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| Zimmer |
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: (Hans
Zimmer/Various) Never trust any studio executive or producer who
declares that the doors on a successful franchise have officially
closed. The initial
Pirates of the Caribbean adaptation of the
famous Disney theme park ride was originally conceived to be a
standalone film. Then, two sequels were planned for release in short
succession and at the debut of the third entry,
Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World's End in 2007, the concept was put to rest. The
allure of $1.8 billion in net profits for Disney after that trilogy,
however, proved too seductive, and despite some publicized spats between
studio executives, the fourth film in the franchise was produced based
upon Tim Powers' novel "On Stranger Tides" for a summer 2011 release.
Everything about
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides has
seemed tarnished by a lack of uniform enthusiasm from both Disney and
the crew. The budget for the movie was slimmed down considerably, many
famous characters are gone, new ones based upon real-life inspiration
take the overarching story in a new direction, a PG-13 rating for
sensuality is a Disney first, and more than one crew member, including
lead actor Johnny Depp (despite earning $55 million for reprising his role),
have expressed that the experience has been less than ideal. The story
reunites Depp and Geoffrey Rush's character and pits them with and
against Penelope Cruz as an old flame on a hunt for the fountain of
youth. In their way is Blackbeard, mermaids, and the usual assortment of
nasty undead pirates. Early critical response was not particularly
favorable to
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and
reactions to its soundtrack have been even more vicious than those for
the original, disastrous entry. Composer Hans Zimmer wrote the bulk of
the material for
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl but couldn't take credit for it due to contractual obligations
for
The Last Samurai. It was a hectic and rushed, last-minute job
to replace Alan Silvestri that was largely hacked out on synthesizers
for the final recording. Remarkably, the score enjoyed the same success
as the film and has become a mainstream favorite regardless of its
countless shortfalls of intellect. Zimmer took greater responsibility
for the two sequels that followed, eventually replacing the synthetic
elements with a mostly orchestral score for
Pirates of the Caribbean:
At World's End that is considered by almost all film music
collectors to be the most superior of the franchise to date.
In the years after
At World's End, Zimmer claimed
that he was done with the franchise, and even at the time of scoring
On Stranger Tides, he affirmed that it has made him "seasick."
Nevertheless, the composer is a champion of the collaborative process in
music composition and recording, and if nothing else, these
Pirates
of the Caribbean scores allow him a significant amount of latitude
in terms of teaming up with other artists who interest him. In the case
of
On Stranger Tides, that meant employing the usual army of
Remote Control assistants, including additional music and arrangements
from Matthew Margeson, Geoff Zanelli, Guillame Roussel, Tom Gire, John
Sponsler, Jacob Shea, Nick Phoenix, and Thomas Bergersen. But also on
the menu are contributions from a variety of external sources, too,
including a tango from Eduardo Cruz, Penelope's younger brother, choral
arrangements from Eric Whitacre (Zimmer needed his assistance to gauge
the performance capabilities of the singers), and a variety of Latin
influences from Mexican/Irish rock acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo Sanchez
and Gabriela Quintero ("Rodrigo y Gabriela"). For the standalone
release, Zimmer joined with respected album producer Peter Asher to
coordinate a slew of remixes based upon those original collaborative
results. More than anything, Zimmer enjoys seeking contributions from
other musicians and spreads the credit amicably, and it is this
continued career path explored by the composer that absolutely sinks the
music for
On Stranger Tides. For years, there has been a growing
discontentment within Zimmer's most ardent fanbase in regards to his
diminished role as a solo composer and concentration on "overproducing"
the scores he is asked to write. While his preferred process still
appeals to a large segment of his listeners,
On Stranger Tides
may represent a turning point in that support. To say that the initial
commercial album containing this score is an uncoordinated, unfocused
mess pointed at people who own just a couple of soundtracks is an
understatement, and be aware that the review to follow is based upon
that product alone. Zimmer fans claimed to have extensive recording
sessions leaked already on the web at the time of the official album's
release, but that material (chopped into an insane number of short cues)
will perhaps be the topic of future analysis. Until then, the album that
Zimmer himself produced is the target of choice ridicule, for the music
presented in its contents won't really satisfy anyone in the film score
spectrum, whether you apologize for Zimmer's coordination techniques or
otherwise.
More discussion about the ills of the album situation will
be covered at the end of this review, and what follows is, once again,
based solely upon the snippets of score (amounting to less than half an
hour) that Zimmer chose for inclusion on the product. As for the score
itself, Zimmer handled
On Stranger Tides, as always, with his
collaborators often in the room with him while he toyed with ideas on
keyboards. This includes Rodrigo y Gabriela; the three wrote their
sequences together in close confines. With the exception of the love
theme and some minor motifs, Zimmer handled the new major themes
himself, writing the score's ideas for the mermaids and Blackbeard.
Interestingly, Zimmer sought to make
On Stranger Tides a nearly
completely organic score, shedding the synthesizers in favor of acoustic
performances. This posed a problem because he confessed that it was
challenging for the orchestral players to produce the "tough, rugged
bass" that he desires. The trademark emphasis on lower registers is
indeed prevalent in the score, and some minor kudos have to be extended
to Zimmer for attempting to leave the electronic enhancements behind.
But when the orchestra (and especially the brass) is forced into such
unnatural performance exaggerations, you end up hearing a result that is
so similar to the synthetic sampling and manipulation of those players
that the effort seems moot. Zimmer has for a long time used
post-processing to construe the live recordings into the beefy, muscular
tone of their electronic representations, and the outcome here is really
no different. There is no doubt that a fair number of listeners will
erroneously believe that
On Stranger Tides is at least partially
synthetic. It's hard to blame them, especially given the franchise's
roots. Why Zimmer thinks this sound is befitting a swashbuckling concept
is still an issue, but that debate has been beaten to death in the
reviews for the previous scores in this series. All of the same
arguments are valid here, but reprising them is somewhat pointless. It
suffices to conclude that anyone looking for intelligence in the totally
non-dynamic sound of the
Pirates of the Caribbean scores is not
very well educated about the history of film music. It's also safe to
say that if you're still genuinely wishing you could hear what Silvestri
would have produced for the first film before being canned, then the
equation with
On Stranger Tides will not change your opinion in
regards to Zimmer's style. What's truly disappointing about this score
is what a letdown it is compared to the promise shown in
At World's
End. There's practically nothing clever about the narrative
development in this music, and that's the telltale sign of a composer
bored with the topic and handling the assignment because he is obligated
to do it, not because he's passionate about it.
Because there is so little original score on Disney's
official album for
On Stranger Tides, a track-by-track analysis
is to follow and provide details on compositional attribution and
thematic usage. Aside from the seven remixes that destroy the second
half of the album, there are three nearly solo Rodrigo y Gabriela
performances mixed in with the score that reduce Zimmer and his Remote
Control crew's portion to under half an hour. For casual enthusiasts of
the franchise, though, nearly every moment of
On Stranger Tides
features some kind of backwards reference to the previous three scores,
usually in blatant reminders. A shortened, reworked version of Jack
Sparrow's theme for Martin Tillman's usual cello occupies the short
"Guilty of Being Innocent of Being Jack Sparrow" in ways that will make
some Edward Shearmur fans cringe. The tango written by Eduardo Cruz is
the basis of "Angelica," the de facto love theme of the film that
features Rodrigo y Gabriela supported by deep string backing in the
rhythms to basically connect it to the rest of the score. It's a very
basic tango, really, aside from some occasional flourishes in the guitar
performances. The version here is the complete one, meant to accompany a
longer scene that was chopped down in length on screen. The first forty
seconds of "Mutiny" touch upon three major thematic elements in short
succession, hinting at the dual-chord progressions of Angelica's theme
on brass before staccato pounding of the franchise theme ("He's a
Pirate") in the familiar routine and transitioning to Blackbeard's theme
on strings. The action motif for undead pirates and the franchise theme
from the first score return later with choral chanting as well. The
first nearly solo Rodrigo y Gabriela cue is "The Pirate That Should Not
Be," a self-contained remix-like track with only slight connections to
Zimmer's themes. The highlight of the original material arrives with
what Zimmer claims is the primary new theme for
On Stranger
Tides, in "Mermaids." It's really the only idea in the score with
some intellectual merit (though it oddly doubles for the fountain of
youth), smartly balancing the intoxicating allure of the mermaids with
the ominous threat of their otherwise fierce nature. With the help of
Eric Whitacre's choral arrangements (emphasizing female singers, of
course), "Mermaids" is a truly engaging cue, its beautiful melody and
softer performance aspects countered by a turbulent undercurrent of
troubled background lines. After several minutes, the cue adds frightful
brass and rumbling bass to increase the volume, string ostinatos
creeping in and vocals turning to angry whispering and then chanting.
Just as this cue engrosses you, however, Zimmer chooses to backtrack and
awkwardly insert a statement of Cutler Beckett's death-related material
from "I Don't Think Now is the Best Time" in
At World's End. A
final, forceful snippet of the Blackbeard theme then closes out long
cue.
The second Rodrigo y Gabriela remix cue of sorts is
"South of Heaven's Chanting Mermaids," this time based upon Zimmer's
mermaids theme. It's a very long and dull performance, the guitars
performing solo until some basic accompaniment late takes the tone dark
like its inspiration. Fans of the
Dead Man's Chest score will
find merit in "Palm Tree Escape," a cue primarily consisting of elements
pulled from the 2006 score. Most of these concentrate on various guises
of Jack Sparrow's material, though this time featuring Rodrigo y
Gabriela as percussion-like devices to set a unique rhythm. Their
guitars infuse an extra dose of attitude for the full ensemble franchise
theme statement late in the cue. The instrumentation is also a bit more
varied in "Blackbeard," opening with creepy chimes and deep string
effects to emulate synthesized dread. Hints of an electric guitar
(almost like a live ensemble contributor) eventually yield to extremely
heavy,
Inception-style brass in unison and choral chanting that
is more aggressive than the norm for Zimmer. The actual theme contains a
meandering introduction before pounded on-key chords in descending lines
that are eerily similar to the progressions of Victor Heredia's
"Todavia Cantamos" as adapted into Shaun Davey's underrated 2001 score
for
The Tailor of Panama. Even if you can tolerate this
similarity, you might succumb to Zimmer's preferred technique of
pounding you into submission by repeating his super-awesome notes within
the melody (or doing so on key underneath to achieve the same effect).
More intriguing is this theme's interlude for cello and choir at about
2:20 into the track. The third Rodrigo y Gabriela solo cue is clearly
the worst of the lot, extending for five minutes of meaningless light
performances that are finally joined by electric elements at the end to
liven it up with references to the franchise theme. How this music is
meant to interest album buyers more than additional orchestral score
recordings is a mystery. The mermaid theme is conveyed on melodramatic,
ominous strings in "On Stranger Tides," segueing into a combined
performance with the franchise theme (and a new one for the Spanish) for
an abrasive chanted sequence. Closing out the score portion of the album
is the "End Credits" rendition of "He's a Pirate" with a few changes to
the orchestration (brass and timpani at the very start are a noted
change) that make the theme sound synthetic even though it isn't. The
middle sequence in this suite returns to the Jack Sparrow action motif
from
Dead Man's Chest as heard in "Palm Tree Escape" before
leaving us with "He's a Pirate" one last time. As for the seven remixes
that follow on the product, it's painful to hear Zimmer's material
translated into the trance realm. Wretched, in fact. The only slightly
listenable one is "Palm Tree Escape," and even that is difficult to
endure for its entire duration.
So what happened here? By all accounts,
On Stranger
Tides is a monumental screw-up of Zimmer's own making. As nice as it
is to see the man act in such a humble manner, his tendency to delegate
authority has ruined what little progress he made in the music of this
franchise with
At World's End. It may not be as offensive
intellectually as
Curse of the Black Pearl, because the mermaids'
theme does indeed have the kind of individual merit completely lacking
in the 2003 score, but this is a case in which the album presentation is
so heinously awful (yes, even worse than
Rango) that it's
impossible to really know how
On Stranger Tides rates, for
instance, alongside
Dead Man's Chest. Make no mistake about it:
Zimmer is alone to blame for the terrible album. He has
confessed many things about the album's constitution, even admitting
that Disney would have pressed an album with much more original score if
he had personally insisted. But after blaming the musicians union's fees
involved with Los Angeles recordings for limiting most score releases to
30 minutes (someone needs to get this man to consult with Brian Tyler
about that), a largely irrelevant poke at the players he claims to
support given his wealth and appeal, Zimmer actually claimed artistic
merit for his album choices (along with Peter Asher's input). He wanted
to show off more artists' talents, seeking spirited remixes that more
closely followed his original material (sorry, didn't work!), and
specifically left off more of the orchestral action sequences because he
thought that they would make the CD less listenable to the purchasing
audience. This coming from a man who thought that
The Social
Network had a tremendously positive impact on film music and cannot
speak any more highly of Trent Reznor's compositional prowess. If
anybody doubts that Zimmer lives within the mentality of his Remote
Control bubble, then
On Stranger Tides is proof that he is
indeed, intentionally or unintentionally, altering the course of film
music creation and soundtrack album production for the worse. Even if
you consider the score portions of this effort alone, you have
underachieving music that has been cobbled together to form cues in ways
that betray the edits of the separate, shorter recordings. The style
still doesn't befit the swashbuckling genre and whatever momentum that
was gained in the previous franchise score is lost. There will be debate
about whether
On Stranger Tides is evidence of a lazy composer or
simply a misguided composer. Whereas the previous scores failed for some
listeners because of their obnoxious tone, this one fails for a far
worse reason: it's boring. Ultimately, Zimmer can humbly proclaim his
love for assembling talent in the collaborative process, but if those
efforts yield a stinky turd that potentially alienates even his own
fanbase, then the only person to blame is himself.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: *
- Music as Heard on Album: FRISBEE
- Overall: *
| Bias Check: |
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.83
(in 123 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 2.95
(in 298,424 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes ridiculously extensive credits, but no
extra information about the score or film.
