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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Hard Rain (Christopher Young)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you'd be enticed by a merging of vintage Hans Zimmer
synthetic bass and drum pads with Jerry Goldsmith's aggressive action
rhythms and Bruce Broughton's ambitious brass layers.
Avoid it... if you prefer your Christopher Young music to be unpredictable and laced with the more challenging dissonance that defines much of his work, this entry consistently tonal in its brute force.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1998 Milan Album:
Total Time: 51:44
2021 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 77:51
* previously unreleased ** contains previously unreleased material *** contains material not in film
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Hard Rain are Copyright © 1998, 2021, Milan Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/26/98 and last updated 5/23/21. |
