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| Young |
Hard Rain: (Christopher Young) While Hollywood was
already being flooded with failed blockbusters about natural disasters
in 1997 and 1998, Paramount attempted to throw a different angle at
audiences by combining the disaster of a flood in small town America
with an organized robbery. Neither changing the title of the film from
The Flood to
Hard Rain nor delaying its release for nearly
an entire year led to success for the studio, however.
Hard Rain
was drowned by non-existent character development, terrible acting,
predictable and boring action shootouts, a few heinous special effects
shots, the misguided casting of Morgan Freeman as the lead villain, and
a lack of genuine danger presented by the flood itself. Cinematographer
Mikael Salomon directed
Hard Rain to a conclusion so improbable
that audiences were only relieved to be done with the entire experience,
and the film was a monumental failure at the box office. The nonstop
chasing in the story had a direct influence over the score for the film,
and the unyielding pace of that action would require some serious
sophistication in the music to help float its mindless characteristics.
Also at play is the location of Indiana, and both the needs of the
action and locale were addressed by veteran horror film composer
Christopher Young, who lobbied extensively to get an assignment that, on
paper, looked like a better match for Jerry Goldsmith. At the time, fans
of the composer were excited about
Hard Rain because it presented
Young with his first potential blockbuster action score. Unfortunately,
the opportunity went to waste so badly due to the film's disastrous
showing that fans and writers would say the same thing about Young the
following year regarding his hiring for
Entrapment. Despite
writing some interesting material for these interludes into the straight
action genre, Young never seemed to get a good foothold in it, and as
the 2000's rolled along, the composer's more notable scores would once
again be based in the horror genre.
Young's work for
Hard Rain is exactly what the
film needed at the very least, and the composer makes it clear through
his approach to the music that he never had any intent of adding another
dimension to any of the individual, poorly rendered characters. Instead,
his score is almost entirely heartless action, with the exception,
perhaps, of a layering of enticing harmonica solos by the legendary Jean
'Toots' Thielemans for the locale. The performance by both Thielemans
and The London Metropolitan Orchestra are key to Young's score, for they
take an average piece of writing and, along with an outstanding
recording mix, give the score an element of overachievement. The balance
of percussion and brass in the score is outstanding, the harmonica
thriving in a wet environment (no pun intended). The sound of
Hard
Rain is a combination of Media Ventures synthetic bass and drum pads
with Goldsmith's ambitious rhythmic tendencies and Bruce Broughton's
usually awesome employment of brass layers. It really is a "Goldsmith
and Broughton meets Hans Zimmer" kind of score, and the resulting
combination is so well managed in parts that
Hard Rain is easy to
recommend to action enthusiasts. The larger-than-life "The Dam Breaks"
even has some token end-of-the-world scale. The opening titles are the
highlight of the score, breaking the silence with brass blasts very
similar to
Silverado's notorious opening. Young's majestic chord
alternations of evil intent strike the minor key with occasional major
key inclusions for an almost mystical effect while his
Hellraiser-style timpani form a pounding chord underneath. The
suspense is then broken by a well-mixed electronic pulsation under a
decent brass theme and tingling treble electronics a la Goldsmith. The
harmonica eventually adds significant style to the cue, begging for more
such performances. While Young does sprinkle the instrument throughout
the work, only at the end of "Church Chase" does it offer the same sense
of high style. A rising triplet figure debuting late in "Truck Heist" is
the score's driving suspense tool, and the villains' rhythmic
representation, consisting of a motif hammering away mostly on key,
solidifies in "The Jet Ski Chase (Part 1)."
With only a few respites for tense conversation, the
score for
Hard Rain is perpetual action, never allowing a single
cue to pass without a slamming of the drums, metallic percussion, and
heavily layered brass. It was more standard, tonal action than typical
from Young at the time, devoid of the challenges that his horror scores
throw at you. The maturation of the villains' material alongside the
main theme is extremely satisfying in the first "The Jet Ski Chase" cue
and both "Church Chase" ones. Pieces of
Copycat appear in how
Young uses swirling strings to represent the encroaching water in
Hard Rain. One very vibrant aspect of the score is Young's
employment of the percussion section, especially in the metallic realm.
Chimes and cymbals provide compelling rhythmic accents to the action, as
do both the electronics and flutes in the higher regions. The problem
with
Hard Rain is, expectedly, the fact that it is, despite its
strengths, a truly one-dimensional score. Its sole job is to exhilarate.
You never arrive at any sense of resolution at the conclusion, nor does
the action material evolve in any way from start to end. The narrative
at the conclusion of the score is surprisingly weak, a likely byproduct
of late changes to the film's plot that were widely ridiculed. The
harmonica's role is largely diminished from its potential established at
the start, and Young's music is almost stale by its closing bars. If a
more improvisational style by Thielemans, as in his performance of the
main theme near the end of "Jim Saves the Day," had been explored, this
score could have been brilliant. Without it, the coolness factor evident
in the opening cue, a must-have for any compilation, is lost thereafter.
A throw-away rock song at the end doesn't help the initial 1998 album
wrap up Young's material. That entry is missing from a 2021 La-La Land
Records expansion limited to a scant 1,000 copies, supplying a dozen
additional minutes for the main presentation and adding a handful of
engaging alternative takes for story reshoots, the best of which for
"The Jail Cell." Most importantly, the 2021 album is offered in proper
cue order and in the same fantastic sound quality. Overall, the score
has very impressive moments, including a solid 15 to 20 minutes of
potent, dynamic action writing, but it may remain too anonymous by the
end to keep you coming back. Still, the recording's outstanding vibrance
and notable harmonica flavoring make it a pleasant surprise upon each
revisit.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Christopher Young reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.48
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.17
(in 10,914 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1998 Milan album includes no extra information
about the score or film. That of the 2021 La-La Land album contains
extensive information about both.
