: (Danny Elfman) Spawned from the original
Marvel comic and a cultish 1970's television show, the first film
adaptation of the character in 2003 was a task presented to
Taiwanese-born Ang Lee, the acclaimed director behind
. The feeling
of the studio was that Lee would use his strongly rooted sense of drama
to keep
as character-driven as possible, without allowing
the film to digress into a CGI spectacle. Ironically, the studio
eventually claimed that there wasn't enough action, not to mention
eventual fan uproar about a rather fake-looking CGI hulk, and Lee pulled
his hair out in frustration over the project. While the finished version
of
wasn't a monumental fiscal disaster, attracting some
positive reviews from critics, fans of the concept abandoned it with
disdain. So thoroughly disregarded was this film that when the concept
was resurrected in 2008 as
, that production
ensued as though the Lee version had never existed. It was a cinematic
disaster story of the highest order, extending so far as the title of
the film itself (some versions of press materials and posters called the
film
).
Arguably the most interesting casualty of Universal's last minute search
for an answer was composer Mychael Danna. Contrary to many reports at
the time, Danna, who had been one of Lee's regular collaborators and
good friend on many projects, did indeed record a score for
.
It was by no means your typical superhero music, either. Encouraged by
Lee to explore an compellingly worldly avenue for the title character
(an instruction that must have seemed like a piece of cake for a man who
writes such music in his sleep), Danna completed a work that contained a
significant Arabic personality, though his Middle-Eastern vocals and
employment of the Armenian duduk sometimes yielded to massive orchestral
outbursts and even ripping electric guitar cues of contemporary appeal.
Perhaps it's understandable why the studio was horrified by this music,
but why then did they hire Lee to direct this project? Lee was obviously
fond of the score, but after disastrous test screenings, the studio was
ready for a big name replacement in the film's music department.
Thus, by the time Danny Elfman walked onto the project,
the film was in various stages of discontent, disarray, and a
significant reworking of CGI effects at Industrial Light & Magic. Elfman
accepted the assignment only because of his respect for Lee, for he was
generally extremely cautious about when and how he stepped in on any
replacement assignment. His relationship with Lee was reportedly quite
awkward. The director insisted that much of the character of Danna's
work be retained and instructed Elfman to write material that did not
sound like any of the composer's other superhero scores. The two argued
about the retention of one of Danna's electric guitar cues, a sound that
Elfman rejected as belonging in a "Wrestlemania commercial." Upon
hearing preliminary music from Elfman that reminded the director of
Batman, Lee urged the composer to reinvent himself. "When I'd
play something new for Ang," Elfman stated at the time, "he always
wanted to know where the music came from. And I'd tell him, it doesn't
matter if it came from China or Bulgaria. It's what you do with it that
matters. If it works, no one will care where it came from." Eventually,
Lee and Elfman overcame their initial differences ("The first week was
pure hell," Elfman continued), and ultimately the composer admitted, "It
was hard because it takes time to reinvent yourself, and we didn't have
much time." The time factor and Lee's insistence that Elfman maintain
the Arabic sound of Danna's work is what caused the final score for
Hulk to be a bizarre misadventure. Perhaps this is the kind of
music that would result if a film score composer somehow got zapped by a
Gammasphere machine. There will always be speculation about whether or
not
Hulk would have fared better with fans had Elfman been
allowed to write something he was truly comfortable with. He had, after
all, proven his knack for larger than life scores in the genre. But his
works of the early 2000's (outside of
Spider-Man) were somewhat
problematic in regards to this sound, with his music often suffering
from watered-down themes and a wandering focus. These inherent
difficulties are evident in
Hulk as well, though it's easy to
understand why and forgive Elfman for doing the best he could in these
circumstances. He simply didn't have the time to write a coherent score
that accommodated Lee's unconventional expectations.
Off the bat, listeners should be aware that Elfman's
music is nothing like Craig Armstrong's score for the 2008 cinematic
revision of the concept. Armstrong eventually captured the melodrama and
anger of the original story through his competent blend of contemporary
instrumentation and orchestral depth, utilizing even a piece of the
famous "The Lonely Man" theme on piano (written by Joe Harnell for the
television show). Elfman's score, by comparison, is exposed as the mess
many considered it to be in 2003. In Elfman's version, there exists no
overpowering theme for scientist Bruce Banner and his angry alter ego. A
descending six-note phrase for him is obtuse and sounds like a holdover
from some of the background layers in the
Spider-Man theme and
portions of the
Planet of the Apes remake. This technique of
pronounced descent is Elfman's method of addressing the tragic aspect of
the character while also giving audiences that sinking feeling that the
monster is coming to get them. But Elfman's enunciation of the theme,
from "Main Titles" to "End Credits," is muddled; in an attempt to add
broad depth to the idea, it becomes lost in its own weighty tone. Along
the same lines, there is no particularly gripping theme for Banner's
(ex)girlfriend Betty Ross and the passion that he feels towards her. A
few muffled cues of conversational material are so blinded by the
Middle-Eastern tones that they lose any personal touch they may have had
(as in the otherwise beautiful "The Truth Revealed"). Variants on these
ideas are slim, though Elfman does create a lightly cascading, tingling
woodwind motif that represents the science behind Banner's dilemma; this
motif grows with intensity as he turns green, of course. If you're
looking for style, this aspect of the score is dominated by the
artificial ethnicity. The vocals of female singer Natacha Atlas, known
by film music collectors since her contributions to
Stargate, are
definitely Middle Eastern in the natural inflection in her voice.
Mirroring the vocals is a strangely mixed series of performances by a
duduk during the more reflective moments of emotional contemplation.
When you think of the Hulk, an Armenian flute is not exactly the first
instrument to come to mind, and its employment is simply too out of
place to ignore even if you can accept the accompanying vocals by
Atlas.
Because we are talking about an Ang Lee film, your mind
can twist up in a knot if you attempt to analyze the resulting music
with any great detail. There are still moments of basic, pounding,
orchestral blasts, without theme or a respite from its powerful
percussion. Snippets of Elfman's previous styles can occasionally be
heard. The large orchestral sequences often resort to cliches in their
progressions, simple rhythms, and droning bass that washes out all of
the mid-level instruments of the playing group. The only exhilarating
action cue is the opening of "Hulk's Freedom," which presents the one
really notable version of the monster's theme. But unless Banner is at
his angriest, lifting up vehicles and tossing them around San Francisco,
the score is ethnically off-center. Even some of those action scenes are
recorded with percussive elements that make you think that the military
is on
an elephant hunt in Africa! The San Francisco Bay Area is
indeed an ethnic melting pot, and most audiences probably wouldn't
recognize Armenian music even if they were in Armenia. And yet, if
you've heard enough Mychael Danna scores like the just previous
Ararat, which is
not something that Bruce Banner should
bring back memories of, then the vocals and duduk will be an awkward
surprise at the least and fatal for some. Thus, in the end, without a
truly strong theme and anchored by several Middle-Eastern passages,
The Hulk just doesn't work. The entire recording is mixed into a
very dry, dull sound, with the duduk often too slight to have an emotive
impact, and the lack of a dynamic soundscape contributes to the fact
that the score fails to get the heart pounding. A very healthy hour of
music is available on the album release, and much of the middle section
of the score drags considerably with pleasant, though misplaced
underscore. The song at the end is grossly mismatched with the score
(unless Elfman had chosen the more obvious electric guitar route, which
he did not), and is written and performed by an eclectic collection of
men from Guns N' Roses, Stone Temple Pilots, and Suicidal Tendencies, a
group that had not yet officially chosen a final, working name. The song
is a regrettable heavy metal finale to a largely flat and uninspiring
score. Overall, Elfman's work is an admirable failure, especially in
context, though you can't fault him for the result of this nightmarish
experience.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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