an
ultra-conservative regurgitation of previous Horner sounds assembled
into one moderately interesting package.
The score for
Deep Impact would be impressive if
not for the enormous problem that nearly every moment of its lengthy
running time is reminiscent of some Horner score that has come before.
It is one of Horner's more obvious and thus tiresome efforts, for any
listener with a substantial Horner collection will hear really nothing
new in its contents. In many ways, it repackages ideas in the same
fashion
Bicentennial Man would the next year, but not with as
interesting alterations. There are three primary thematic ideas in
Deep Impact, and two of the three are weak. The first of these
elements of continuity is a motif for piano that never really develops
into anything more than a representation of sorrow and grief. Opening
immediately at the outset of "The Wedding," this motif defines the first
few minutes of "A Distant Discovery" and appears throughout. A theme of
stoic resolve is introduced in the first half of "Crucial Rendezvous"
and appears with full ensemble at various moments requiring a sense of
gravity later in the score; this idea goes sadly underutilized. The
third theme to be heard in the film is actually its primary identity.
One of Horner's more compelling themes of the 1990's, the "tragedy and
survival" theme weaves mostly throughout the latter half of the score
and provides wholesale grief and melancholy to several scenes. This
theme flourishes for the first time in the latter half of "The Wedding,"
which is commonly considered the concert suite for the film, before
receiving a lengthy ensemble and choral performance at 6:15 into
"Goodbye and Godspeed." Because so much of the score is required to
brood in conjunction with the mounting suspense on screen,
Deep
Impact isn't one of Horner's more readily enjoyable melodic works.
Outside of the occasional solemn statement of one of the score's three
themes, Horner typically approaches the scenes of discovery and
preparation with a slight hand. The comet itself receives a blast of
percussion as its identity, which may be standard in Horner's templates
but at least isn't as distracting as the terrible electronic rips that
followed the rock in
Meteor. One could hope for a more
interesting idea to represent the approaching menace in either case, but
that could be too much to ask.
As a standalone effort, Horner's
Deep Impact is
sufficient (and occasionally quite rousing) within the context of the
film, but collectors of the composer might be dismayed by the blatant
self-references evident both there and on the album. The action
sequences in
Deep Impact, occupying most of the first half of the
album, borrow heavily from
Apollo 13 and
Titanic. The
general snare, medium range drums, chimes, and violin flurries that
represent danger throughout
Deep Impact are distinct carry-overs
from
Apollo 13. The most engaging action cue, "Our Best Hope,"
however, bursts forth at the 4:00 with a substantial restatement of the
sinking sequences from
Titanic, even down to the same ethereal
synthetic voices and harmonic chord progressions. Some of the more
disjointed action crescendos will remind listeners of the general panic
in parts of
Courage Under Fire. Thematically, Horner's heroic and
patriotic ideas for
Deep Impact, especially when conveyed by
restrained brass, mirror
Apollo 13. The more fluid theme of
tragedy and survival is an extension of numerous Horner themes of times
past (and would influence some in the future, too), going all the way
back to
Cocoon. The cue "Sad News" presents two interesting
snippets that reference previous Horner works; first, at 2:45, Horner
lifts a section of his song theme from
The Land Before Time, and
second, the
Titanic love theme, if only in the progressions, is
heard just after the three-minute mark. Most of the subtle references on
piano in
Deep Impact pull from
To Gillian on Her 37th
Birthday and, to a lesser extent
The Spitfire Grill. For
strictly the purposes of listening enjoyment, the album runs far too
long for a satisfying experience, and Horner's only major extended
thematic sequence for full ensemble accompanies the one performance by a
real choir in "Goodbye and Godspeed." Unless you're willing to dig a bit
deeper into the softer moments of the score, then there's quite little
at face value to reach out and grab you. A mixing discrepancy between the
ambient and full performances often hinders the flow of the listening
experience on album. Compared to the composer's other works,
Deep
Impact is a generally mundane, predictable entry.
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| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.16
(in 103 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 193,135 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. The first
pressing of the album contained a sticker on the front of the jewel case connecting
Horner to Titanic.
