: (Jerry Goldsmith) Excessive gore,
nudity, and profanity. The trademarks of almost any Paul Verhoeven film.
All of these were on display in 2000's
, but the gore
stole the show. With nothing resembling the original H.G. Wells
"Invisible Man" concept,
instead takes an hour
introducing the audience to a team of scientists making a top-secret
effort to shift a person "out of quantum synch with the known universe"
and thus making him (or first, some animals) invisible. The latter half
of the film dissolves into an
-like horror bonanza of
extreme violence. The only aspect in the film's favor was its incredible
visual display of living anatomy, using visual effects to brilliantly
show both a gorilla and human in the process of shifting transparency,
layer by layer. But other than those effects and Kevin Bacon's
obnoxiously capturing performance,
was a
disappointment. Despite failing to recover its budgetary costs in its
domestic showing (drawing only $73 million),
would
surprisingly inspire a terrible straight-to-DVD sequel starring
Christian Slater in 2006, which says more about the actor's career than
anything else. Verhoeven had a long-standing association with Jerry
Goldsmith, and
represented the composer's only score
of 2000. As such, it was much hyped and anticipated with great
expectations by Goldsmith collectors who, at the time, defended the
score to a fault. In retrospect,
remains a
disappointment compared to the composer's fantastic output in 1999
because it represents some of Goldsmith's least inspired work in the
latter stages of his career. It is undoubtedly an example of the
composer on autopilot, a sad reality that effected many of Goldsmith's
later scores (especially those for wretched films like this one) and
begged unfavorable comparisons between Goldsmith and the habits of James
Horner.
In many cases, a poor film didn't stop Goldsmith from
going over the top with his music, and yet, for
Hollow Man, you
get a distinct sense that everything contained in the work is pieced
together from other Goldsmith scores. It'll make a decent entry in the
collection of a Goldsmith fan who's in the business of finding a
comfortably predictable score. Otherwise, it'll taste more than a little
stale. Perhaps the greatest weakness of
Hollow Man is its
pleasant, but unexciting title theme. Goldsmith had the opportunity to
really accentuate the action, the science, or the suspense of the film
with a cue that plays without interference over the opening titles.
Unfortunately, his piece is a lazy recapitulation of both
Basic
Instinct and
The Haunting, using the pulsating piano,
woodwind, and electronic rhythm from the former underneath a meandering,
disembodied theme for high strings not much unlike the latter. While
definitely a recognizable Goldsmith product, this theme (despite some
outstanding, delayed brass counterpoint in its final statement over the
titles) is far too incongruous with the content of the film to really
make sense. There were even better sound effects in Goldsmith's library
that could have been used to represent the idea of invisibility. The
lack of regular use of the theme in the score is another problem; on
album, the only other major performance is fleetingly heard in "What
Went Wrong?" There is no solid secondary character theme in
Hollow
Man, with "Linda & Sebastian" unable to light some fire in a
relationship that no longer existed in the film anyway. There are two
rhythmic motifs at work in the film that are both, ironically, more
effective. The first is the "transitional motif," which is heard in the
cues "Isabelle Comes Back" and "This is Science." As either the gorilla
appears or Bacon disappears, the awesome, lengthy special effects
sequences are treated to a bass thumping and array of prickling
electronic effects that slowly increase their pace and volume as the
scenes progress.
The other, lesser motif worth noting is a rambling
piano and bass-element ostinato heard for the violent chasing in "The
Elevator" and "The Big Climb." Its foreshadowed moments in "False Image"
and "Hi Boss" could be effective if not so tired by this point in
Goldsmith's career. There also seems to be another idea introduced in
the sixth minute of "Bloody Floor," one that is surprisingly harmonic
and upbeat given the nature of the scene, calling for almost a tragic
atmosphere. Otherwise,
Hollow Man is devoid of really interesting
material, and this applies even more to action cues in the middle of the
film. There is a sense that this material is as generic to Goldsmith
career as the mundane parts of
Chain Reaction or
Executive
Decision. By the fourth minute of "Isabelle Comes Back," we hear
familiar shades of
The 13th Warrior, with zapping sounds from
Star Trek: Insurrection abounding. Some have compared the action
bursts, especially with the drum pad and synthesizer combos, to
Total
Recall, and there is some merit to those comparisons. But
Total
Recall always gave you the idea that its music was going in a
distinct direction. By
Hollow Man, the techniques of slurred
brass, screeching and cascading strings, and an array of timpani to
shake the floors was simply too rusty to carry the score on "that
Goldsmith sound" alone. Because the score was recorded in London, the
album runs over 50 minutes, which is almost too long in this case. The
first track (and maybe the second as well) is substantially the only
music that will interest many more casual Goldsmith listeners. The sound
quality, while still very clear, is not as resoundingly wet and well
balanced as his scores of the previous few years (from
Small
Soldiers to
The 13th Warrior), marking an end to that era of
terrific-sounding Goldsmith music. No matter the sound quality,
Hollow Man is both derivative and unexpectedly timid, a
surprising way to reach the failure that the film was tempting.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.28
(in 113 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.31
(in 142,971 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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