| Product: |
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Soundtrack |
| Date: |
11.07.06 (614 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: A more mature take on the Caribbean series
Disadvantages: It's still largely garbage
When the Jerry Bruckheimer produced Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl appeared in 2003, it proved to be an immense success, generally throwing out bad memories of the last pirate flick, CutThroat Island, in proving that pirate movies can still make box office gold. With the film becoming such a marketing juggernaut, a sequel was inevitable, and instead of just bouncing out Pirates 2, they immediately set out to make Pirates 3 at the same time to come out the following year. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is more like a transition film on its way to the third in the series with a slightly convoluted plot and a non-ending that I suppose is meant to make you eagerly wait for the next flick. The film pretty much revolves around the hunt for the fabled Davy Jones’ locker, with Johnny Depp’s character Jack Sparrow on a quest to find the chest in order to avoid some major misfortunes due to a debt he owes to Davy (played by Bill Nighy), while the twosome of Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) are also after Jack after being coerced by a conniving police sergeant Cutler Beckett to get a compass from Jack that points to that same treasure. What ensues is action, special effects, action, action, supernatural special effects and action.
Musically the first film was an outright mess. With Alan Silvestri being dismissed as unsuitable as the film’s composer, Bruckheimer turned to his familiar Media Ventures/Remote Control studio of composers led by Hans Zimmer and who turned out a rushed out product in a few weeks time that borrows heavily from the organization’s previous action scores. The first score indeed was a disaster and by no means even properly fit the film it was supposed to accompany, but it was made into a bestseller by the numerous fans that went insane about the film. With the second film in the series, the master himself (Zimmer) now takes over from the student (Klaus Badelt), making for a sequel score that basically takes a whole new direction from the all out action of the first, adds a few new themes, while generally keeping the tone similar (which is no big challenge as the first sounded so much like Zimmer to begin with). Now speaking of Zimmer, he has to be one of the most hit and miss major Hollywood composers working at the moment. While Zimmer can still produce scores that are enjoyable and fun, he is by no means a very talented composer (meaning he lacks the ability to build logically cohesive musical structures) and seeing his development over the past couple of years, it seems as if his bag of tricks are starting to wear a little thin. When it comes to Dead Man’s Chest, I hoped for the best, but the end results were pretty much everything I expected. In fact I probably could have written this review without even having heard the score and those thoughts were only reinforced after reading an interview with Zimmer from which I shall quote a few treasured bits:
“This morning I’m in the shower and I suddenly realized that what I wrote yesterday for the opening of ‘Pirates’ is complete garbage.”
Trying to find a novel tack to the familiar scenario, Zimmer says, “I thought, ‘Hang on: Sea monster is tied to Davy Jones, so let’s have a look at him.”
Zimmer checked out pictures of the villain, played by Bill Nighy. “I took one look at him and thought: biker gang!”
“I rely on whatever makes the appropriate noise at the appropriate time. Yes, it’s appropriate on a pirate movie to have a horn section swaggering about, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t hidden away down here” --- Zimmer plunks his finger on a key to produce a deep-pitched growl evoking revved up Harleys --- “fuzz bass!”
AAAAAAARRRRRHHHH!!! said I (and not in the pirate way either).
Much the same problems that ruined the first score also apply here in equal measure, namely the overbearingly banging synthesizers, the orchestra continuously playing in unison so that it makes the score sound synthesized all over, poor sustainability in quieter parts, and general inappropriateness with the subject matter. The original themes from the first score only make a scant few token appearances to give some sort of connection with the series, such as Jack’s heroic theme in “I’ve Got My Eye On You” (originally heard in the first film as he sailed to port in his sunken boat), the Black Pearl theme in “Wheel of Fortune” and the jig that was heard only a couple of times in the first film gets an extended performance in the opening “Jack Sparrow” as well as a couple of other places. But these remain about the only identifiable remnants of the previous score (at least on album), while the rest is filled with Zimmer’s new themes.
The notable new themes centre around Davy Jones and the sea monster Kraken. Both these themes are presented in their fullest at the beginning of the album. “The Kraken” of course features the Kraken theme, being mostly a messy action track with a lot of this “fuzz bass” (don’t you just love that term), electric guitars, organ and chopping strings that combines Mark Mancina’s Bad Boys score with J.S. Bach (some of it strangely reminds me of the Deep Blue Sea song). The constantly beating synths don’t do very much for the theme and the instrumentation suffers from Zimmer’s usual troubles of properly incorporating each element to feel as they were part of an organic whole. This all results in every instrumental group playing in unison (most notably strings and brass, giving out a distinctly “fake” and “cheap” sound) and all the unique instruments like the guitars and organ start to feel like they have just been thrown in there to create noise, not to offer a coherent reason for being included in the first place. The second new theme for Davy Jones is better, utilizing the tingling sound of a music box (though mixed a little too low), and it has a more anciently antiquated sound to it which is quite lovely. To offer the kind of connection with the Kraken Zimmer mentioned above, the latter half of the track “Davy Jones” again brings a similarly chopping action segment complete with organ (the defining instrument of the score) that is very a much alike the Kraken theme in sound.
The album then proceeds to combine mostly atmospheric rumbling in the low ranges of the orchestra, beating bass-heavy synths, and chopping action writing. There are a couple of cues that add some more colour to the drab underscore. In “Dinner is Served” we can hear the most annoying cliché Zimmer brought to film scoring, that of the wailing female vocals. They worked in Gladiator, but it just can’t be used in every single score! A line has to be drawn. And when it is combined with African native vocals the result is a very curious listen on its own that is by far very annoying (I just wonder how Middle Eastern vocals are supposed to represent jungly cannibal tribes). Furthermore the track changes on the fly to a robust waltz not much different from the “Gourmet Valse Tartare” from Hannibal. The other distraction is the “Tortuga” track where Zimmer inserts some “period” music in the form of a hornpipe dance (though it sounds incredibly much like it was played by a German village band). However this does not really make much of an enhancement and basically only disrupts the general flow of the album.
For the most part, though, Zimmer is content with offering only his standard action approach of banging synths and bass-heavy stringlines (indeed I was struck by the almost complete lack of woodwinds in the score). The ultimate exposition of this approach is showcased in the final score track “Hello Beastie,” where 10 minutes are spent in doing absolutely nothing!!! At times there are some leanings that would hint that the music would get up and start running, but what these little crescendos do is just end and we are thrust back into atmospheric noodlings, the only interruption coming at the very end when a last token burst of Jack‘s jig is heard. As a bonus, the Dutch DJ Tiësto has provided a remix of the Black Pearl theme at the end. This really is nothing more than a trance-dance mix of the concluding track from the first album with all your usual heavy bass-beats and techno elaborations. Ironically, this is actually more refreshing that the score proper which is just too generic and predictable.
Okay, now for the real rant part (that’s right, I’m just getting started). In this day and age, producers seem to be more and more intent on staying “in touch” with the young movie goers and as such creativity often tends to fly straight out the window. What this means in musical terms is that the Media Ventures sound has become the identifying brand of what is hip and cool for the modernites of the young adult age bracket. Therefore producers are more at want in putting the same kind of music in every film they deem will be a success. Zimmer’s simplistic thematic material often tends to lack the kind of subtlety required and just blasts a memorable bit of loud action to inject into the heads of the viewing public. What we end up with is the degeneration of film scoring as an art form of sorts to become produced conveyor belt merchandise that can be appended everywhere anytime. This is doubly unfortunate for popular series such as PotC that could have contained some exhilaratingly adventuresome and fun music instead of the kind of over-produced crap we ended up with (after all pirates, action and supernatural undertones really offer quite a lot to chew with musically).
The big problem is, in a fan’s perspective, that the music (no matter who wrote it) would be just as successful in any case, just as long as the movie is as popular as this. And the legions of fans who see the movie will of course want anything associated with the product and this also includes the soundtrack album. They will then go happily to Amazon or other such places and report that “this is the best damn score ever written” even though they have absolutely no prior knowledge of any film scores before this. The vox populi will then continue to belt out insubstantial praises such as this which is compounded by the fans of the composer and it will only further the understanding of the producers that this is what sells and it leaves a true fan of the genre like myself shortchanged in seeing the amount of good scores dwindle as the better composers will continue writing quality music for projects that may never see the light of day (or better scores that will get rejected in the end).
The general arguments that the “music doesn’t sound like traditional pirate music because the movie is not a real pirate movie” or “why does the music have to always sound the same in the same genre” don’t really hold water either. Of course a score does not need to sound like this or that, after all being innovative is always a big plus, but there is a difference in producing the same kind of score from movie to movie irrespective of the genre. When the same kind of music can be applied to submarines, military action in Alcatraz and gladiators in Roman times with just as much ease, it doesn’t make the score a new spin on the genre, it makes the score similar to every other genre without making any difference whatsoever. It would be the same thing if a similar score was appended in a Jane Austen period costume drama: new to the genre but on the whole totally inappropriate for the film. The same goes for instrumentation as well. Take John Debney’s CutThroat Island that lost none of the fun factor despite being completely traditional, while his integration of electric guitars in The Scorpion King fitted right in there when the instruments were handled with skill. It can be done and there is no need to bury everything under layers of synths just to make more noise or used willy nilly without any sense of texture.
Still, despite my abrasive criticism of the score, it’ll likely fall within the same parameters as the first one did, in being a kind of guilty pleasure. There is less of the all embracing action of the first album while the music does feel a little deeper and character driven than the original was. But it is just as likely that if the thing that attracted you to the first score in the first place was indeed the never ending action and mindless blasting of the main themes, then this second score may just as well disappoint you. In fact, I would actually say that I prefer the first score over this sequel in its energy and ability to at least sustain interest for the most part. Zimmer’s preference for the low end atmospheric rumbling is not terribly interesting and the action scenes just lack a certain catchiness that the first score offered. All in all, though, I have to acknowledge that it is pretty futile of me to express my dissatisfaction with the situation as people will still go see the movie, the will like the music they hear, they will go off and buy the album, and they will continue saying “this is the best soundtrack ever written. Hans Zimmer is God!” Just for the more enlightened, be very, very wary. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
1. Jack Sparrow (6:06)
2. The Kraken (6:55)
3. Davy Jones (3:15)
4. I’ve Got My Eye On You (2:25)
5. Dinner is Served (1:30)
6. Tia Dalma (3:57)
7. Two Hornpipes (Tortuga) (1:14)
8. A Family Affair (3:34)
9. Wheel of Fortune (6:45)
10. You Look Good Jack (5:34)
11. Hello Beastie (10:15)
12. He’s a Pirate (Tiesto Remix) (7:02)
Produced by Hans Zimmer and Bob Badami
Music Composed by Hans Zimmer
Performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony
Conducted by Pete Anthony
Choir: Metro Voices and Choir of the King's Consort
Chorus Master: Alastair King
Cello solo: Martin Tillman
Additional music by Lorne Balfe, Tom Gire, Nick Glennie-Smith, Henry Jackman, Trevor Morris, John Sponsler & Geoff Zanelli
Orchestrated by Bruce Fowler, Walt Fowler, Rick Giovinazzo, Ken Kugler & Suzette Moriarty
Engineered by Alan Meyerson & Geoff Foster
Edited by Melissa Muik
Walt Disney Records, 2006 (61447-7)
© berlioz, 2006
Summary: Zimmer's continuation is fine as such but good it is not.
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