Broken Arrow

Dieses Dokument setzt sich nur aus Informationen, die im Booklet der Soundtrack-CD zu finden sind, zusammen. Aber auch die sind sehr informativ und interessant ... Die Übersetzung (und natürlich vieles mehr) findet ihr auf Marians Website.

Booklet text by Daniel Schweiger

After making their marks as London's premiere synthesist and the action auteur of Asian cinema, Hans Zimmer and John Woo have become the driving forces behind the sound and fury of Hollywood's action spectacles. Now these dynamic artists finally team up for the suspenseful chase of Broken Arrow. This military code signals a stolen nuclear missile, one that's being used for extortion by stealth fighter pilot Vic Deakins (John Travolta). The only man who can thwart his nefarious plan is Deakins' co-pilot and best friend Riley Hale (Christian Slater), who pursues the ticking bomb from one explosive setpiece to the next. Just as Woo directs Broken Arrow's gunplay with the breathless angles and rapid-fire editing that brought him international acclaim with The Killer and Hard Boiled, Hans Zimmer's percussive music nails every target with a distinctive style that's changed the face of action scoring.

Taking his cue from such pioneering synthesists as Wendy Carlos and Tangerine Dream, Hans Zimmer has become one of the few musicians to give computerized music a symphonic voice. Before he had ever turned to movie scoring, Zimmer was at the front of England's techno and industrial movements, toying with the newest equipment for such groups as SPK, Ultravox and the Damned. When his interests turned to movies, Zimmer created a unique fusion of tribal rhythms and rich synthesizer sounds. Every note was backed up with a strong command of symphonic techniques, and complemented with orchestral and choir passages that had been sampled into his synthesizers.

Zimmer's work on A World Apart called him to the attention of director Barry Levinson, who offered the composer Rain Man. Since then, Zimmer has scored such diverse films as A League of Their Own, Driving Miss Daisy, Beyond Rangoon, and the Oscar-winning The Lion King. But perhaps none of his music had the effect of Black Rain, a soundtrack that combined Japanese rhythms with percussive computers and lush melodies. It's sound was caught somewhere between the symphonic and electronic worlds, and Zimmer has since applied this distinctive style to such action films as Thelma & Louise, Pacific Heights, Drop Zone, True Romance, Backdraft and Crimson Tide. And Hollywood has supplied no end of sound-alike scores to match him.

Now Broken Arrow's desert setting and human drama have offered the composer an opportunity to take his music in a new direction. "It's a little tricky to reinvent the form, because there always comes a point where you have to use the drums and percussions to get through the sound effects", Zimmer comments. "For Broken Arrow, I've been trying to write themes wherever possible. When I performed on stage with synthesizers, I used to play the main titles from Spaghetti westerns, and I saw this film as a 'techno western'. Broken Arrow is back in Sergio Leone territory, and I wanted my score to be a homage and bring things full circle."

Broken Arrow's marriage between pulsating techno sounds and its mythic western quality has been accomplished with a unique ensemble that includes trumpet, guitar, harmonica, percussion, mini-Moogs and four pianos "rattling around at the bottom end". To capture the lyrical, yet dark sound of Broken Arrow's villain, Zimmer has called upon the legendary guitarist Duane Eddy, one of the players behind Henry Mancini's theme for Peter Gunn.

"I always thought that Spaghetti westerns were ripping off Duane Eddy's style without using him. I got the real thing this time", Zimmer says. "He plays down low with lots of authority, which is perfect for Deakins. It's easy to have all of this nasty music for the bad guy. But what I'm doing here is exactly the opposite. They say that the devil was the most beautiful angel in heaven, and had the most beautiful sounds, so Deakins has the most pleasant music in Broken Arrow. He's very charming! I wrote a three-note guitar theme that Duane plays very quietly and is accompanied by a children's choir. Deakins is in control of the movie, and the guitar gives him a lot more authority than if the music was just bashing away. On the other hand, Riley's music doesn't have to be as complex. He doesn't question his mission, because all he has to do is save the world and the girl!"

Zimmer's humanistic approach of playing to his characters instead of their gunplay is a bond he shares with John Woo. Even amidst the dizzying body counts of The Killer and Hard Boiled, Woo's violence has always been driven by themes of friendship, love and betrayal, all of which turned his shootouts into violent poetry. "John Woo is the gentlest director I've ever worked with. He's very sensitive and gets excited about what I do. John's said that watching Broken Arrow with the score is like seeing somebody else's movie. He thinks I've taken it in a direction that he didn't foresee. It's great having someone saying 'Okay, I've made an action picture. Now I need you to heighten the emotions.' I love going for that approach. Broken Arrow could just as easily be called Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It's got stealth bombers, and chases with helicopters, trains and cars. But in a way, I'm ignoring all of those things by sticking with the people. What I'm hitting is their emotions."

On such films as The House of the Spirits and Nine Months, Zimmer has preferred to use an orchestra to bring out the drama and comedy. But when it comes to action, the composer prefers the intimacy that synthesizers give him. "The more electronic I go, the more human an action score becomes to me", he says. "One of the reasons I like doing it by myself as opposed to using an orchestra is that synthesizers can reflect one person's viewpoint. In a symphony, you'll get dozens of different opinions on how to play a musical phrase. That works great on a picture like Nine Months which is dealing with the universal experience of having a baby. On the other hand, an action film is so ludicrous that you can stick with one composer's emotional viewpoint", Zimmer chuckles.

"Even when I think electronically, I'm thinking symphonically", he continues. "When I write a synth line, I do it with all the dynamics of an orchestra. My stuff is a minefield of little crescendos and changes in tempo and volume. When I use a 'fake' symphony, I'm using orchestral samples to hit changes that very few 'real' players could do. An orchestra is just sitting there performing music, but I make my action scores move along with the camera. If it pans, then so do I. Those moves build the music's dynamics."

Broken Arrow's theme-driven score is full of the pulsating action and lush symphonic sound that has come to define Zimmer's work in the genre, music that punches through every gunshot and explosion without losing its melodic track. Perhaps it's the cathartic experience of these scores that makes Zimmer's music so much fun to listen to. "I have to do an action film every year", he concludes. "I'm really against violence. But at the same time, I get so much of my anger out while I'm writing a score like Broken Arrow that I become a nicer person for the rest of the year!"

Booklet text by Lukas Kendall

The name "John Woo" has become more than a director's credit, but a whole film genre - one where universal themes of "honor, justice, guts and dignity" take bone-crunching action to a new level of style and poetry. His Hong Kong underworld films The Killer and Hard-Boiled were cult hits in America. He came to Hollywood with Hard Target and now Broken Arrow is his biggest and best action epic yet - a nuclear missile crisis story of James Bond proportions.

"Broken Arrow is a movie that encompasses many elements", notes the director. "One moment it is full of energy and suspense and the next it becomes fun and full of charm. It has its own character... excitement, humor and most of all an element of friendship and loyalty. Things that really touch people." Having worked both in Hong Kong and Hollywood, Woo finds audience desires more or less similar, the only difference being a preference towards explicit emotions (in the East) as opposed to subtlety (in the West). But basically, "they all love fast pacing, plot, music. They all love to be surprised, no matter what country. It all comes back to the desire just to see a good movie."

Woo writes and shoots his films with music in mind - "not music for the actual movie but music for inspiration." Once a dance instructor in high school, he thinks of the different elements and rhythms of cinema in musical terms; "The movie becomes like an orchestra, like Beethoven's music. It becomes a perfect balance." He cites the music from West Side Story, The Wild Bunch, Bonnie and Clyde, Amadeus, Raging Bull and The Godfather as some of his favorites.

For Broken Arrow, Woo and composer Hans Zimmer sought to avoid the "'typical' action movie soundtrack" and go for a more European style, where softer, romantic music is often used to heighten emotions and not the violence. Says Woo, "When we began to work we never spoke directly of what we wanted the music to be like. Instead we spoke about how we felt about the movie. We both agreed the theme of 'tragic friendship' is what we wanted... I left Hans alone and let him work on his vision for the movie and characters. His music gave the characters a new life. Our communication was not by language but by feelings. When we both felt the piece was right - it was."

Tracks

Total timing: 59:09

Credits

Published by Fox Film Music Corporation (BMI)
© 1996 Milan Entertainment, Inc.

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