: (Nick Glennie-Smith, Harry
Gregson-Williams, and Hans Zimmer) It's interesting to look back at
initial reactions to a movie like
and ponder the fact
that it received positive reviews from major critics at the time.
Director Michael Bay has, in the following decade, worn out his welcome
with many in the mainstream, though in 1996 his teaming with producers
Jerry Bruckheimer and the (already deceased) Don Simpson extended the
style of movies like
to an even
further extreme. It was also an era when a Bruckheimer and Bay
production could haul in a fantastic Oscar-winning cast, led in
by Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, and Ed Harris. The preposterous
story involved a group of renegade ex-Marines who steal rockets tipped
with poison gas and threaten to unleash it on San Francisco from the
island of Alcatraz, unless (of course) Sean Connery and his witty tongue
can save the day. Aside from spectacular visual effects, the birth of
the late 1990's Media Ventures score, as a concept, cranked up the
testosterone level with frantic, electronic zeal. Hans Zimmer,
successful in the official creation of a modern blockbuster sound that
was monumentally successful the previous year in
,
didn't actually spend much time delving into the genre himself over
subsequent years. While he is indeed to be credited as the brain behind
the bombastic new style of action scoring, he would hand over the
everyday duties of scoring such assignments to his vast array of
assistant composers at his co-owned Media Ventures talent farm. While
fans, both for and against Zimmer's production habits, would come to
expect collaborative efforts between these young assistant composers in
the following years, the scenario with
came as a
surprise to those expecting a score from Zimmer alone. For the first few
years after its release, the common misperception was that Zimmer wrote
most of the score and needed assistance in meeting the hectic
post-production schedule.
In fact,
The Rock would be the first blockbuster
project for which Zimmer would really serve as a contributor rather than
a composer. The assignment would land in the lap of Nick Glennie-Smith,
a regular Zimmer collaborator who would go on to his own brief solo
career in the mainstream after
The Rock. When asked about his
involvement in the score, Zimmer once stated, "I never really wanted to
write any of it. It was always supposed to be Nick Glennie-Smith's
score." Contrary to his wish, and due to Bruckheimer's unhappiness with
Glennie-Smith's material, Zimmer would actually write the title theme of
the film and contribute insight into other aspects of the score. The
extent of his involvement in the writing of the score's other two major
themes is a fact that has remained elusive through the years, though
Glennie-Smith adapts Zimmer's sound from
Crimson Tide and
Backdraft well enough that the exact credits don't much matter.
Since the opening titles feature Zimmer's music, Glennie-Smith
reportedly refused to have his name appear on screen at the same time,
and Zimmer thus got more credit than he wanted or deserved. Somewhere
along the line, Glennie-Smith needed assistance in providing enough
music for the long film (well over two hours) in such a tight schedule,
and another Media Ventures regular, Harry Gregson-Williams, was brought
in to substitute for a few major cues. Veteran composer James Newton
Howard has often been mentioned as offering something to
The Rock
as well, though it's unlikely that his work extended to compositional
duties. Veteran collectors of Media Ventures scores can typically
determine which cues were written and/or arranged by the various
composers, though the muddled re-arrangement of the score on the
commercial album doesn't make the task any easier. In Hans Zimmer's own
words in 1997: "I just want to say, categorically, the CD of
The
Rock stinks." Still, you can hear three distinct, major themes in
The Rock, with several lesser motifs that are adapted throughout.
Interestingly, while the theme that Zimmer wrote for the opening titles
of the film is the general representation of the entire score, most of
Zimmer's contributions seem centered around the villain of the tale,
Brigadier General Frank Hummel (played by Ed Harris). The sense of
tragic nobility that Zimmer inserts into this material is quite suitable
for the character, and is consistent with the composer's previous
thematic tendencies.
This title theme, heard over the rainy opening title
sequence, is an intriguing cross between the styles of
Crimson
Tide and
Backdraft. You hear the choral and electronic
instrumentation from the former while the deliberate, snare-ripping
movement of the theme itself has all the heroic stature of the latter.
The theme would be about as bold as Zimmer would ever get in the genre
(with the possible exception of his more satisfying experience on
The
Peacemaker), with many of his assistants carrying this torch ahead
in scores like
The Man in the Iron Mask and
Armageddon. In
The Rock, this theme would receive its most fluid expansion in
the middle of "Rock House Jail," reminding of some of the more
attractive, propulsive statements of theme in
Crimson Tide. Both
of the other two major themes would come from Glennie-Smith, and they
couldn't be more incongruous in sound. The second major theme in the
score follows the opening title sequence and serves as the primary
action idea for
The Rock. Heard extensively at the end of "Hummel
Gets the Rockets" and at the opening of "Rock House Jail," this theme is
rather standard in the ranks of Media Ventures action themes, sharing
characteristics with Mark Mancina's similar, choppy moves in
Speed. The third and more obvious theme is one for the family
element in the film. Heard in "Jade" and at the end of "Rocket Away"
(the conclusion of the story's climax), this pretty theme seems like an
attempt to draw from Irish mannerisms, both in the swing of its
progressions and the penny whistle/recorder type of performance of its
woodwind lead. The gorgeous, though simplistic five minutes of this
theme's running time on the commercial album for
The Rock is
deserving of a place on a compilation far different from the one that
would carry the other highlights from the score, and this theme, more
than any other part of the work as a whole, somewhat betrays the
fragmented personality that results from such collaborative efforts.
Several other motifs abound in
The Rock, though the thorough
integration of the first two themes lessens their impact.
The synthetic style of
The Rock is both the
score's greatest asset and weakness. Unlike the smart use of electronics
in
Crimson Tide, the overemphasis on powerful bass, wailing
electric guitars, and staccato keyboarding ruins the score for many
listeners. The contributions by Gregson-Williams account for some of the
more intolerable parts of the score; you can tell which portions of the
score he wrote because of the accelerated use of tingling percussion
effects, best exemplified by "In the Tunnels" and the ear-splitting "The
Chase." In Glennie-Smith's "Fort Walton - Kansas," the modern edge seems
quite innocent (though it reminds of Mancina's
Twister), but the
spirited finale to the film is out of step with the remainder of the
score. Conversely, listeners who found most of the successive score in
the series,
The Peacemaker, to be irritating and obnoxious will
find little of interest here. Overall,
The Rock is a mess of
last-minute arrangements and poorly constructed orchestration and
electronic accompaniment. But given the effectiveness of both Zimmer's
title theme and Glennie-Smith's family theme, it's easy to get the
impression that this score could have been significantly better had
there been ample time to make it more coherent. Glennie-Smith would go
on to adapt many of the same ideas (with frightening similarity) in a
more balanced package for
The Man in the Iron Mask two years
later. For fans of the Media Ventures (and eventually Remote Control)
sound machine,
The Rock remains a favorite. Those fans have
compiled 2-CD bootlegs with an additional 42 minutes of material (at
least) and have arranged the cues into their film order. For devoted
fans of the score, the bootlegs, which eventually improved their sound
quality and removed sound effects through the years, will make it easier
to hear the distinct musical voices of the composers at work. For the
majority of the mainstream, though, the commercial album will offer
satisfying suites of the major parts. Many love affairs with Hans Zimmer
began and ended with
The Rock, and for those who have always
wished for more of Zimmer's solo writing, it's bitter point of
division.
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