REVIEW: Deep Impact

Hot off the heels of Titanic, Horner was pretty big stuff. Suddenly propelled to fame (and fortune) thanks to “My Heart Will Go On,” Horner suddenly was the “big blockbuster” composer of the late 1990’s. The first movie post Titanic he scored, indeed targeted as a summer blockbuster, was Deep Impact. I won’t even pretend to have seen the movie, but I can say with utmost certainty that I own Horner’s score (oh how I love to state the obvious). But that is about as much as I can say because Deep Impact doesn’t get much playtime on my iPod. Last night I sort of got the urge to listen to it again. And then I remembered why it doesn’t get much playtime.

I consider James Horner to be my favorite composer because his music has an amazing depth, created orchestrationally, manifested emotionally, that speaks to me like no other composer’s music can. I feel like music has a message to give, a story to tell, a complexity to savor, and very few Horner scores lack this trait. Sadly, Deep Impact does.

For lack of a better word, Deep Impact is just dull. The score is based around three themes: a descending piano motif to represent (I’m assuming) outer space and/or the acceptance of fear that everyone is about to die, a love theme of restrained magnitude, and some sort of nobility theme. The piano motif is gorgeously tender and sweet, and has always represented sort of the sound of “happy tears,” that is, it represents tears flowing in its quickness and descending, with just enough optimism to not be representative of sadness or depression. The love theme is again indicative of happiness and really adds a sense of true love--sort of what you would want to hear when you looked into the eyes of your significant other and gazed into them. The nobility theme is...well...awful. I indeed get the sense of nobility though the use of restrained horn figures on a slight bed of strings. The problem is that the theme is too restrained, compounded by the fact it is about as cliche as it comes. It moves so slow through its progression and is orchestrated so thinly that it just falls flat and never speaks anything. Then, matters are compounded by it being repeated ad nauseam throughout the score with no development, ruining whatever power it may have had in its restrained. Its almost like Horner really didn’t know how he wanted it to work and what he wanted it to do in the context of the rest of the music, so he just threw it in hoping it would work where inserted. However, that just doesn’t work at all.

While I heaped praise on the other two themes, they most absolutely are not what they could be. The themes, and really this something that extends through the entire score as well, are rendered so badly that they never get to go anywhere. The orchestrations are usually two or three lines deep, featuring tender and sentimental strings backed by woodwinds or horns that really do not go anywhere or do anything--they meander aimlessly. Its all very thin and the writing is quite basic. Track to track, the orchestrations just meander from point A to nowhere, never quite reaching a satisfying point B. The themes, and really this score in general, could have been so much more had they been fleshed out with a greater depth. Indeed, this is one of the lucky few times they were redone properly since both themes and the general scoring style show up in the infinitely more passionate and beautiful Bicentennial Man, one of my favorite Horner scores hands down, and my idea of what the more emotional moments of Deep Impact should have been like (but that is for another review!).

Another problem that bogs down Deep Impact is that it is all badly down tempo. Everything is so slow in nature that its hard to really get a grasp on the direction the music is going. Each time it has the chance to grab you, it loses you because it takes too long to get where it is going. Any potential for emotion to be spoken or complexity to develop is blown by how slow the development occurs. This is especially evidence in the moments of tension, which are just severely down tempo versions of the sinking music in Titanic (no doubt asked for after its success). However, this music was written as fast paced action music designed to propel the listener through the “will they won’t they make it” fears that were developed in the music and film. Here, the music just sort of stagnates and fails because there’s music written for urgency that’s been slowed down so much that instead we get the feeling of, “*yawn*, something bad is about to happen? It can wait five minutes.” And indeed, it becomes very tedious to listen to after long periods of time because, when the same music is repeated ad nauseam, it becomes boring.

Now, Deep Impact isn’t all bad. There are certainly some highlights to be had, namely in Track 3, “Our Best Hope...” Despite this track being the most prominent example of what I was saying about the suspense music just being down tempoed Titanic, Horner uses all the tricks in his bag to create a hypnotically engaging 13 minute tour de force. The strings engage in long notes, overlaid with horns overlaid with woodwinds, backed by a pulsating bass synthesizer (an incredibly effective device I wish Horner would employ more), all tied together with slow and mesmerizing synth vocal work. As the track develops, things pick up slowly, and the music becomes more tense as the strings begin to loop over themselves and the Glory snares come in to add in a greater level of tension than what was already swirling. I feel the substandard action music at the end of the track ruins the build-up (and paired next to the unlistenable mess that is the next track, “The Comet’s Sunrise,” the whole third track just is ruined to shambles--I usually take a listening break between tracks 3 and 4 so I can let track 3 sink in). But when it is building, it is fantastic, and Horner employs just about every stylistic trick he ever developed to excellent effect. Top stuff.

Also worth noting is the gorgeousness of the twinkling piano motif, played so soft and gently in, “A Distant Discovery,” the love with undertones of despair in, “The Wedding,” (although you may as well just go find the vastly superior track of the same name in Bicentennial Man) and the sadness in, “Leo’s Decision.”

Unusually for Horner, I just don’t feel like the last two tracks are quite up to snuff. The orchestra swells, the themes are replayed, and even a real choir joins in for the action in the final track (and adds a needed layer of depth, despite its awkward entrance). However, the music is still too down tempo and aimless to speak to me in any volume.

Of note, this is Simon Rhodes’s first score working with James Horner, and the recording just is not up to the quality I’d come to expect from the two of them (compare this to, say, All the King’s Men). The music doesn’t resonate and the recording is far too soft--probably adding into the flaws of the music already there.

Overall, Deep Impact just isn’t up to snuff and I think is fair of the label “uninspired”. It doesn’t really do anything or go anywhere. It just stagnates for its hour and 20 minute runtime. Aside from a few good moments, the music is just bland and lacks any sort of emotion, complexity, and depth. It plods along at at far too slow a tempo and tries to down tempo the urgent music of Titanic to very poor effect. The best parts of Deep Impact would be salvaged for Bicentennial Man and put to use in far greater form and meaning there. And that is a score that I’d suggest going to immediately because it is what good chunks of Deep Impact should have been. This sort of score, thankfully, is the exception in Horner’s career. Hey, we’re all allowed to have a bad day at the office!

** out of five.