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Review of The Iron Giant (Michael Kamen)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you're tired of hearing underpowered and uninspired
action music from Michael Kamen's career, for The Iron Giant is
immensely resounding in its constructs, performances, and recording.
Avoid it... if you prefer your animation scores to maintain strong thematic coherency instead of providing a different mini-symphony for each major cue.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1999 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 49:54
2022 Varèse Album: Total Time: 76:58
* Performed by Michael Kamen & Eric Clapton
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
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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 The Iron Giant are Copyright © 1999, 2022, Varèse Sarabande, Varèse Sarabande (Deluxe Edition) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/25/99 and last updated 3/28/22. |
