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| Poledouris |
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| Zimmer |
White Fang: (Basil Poledouris/Hans Zimmer/Various)
While Jack London's 1906 novel "White Fang" had been adapted to the
screen a couple of times prior, its 1991 handling by Disney is widely
considered to be the most memorable version on screen. Spawning a sequel
after earning well worldwide,
White Fang was a somewhat
embarrassing mutilation of the original London story, adding a stand-in
character for the author so that Ethan Hawke could help pack theatres
with younger audiences. His character travels on an expedition to Alaska
seeking riches, though the concept of transporting a corpse with a
dogsled team does remain, as do the circumstances of the titular
character. The wolf/dog hybrid at the center of the story is the
sympathetic hero as expected, the script pulling inspiration from
London's similar "The Call of the Wild" for additional narrative depth.
As one might imagine,
White Fang's most impressive technical
feature is its photography of the wilderness, though audiences were
likely less entranced by snowy peaks than they were by the predictable
human-animal bonds that are cutely realized in the story. The movie
opened the door for a sudden influx of similarly innocuous children's
topics involving animals facing adversity, and one of the most reliable,
consistently employed composers for this subgenre of film was Basil
Poledouris. While known for his ball-busting action scores to that
point, Poledouris embarked upon a period in the early 1990's that saw
him shift his emphasis to the animal-relations portion of the children's
genre,
Free Willy perhaps his most famous entry of the lot. The
composer's knack for Americana authenticity, embodied by several of his
popular Western genre scores running concurrent to his action hits, was
well suited for this new type of children's film, as was his ability to
infuse contemporary electronic elements into his soundscapes. In
retrospect,
White Fang seemed like a perfect assignment for
Poledouris, especially when the filmmakers decided to ask the composer
to alter some of his cues to include a more contemporary appeal to
co-exist alongside his vintage, wholesome frontier spirit. Poledouris
re-wrote and recorded a number of alternate takes utilizing his familiar
electronic array of sounds, though his prior recordings were ironically
more frequently chosen for the final cut of the film.
Listeners familiar with
Lonesome Dove and
Poledouris' other Western-themed scores will quickly recognize the
general approach taken by the composer to
White Fang. His sense
of Americana is quite unique in the history of Hollywood, informed by
his application of folk rhythms and other aged devices to inform his
melodies and instrumentation. The composer's primary theme for
White
Fang is exactly the kind of sweeping identity you expect to hear
from him, revisited as necessary to denote the magnificence of the
landscape. His secondary themes aren't quite as memorable this time
around, but the consistency of his Western-flavored sense of adventure
is his work's greatest asset. The depth of the orchestra in his
recording is arguably not as impressive as it could have been,
especially in his action cues, though the heart of his contribution
exists in his redemptive melodic portions, most of which were left
untouched for the film. The heavy lifting for the source-like and
primordial passages was definitely handled well by the composer, his
honky-tonk source pieces difficult to tolerate on their own but adequate
to the task. The filmmakers' desire for the contemporary angle
ultimately led to the hiring of Hans Zimmer at the last minute to
provide replacement music for the picture. Zimmer was a hot, young
commodity in the industry by 1991, his style of melody and electronics
reshaping the role of pop sounds in orchestral soundtracks. When
approached to write 57 minutes of music in 16 days, he accepted the
assignment as a dare, a decision he later laughed about. His first day
of recording coincided with Poledouris' final day in the studio, a rare
occasion when two major composers were both recording separate scores
for the same film concurrently. Zimmer needed assistance finishing his
work on time, so he enlisted Fiachra Trench and Shirley Walker (who
conducted the replacement score) to write a small minority of the music.
Although delivering his product on schedule, Zimmer saw much of his
score ultimately passed over in favor of Poledouris' prior recording.
Much of Zimmer's action music was indeed chosen for inclusion in the
movie, though Poledouris' more traditional material was left to define
the major themes of the story. The film suffered as a result, with
several scenes distractingly shifting mid-cue between the two scores and
thus leading to an extremely disjointed whole. In fact, the hybrid score
in context is laughably incongruous at times, especially for film music
enthusiasts who pick up on such discrepancies.
When considering the two scores for
White Fang
apart, Zimmer's product, despite being a less viable match for the
movie, is a more interesting study. His work is understandably extremely
representative of his style of the early 1990's, for there was little
time for him to venture into different territories. His standard blend
of synthesized and organic performers is once again utilized, as are his
common solo accents during the period. Friendly keyboarding, drum pads,
and pan pipes make frequent appearances, and solo trumpet and sharply
pulsating, staccato rhythms mark a few of the major sequences. His tone
sounds like an odd combination of
Rain Man and a Vangelis drama,
with a few hints of frontier instrumentation thrown into the equation. A
honky-tonk piano and banjo in his opening cue is replaced by fiddle in
his final cue, but not much else attempts to represent authenticity in
the work. There are a range of guilty pleasure applications for Zimmer
fans to enjoy, including the soft pipes, pretty woodwind solos, and
melodramatic chord progressions typical to the composer's preferences at
the time. His three main themes for
White Fang are heartfelt but
rather unmemorable, the minor-key pipe theme for the tragedy of the
titular animal's past a highlight. The two individual highlights of the
score extend out of Zimmer's idea for the location, a trumpet in "The
Golden Staircase" and solo voice in "Home Again" offering gorgeous
interludes. It's a bit of a shame that most of Zimmer's best material
for
White Fang went unused in any picture; it may not have been a
great fit for this context, but he provided what the filmmakers thought
they wanted at the time and did so while successfully exploring his own
musical vocabulary. His action music, sometimes written in part by
Trench or Walker, was most frequently heard in the movie, and this
material is unfortunately the weakest of his contributions (especially
Walker's "The Bear Attack," which is simply too bass-heavy for its own
good). Overall, though the awkward pairing of the two recordings in the
film makes for an ineffective soundtrack, both scores are entertaining
listening experiences on album. Intrada Records was the first to release
either of them, tackling both on one product in 2012. This limited album
is fabulously produced, presenting each full score on a separate CD for
a reasonable price. Zimmer enthusiasts probably have the most to gain,
though it's hard to go wrong with Americana spirit from Poledouris. The
sequel movie in 1994,
White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf,
received a strong (and obviously more coherent) score from John Debney
that merits attention as well.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.54
(in 35 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 36,752 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert contains extensive information about the score and film,
including details about which cues from the two scores were used in the film.
