THE WINGS OF A FILM - THE MUSIC OF HANS ZIMMER

By: Jeff Bond
Date: Wednesday, August 01, 2001

Hans Zimmer, like a lot of other film composers, seems to rise and fall on the strength of the material he has to work with. When pushed by movies with artistic aspirations like THE THIN RED LINE or THELMA AND LOUISE, or even strong commercial efforts like GLADIATOR or BACKDRAFT, he can write strong and memorable music. When faced with nonsense like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 or PEARL HARBOR, the results often reflect the lack of inspiration in the movies themselves. Unlike a lot of film composers, Zimmer's scores sell records, which not only makes a Zimmer compilation viable, but apparently also a Hans Zimmer concert. The one preserved on this CD took place at the Flanders International Film Festival in October of 2000. Zimmer himself seems vaguely embarrassed by the notion of performing his works in front of a crowd, and in an interesting twist on the notion of the guest artist, Zimmer plays keyboard during the performance while the orchestra itself is conducted by Dirk Brosse. Nevertheless, Zimmer is shown conducting in a photograph on the back of the CD booklet.

The album starts off well enough with Lisa Gerrard performing a more rhythmically driven take on "Now We Are Free" from GLADIATOR. Whatever you may think of the score, this song stands out and still hints at the surprising emotional depth of the GLADIATOR score; it also functions well enough on its own not exactly a pop anthem, but a real song. Less accessible from a concert standpoint is the much more programmatic, downbeat "Am I Not Merciful" the only concession to the audience is some more bombast in the percussion.

A lot of the pieces are surprisingly low-key, indicating some faith on Zimmer's part in the attention-span of his audience; he rarely provides the standard pop concert rim shot ending to remind the listener when to applaud. "Driving" from DRIVING MISS DAISY holds off on the quirky, bluesy traveling music familiar from the trailers, instead laying down lyrical music for strings, woodwinds, brass and guitar. THELMA AND LOUISE's "Thunderbird" establishes the big desert vibe of the movie with wailing electric guitar and rhythm section, while a moody and elegiac string line builds under rock percussion throughout.

For THE THIN RED LINE's "Journey to the Line" we get another slowly building dramatic line over ticking percussion, which builds to a glistening transparency reminiscent of Barber's "Adagio." This is the music used in PEARL HARBOR's trailers, and it's more involving than what Zimmer actually composed for the Michael Bay movie. The slow flamenco-style guitar of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2's "Nyah and Ethan" remains a windy reminder of that movie's pretensions. Lebo M and Keswa provide vocals for "Leah Halalela" and "Busa" from THE LION KING, as well as "Mother Africa" from THE POWER OF ONE, tunes which show Zimmer's hand at ethnic African riffs. The suite from the comedy NINE MONTHS, however, is standard dramatic writing for strings and woodwinds pretty but not particularly distinctive. More familiar is Zimmer's theme for his groundbreaking RAIN MAN score, which starts out as reflective material for strings, guitar and electronics before picking up the familiar rhythms from the movie it's good-natured, uplifting stuff. But for TRUE ROMANCE, Zimmer just recycles Carl Orff's "Musica Poetica," famously used in the movie that inspired TRUE ROMANCE, Terence Malick's BADLANDS.


All in all, THE WINGS OF A FILM is less bracing than you'd expect, indicating Zimmer's preference for the lyrical and quirky aspects of his work over the pulsing heroics for which he's arguably more famous.

THE WINGS OF A FILM

Grade: B-

Reviewed Format:CD

Composer: Hans Zimmer

Distributor: Decca

Price: $15.99