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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Speed (Mark Mancina)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on any album if solid action scores excite you despite
their somewhat underdeveloped electronic rendering, or if you wish to
hear Mark Mancina's major action debut on the big stage.
Avoid it... if you prefer the more established and matured Media Ventures-related sound that would develop from this mould for action films a few years after Speed, in which case Mancina's own Speed 2: Cruise Control is a better place to start in this franchise.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Speed: (Mark Mancina) The Jan De Bont action
blockbuster Speed was a financial champion of the 1994 summer
season, spurring the careers of its two young lead actors, confirming
actor Dennis Hopper as an expert at portraying freaks, and inspiring a
sequel on the high seas. The premise of Speed was an original
one, forcing a group of frightened urbanites to drive their city bus
faster than a certain speed or be destroyed by a bomb planted underneath
them. Though mindless, the masterful execution of the script's constant
thrills yielded solid critical responses, continuing the pleasant
surprise enjoyed by the studio for this otherwise low budget
afterthought. The choice of keyboardist Mark Mancina to provide the
equally budget-friendly music for Speed was initially met with
resistance, despite the composer's already existing body of work outside
of the spotlight, including supplemental music for The Lion King.
Another would-be composer branching off from the rock group "Yes"
(joining Trevor Rabin), Mancina debuted in the mainstream with his first
major solo film score of note for Speed, immediately establishing
him as an action-oriented composer despite his plethora of activity in
other genres. Mancina would eventually be recognized as one of the more
successful artists to walk through the doors of Hans Zimmer's Media
Ventures composing house (though he existed really only on the periphery
of that group in some opinions), and part of that success was due to
Mancina's head start on many of the mainstay artists of that production
factory. Mancina was heavily influenced by Zimmer's style of combining
synthesizers and orchestras, and he continued to develop ideas that
crossed between both genres for several years. His score for
Speed was effective in its capacity to generate excitement (and
it was therefore a strong piece of music for the film), but it is even
more of an interesting case study of how the general Media Ventures
action sound got started. Zimmer had already established his dominance
over the synthetic realm, and, by 1994, had produced the largely
electronic Beyond Rangoon and Point of No Return with an
elegant mastery of his machinery.
For Mancina's Speed, however, you have the opportunity to hear structural ideas and electronic sampling of the Media Ventures era that was in their infancy. Many of the rhythmic loops, electronic substitutes for real instruments, and musical sound effects are all recognizable from later staples of the Media Ventures studio. Aside from Zimmer, it would take the other similar composers another few years before their electronic output would mature into the form that most listeners grew accustomed to. While The Rock was really the coming out party for such enthusiasts, Mancina's own Twister would offer a more sophisticated blend of that evolved electronic sound mixed with an orchestral ensemble in the same year. The simplicity of the sounds in Speed do not detract from the score's ultimate achievement in the film, but their deficiencies do surface when hearing the score on album. On paper, the music for Speed is well written, with several effective motifs assembled around a decent primary anthem. This theme is performed with noble intentions as the opening credits role through an elevator shaft. A delicate piano and string performance of this theme is offered in the end titles cue. It is a surprisingly compelling identity for an otherwise brainless film. Short adaptations of this theme appear during the softer sequences in the film, leaving the cohesion of the action material up to Mancina's secondary, underlying action motif. This staccato, six-note keyboarded motif is sharp in performance (aided by an intentionally synthetic edge) and is varied in tempo throughout the score to fit into nearly every major cue. Despite its simplicity, it works better than the title theme in holding the work together. The scenes on board the speeding bus at the heart of Speed inspire the best action music from Mancina for the project, with "The Rescue" presenting a lengthy series of satisfying thematic performances. The rhythmic loops are typically stronger during the later scenes of the bus' journey, however other portions of the film suffer from an arrhythmic, more dissonant personality. The villain is treated to vague electronic haze meant to accentuate his psychosis, but such material devolves into sound effects into some cases and is challenging to appreciate on album. The most frustrating thematic usage in Speed is Mancina's interlude to the main anthem, an optimistically rising series of chords heard once in the middle of "Main Title" and returning in full only during the pivotal cue, "The Gap." This secondary idea is pure Media Ventures in personality, emulating Point of No Return and Zimmer progressions in several other circumstances in its tonal muscularity, and the theme's sparing use in this score is a disappointment (in some ways, it would have made a more dramatic primary identity for the work). The difficult side of the Speed score is the fact that it is not as fleshed out as it could have been if sampling technology had been a bit more advanced at the time. As mentioned before, the synthesized representations of real instruments were not as well developed in 1994 and thus, some of the jumpy keyboarding and striking electronic cello renderings are badly dated. The percussive elements were already well enough established to compensate for the lack of the Media Ventures bass that rumbled through all of their later action scores. One notable sound effect heard throughout the work is one of declining pitch that very well represents the appropriate sound of a passing truck or bus air horn. The original score-only album presentation (following the popular song compilation album by a few months) was rearranged from film order to emphasize the four or five best cues at the beginning. After these true highlights, the album degenerates into more mindless territory before finishing with the redemptive, beautiful performance of the main theme over the end credits. In 2012, La-La Land Records produced a limited edition, expanded release of Speed with 25 additional minutes of score and the original Billy Idol song written for the film at the end. While the additional material and improved sound quality isn't stunning, its combination with a chronological ordering will make the CD a safe bet for early Media Ventures enthusiasts. Overall, it's a worthy action score, if not a bit underdeveloped, and it represented an impressive debut to the spotlight for Mancina on the big stage. Casual listeners will likely find Mancina's better orchestrated extension of the same themes (and an adjoining Caribbean spirit) for Speed 2: Cruise Control, also released by La-La Land, to be a more dynamic place to start with this franchise's music. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
1994 Fox Album:
Total Time: 40:30
2012 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 69:25
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1994 Fox album includes no extra information
about the score or film. That of the 2012 La-La Land album includes
extensive details 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 Speed are Copyright © 1994, 2012, Fox Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/17/03 and last updated 3/22/12. |
