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| Zimmer |
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| Zanelli |
The Pacific (TV): (Hans Zimmer/Geoff Zanelli/Blake
Neely) Serving as a much anticipated sister series to 2001's
Band of
Brothers, a related follow-up from Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and
Gary Goetzman debuted on HBO and in Australia and the United Kingdom in
early 2010. Running for two months,
The Pacific limited its focus
of World War II's American action against the Japanese to the
perspectives of just three Marines. Over the course of nine hours (split
into ten episodes), these men are shown enlisting, fighting, in one case
dying, and dealing with the aftermath of the conflict, much of the
narrative supplied by the real-life accounts of the survivors of these
mostly true war stories. Like
Band of Brothers, HBO, Dreamworks,
and their international counterparts attempted to follow the standard of
excellence in the portrayal of the conflict as set in Spielberg's
Saving Private Ryan. Over $150 million was poured into the
production of
The Pacific, most of that money spent in Australia,
where shooting was centered. The quality of the mini-series has been
widely praised, with nearly universal accolades from critics and viewers
translating into almost two dozen Emmy nominations, of which
The
Pacific won eight (including for overall outstanding series). In all
of the various television and video game adaptations of the Stephen
Ambrose style of WWII combat narrative in the years since
Saving
Private Ryan, John Williams' respectfully restrained music for the
1998 film has remained a template for many of those subsequent
soundtracks. Both Michael Kamen and Michael Giacchino provided music to
those venues that has more outwardly dramatized this period in history,
but these composers very carefully maintained the instruction to pay
respect to sacrifice rather than glorify the conflict. Whereas Williams'
Saving Private Ryan is solemn to the point of minimalism in parts
and Giacchino's "Medal of Honor" game scores pushed the boundaries of
heroism from within the same general mould, Kamen's music for
Band of
Brothers endures as a popular and competent middle ground.
It's difficult not to compare the music of
The
Pacific to what Kamen achieved in one of his last major achievements
before his untimely death, for
Band of Brothers manages to
capture both the severity of respect in Williams' tone and the robust
militaristic stature of Giacchino (which itself was an offshoot of
Williams' style). In later years, the "Medal of Honor" game scores began
to be serviced with music by familiar members of Hans Zimmer's Remote
Control operation, and with the famed composer himself a veteran of
projects like
The Thin Red Line and
Pearl Harbor, it's no
surprise that he and some of his RC associates wrote the music for
The Pacific. As usual, this collaborative effort is another
example of nebulous scoring duties that never truly reveal to listeners
where the talents of Zimmer yield to those of his two credited assistant
composers for this occasion, Geoff Zanelli and Blake Neely. There is no
discernable distinction of these duties in any of the cues as presented
on the album for
The Pacific, suggesting the commonly held notion
that Zimmer writes the melodies for these productions and allows men
like Zanelli and Neely to flesh them out consistently throughout the
entire soundtrack. In this particular case, it's interesting to note
that the general approach to
The Pacific seems to point to a
sonic wallpaper technique, standardized background music devoid of
synchronization points that the filmmakers could chop up and insert
wherever necessary. It's thus an extremely smooth listening experience
with Randy Edelman styling, never awakening from a noble slumber to
address any of the action scenes in the series. Instead, you hear over
an hour of extremely pleasant but largely meaningless background harmony
of an easy orchestral variety on the album for
The Pacific, only
the occasional rumbling of timpani or very slight dissonance from
strings interrupting an otherwise painless, cross-faded presentation.
There are two themes in the series, one titled "Honor" and considered
the main theme and the other called "With the Old Breed" and presented
over the end credits. The first one is a more fluid, romanticized
representation while the latter is a bit stern in its militaristic
salute (in part due to trumpet accompaniment).
It's odd that Zimmer and crew decided to diverge into
two different themes for
The Pacific, because both essentially
solicit the same emotional response and there doesn't seem to be much
need to divide the thematic identity of the series unless the composers
were instructed very specifically to append a contemplative,
backwards-looking theme at the end as a separate entity. Neither of
these ideas is referenced frequently in the mass of the underscore,
general chord progressions common to the themes appearing in several
places before the melodies begin to creep into the melodramatic final
third of the album. Unfortunately, these themes and their string-led
performances are extremely reminiscent of
Pearl Harbor, and
anyone familiar with that 2001 score will hear yet another example of
Zimmer and crew providing extremely tonal and pleasing orchestral
romanticism without really pushing for any sense of authentic resonance.
It's unfortunate that
The Pacific looks toward
Pearl
Harbor rather than
Band of Brothers, perhaps exposing
Zimmer's comfort with very simplistic neo-classical tonality for
circumstances that could really use the nuanced complexity of the
Williams or Kamen templates. The general demeanor of this soundtrack is
so even and, daresay, unengaged with the subject matter that it could
very well be applied to a movie about a number of different topics, even
contemporary romance. This conservative and basic orchestral stance
causes a lack of counterpoint or even any less obvious symphonic
activity to retain interest. Reflecting current Zimmer/RC style, the
score often resides below middle C, growling through some of its
understatements. Its simplistic constructs risk boredom or maybe even a
snooze from some listeners who venture past the opening two
presentations of theme that at least beef up the ensemble size for
impressive depth. Signs of life begin to stir in "Landing Peleliu" and
"Adagio For Peleliu," and "Homecoming" is no doubt a touching cue. But
these slight variations are simply not enough to salvage an otherwise
static, underachieving score. Despite all of these challenges to
retaining your attention,
The Pacific is still sonic wallpaper of
a very pretty variety, and listeners seeking an experience in which they
can escape into their thoughts without interruption will find much merit
in it. The music is adequate at all times but never really exceptional
in any one cue.
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| Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.86
(in 119 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.97
(in 294,665 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information
about the score or film.
