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| Zimmer |
Dune: Part Two: (Hans Zimmer/Various) Delayed by
Hollywood labor issues, the second installment of writer and director
Denis Villeneuve's cinematic adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic
"Dune" met with an awkward release date of early 2024. His previous
re-introduction of the concept, 2021's
Dune was among the most
widely praised science fiction genre entries in a generation, and the
sequel and completion of the original novel's story,
Dune: Part
Two, was greeted by similar reactions. With much of the political
intrigue of the tale tackled in the prior movie, the second one
concentrates on the love story between Paul Atreides and Fremen warrior
Chani before leading them on a charge to retake the desert planet of
Arrakis for themselves. Their efforts to defeat the controlling
Harkonnen yield success, but with the fulfillment of the messiah
prophecy comes ambiguity for Paul Atreides. Does he upgrade to a bigger
house? Does he design water features for suburban yards? How many women
does he inseminate? Is he a benevolent ruler or just another asshole?
These answers are destined to come in the next movie, of course, which
is already on the minds of the filmmakers. What matters here is that
Dune: Part Two, like its predecessor, is a spectacle of the
senses, its visual and aural experience dominating the film's praise.
Contributing to that immersive experience is the score helmed by Hans
Zimmer, whose music for
Dune earned him considerable awards
recognition. That success remains proof that hype campaigns for film
scores can indeed work, because, as Zimmer has obviously proven, if you
tell the world that your music is both radical and revolutionary, then
it must be so. Many of his collectors also soaked up this hype, making
the score a monumental success across several album releases. Beyond
playing the expectations game, however, Zimmer and his team also proved
with
Dune that simplicity and loudness equals artistry and
invention even though very little of that score is functionally
inventive. Indeed, it remains a highly polarizing work, and that
designation naturally applies to the sequel as well.
Lingering frustration about Zimmer's approach to
Dune relates to both the awkwardness of his own words about the
score and his preference towards sound design over proven film scoring
techniques. Many of Zimmer's statements about the score were erroneous
when compared to the final product, supported instrumental applications
that never functioned as he said they would, or were simply nonsensical.
Ironically, some of his vaunted strategy for
Dune was outright
abandoned for
Dune: Part Two, perhaps explaining why he's toned
back his loquaciousness during the hype period for the sequel. The other
reason the
Dune score remains frustrating is because the composer
continues to suggest through his work that the conventional rules of
successful film scoring do not apply to him. In the sequel, he
backtracks in terms of thematic usage but presses forward with his
instrumental experimentation for the purposes of advancing sound design,
the discord between these two movements ultimately yielding a result
just as unsatisfactory. Zimmer continues to downplay the importance of
conventional structure to film music in his handling of this concept,
insisting that a futuristic, foreign world must have futuristic,
foreign-sounding music. That's not how music works in movies, however.
As stated in Filmtracks' review of
Dune, "
film scores don't
exist to accentuate bizarre concepts on screen; rather, the music helps
translate them for us to understand. After all, Dune is still
essentially a story about people, and film music traditions, include
leitmotifs, accessible tonalities, and narrative evolution are all key
in assisting the music reveal that the world of the Atreides, Fremen,
and Harkonnen experiences all the same perils of life that we do. By
supplying a score that offers no such connection for the listener,
Zimmer tells us that not only are the worlds unrelatable, but the
characters and their relationships are as well." In
Dune: Part
Two, he continues to neglect the core emotional needs of the
narrative, abandoning some concepts from the first score without reason
while developing an all-new main theme that should have previewed its
nascent development more clearly in the prior work.
The continuity issue between the two scores will be moot
for most listeners, because Zimmer and his team use the same overbearing
wall-of-sound approach for the most obvious cues in both. But the
composer clearly didn't solidify his thematic identities prior to
embarking upon the first score, perhaps not surprising given that he
originally claimed that he wasn't even going to attempt such thematic
integrity. The main theme for
Dune: Part Two didn't really evolve
into existence until after he had completed the first score. So enthused
by the concept, he continued writing up to 90 minutes of music inspired
by the experience, and this material was largely released at the time on
supplemental albums. Reports indicate that he persisted in writing music
after the second film, too, upon suggestion that a third entry would
soon be in the works. Despite this dedication, however, he continuously
misreads the needs of the
Dune universe, hoping that the sheer
style of his approach overwhelms you to such a degree that you don't
actually sit back and start pondering the effectiveness of the
individual parts. Like the first score,
Dune: Part Two is the
culmination of a group think effort, with the ghostwriters this time
consisting mostly of David Fleming, Steve Mazzaro, Omer Benyamin, Steven
Doar, and Andrew Kawczynski. If some of the music in the movie sounds a
bit too familiar, then chalk up that phenomenon to some cues from
Dune being tracked into the sequel wholesale, most notably
"Premonition" and "Herald of the Change." Expectedly, the result of this
group endeavor is a score with many disparate parts that are held
together by a commonly oppressive instrumental style and mix. There is
still no orchestra involved, Zimmer's array of synthetics augmented by
electric cello, electric guitar, electric bass, Armenian duduk, Scottish
bagpipes, electric and traditional violin, ethnic and traditional
flutes, percussion, and ten voices. (Don't expect to hear the bagpipes
anywhere on the second score's main album.) Where depth is necessary in
the soundscape, the synths really carry a heavy load, and Zimmer doesn't
do much to smooth out their edges. These keyboarded sounds are meant to
sound abrasive and unrefined to compliment the ample manipulations of
the organic players' performances.
Zimmer and his team rarely provide an even pitch to the
music in
Dune: Part Two, the manipulative processing of each
instrumental element seemingly meant to blow unevenly like the sands of
Arrakis. Most of the emphasis on specialty tones in
Dune: Part
Two continues to exist for female voice and duduk, though Zimmer
really went off the deep end in this score with unconventional
percussive scraping and bowing sounds. These recordings emulate the
banging, tapping, and twisting of metal, much like sound effects of a
sinking ship throughout and emulating noises appropriate for
Das
Boot. While an argument might be made that these noises merely
represent the weird technologies of the tale, such sound effects make
for extremely annoying sound effects in what otherwise might qualify as
music, causing eye rolls in "Beginnings Are Such Delicate Times" and
"Worm Army." And then there's the glassy groaning in "Each Man is a
Little War," which is mind-numbingly pointless as "music." The sparse
percussive rattling in "Seduction" accomplishes almost nothing as well.
In the category of purely hideous torture noise, vocal manipulation in
the brief "Spice" is among the most obnoxious moments of film music in
history. And it's not alone; the wretchedly loud and hideous action
blasting in "Gurney Battle" is followed by clogged drain effects that
may perfectly accompany your teenage son using a toilet plunger to
attempt to dislodge the stunningly immense sandworm he deposited there.
All kidding aside, Zimmer's attempt to press deeper into the realm of
sound design for
Dune: Part Two isn't particularly surprising,
and nor is it fatal. Far more important is the composer's total
inability to express music that exists in the midrange of volumes. Like
Dune, the sequel work is always either too soft or too loud. The
pensive (and in this case thematic) parts stew too low in gain levels to
appreciate in any proximity to the absolutely overbearing and overstated
action and climax sequences. No place is this severe dichotomy more
frustrating than in the conclusive "Kiss the Ring," which is one of the
most tonally awkward culminations of any score in recent memory. Zimmer
is certainly not known for his subtlety in this era, but he has made
every attempt here to milk passionate poignancy in soft passages where
none exists and then hammer you in the ears with deafening noise to
drive home any point.
From a strategic viewpoint, the most interesting
development from Zimmer in
Dune: Part Two is the relationship
between the brazen, ultra-cool masculinity of the performance inflection
and the debate over whether Paul Atreides is a benevolent leader or a
tool of fear and retribution destined to become the next totalitarian
leader of the universe. (Was Donald J. Trump in this film?) Villeneuve
leaves the door wide open for Paul, having achieved his messiah status
at home and some form of imperial title over the known universe, to be a
Satanic figurehead rather than a true savior. The creep element is
there, especially by the time Chani rides off in the end, and that
doesn't even account for the theocratic aspect behind Paul's rise to
power. The question for film score enthusiasts becomes this: Did Zimmer
intentionally approach the ascendance of Paul with the brute blasting of
overly masculine coolness as means of promoting or suggesting
authoritarianism? When "Kiss the Ring" is so badly over-performed, the
cellist nearly destroying her instrument to force another ounce of
testicular prowess out of her instrument, is Zimmer reinforcing a notion
that what was once a tone of music appropriate only for Hollywood
villains is now acceptable for the heroic leader of a newly freed
universe? This moment offers no major versus minor key conflict to
explore whether Paul is hero or villain, and it's difficult to discern
if Zimmer took this path intellectually or if he is simply continuing
his quest for ever-more-obvious musical pomposity since obviousness is
now the key to acclaim. There is no respite from the darkness in the
score for
Dune: Part Two. Even the newly evolved love theme
cannot escape the composer's obsession with a morbidly brooding tone.
There is no passion, no hope, and no true victory in any of this music,
your senses struck with shades of despair and vengeful perseverance.
It's not enough to provide a moment of optimism or astonishment when
Paul mounts a sandworm; now, it's doused in shades of musical
retribution, the fearless leader worthy of rough electronic textures and
instrumentation so abused you can barely recognize any sense of humanity
in them. When everything is dark, brooding, and molested, there is no
comparison to help the narrative tell you when characters truly love
each other or when they mourn their lost or when they prevail over their
enemies. In this franchise, Zimmer never established a viable emotional
narrative with peaks and valleys, a catastrophic blunder.
For some listeners, however, style is everything. For
them,
Dune: Part Two will impress just as much as the prior
score. They'll even celebrate the fact that Zimmer betrayed his own word
by writing a more consistently thematic framework for the second score.
Indeed, therein lies some solace for all listeners, as the composer
returns several themes from the previous entry and devises a new major
identity for the leading romantic pair. That love theme is born out of
the House Atreides theme in first film, and although it never appeared
in that score, it did receive some development in his supplemental
recordings. Zimmer even presented it on tour without revealing its
purpose. As Villeneuve said, "I wanted something heartbreaking, and the
most beautiful love theme ever written, and honestly I think he did it."
Sadly, he's
delusional. The theme is structurally juvenile and
inadequate, highly repetitive in phrasing and often using the same eight
notes. The first five-note phrase becomes annoyingly static, with no
meaningful secondary or interlude phrasing to suggest any remote sense
of conflict or complexity in a relationship that has such depth. This
absolute failure by Zimmer to adequately address the Paul and Chani
partnership is exacerbated by the composer's continued insistence upon
presenting his progressions at excruciatingly slow tempos. This idea's
languishing pace makes even repetitive John Barry themes from the latter
portion of his career seem like spritely jigs. In fact, the new love
theme is so slow that some listeners may not even recognize what the
progressions of theme actually are, reducing any chance of memorability
and rooting it further in the realm of sound design. It's no coincidence
that the theme sounds much better when sped up to twice its regular
speed, though that route does expose just how simplistic and repetitive
it is. The theme occupies the long suite arrangement that opens the
album, extended duduk and muted synths offering absolutely no complexity
at all in this performance, merely simplistic chords and no
counterpoint. Although vaguely pretty and easily digestible, the theme
is also boring and completely passionless, containing absolutely none of
the intensity of suffering or love heard in Zimmer and Mazzaro's
The
Creator the year prior. In this track, the idea only builds some
depth at 7:11, but the synth ambience is distorted so badly that no
truly romantic intonation can survive. Zimmer again forgets that
otherworldly romance is still romance, and the music must convey at
least some genuine affection.
The main love theme of
Dune: Part Two receives a
similar performance to "Beginnings Are Such Delicate Times" in the
rearranged "A Time of Quiet Between the Storms," though the presentation
remains simplistic and slow. Abrasive synth backing is joined by
pounding percussion for an incongruous end to the cue. The idea's chords
inform "Never Lose Me" without making much impact before a dissonant
crescendo. It then makes its prominent pronouncement with a familiar
refrain on duduk in "Kiss the Ring," after which Zimmer builds to the
fullest performance of the theme on agonized electric cello with
chime-banging accompaniment. Some passion begins to emerge here, but
it's too loud and overstated to sound genuine, each performer pounding
or slashing his or her instrument so that all perspective is lost. At
least some counterpoint emerges, but it overwhelms the melody. Aside
from the ineffective loudness of the moment, Zimmer doesn't make it
clear who the theme is really meant to represent at this moment. Is the
tortured and manipulated performance meant to suggest that Paul has
become corrupt and his relationship with Chani is threatened? Is it
because Paul actually wants to hump Princess Irulan Corrino? (Hell, why
not?) Is it because the whole situation has become a romantic nightmare
with the balance of the known universe at stake? Zimmer doesn't answer
these questions, and the cue leaves the score on an extremely uneasy
note despite its attempt to inject even more importance and majesty into
a work that was already overflowing in volume. The theme is then
featured during the end credits at 1:20 into "Only I Will Remain," once
again in needlessly distorted form. Meanwhile, Zimmer doesn't do much to
clarify the confusing situation involving the various themes for Paul
Atreides, his destiny, and House Atreides generally. The first score
threw all of these ideas together into mashups that occasionally
branched off with purpose, but any hope that he would very clearly
delineate each of these variants' actual representations are dashed
here. He and his team rely mostly on the primary Paul Atreides theme as
he completes his journey to being featured in every trading card deck in
the universe. Of the secondary ideas, the House Atreides theme is really
short-changed, though that's not particularly surprising in this portion
of the narrative unless you expect it to linger around for Lady Jessica
more than the less appealing Bene Gesserit musical alternative. The
House Atreides theme is smothered in the overproduced force of "Paul
Drinks" and quietly stews at the start of "Only I Will Remain," but
expect little more impact than that.
Faring a bit better is the destiny or Kwisatz Haderach
variant on Paul's theme in
Dune: Part Two, affectionately known
otherwise as the wailing "Wonder Woman motif" because it so closely
resembles Tom Holkenborg's humorously pervasive and obvious idea for
that character in
Zack Snyder's Justice League. (The resemblance
is so striking that the destiny theme is completely ruined in this
context, almost like a bad in-joke for film score collectors or perhaps
just the universe's way of recognizing that the breadth of original
ideas to come from this particular group of composers is not infinite.)
Building from Paul's theme in "The Sietch," this destiny motif returns
in usual Wonder Woman form at 0:45 into "Worm Ride" and starts
"Resurrection" with those standard female screams. It accompanies Paul's
theme in "Worm Army" amongst the blasting action and finally opens
"Lisan al Gaib" electronically with mechanical sound effects. This usage
cannot compete with the insertion of the primary Paul Atreides theme
from
Dune, however, which returns in troubled shades throughout
"The Sietch" on vocals and duduk, explodes most unpleasantly at the end
of "Harvester Attack," and follows the Wonder Woman (destiny) motif on
broad, slurring synths in "Worm Ride." The theme injects even more
testosterone from there, reinforcing the question about hero versus
villain. Electric guitar ramblings for the theme guide the second half
of "Ornithopter Attack," and it blasts away with way too much attempted
electronic coolness at the outset of "Travel South." (Is this material
really the new standard for masculinity? Total inelegance and brute
force?) It's twisted with malice on brutal, snarling electronic cello in
"Arrival," and the electric guitar explosion of the idea in the middle
of "Worm Army" has no heroic semblance at all, though voices and
accelerated rhythms pick up the theme better in the cue's second half.
It shifts back to subtle shades on duduk and electric cello in "You
Fought Well," the groaning basslines under the theme representing
Feyd-Rautha somewhat creatively but still overplaying masculinity worthy
of a villain in the role of victor. Finally, Paul's theme slowly builds
throughout "Lisan al Gaib" on electric guitars with disappointingly
juvenile attempts at awesomeness. That suite track has all the
intelligence of a garage rock band's grungy cover of a movie music theme
and doesn't compete favorably with many of Zimmer's concept suites for
the previous score. The final cues all generate a feeling of oppression
that defy any sense of victory for a protagonist, the masculinity so
toxic that it leaves anthemic territory in favor of brute authoritarian
stupidity.
Although Zimmer pledged not to supply subthemes to
particular concepts in these scores,
Dune: Part Two confirms that
such attributions in the first work were no fluke. The composer had used
an ascending phrase in
Dune's "The Shortening of the Way" that
was distinctly similar to a motif in Toto's 1984 score, itself sharing
some characteristics with Brian Eno's material for that work as well.
That compelling phrase reveals itself to be a leadership motif in
Dune: Part Two, heard first in "Eclipse" and returning in the
latter half of "Southern Messiah" before being rudely interrupted. Most
intriguingly, it barely informs early portions of "The Emperor" before
exploding as his own nasty identity, exhibiting the theme's ability to
represent all leaders, good and evil. Zimmer culminates with the idea at
3:55 into "Only I Will Remain" in an increasingly massive, simplistic
form for choir and synthetics. The Harkonnen are musically short-changed
in this score, the material for that house reintroduced with
frightening, pounding menace in "Harkonnen Arena." Vocal chanting
effects in that cue are promising but cannot save the track from
becoming a percussive and sound effects nightmare with a few foghorn
effects thrown in because, well, it's Zimmer. The more familiar,
pounding Harkonnen theme meandering around key returns in the second
half of "Southern Messiah," though the connections to Beethoven's "Ode
to Joy" are thankfully not as obvious this time. Zimmer does concoct a
new motif for Feyd-Rautha in this score, a slurring, upward bass figure
in "Harkonnen Arena" and (barely) "Seduction." This motif appropriately
dies underneath Paul's theme early in "You Fought Well," maybe the
smartest layering in the score. Other material from
Dune isn't as
impactful, either. The Bene Gesserit vocals return in whispered
chattering subdued by male vocals in the second half of "Resurrection."
There never really has been a true sandworm motif, though Zimmer uses
thumping effects dating back to 1984's
Dune for the worms in
"Worm Army." Altogether,
Dune: Part Two is arguably more thematic
overall, but it doesn't satisfyingly resolve several ideas from the
prior work. The main new theme is ineffective in structure and
personality, dooming the sequel score to the same lack of heart and
compassion. There is no dichotomy between good and evil, no middle
ground in volume, and no reason for such a manipulated soundscape aside
from the composer's need to sound inventive. The 81-minute primary album
contains the opening and closing suite arrangements, and "Ornithopter
Attack" and parts of "Southern Messiah" don't appear in the film. It's a
brutal listening experience, its respites nearly inaudible and the rest
too eager to thrash your ears. Subtlety, elegance, and storytelling be
damned.
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| Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.86
(in 118 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.01
(in 290,888 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
There exists no official packaging for the digital album. The 2-CD
set is packaged in a folding cardboard digibook with a booklet that
contains notes from the director and the composer.
