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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Twisters (Benjamin Wallfisch)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you can appreciate a competently exciting adaptation
of the film's country song environment for an engaging and occasionally
clever but ultimately anonymous orchestral romp.
Avoid it... if you expect to hear anything from Mark Mancina's 1996 score, Benjamin Wallfisch taking an arguably overthought approach to creating a complex sound for the sequel that is lacking a truly punchy thematic presence.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Twisters: (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 Twister, 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
Twisters 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, Twisters 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, released on CD several months after its digital debut, is a competent and enjoyable score that sounds good in almost every corner, but its narrative never quite gets off the ground.
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 55:05
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.
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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 Twisters are Copyright © 2024, Back Lot Music (Digital), Back Lot Music/Mutant (CD) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/4/24 and last updated 1/26/25. |
