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| Kamen |
The Iron Giant: (Michael Kamen) In an era when
animated films were utilizing the best of three-dimensional rendering to
transcend the limitations of hand-drawn cells,
The Iron Giant was
an extreme throwback. Warner Brothers had a wretched history of
cinematic animation over the previous two decades, and coupled with this
film's sparse and flat drawing, it was a momentous surprise when 1999's
The Iron Giant turned out to be so good. Directed by "The
Simpsons" veteran Brad Bird, the film's greatest strength was it honest,
well-written story. A young boy in 1957 Maine discovers, saves, and
befriends a 100-foot robot that has crashed from outer space, teaching
him about the world and eventually trying to prevent the robot from
running afoul with local populations and the skittish military. The
movie's intelligence and keen sense of pacing, combined with an
interesting historical setting and solid exploration of societal mores,
launched
The Iron Giant to almost universal critical success. The
fact that it didn't really compete in the mainstream against Disney and
other competitors may have resulted because the quality of the visuals
was so tied to yesteryear, but the fact that the film isn't a musical
may have also played a role.
The Iron Giant marked the only time
that Michael Kamen ventured into the animation genre, but after a decade
of somewhat flimsy action scoring, fans of the composer loved what they
heard. Some maintain that this score is the very best of Kamen's career,
and while on a technical and orchestration level that may be true, the
score lacks a cohesively hearty appeal after it finishes its run. The
director instructed Kamen to capture the essence of Bernard Herrmann for
The Iron Giant, and in terms of the complexity of his structures,
Kamen succeeded brilliantly. He was in a period of his career when he
was heavily involved with symphonies and other non-film music work, and
The Iron Giant reflects many of the characteristics of a
traditional, classical symphony. Fans of classical music may notice some
inspiration from Tchaikowsky, for instance, among others.
Two important aspects of the recording process for
The Iron Giant have an impact on its character as well. First,
its performance by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which contained
mostly the same musicians as the City of Prague Philharmonic that
soundtrack compilation fans were already well familiar with, is top
notch. The recording of the enthusiastic ensemble is impressively
balanced, prevailing over the brief moments of synthetic contributions.
During the sequences of full ensemble bombast, the resounding depth and
clarity of the percussion and brass sections specifically are
astonishing. Secondly, Kamen conducted the score without using a screen
with which to synchronize the music with the scenes for each cue. This
was done in part because of the musicians' lack of film-scoring
experience but also due to Kamen's style of writing for the film was
that of a free-flowing symphony rather than a Carl Stalling method of
exactly matching the action on screen. (This is despite the playful,
Stalling-like "Come and Get It" and "Car and Mouse" cues.) When you step
back and try to define
The Iron Giant as a whole, you don't have
the luxury of hearing themes and motifs integrated obviously into the
fabric of the score. There is little coordinated development or
foreshadowing that occurs throughout the work. Instead, Kamen tackles
the needs of each scene individually, using a "stream of consciousness"
kind of process to address the emotions of a situation rather than an
overarching concept. That said, Kamen does create recurring themes for
the robot and for the little boy. The former is given a four-note motif
that is heard in "The Eye of the Storm," "You Can Fix Yourself?," and
"The Last Giant Piece," while the latter receives a theme in "Hogarth
Hughes" that melds into several forms that make up "Bedtime Stories" and
other sensitive entries. Both of these themes are typically addressed by
woodwinds and other lighter instruments that, with the help of the ample
reverb mixed into the score, causes their statements to be masked by
surrounding material. They do converge technically as the bond between
the characters grows. If you're looking for obvious superhero-like
thematic development, or even any easily discernable motif to take with
you from
The Iron Giant, you'll be disappointed.
Two additional, more general styles inhabit the middle
and latter portions of the score for
The Iron Giant. The
militaristic sequences are given flute-wailing, snare-ripping marches
that play well to the generic, faceless nature of the force. The jazz
elements, highlighted by the contributions of a single bass, represent
the government agents investigating the robot. Beginning in "We Gotta
Hide" and representing the middle section of the album that ties to the
Dean character, these modestly swinging vintage jazz cues are
incongruous with the surrounding material, and while there's nothing
inherently wrong with the way Kamen handled these passages, they do beg
to be skipped for the sake of a consistent listening experience. That
experience is still, in general, very impressive. One of the problems
that Kamen often suffered with his action material of the 1990's was a
lack of powerful depth; this was painfully evident outside of the
"Overture" in
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and in the
Die
Hard and
Lethal Weapon sequels. He finally burst out of that
rut with his splendid replacement score for
What Dreams May Come,
and that hair-raising atmosphere, both tonal and dissonant, continues in
The Iron Giant. It's disappointing to look back and see that
these two superior scores didn't translate into widespread success for
X-Men shortly thereafter.
The Iron Giant is an awfully
impressive album experience on either its 1999 product (a 50-minute
presentation due to lower re-use fees of the Czech performers at the
time, with a hidden surprise at the end of the final track) or
Varèse Sarabande's limited, 2022 "Deluxe Edition" expansion that
adds filler cues and demos. A curiosity on this album is a rough
instrumental demo of an abandoned song for the film as performed by
Kamen and Eric Clapton. The longer product maintains the score's appeal,
though there will always be lingering questions about the lack of
obvious melodic integration and development. The music relies on its
sheer weight to define itself, and because of its great recording and
creative orchestrations, it works. But it remains difficult not to
speculate about how immensely rewarding
The Iron Giant might have
been if the themes for the boy and robot were better enunciated. Some
might say that such catering is unnecessary and the vagueness is an
impressive attribute. But without readily identifiable themes, the score
has no calling card outside of its huge heart.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Michael Kamen reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13
(in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 34,673 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert of the 1999 Varèse album includes no extra information about the
score or film. That of the 2022 album offers extensive information about both.
