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Written 2/2/25
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Buy it... even on the flawed album presentation for one of Hans
Zimmer's most lyrically powerful and emotionally engaging orchestral
scores from his earliest years.
Avoid it... if your interest in Zimmer's music is directly tied to
his synthesizers, this score barely employing them and instead wallowing
in the composer's trademark symphonic melodrama of the era.
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| Zimmer |
Fools of Fortune: (Hans Zimmer) Of the caliber of a
made-for-video diversion, 1990's Fools of Fortune is a British
production of historical romance and drama set against the Anglo-Irish
conflict in the late 1910's. The posh estate of Quintons in Ireland's
rural countryside is long separated from the political issues of the
nation, but three generations of the family are eventually drawn into
the war, with expectedly morbid consequences. The lead character, Willie
Quinton, witnesses the estate largely destroyed and his relatives
killed. He does what any decent movie would compel him to do: seek
revenge. There's a love story along that pathway, of course, and most
people who find merit in Fools of Fortune become absorbed in the
performances by attractive lead actresses Julie Christie and Mary
Elizabeth Mastrantonio. The art-house movie was one of several early
solo composing ventures for Hans Zimmer, who had largely been attached
to the projects of his mentor, Stanley Myers, throughout his formative
years in the industry. The period of time from the late 1980's to the
early 1990's was one in which Zimmer wasn't afraid to express
overflowing orchestral melodrama, sometimes with few hints of the
synthetic mannerisms that had become his calling card. For these kinds
of scores, he had often collaborated with his own assistant after
striking into his own solo career. Irish orchestrator and conductor
Fiachra Trench helped Zimmer achieve some of his most impressively
brooding orchestral works of the era, having assisted on The Fruit
Machine and Dark Obsession in the two years prior to Fools
of Fortune and later lending a hand to ambitious Zimmer dramas like
this one, The House of the Spirits, and Beyond Rangoon in
subsequent years. Via his origins with Myers, Zimmer had clearly sought
to extend the same collaborative process in his own scores, and for
Fools of Fortune, listeners received a massively orchestral drama
that set the stage for similar expressions of gravity in its stylistic
sibling, The House of the Spirits.
The overwhelming orchestral weight of Fools of
Fortune represents Zimmer at his most potently appealing and
masterfully lyrical in these early years of his career. Listeners to a
score like Dunkirk will find absolutely nothing in common with
this romantically florid style of unashamed melodrama, and there are
certainly many Zimmer collectors who lament the loss of grandeur that a
score like Fools of Fortune provides in ample doses. The
orchestral ensemble for the assignment is broad and very well utilized,
the only synthetic accompaniment coming at 16:19 into "Revenge" (and the
"Revenge" cue within that long album track), with a distractingly
edited, artificial fade-out for a moment of violence. Two solo pianists
were employed, and their rambling performances are elegantly emphasized
at the front of the mix. Distinguished woodwind solos exist across the
sonic spectrum, with notable flute performances that make the most of
the generally wet mix of the whole group. This was a period in Zimmer's
career during which solo trumpet performances were also a trademark, and
that instrument is utilized throughout the score as a dominant presence
atop the soundscape, carrying melody with open nobility. Harp and
metallic percussion are effectively utilized, and drums aside from the
standard timpani are largely confined to the passages of general zeal
for the Irish setting. The spread between treble and bass elements is
superb in this score, and there is extreme emoting from the players that
is likely owed to the arrangements, orchestrations, and conducting work
of Trench. The demeanor of the score typically stays tonal throughout,
even in the scenes of dread and violence, but there are dissonant
moments of friction. Even with these regular ventures into darker
places, the score for Fools of Fortune is a brazenly lyrical one.
A slew of themes weaves throughout the score, their presence almost
omnipresent outside of some of the more generic suspense portions. The
composer had a knack for writing extremely compelling melodies during
these years, and he wasn't afraid to provide those ideas in wholesome
romantic renditions repeatedly. It's this lyrical heart that launches
Fools of Fortune to the top echelon of his career.
The cue analysis that follows in this review contains two
titles for each track mentioned; since Zimmer combined seven to ten cues
into two very long tracks for his 1990 album presentation, both the
track title and the specific cue within that track will be referenced,
the latter in parentheses. A pair of themes for the Quintons dominates
Zimmer's collection of ideas for
Fools of Fortune. The first is
for Willie's own journey, a beautifully lyrical piece that strands among
the composer's best character identities and will be the one theme you
most clearly recall from this score. It opens "The Island" ("The
Island") on solo piano before diverting into secondary phrasing, but it
is formally introduced on woodwinds and harp at 2:26 into "The Island"
("The Black and Tans"). Zimmer reprises its lullaby format for woodwinds
and strings at 6:03 into "The Island" ("Peaceful Home"), an extended
performance that does justice to the theme's secondary phrases. This
long-lined Willie theme is misplaced chronologically on the album at
13:22 into "The Island" ("Willie Runs") but is a gorgeously lyrical
moment. The theme renews hope at 0:59 into "Revenge" ("Family in
Heaven") on piano and strings, becomes more tentative on piano 4:13 into
"Revenge" ("The Ruins"), and emerges from dissonance at 7:34 into
"Revenge" ("A New Life") for a reminder of happier times, after which
its phrasing meanders for several minutes. Willie's theme is transformed
into a hardened variant in fragments at 17:29 into "Revenge" ("Fools of
Fortune") but shifts back to its original solo piano at 20:36 into
"Revenge" ("Fools of Fortune"). In that cue, the composer provides a
satisfyingly epilogic resolution prior to revisiting the woodwinds and
strings for its final performance at 21:23 during the start of the end
credits. The other Quinton-oriented theme is a rising structure for the
concept of home that is sometimes applied as an interlude to Willie's
theme. Zimmer applies this idea as a fluid extension of the Willie
material, but it is also developed separately as a distinctive
representation of the estate that the character sees lost throughout the
story. It is in this theme that Zimmer's morbidly bloated sense of
minor-key dramatism highlighted by this era really shines in the
narrative.
The home theme in
Fools of Fortune is first
teased at 0:51 into "The Island" ("The Island") on solo piano, and it
informs the foreshadowed trouble at 1:28 and 2:15 in single phrases. It
is further explored at 7:01 into "The Island" ("Peaceful Home") on piano
with trumpet and 9:42 into "The Island" ("Doyle Hanged") on lamenting
string layers after the first killing at the estate. Deconstructed into
pulsating fragments at 10:42 into "The Island" ("Suicide"), the home
theme consolidates at 12:27 for a remarkable trumpet solo, a truly
trademark Zimmer moment of attraction for the era. This theme is then
heard briefly at 17:23 into "The Island" ("I Love You, Willie") and then
becomes comfortable as a pretty interlude to the Willie theme at 1:54
into "Revenge" ("Family in Heaven"). It achieves the same interlude duty
at 8:25 into "Revenge" ("A New Life") but is reduced to faint shadows in
the anticipation at 15:00 into "Revenge" ("Revenge"). One last grandiose
statement of the home theme awaits in a short crescendo at 20:04 into
"Revenge" ("Fools of Fortune") but is intriguingly excised thereafter. A
love theme that also represents the general sense of tragedy for all the
protagonists is pretty and sometimes dramatic, its repeatedly descending
figures of lamentation consistent despite evolving significantly in the
final third of the picture. Debuting at 4:07 into "The Island" ("The
Black and Tans"), this idea continues at 11:59 into "The Island"
("Suicide"), a solo trumpet taking the melody at 13:02 briefly. It's
heard at 15:29 into "The Island" ("I Love You, Willie") for a longer
expression for the theme, becoming a bit more lushly hopeful as it
continues. The theme opens "Revenge" ("Marianne Leaves") softly, conveys
worry at 5:12 into "Revenge" ("Searching for Willie") and stews for a
while. The love/tragedy theme is structurally transformed by 16:53 into
"Revenge" ("Fools of Fortune"), shifting to solo cello at 18:40 and
again at 22:11 for the end credits suite, where it builds to another
emotionally powerful statement to wrap up the score. As a representation
of the emotional place where the story ultimately ends, this
love/tragedy theme is perhaps too backloaded into the score without
clear enough evolution from the earlier scenes. It's solid Zimmer
dramatism, certainly, but it doesn't utilize the same airtight narrative
flows as the prior two themes for the protagonists.
Confined to early in the story is Zimmer's Irish theme,
a spirited jig for the ensemble that conveys the rural living at its
most jubilant and wholesome. Chronologically, this theme is heard at
1:40 into "The Island" ("The Island") and at 14:09 into "The Island"
("Willie Runs") with even more optimistic piano and percussion, the
latter the most out-of-order cue in the album arrangements. Zimmer
reduces this idea to just a ghost of itself at 5:01 into "The Island"
("Peaceful Home"), and an even more slight and saddened version dies out
on piano at 8:46 into "The Island" ("Doyle Hanged"). The darker
sequences in
Fools of Fortune are addressed by a set of motifs
that represent threats or war and the soldiers that come with it. A
darkly noble fanfare with melodramatic secondary phrasing, this idea
always overblown in its renderings. Heard at 2:57 into "The Island"
("The Black and Tans"), 7:52 into "The Island" ("Doyle Hanged"), and
10:16 into "The Island" ("Suicide"), there is little variance to the
idea. It does stalk in pulses at 2:12 into "Revenge" ("The Ruins") and
transitions from light to dark at 10:34 into "Revenge" ("Imelda"). A
Rudkin variation supplies dread at 11:48 and beyond in "Revenge"
("Rudkin"), the impressive ensemble passages here containing the most
dissonant textures of the work. This material becomes massively dramatic
on brass over synths at 16:21 into "Revenge" ("Revenge"). Finally, a
typical Zimmer stinger motif uses pairs of pounded low notes from the
ensemble, mostly from brass. Starting at 1:25 into "The Island" ("The
Island"), this technique recurs at 7:39 and 7:46 into "The Island"
("Peaceful Home"), repeatedly at 14:47 into "Revenge" ("Rudkin"), and as
a distant timpani rhythm at 15:40 into "Revenge" ("Revenge"). The album
situation makes the score's narrative a little less potent despite
Zimmer's two long tracks mostly sticking to the right ordering. The 1990
Milan album with two very long suites is missing only one major cue
within that assembly; "House on Fire" opens with extended development of
the love/tragedy theme and includes the low brass stringer pulses
underneath. The home theme drives against forceful Zimmer bass rhythms
at 1:36 in that cue, returning with slower, melancholy realization at
3:56 for vital connections for that identity. The first of the two long
suites has been re-released by Milan on subsequent compilations. Because
Fools of Fortune is a superb score that stands among Zimmer's
career best, a full and proper album presentation would be welcomed. The
composer tragically lost interest in writing orchestral music of this
emotional lyricism later in his career.
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- Music as Written for the Film: *****
- Music as Heard on Album: ****
- Overall: *****
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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