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Review of Fools of Fortune (Hans Zimmer)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

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.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

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.

• Music as Written for the Film: *****
• Music as Heard on Album: ****
• Overall: *****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 42:31

• 1. The Island (18:05) • 2. Revenge (24:27)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a biography of the composer in English and French but no extra information about the score or film.

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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 Fools of Fortune are Copyright © 1990, Milan Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 2/2/25 (and not updated significantly since).