: (Benjamin Wallfisch) Swirling for years
with attempts by the studio and actress Helen Hunt to resurrect the
concept of 1996's blockbuster tornado chasing film
, the
resulting stand-alone 2024 sequel completely resets the narrative. An
all-new set of characters offers its own predictable drama to the
equation while also seeking to launch fresh technology directly into a
tornado. Rather than just study the phenomenon this time, though, these
ambitious and reckless youths are attempting to inject a tornado with a
chemical mixture that causes its demise. Never mind the fact that
scientists everywhere have denounced the idea as ridiculous and
impossible, as the amount of chemicals people would have to pump into a
vortex to destabilize it would be impossible to deliver and, if it was,
could devastate the environment anyway. (It reminds of Donald J. Trump
famously suggesting that a nuclear bomb could be dropped on a
hurricane.) Of course, parking a truck under a tornado to allow a bunch
of little doohickeys to be sucked up into it and change the course of
history is only the obligatory action part. On the other side of
is the melodrama involving death and loss for the main
character and devastated towns in Oklahoma. Interestingly, the film
manages to suggest that tornados are a worsening problem without
entering the fray about climate change. Perhaps that neutrality was in
part responsible for the movie's major success in theatres, though it
never hurts to show city-dwellers unusual objects being abducted by the
sky. Like the 1996 movie,
makes extensive use of a
country and rock song soundtrack throughout the film, leaving composer
Benjamin Wallfisch to fill in the gaps. There is actually a surprising
amount of original score around the margins in the finished product, and
Wallfisch saw the project as an opportunity to finally break into the
realm of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, a worthy goal for any
composer. He started his involvement by deciding to intentionally bypass
Mark Mancina's popular 1996 music, opting instead to strive for pieces
of that work's more general 1990's sound. Nothing from Mancina's score
survives, unfortunately. Working for Spielberg, albeit indirectly, also
inspired Wallfisch to try emulating the famed dramatism that John
Williams brought to his collaborations with the director.
One of the most interesting aspects of Wallfisch's
approach to
Twisters is precisely this attempt to infuse a touch
of Williams into this assignment. That's because he fails to achieve
anywhere near the same blatant reverence that Corey Wallace had achieved
so well in the previous year's lower budget
Supercell, which
incidentally previews more than a few of the plot elements that made it
into the script for
Twisters. Whereas Wallace's
Supercell
is a masterclass in Williams emulation in this kind of Americana
setting, Wallfisch seems stuck somewhere in between. His knack for
deeply strategizing his scores is among the reasons his music is often
so fascinating, but here he was trapped between the urge to use
orchestral instruments to capture the movement of swirling air and the
twang of country attitude. Lost in between, sadly, is a convincing
dramatic element that this film's narrative definitely could have used
to make that connection to the Williams mould. The country influence is
completely understandable given the songs in the movie. A fiddle, banjo,
and guitars represent the rural countryside and chasing teams' antics,
adopting a folky demeanor at times but also unleashing outright, brazen
Aaron Copland and Elmer Bernstein Western style of yesteryear in "She
Told Us East." This material shifts to more modern electric guitars as
necessitated by the coolness element in the story. Incidentally,
Spielberg's only significant feedback about score to Wallfisch was to
suggest dialing back this country influence once the action really got
started. The base of the work is orchestral, naturally, with Wallfisch
employing strings in ways to yield the results of blowing air and
applying precision piano movement for similarly skittish unease and
intrigue. The composer advocated for extensive spiral formations in his
writing as a literal symphonic representation of the twisters. A choir
is employed in some of the major tornado action scenes, but it's held
back in the mix as in "Shifting Path," limiting its impact. The layering
of synthetics is okay until the release of technology late in
"Twisters," where they are intrusively mixed. The action music isn't
among Wallfisch's best, and prior to the climax this music doesn't
advance the narrative clearly, but it suffices. Thematically, Wallfisch
supplies a few recurring motifs to
Twisters, though his execution
of them may leave some listeners behind. A close bond between his main
theme for the lead Kate character and his "instinct" theme dominates,
with secondary ideas defining the teams of chasers in the
periphery.
The Kate instinct theme is particularly elusive in the
score, consisting of circular, inverted figures, often on piano that
Wallfisch describes as a "musical analog to the interior of a tornado."
It's heard immediately in "Nature's Masterpiece" on piano with marginal
whimsy, tickles throughout "Team Kate," and is accelerated early in
"This Car's Gonna Fly" and in the middle of "Shifting Path." This motif
drives the synthetic rambling in "Tornado Theory" with a choir that
reminds of the composer's
Mortal Kombat, and it echoes amongst
the other ideas in the background late in "You Did It, Kate" before
forming the subtle bass of Kate's theme at the start of "If You Feel It,
Chase It." That dramatic Kate theme uses same descending three-note core
as the instinct theme and meanders from its initial 5 or 6-note phrase
to a lost series on longer phrases. Sadly, this idea offers minimal
passion and zero warmth, even when summarized in the somber piano tones
in "Kate's Theme." This main theme flutters in the background of the
instinct theme in "Nature's Masterpiece," follows in a stupor on piano
and cellos late in "Aftermath," and finally wakes up in brassy action
mode in the middle of "Rodeo." Cellos offer solace for the idea in the
middle of "After the Storm," and it nicely drives the optimistic buildup
early in "Everyone Into Position." Thankfully, Wallfisch finally
embraces the idea more readily in later cues, turning Kate's theme
massive in chase mode after a minute into "Twisters," where the idea not
only drives the cue well but finally achieves a sense of excitement.
It's exhausted at the start of "You Did It, Kate" but consolidates on
solo cello, and the theme teases new adventures with quiet enthusiasm
and acoustic guitar in "If You Feel It, Chase It," closing the cue with
its standard piano and cello renditions. Meanwhile, the thematic
material for the chasing teams ranges from the thumping coolness of
"Javi" to a broader action motif that enjoys a good moment in the middle
of "Refinery," extending to the second half of "El Reno." This music
redemptively merges with Kate's theme in the middle of "You Did It,
Kate." The thematic narrative isn't clearly enunciated enough to really
define the score in its limited screen time, Wallfisch perhaps
overthinking the complexity of his structures rather than using that
limited duration to punch through a single iconic theme. The best of all
worlds would have been to hear Wallfisch take the Williams-inspired
approach of Wallace's
Supercell and run with that sound in his
own superior instrumental handling and obviously the much larger
recording budget. As it stands,
Twisters is a competent and
enjoyable score that sounds good in almost every corner, but its
narrative never quite gets off the ground.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on Album: ****
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Benjamin Wallfisch reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46
(in 13 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.2
(in 2,855 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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