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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Cocoon (James Horner)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you have always relaxed to James Horner's more lushly
fluid dramatic themes but have never ventured back to his first official
entry in that genre, one that has remained affably accessible in
demeanor through time.
Avoid it... if even Intrada Records' expanded and remastered 2013 album for the score, which finally solves its lingering sound quality issues, is not worth hearing music that was largely regurgitated many times in the subsequent ten years by Horner.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Cocoon: (James Horner) Despite starting in just his
twenties, Ron Howard's reputation as a bankable director of "feel good"
movies in the 1980's was aided significantly when he took over the
reigns of Cocoon after production difficulties showed Robert
Zemeckis the door. A lovable parable about the fountain of youth,
Cocoon starred older actors and actresses in roles far more
prominent that usual, allowing their discovery of rejuvenation to turn
them as giddy as teenagers. This group of retirement home dwellers
stumbles upon a ship of aliens collecting the cocoons of their dead
comrades from the ancient colony of Atlantis and is given the choice of
immortality in return for their assistance and acceptance. The movie was
a significant hit in 1985, garnering Academy Award attention and leading
to an unsuccessful sequel three years later. Howard's collaboration with
composer James Horner began with Cocoon and would lead to several
tremendous successes before the director turned to Hans Zimmer as his
regular partner in the 2000's. In the mid-1980's, Horner was immersed in
a period of his career when fantasy and science fiction were the norm,
this outstanding body of work ranging from his two Star Trek
scores to Aliens and Brainstorm. Unlike his other
mainstream projects at the time, Cocoon was an opportunity to
take a swim in the pool of drama, and in the process of exploring a more
fluid and graceful thematic identity, he wrote what is commonly
considered his first great dramatic theme. In the context of the more
developed dramas that Horner was destined to tackle in subsequent years,
Cocoon may seem somewhat predictable and conservative, but the
score was a discovery in 1985. Horner's set of primary themes for
Cocoon established a style that has led to countless successes in
following years, so even if you can't appreciate the score on a
technical level, there is a sense of affection towards it that remains
intact several decades after its recording. For much of its history, the
two most distinguishing factors of Cocoon's score were the
somewhat sparse recording mix of its ensemble as initially available and
the rarity of its extremely early CD release. The flat sound quality
continued to detract from the score's appeal for some listeners until an
excellent remastering and release by Intrada in 2013, a product that not
only revealed the original quality of the recording but finally
eliminated the score from remaining lists of soundtrack
collectibles.
Thematically, Cocoon is often mischaracterized as a monothematic score, and while the film doesn't seem to make use of different melodies for individual lines of plot, Horner's theme can be divided into three distinct parts. Each of these is provided in succession at the outset of "Theme From Cocoon" and are rotated between in "The Ascension." The tingling seven-note prelude theme for mystery opens both the suite and the entire score and represents the fantasy element. Later development seemingly follows the lines of both the older folks' enthusiasm and the aliens themselves. The ensemble performance of the dominant title theme for the fantasy element at 1:45 into "The Ascension" is countered by a sensitive and romantic counterpart at 1:15 into "Theme From Cocoon." The former brass-led theme, akin to the later The Rocketeer, is offered in conjunction with the harshly metallic sound that Horner often produced in that era, though the latter theme for flowing strings is a striking foreshadowing of the weighty dramatic style that would culminate in Legends of the Fall. The mystery theme is given an elegant horn solo at 2:40 into "Theme From Cocoon," previewing some of the composer's writing in the children's genre to follow. These ideas mingle so frequently they serve as interludes to each other, so it's understandable that most listeners don't separate them when enjoying Cocoon. A few independent but revisited progressions in the score are the early makings of the saccherine ideas in Casper. A few distinct aspects of creativity in the score are worth mentioning beyond these motifs; the use of woodwind instruments to imitate the call of an urgent telegraph message is brilliantly played at 1:45 into "Theme From Cocoon." No re-recording of the theme has ever effectively recreated the sixteenth notes merging into one continuous whole note. Fans of Horner's early action music will enjoy "The Chase," which heightens the fantasy theme with an assortment of percussive aides and brass tones that will raise significant memories of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Krull. Synthetic elements provide interesting accents as well; the use of a synth organ effect for moments of a religious nature are heard in the middle of "Discovered in the Pool House" and in "The Ascension." These synths are used to produce a ghostly moment of suspense late in "The Lovemaking" that resembles usage in Jerry Goldsmith's Poltergeist. Horner's application of metallic percussion as an accent to the various fuller ensemble sequences is an effective method of infusing both a sense of magic and watery fluidity into the equation. Evidence of Horner's more playful side also exists in "Discovered in the Pool House," with some exuberant rhythms that would guide his later animation scores. The swinging jazz of "The Boys Are Out" is also an early venture by Horner into a genre he would explore several times with success. Along with the jazz, the understated acoustic guitar sounds of "Sad Goodbyes" would combine to form a greater portion of Horner's score for Cocoon: The Return, though all of the primary orchestral themes would be regurgitated as well. Additional jazz and source rock pieces were recorded for the project, none of them spectacular. On album, the Cocoon score has spent 90% of its existence as elusive as the aliens themselves. Forty minutes of the score was made available on an extremely early and primitive Polydor CD that, like many at the time, went very much out of print within just a few years. Its value reached $250 in the mid-1990's before a re-pressing in 1997 was made commercially available (and the bootleg CDr market began taking off). Both albums offered identical contents, which unfortunately broke Horner's score into two LP-styled halves with the presence of an absolutely wretched and badly dated pop song that sounds like a much better match for Ghostbusters than this. Songs like "Gravity" exist to remind us just how corny the 1980's were and, inevitably, how much we'd like to ignore the fact that such music ever existed. The 1997 pressing by P.E.G. (another Polygram branch) itself fell out of print within only a short few years, and copies of that album (along with the original 1985 run) eventually sold for as much as $75. Despite its identical contents, the 1997 album was preferable for its slight improvement in sound quality due to a remastering. For audiophiles, however, the true reward of patience came in 2013 when Intrada's expanded album for Cocoon added nearly twenty minutes of music and, more importantly, extensively remastered the score to return it to its most pristine original state. The newly added cues offer more source-like jazz ("Going to the Pool" and "Seduction" featuring the same theme), exuberant playfulness ("Pool is Closed" and "David Runs to the Boat"), subtle tenderness ("A Relapse" and "Sneaking Away"), some intriguing suspense and horror ("Mysterious Dive" and "Unveiling"), and two unfortunate source rock cues in the bonus section. But the improvement in sound quality is where Intrada deserves the most kudos, making this limited product a necessity for any Horner collector. On the whole, with both Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return suffering from a history of limited availability on album, Horner's music for these films is often overshadowed and forgotten by collectors of the composer's popular scores from 1988 and beyond. The original Cocoon, however, offers at least twenty minutes of engagingly dramatic music and remains one of Horner's important "discovery" scores. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1985/1997 Polydor Albums:
Total Time: 44:28
2013 Intrada Album: Total Time: 62:12
NOTES & QUOTES:
The 1985 and 1997 albums feature blank inserts. The 1997 album's cover has a purple tint to
the film's artwork, whereas the 1985 album featured the original blue tones. The insert of the 2013
Intrada album offers notes about the film, score, and recording. The track "The Ascension" also
appears on the "Ron Howard Passions and Achievements" retrospective compilation from 1997.
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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 Cocoon are Copyright © 1985, 1997, 2013, Polydor/Polygram, 827 041-2, P.E.G. Recordings/Polygram, PEG013 CD, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/8/97 and last updated 12/24/13. |
