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| Zimmer |
Hannibal: (Hans Zimmer) Due to a lengthy series of
problems adapting Thomas Harris's overdue sequel novel to
Silence of
the Lambs, ten years passed between the highly acclaimed 1991
Oscar-winner and Ridley Scott's subsequent
Hannibal.
Unquestionably,
Silence of the Lambs swept through the world with
its hauntingly brilliant acting performances, and Sir Anthony Hopkins
reprised the title role in 2001's
Hannibal with all the style
that he could possibly muster. Ultimately, none of the other new players
could provide the same provocative allure. Gone from the project are
practically everyone else who worked to create
Silence of the
Lambs, including director Jonathan Demme, actress Jodie Foster, and,
not surprisingly, composer Howard Shore. The script is most often cited
as the reason for this exodus, and it is indeed the story's diminishment
of the character of Clarice Starling that caused its demise. Scott's
take on
Hannibal is obviously dominated by religion, with
Hannibal Lecter relocated to Florence and serving as a curator of the
Palazzo Vecchio. The music for the sequel, therefore, takes on a
similarly religious tone. The score for the 1991 classic was average at
best, and while maintaining a following among Shore enthusiasts, it's a
work that has been elevated by the composer's later successes rather
than by its own merits. Both are superior to Danny Elfman's
Red
Dragon, the third film in the franchise. Scott once again employs
the talents of Hans Zimmer and his team of Media Ventures artists for
Hannibal, and although a healthy portion of the assignment was
delegated to Zimmer's usual assortment of assistants, the work is mostly
his own. While the director and composer collaborated to produce the
blockbuster hit
Gladiator the previous year, the score that
results from their partnership in
Hannibal cannot be any more
different in terms of style.
Casual film score collectors, and especially those who
first recognized and became fans of Zimmer's music upon hearing
Gladiator, would be surprised to hear
Hannibal, an effort
that reaches back to some of the most poignant classical work that
Zimmer has ever done. More than perhaps any other score in the man's
career, this one exposes his obvious love of J.S. Bach and other
classical writers. As such, it does not sound like a typical, electronic
Media Ventures collaboration. The score for
Silence of the Lambs
was a smaller budget, typical horror entry from Shore that doesn't stand
particularly well apart from the film. For
Hannibal, however, a
larger scale in the employment of music is incorporated into the final
cut of the film. The director, of course, played a pivotal, executive
role in the sound and feel of the music, and his final choice of genre
very well compliments Sir Anthony Hopkins' character. Zimmer's score for
Hannibal walks a fine line between tense psychological horror and
refined classical elegance. To realize this tone, Zimmer leaves his
synthesizers behind for much of the material and concentrates heavily on
the strings of the Lyndhurst Orchestra to push the appealing,
historical, and classical edge of the plot. The ensemble is comprised of
strings, choir, and keyboarded accents, with little else necessary to
convey the message. For Hopkins' refined, brilliant exterior, the
strings perform in an adagio format of repetitious, alternating series
of lengthy minor and major key meanderings by secondary string players.
The violin section performs the entirety of the extremely subtle, but
equally classically-formulated theme for the film, and together with a
consistent piano, Zimmer is very successful in extending that refined
classicism necessary for Hannibal's intelligence.
On the other hand, the psychotic element is surely not
forgotten. The bass strings are mixed at a very strong and ominous level
of unease, nearly constantly maintaining the resonating reminder of the
pure evil at work here. In a neat twist, the strings tingle and jump
with delight during the middle of "Let My Home Be My Gallows," as Lecter
enjoys the preaching of his own dark knowledge. The extremely weighty
string performances of the title theme in "Avarice" and "To Every
Captive Soul" are reminders of Shore's work for the previous film, and
the only true connection to be heard. Another interesting element
expressed in this film, something that wasn't clear in
Silence of the
Lambs, is the heavily religious implication of
Hannibal. To
address this need, Zimmer inserts several angelic vocals and church
bells into the score, using a boy's choir to perform some of the work's
most compelling statements of the main theme. Because Lecter dominates
this film (in an unfortunately unequal balance with Starling), this
theme often accompanies the flourishes of his own spoken lines. More or
less, this association works, and it appropriately doesn't lead to a
succinct point of conclusion at the end. The insertion of the vocals is
especially well constructed to mimic the same duality that divides the
strings. On one hand, you hear multiple performances by female operatic
talents, adding an even more refined depth to Hopkins' character as he
lushly holds the audience in suspense with his undeniably luring
intellect. At other points, when he begins to divulge in the more carnal
and less controlled aspects of his own personality, the voice multiplies
into the ambience of a full choir of church-like beauty. Between these
vocals and the imposing string performances, the score stands as mostly
a consistent classical piece.
There are, of course, a few weaknesses to be heard,
causing the score's sometimes average ratings from film music critics.
The less civilized moments of fright and horror, such as at the end of
"Let My Home Be My Gallows," hint at tired dissonant techniques from the
ensemble. Zimmer does allow the synthetics to carry most of the
frightening suspense in the score, subtly mixing them in with the
strings (including a deep thumping effect in the bass that is more
distracting) that sometimes degenerate into outward dissonant noise.
These moments of awkward material are a slight nod to the style of
Elliot Goldenthal. But even with these few moments of choppiness, the
score's elegance is difficult to dismiss. A touch of Bernard Herrmann
can be heard several times late in the score, with a slight tribute to
the masterful string work of
Vertigo in the trembling melodrama
of the section's performances. Some of the more reflective moments of
Hannibal are reminiscent of the same darkness that powered
Zimmer's score for
The House of the Spirits nearly a decade
prior. Overall,
Hannibal was the composer's convenient
opportunity to explore some of his most cherished and personal classical
favorites, and he does so with morbid enthusiasm. Learned collectors of
modern classical music should be cautioned that Zimmer does once again
expose significant inspiration by Gustav Mahler and Richard Wagner.
While this usage isn't as annoying as it remains in
Gladiator
(due to the more appropriate application here), it is equally obvious in
parts. The album for
Hannibal is very diverse in and of itself.
Eight of the twelve tracks on the top-selling Decca Records album are
composed by Zimmer, with three of the four others still heavily
classical in a similar nature. With only one track not composed
exclusively for the film (a Bach piece that carries over from the first
film, not surprisingly), the classical pieces fit well into the
structure of the score, though not adding much in terms of
originality.
The Martin Tillman and Mel Wesson cue "Firenze di
Notte" dissolves into pure electronic sound design and is easily the
product's biggest detraction. The adaptation of Dante's "La Vita Nuova"
by Patrick Cassady in "Vide Cor Meum" is the gorgeous opera piece
featured in the film (that drives much of the interest in the entire
soundtrack). That final track of the album has a hidden moment at the
end; after some moments of silence, Hopkins bids you farewell and the
orchestra strikes one last, loud dissonant hit. On the surface it's an
irritation, but given the subject matter, you can't help but appreciate
its inclusion. Spurring much controversy at the time of the album's
release were four tracks that feature dialogue by Hopkins. Three of
these are mixed together with Zimmer's score, and they have a tendency
to accompany the composer's very best material. And yet, the dialogue is
superbly performed by Hopkins (as could be expected), and his lyrical
ramblings fit very well with the mood of the score, making this album
one of the few in which the dialogue actually works. Some film music
fans won't accept the dialogue, no matter how well delivered, and the
fact that every Zimmer score tends to be leaked in bootleg form has
alleviated this problem. One downside to the dialogue is that it's mixed
so that the music is still central in the overall soundscape, sometimes
causing Hopkins' voice to be unintelligible if you're listening to the
album on a surround sound system (in which case switching it to regular
stereo helps solve the problem). On the other hand, Zimmer's music on
the album constitutes between 35 and 40 minutes, and much of the music
that is obscured by the dialogue is available in various forms elsewhere
on the disc. One must be patient with this album; it only begins to
really cook in its final four tracks, just as Hopkins' delightful
monologues mature into their brilliant climax. The music for
Hannibal fares well on its album even with the controversial
production choices. The same uneasiness that blesses the story on the
screen causes the album to be equally frightful, and yet, in the end,
the moments of score and dialogue together steal the album with their
often understated elegance.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.83
(in 123 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.95
(in 298,424 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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