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DEEP IMPACT
Brooding Horner score seems to last as long as the ice age which would ensue if we actually were hit by a comet
 A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Music composed by
JAMES HORNER

Rating
* * 1/2



Performed by
UNNAMED ORCHESTRA
conducted by
JAMES HORNER

Orchestration
JAMES HORNER
J.A.C. REDFORD

Engineered by
SIMON RHODES
Music Editor
JIM HENRIKSON
Produced by
JAMES HORNER
SIMON RHODES

Album running time
76:29

Released by
SONY CLASSICAL
Catalog number
SK-60690

Album cover copyright (c) 1998 DreamWorks LLC; review copyright (c) 2007 James Southall

Impending doom for all humanity... a comet hurtles towards Earth... mankind has only one hope... James Horner.  A slightly silly film, made to look good only in comparison with its simultaneously-released counterpart Armageddon, Deep Impact is pretty slow-going and rarely all that compelling, but has its moments and always looks the part.  It was one of the first films released by the Dreamworks studio and directed by Mimi Leder, who had made their very first release, The Peacemaker - it had an entertaining but generic Hans Zimmer score; this time she turned to Horner to save the day.

Horner's score is one which probably tries the patience of even his most devoted fan.  The music is almost always very beautiful indeed - but it doesn't half go on a bit.  If you could imagine a score a little like Apollo 13 but with most of its action music replaced by gentle piano twinkling, you get the idea.  The main theme is attractive enough - but by its 400th playing it has more than outstayed its welcome.  Far more interesting are the parts of the score in which Horner diverts himself away from gentle atmospheric accompaniment and towards something more urgent, but sadly these moments are not particularly common.

The very long cue "Our Best Hope..." (a prototypical Horner track title if ever there was one) includes some Apollo 13-ish action material for a time, but the demand of the film was that Horner spend much of his time offering a rumbling, subtle warning of the doom on the horizon and so even when more aggressive material does appear on the scene, it rarely lasts long.  I like his use of synth choir - criticised by many whenever he does it - but there's a strange, ethereal quality to it which really works here.  The track ends (and the following one begins) with genuinely dissonant, explosive music which is easily the best thing on the album - it's a great pity Horner didn't get to explore that side of things more fully.

After that, the score staggers along for a while before coming back to life towards the end.  In fairness there is little wrong with any of it - it's just that taken as a whole, it's too repetitive and lacks the energy required to propel an album of this length along successfully.  Horner is too fine a composer for the music to be especially dull taken on its own terms - but half an hour of muted strings and horn chords can make you wonder whether life is truly worth living.  There's enough decent stuff to make it a good shout for Horner devotees, and even that half-hour stretch in the middle is beautiful enough in its own way, but if ever there was a score which showed why more is sometimes less, it's Deep Impact.

Tracks

  1. A Distant Discovery (3:52)
  2. Crucial Rendezvous (3:57)
  3. Our Best Hope... (13:20)
  4. The Comet's Sunrise (5:02)
  5. A National Lottery (8:21)
  6. The Wedding (3:56)
  7. The Long Return Home (4:40)
  8. Sad News (3:42)
  9. Leo's Decision (3:03)
  10. The President's Speech (4:25)
  11. Drawing Straws (10:37)
  12. Goodbye and Godspeed (11:34)
    13.