: (James Newton Howard) What could $200
million buy your studio in 1995? If you were Universal pictures, it
bought you the immense and pounding headache known as
.
Plagued by production problems ranging from sinking sets to a
disgruntled crew, the futuristic Kevin Costner science fiction adventure
on the high seas was in the news for all the wrong reasons. It wasn't
even immune to rumors of Costner's infidelity with a cast extra on the
set. Visually and conceptually, though,
on the ocean" scenario in which the land masses of the world
have been mostly swallowed up by rising seas. Humanity lives on boats
and atolls on this vast expanse, mostly unaware of the remnants of great
civilizations on the bottom of the relatively shallow waters. Costner's
"Mariner" character is the first human to evolve and use gills to
breathe underwater, and he becomes a somewhat unwilling participant in
the general search for dry land. Like any really stretched action flick,
however, Dennis Hopper and his oil tanker full of baddies pillages and
maims on the high seas, giving
a distinctly dumb side
to its otherwise thoughtful concept. One of the many problems identified
with the project was Mark Isham's score, which took an introspective and
restrained approach to the bleak futuristic setting. With an opening
date fast approaching, Universal threw out most of Isham's music (the
music box source material heard in the film is his, though) and
commissioned James Newton Howard to write an emergency score for the
project. Costner had been impressed with Howard's music for
and hired the composer for a few of his subsequent projects.
With only about six weeks to work, Howard managed to assemble enough of
an ensemble of synthetic, orchestral, and choral ideas for a score far
more common to blockbuster expectations. The science fiction elements of
the story were addressed by Howard's collaboration with the Porcaros of
Toto fame, creating a variety of synthesized percussion noises to
populate the film. Some samples, however, were lent to Howard by
emerging friend Hans Zimmer.
Structurally, it's probably not surprising that
Howard's score for
Waterworld is rather simplistic, relying in
tried and tested techniques in the film scoring business to provide what
Universal needed on short notice. The resulting score is predictable to
some extent, but it has enough solid writing and guilty pleasure moments
in its ranks to exceed expectations. It is fascinating to recall that
Waterworld was considered one of Howard's top scores at that
point in his career. The composer still believes it to be among his best
achievements considering the circumstances by which it was made. As
diverse and thematically entertaining as the score may be, however, its
eclectic moments of exotic mysticism are too few and its action is a tad
anonymous and prone to sonic wallpaper mode. But it still works, and the
reason it continues to impress despite Howards' more mature fantasy
writing in subsequent decades is because of its abundance of individual
highlights, some of which resurrecting the swashbuckling sound of a
previous generation. When not emulating Hugo Friedhofer in high style,
Howard tries to match Jerry Goldsmith in melody and action prowess. The
battle and chase sequences in
Waterworld tend to favor dense
writing and rowdy percussion, relegating electronic elements to a
secondary position. Hints of Howard's later-developing talent at choral
writing are reflected in the score's secondary motif for the
other-worldliness of the setting. Two main themes service the score
sparingly, supported by a slew of recurring secondary ideas applied much
like the swelling choral one. First, the theme for the "Mariner" debuts
during his escape from the atoll and appears again in "Helen Frees the
Mariner" before sending us off with the happy ending in the final two
cues. Costner was initially hesitant about the brazenly heroic, retro
tone of this theme, but Howard eventually impressed upon him that it
would serve the film best. Aside from the Friedhofer inspiration, a
touch of Michael Kamen's
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is heard
in the melody as well. The second major theme represents both the little
girl containing the map to dry land and the land itself; performed often
by solo woodwind, this theme gorgeously emulates Goldsmith character
sentimentality before maturing in "Gregor Returns" and "Dry Land" with
remarkably satisfying full ensemble treatments.
Among the best secondary motifs in
Waterworld is
a synthetic rhythm applied several times for the mystery and technology
of the story, offering its percussive and flute-blasting force with
significant bass power at the very outset of the film and in "Speargun,"
among a few other cues. An electric xylophone effect is altered for a
wet, underwater sound in several of the story's ethereal moments,
accompanied by an elegant solo female voice in the soothing "Swimming"
cue, where the Porcaro influence is most evident. Perhaps the most
impressive moments of the score can be attributed to the accompaniment
by the choir. Its sense of wonderment in the underwater exploration
scene, "The Bubble," mirrors the majesty of a handful of cues in the
later
Atlantis: The Lost Empire. The full choral outbursts in
Waterworld are few and far between, but when they occur, they
pack a punch equivalent in depth to the concurrent
Cutthroat
Island by John Debney. The straight orchestral action pieces could
be either a generic downside to the score for you or a source of
noteworthy bursts awaiting rearrangement into a suite. The snare-driven
rhythm at the end of "Arriving at the Deez," extending into a
rambunctious string variant and brass subtheme for the villains in
"Deacon's Speech," is a highlight. Overall, however,
Waterworld
suffers from lengthy sequences of stewing, vaguely electronic monotony
and uninteresting orchestral meanderings awaiting the payoff at the end.
The original 1995 album from MCA Records was generous in length and
contained all the highlights from the score, though important
performances of each of the score's themes and secondary motifs were
missing from that product. An additional 30 minutes of the score, along
with a few alternate takes, demos, and Isham's mundane music box theme,
were finally assembled in 2017 on a limited 2-CD set from La-La Land
Records. This fantastic, crisp product reflects well upon
Waterworld, better illuminating Howard's development of motifs
and takes twenty minutes of suite-worthy material from the previous
album and adds another ten minutes of attractive supplementation to that
music. An intriguing pair of speeches from Costner and Howard on the
final day of session recording closes out that album. The longer set
reveals the extent of the composer's triumph in addressing the needs of
the film on short notice and contains many of the seeds of his later
five-star fantasy works. Despite requiring reprogramming for best
enjoyment,
Waterworld remains top notch, guilty pleasure fun.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.4
(in 70 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.36
(in 86,418 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
