Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #954
Written 12/30/00, Revised 9/29/08
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Buy it... if wild jigs are a source of inspiration for your feet
and rear end.
Avoid it... if you're fearful of hearing the usual Media Ventures
crowd take Irish elements and twist them into hard-rocking meyhem by the
end of this score.
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| Zimmer |
An Everlasting Piece: (Hans Zimmer and Co.) A
flighty political satire about a couple of men who run a toupee company
in Northern Ireland during the 1980's, An Everlasting Piece was
originally approved by its studio, Dreamworks, for production in 1999.
But after seeing a partial cut of the film, the producers of Steven
Spielberg's company got cold feet on the politically charged project
because of their ties to the British government. Director Barry Levinson
continued with his edit of the film, in spite of growing pressures
leaking from the ranks of Dreamworks. It's hard to be stuck in the
middle of any spat between Spielberg and Levinson, though that's exactly
where composer Hans Zimmer found himself when he received a call about
scoring An Everlasting Piece. Ironically, the project turned sour
publicly when Dreamworks refused to hire Zimmer, Levinson's composer of
choice with whom he had created his Academy Award winning Rain
Man over a decade ago. Declining employment of Zimmer to the project
was an even greater curiosity when considering his blockbuster score for
the Dreamworks juggernaut Gladiator the previous summer, as well
as Spielberg's stated affinity for his music since Crimson Tide.
As a solution to the problem, Zimmer agreed to compose a small score for
the comedy as a favor to Levinson. Upon doing this, Dreamworks jumped to
retain the rights to the music by paying Zimmer the minimum amount to
establish legal title over the score: a single dollar. So for just $1
(and after the success of Gladiator in the stores, he certainly
isn't short on cash), Zimmer collected a group of mostly regular Media
Ventures musicians ultimately known as "The Jigs" and recorded an
intimate, ethnic, and wacky score. The music is as zany as the arthouse
film, with Irish and Scottish flavor mixed wildly with pop rhythms of
the 1980's. The score's short cues jump between the two attitudes
required by the action in the film, occasionally exploring a more solemn
and romantic theme on the side. The funky music for which the Jigs
perform to their name provides the comical element in the score. A band
of authentic and synthesized percussion, with a heavy emphasis on drums,
begin with a rapturous performance at the start of the score and meld
into more traditional rock rhythms.
For the ethnic flavor, a fiddle, viola, and/or
synthesized strings are complimented by an occasional bagpipe for an
extra ethnic effect (sometimes quite attractive, as in "Piece on
Earth"), though most of the ethnicity of the score is established in
Zimmer's rhythms. The flip side of the score consists of the more
serious, character building elements that convey the secondary theme
first heard in "One Hundred and Ninety." Drawing the music closer to the
listener, Zimmer leaves the funk behind for a number of cues and
provides an understated and yet noble theme for the film's primary
characters. Performed by singular strings or a duo of guitars, the heart
of these moments is genuine, though it's still a tad underplayed because
of the comical nature of the film. Keeping the controversy in mind,
perhaps Dreamworks had anticipated more of the wacky jigs and less of
the reflective attitude in the film and its music. One of the more
curious aspects of the score is the strong development of the character
theme in "F**Kin' Genius" and "Piece Offering." At times, it seems as
though Zimmer has made an accidentally satirical mix of James Horner's
usual blend of similar ethnic sounds, and this resemblance comes forth
in the progressions and instrumentation of those cues. Overall, the
score will likely be remembered for its outbursts of the jigs and rock
performances, however. For the final track, Zimmer lets the dozen-man
crew of the Jigs rip with impromptu performances of background vocals,
electric guitars, and a completely insane pianist. To be sure, if anyone
doubts the diversity of Zimmer's talents (as well as those of the people
he surrounds himself with) then
An Everlasting Piece is clear
evidence of the kinds of things that the composer needs to unleash more
regularly. Some of the basic elements of the ethnic reflection in this
score were introduced in his convoluted music for
Toys early in
his career, though in
An Everlasting Piece their purpose is clear
and the score is more effective. The primary detriment of the music on
album is its wild inconsistency, often proving to be schizophrenic in
its movements. It's the type of music that will be a riot in the film,
but the album, shifting between the overtly funky and profoundly
reflective, is more difficult to grasp. For people who introduced
themselves to Zimmer with
Gladiator, then
An Everlasting
Piece must have been a major shock.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.85
(in 128 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.96
(in 299,193 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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