Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,474
Written 3/24/10
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Buy it... if you love Randy Newman's vintage, big band jazz and
Western-tinged character themes of pure Americana spirit, because Hans
Zimmer emulates those sounds so well in A League of Their Own
that you may not be able to tell the difference.
Avoid it... if the above statement violates every notion of "the
masculine Zimmer style" that you've come to know and love, even if the
composer really does an outstanding job of adapting to the genre.
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| Zimmer |
A League of Their Own: (Hans Zimmer) A universally
liked, fictional account of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball
League that existed as an alternative to professional baseball in the
1940's, A League of Their Own translated positive reviews into
massive fiscal success in 1992. Sporting an all-star cast and an
effective balance of interpersonal dramatics and confrontation on the
diamond, the film is a unique entry in the sports genre and reaffirmed
its director, Penny Marshall, in the mainstream. It takes a few major
liberties with the actual historical circumstances of the league, but
the innocuous tale with an enormous heart was endearing enough for CBS
to attempt a failed television series based on the concept and starring
some of the film's supporting actors. The casting of Madonna as one of
the players on screen led to a hit song from her for the picture, and
although the official soundtrack album didn't include "This Used to Be
My Playground" due to contractual reasons, it did feature several light
rock and vintage jazz pieces that symbolized the spirit of the film.
Short-changed on that product was Hans Zimmer's score, however. The
composer and director enjoyed a fruitful relationship in the years
following A League of Their Own, with similar assignments
allowing Zimmer to explore his more humorously zany side. There was over
an hour of almost completely orchestral music recorded by Zimmer for the
assignment, and it represented a distinct change from the
synthetically-dominated tone of his previous works. He had only just
written his first orchestral score two years prior, and his non-action
sound was still defined by the contemporary style of Driving Miss
Daisy and Green Card. While extending from the same generally
upbeat personality of those works, A League of Their Own was a
remarkably organic turn for Zimmer at the time. It emulated the style of
Randy Newman so well that you would have difficulty differentiating
between A League of Their Own and the jazzy portions of The
Natural. Some refer to the 1992 Zimmer score as a direct spin-off of
that famous Newman work, but without the ultra-heroic title theme. In
many ways, that's a pretty accurate claim, though the outright silly
parts of A League of Their Own have a Western influence that goes
beyond Newman's similar Western tilt to his Americana jazz and whips up
the dust with the frenzied enthusiasm that David Newman or Marc Shaiman
might bring to the same film. Either way, it's a score that sounds
almost nothing like the mass majority of Zimmer's career work.
Big band vintage jazz isn't exactly Zimmer's specialty,
but he nails it with authority in
A League of Their Own. The
ensemble allows rambling percussion, plucked basses, and uninhibited
piano under an abundance of brass in sequences so wild that they make
the most rambunctious portions of Danny Elfman's
Dick Tracy seem
tame. Sure, Zimmer does rely upon a few obvious sources of inspiration
in
A League of Their Own, but he has his tongue firmly lodged in
his cheek some of the time as well. References to Beethoven and common
pop culture melodies are joined by a solo trumpet that only reminds of
Ennio Morricone when applied to the final at bats between sisters in the
pivotal game. Thematically, Zimmer develops a familiar rolling rhythm of
jazzy progressions for the game sequences throughout the film
(culminating in "The Final Game"). Starting in earnest in "Training
Playoffs," wild cymbal tapping and imaginative woodwind lines highlight
these otherwise brass-dominated portions. The sheer energy in cues like
"Win the Crowd" is remarkable, because Zimmer's comedy material rarely
approaches this level of density. The other half of
A League of Their
Own is occupied by tender character development, to which Zimmer
applies an orchestral variant on his typical synthetic melodies of
simple, pleasing harmony. Although the bridge section of the dramatic
theme has some similarities with the family theme in
Backdraft,
the tone here couldn't be any more different. From simple piano solos to
organic versions of the clarinet solos that were so endearing in
Driving Miss Daisy, Zimmer creates a tear-jerking environment
without cranking up the volume to melodramatic levels. The final two
cues in particular, "Sisters Say Goodbye" and "Life Goes On," are
tastefully handled. Some of the credit is owed to Bruce Fowler and
Shirley Walker's orchestrations, which spread counterpoint across the
entire spectrum (to even solo violins in their highest ranks). Together,
A League of Their Own is a very solid score that only misses the
highest ranking because of its inability to reconcile its two disparate
halves into one cohesive listening experience. You either have to
appreciate the jazzy baseball cues in one sitting or the respectful
dramatic ones in another. The commercial album contains only two tracks
that pull music together from mostly the final scenes of the film, but a
full bootleg eventually presented the recording sessions complete with
Zimmer's harmless source material (newsreel and stadium organ-related).
Whenever you become frustrated with the composer's stale action mode of
the 2000's, it's always refreshing to go back and revisit
A League of
Their Own to remind yourself of the composer's early triumphs of
style and personality.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
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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