Backdraft

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

How do you look at the soundtrack that got you hooked on film music? How do you grade it without making prejudgments? Simple, listen to your heart because the emotional feeling is what its all about. To think that this theme became the signature sound for a cooking show called Iron Chef is what makes it only better. Fire and cooking, get it? It would have gotten me to cook in the end even, maybe! But when Ron Howard was looking for a composer that could breath fire into his drama, he easily saw the potential when he heard that theme for the first time. Not only did it pour more emotion but it was everything that symbolized firemen in general, a patriotic stirring cracker that could simply sink you into tears. Backdraft became one of the all time greatest scores of its generation, catapulted Zimmer to fame but unbelievable, it was ignored for its glory when the Oscar nominations were announced. I thought Oscars were all about realizing the emotion through music on screen. If all, Backdraft made you weep when it needed, set your soul on fire before it was frozen through delight, Backdraft pinpoints easily the trademark film music possesses, it is a breathing roller coaster ride of emotion.

Yet, it is short on emotion. While the score runs a solid 42 minutes, it is extremely short when you take away the two immense songs at begin and end. Without them, it only runs for 29.58, which is extremely short. So this means, several important scenes were missing like the famous fire scene with the collapsing floor. But what you receive is a brilliant begin track and a dazzling finale, with 17 minutes of the best film music ever heard. First of all, the main theme starts this score with a heroic treatment but it are the sorrowful sounding trumpet solos that truly evoke deep emotion. 'Brothers' is actually a brief version of the theme but follows quickly with a waltz like love theme, portraying the scene on the firetruck, and should be titled as the track 'Show me your Firetruck' which is surprisingly the last. Also, newcomers who usually get started with this score will be introduced quickly to the electronic supplement of noises, like the breathing firemask a la Darth Vader in '335'. But it are the 4 final tracks that set this score alight and I don't mean that literally.

'Burn it All' starts as a pounding action track but becomes more tragically inspired when a female choir starts to underscore the scene as the return of the sorrowful trumpet theme. The next track 'You Go, We Go' begins with a sensational heroic battle supported through awesome choral music and the heroic patriotism is fully heard during 'Fahrenheit 451' but we all love the final track. 'Show Me Your Firetruck' gives the listener a supreme moment where all the stops are forgotten and Zimmer brings a full fleshed theme of massive proportion. It is such a moment of score that can even give non film music fans the chills, meaning this is damn good film music. So, he that is not blown away with the final effort should really have it seriously against Zimmer or was not in the area of 2 kilometers when it was played. I'm simply saying that you can have grunts against this composer but all that is forgotten when you are introduced to film music that glows magic of the highest order. More, Backdraft is sheer movie magic.

\ЕЕЕЕЕ/

Tracks

Single Disc

1. Set Me In Motion: Bruce Hornsby & The Range (5.19)

2. Fighting 17th (4.25) Excellent Track

3. Brothers (3.31)

4. The Arsonist's Waltz (1.58)

5. 335 (3.03)

6. Burn It All (5.16) Excellent Track

7. You Go, We Go (5.11) Excellent Track

8. Fahrenheit 451 (2.59) Excellent Track

9. Show Me Your Firetruck (3.31) Excellent Track

10. The Show Goes On: Bruce Hornsby & The Range (7.32)

Total Length: 42.56

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons

=== Link to Composer Site: Hans Zimmer ===