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Review of The Survivor (Hans Zimmer)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if there is more room for sorrow in your heart, Hans
Zimmer's often challenging and gloomy but respectfully melodramatic
tendencies offering grace to this score's highlights.
Avoid it... if you cannot tolerate Zimmer's inability to escape distracting synthetic applications or his often simplistic, repetitive structures, both nagging flaws to this otherwise effective exploration of melody and mood.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Survivor: (Hans Zimmer) Director Barry Levinson
has never been shy to tackle character dramas involving the more unique
personalities of the previous hundred years, tackling everyone from Dr.
Jack Kevorkian to Bernie Madoff, Joe Paterno, and, in his fourth such
venture distributed by the HBO channel, boxer Harry Haft. While debuting
briefly in 2021, The Survivor finally received its full release
in 2022, Levinson providing an unexpectedly divergent look at the life
of Haft, a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp in World War II who,
after being spared death because of his gladiatorial entertainment
purposes for the Germans as a capable fighter, ultimately moved to
America and had a brief boxing career there. The film concentrates on
Haft's preparations for a 1949 fight with Rocky Marciano that he
ultimately lost, causing him to retire and enjoy a peaceful life until
2007. Subplots include a romantic element of search for a childhood
crush and the flashbacks to his parasitic use by a particular German
officer at the camp. Levinson's movies of this type are all about
conversational intrigue, and the film was applauded for its intelligent
character examinations, though actor Ben Foster's inappropriate age
defied his frightening weight loss for the lead role. Levinson had
collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer three times before, dating all
the way back to Rain Man, and The Survivor represents a
reunion a decade in the making. Zimmer has toiled with the subject
matter of German history in the past, and he likely approached it here
with similar internalization with which Cliff Eidelman considered on the
highly similar Auschwitz boxing film, Triumph of the Spirit of
1989. The techniques applied by Zimmer to The Survivor are a
little less dramatically appealing than Eidelman's rather obscure but
impressive score for the same general topic, though enthusiasts of
Zimmer's early music will find much to like in his respectfully smart
take on his usual, gloomy, melodramatic sensibility.
The score for The Survivor represents Zimmer at his most pensive, reaching back to respectfully restrained but effective dramatic methods from his 1990's and mid-2000's period to achieve the right mood for the picture. Originality is not key here, and Zimmer's collectors will hear influences from not just the composer's early 1990's dramas but also The Thin Red Line, Batman Begins, and The Da Vinci Code. A touch of James Newton Howard string usage for Eastern European historical topics also prevails at times. Listeners will require patience when appreciating Zimmer's music for The Survivor, which is attributed primarily to the composer but also credits additional material from Heitor Pereira (interestingly) and Steven Doar. The ambience of the score is somber and dour for most of its length, and everything is conveyed at a very slow tempo. The ensemble is highlighted by piano, a string section, synthetics, chimes, and solo voices, with a sometimes uneasy balance between the organic and synthetic elements. The piano, solo string, and vocal contributions are often sublime in application and sensitivity. On the other hand, the ensemble strings, chimes, and electronics supply the more challenging atmospheres, with dissonance common throughout. Synthetic pulse effects are applied as a distracting rhythm-setter in several cues, a significant detriment to the score compared to the dreamier utilization of an organ effect elsewhere. Zimmer cannot completely escape his dedication to long crescendos in this work, but they thankfully don't define it. The tone of the music is relatively even, though Zimmer twice uses the same passage of powerful resolution with tolling chime and vocals ("Jew Animal!" and "Thank You for Loving Me") as a standout mechanism of impact. Moments of absolute dread are handled with horrific dissonance during most of the largely intolerable "Welcome to Jaworzno" and early in "Thank You for Loving Me." Also standing apart is Zimmer's impressive traditional adaptation with male voice in "Avinu Malkeinu," followed by rhythmic violin figures at the end of the cue that strongly resemble Howard techniques. Expect Zimmer's music for The Survivor to remain a depressingly contemplative experience until a pleasant waltz is conveyed by piano and violin in "The Story of the Cap," a cue with a unique melody that serves as the only purely ascendant theme in the score, its major key interlude a rare detour from the composer's preferred minor mode. Three themes define most of the structure in The Survivor, and while they do evolve over time on their own, little direct confluence is ever attempted with them. Haft himself receives the most prevalent melody, with five-note phrases in a hopeful call and answer mode. When performed by solo female voice, it distractingly resembles Marco Beltrami's iconic theme for the Scream franchise. Given the allure of that identity, it's no surprise that Zimmer's coincidentally similar concoction here also appeals. It's lovely in a solo female voice and viola tandem at 0:16 into "Harry Haft" before shifting to cello later in cue, though mostly only as its underlying chords. A piano tinkers at high ranges with the melody near the end of that cue as well. Haft's theme stumbles at 3:32 into "Welcome to Jaworzno" but eventually consolidates on piano at end, its chords only opening "Jew Animal!" on piano; fragments of the idea follow until a solo violin at the end of the cue picks up the full melody. Zimmer marries this theme to a degree with his destiny theme's chords 0:57 into "Walk to the Ring" on violin, a solo cello returning to the idea at 1:35. By "The Survivor," Haft's theme truly struggles, only partially enunciated by cello at 0:15 and fragmented under violent string stabs from the ensemble for most of the cue before returning to its original solo female voice at 4:45 for the latter half of the melody. More elusive is the theme for loss in The Survivor, one that seems to alternately represent the character's long-lost love, Leah. Its multiple descending lines are reminiscent of his famous "Journey to the Line" cue from The Thin Red Line and opens "Leah" with the same solo female voice before shifting to endless string variants. The theme is more like a rhythmic motific device for much of the score, turning to menace in the middle of "Jew Animal!" but finally enjoying a little more warmth on cello at 2:47 into "Walk to the Ring." It is in the highlights of "Walk to the Ring" that Zimmer cannot shake his repetitive crescendo tendencies within The Survivor, and for some listeners this cue may become a bit too repetitive in its slow increase of volume for the loss motif. The idea is tortured on violins at 1:35 into "Thank You for Loving Me" and agonizes for most of the cue, eventually revealing itself as the basis for the overly melodramatic voice and chime descent at the end of that cue, one that had been foreshadowed in "Jew Animal!" This motif also figures briefly in fragments during other rhythmic lines in the work, notably in the middle of "There is Always a Choice." The final theme of significance in The Survivor is one likely aimed at the concept of destiny, its progressions meandering in two pairs through a number of different sets. These motions initially descend but then reform in the score to both ascend and descend within the four notes. This theme opens "There is Always a Choice" immediately in hazy, synthetic organ ambience and occupies the entire cue, existing on top of Zimmer's obnoxious, electronic rhythmic device that alters pace haphazardly. The idea achieves its best moment at the outset of "Walk to the Ring" with more focus and resonance and is barely recognizable early in "Thank You for Loving Me." The relatively short duration of the score doesn't allow for further development of these ideas, and the flimsy narrative of the music leaves much to be desired. If not for the moments of emphasized dissonance, the work could pass by a listener not prepared for an intellectually demanding experience. On album, the score for The Survivor runs a scant 41 minutes and does suffer some redundancy in that running time. Those seeking only the more tonally accessible and pretty dramatic material could assemble about sixteen minutes of such music between "Harry Haft," "Leah," "Avinu Malkeinu," "Walk to the Ring," and "The Story of the Cap." The "Walk to the Ring" track will be a particularly alluring highlight to devotees of Zimmer's career, as it offers this score's themes within the composer's most recognizable techniques. Some listeners with a taste towards Zimmer's postmodern explorations will throw "There is Always a Choice" into that grouping despite its intentionally awkward changes of pace. Otherwise, the understatement of the score's tone and occasional melodic grace will earn respect from listeners but not necessarily repeated casual visits. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 40:35
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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