Thin Red Line Chants

[Katrine Freggiaro]

Onesuch show, held in the Aqua Theatre was "The Fine Line." When I go to see a show in the Aqua Theatre, I expect to see springboard diving, high diving and synchronized swimming. What a disappointment! There was no springboard diving, and the limited high diving and synchronized swimming was replaced by a third rate stage performance featuring a scary character, yelling, a circus act, much splashing of water, and more splashing of water.

Seriously, was does a freaky guy twirling a cape over his head for ten minutes have to do with swimming and water? Answer - Nothing. This was a start to a show that ended with more splashing of water. What a disappointment! I will say, the performers had a second show later in the week that was what I expected and brought out their real talents, but this was hardly promoted compared to "The Not-So-Fine Line"

Was there a name for the second show you thought was better? Want to make sure I recognize it in the Cruise Compass and go see it. :) I saw the online video of twirling guy followed by all the costumed splashing and was becoming really disappointed after all the hype I've heard about the Aqua Theater.

I believe the name of the show was "Hideaway Heist," but they may give it a different name in the Cruise Compass. It showed off the diving skills of the performers as well as those of the synchronized swimmers.

As always, everyone has an opinion.. but lets think about this twirling guy and ask if YOU could spin like that for more than 10 minutes and not throw up your dinner on yourself - NO... So I will say the guy is talented whether you like him or not!!

I *loved* the entire experience of Oasis of Dreams and Ocean Aria, enjoying the feeling of sitting outside during twilight with a drink in hand, watching divers and acrobats effortlessly and beautifully performing on the largest ships in the world.

Fast forward 6 years to the Harmony. For The Fine Line, we had chosen a late show, and it was already dark when it started. The only seats we could find together were in the last row, and it was considerably noisier. A couple of older gentleman chatted loudly a few seats down from us during the entire show despite being shushed by nearby audience members (why go to a show to talk?) and an entire family camped out right behind us also yelling. I couldn't wait for the show to be over.

B+ - Hideaway Heist... the second aqua show which actually features springboard diving and synchronized swimming. Heads and shoulders above The Fine Line. Once again, keep an eye out for it in the Cruise Compass.

C- - The Comedy Club... Two comedians each doing a 30 minute performance. The first was dull, boring and not funny. The second had some good jokes. I have high expectations for comedians and just wish they would offer an option for a family show. They only had an "adult" show and I have problems with comedians who think they can be funny by being obscene. The real test is to make people laugh without descending to gutter language and themes.

D+ - Grease... I give them an A+ for an amazing dance performance. The music will appeal to a broad base of those of us over 50. So why the low rating? - The theme of the show which is clearly offensive to women. We raised two daughters to be independent and self reliant. The theme of Grease is that women exist to please men. Sandy surrenders her values for the simple reason of pleasing Danny, a self absorbed idiot who attacks Sandy at a drive in movie. Sorry, but smoking and wearing sexy clothes to please a male are not what young women should be seeking.

I know where you're coming from with that. It's disturbing to watch something like "Mad Men" or the old "UFO" TV series and see just how crazily the depiction of women's roles is that was normal in our recent past.

But then I also remember listening for years to several songs I liked from artists I really enjoy overall and then suddenly paying attention to the words and being shocked a bit. :) There's things on many levels, good or bad, even classic Bugs Bunny cartoons...

We absolutely loved the fine line, but when we got to see it on the Harmony TA the twirly man section did not feature. He was in the hideaway heist later in the cruise though and I can see how that would be a bit weird in the fine line. Maybe his absence was the reason we enjoyed it!

The Thin Red Line is one of the landmark scores in the history of film music. There aren't many composers who have such works on their belt. We can talk about Max Steiner and his King Kong, Alex North and A Streetcar Named Desire (first time a film was underscored by jazz) or the triumphant return of orchestra in John Williams's Star Wars. Hans Zimmer, the composer of The Thin Red Line, has a few of such breakthroughs in his career, like Black Rain (originating a new action style), Crimson Tide (first full score in that style, Backdraft was somewhat immature). No matter how much greater or smaller landmarks happened in film music, one must be remembered. The Thin Red Line changed the character of the genre. It was appreciated years later, when its influence was of note. Today, except The Prince of Egypt and Gladiator, it is seen as German composer's biggest achievements.

The landmark character of the score is not the subject of this article, which is an essay in interpretation in context of film and its album, because, in my opinion, even in this sense, the German created an exceptional work of art. Exceptional in its artistic message, the role it plays in the film. Many factors influenced it from the collaboration with director Terrence Malick (which Zimmer holds in very high regard), to time he spent on writing the score and that process itself. Thus we will start with the facts.

Hans Zimmer was hired to score The Thin Red Line very early. With big probability one can say it was in 1997. Possibly, he was very adamant to take the project. Terrence Malick, the film's director, made three movies already and all of them are seen as masterpieces. The adaptation of James Jones's classical novel after a 30+ year break. I think that without much exaggeration one can say that Hans Zimmer was one of the first to be hired for this movie.

He received a very difficult task. Malick demanded all (or most of) the score to be written before the production started, because he wanted to play it on the set to get himself and the crew in the right mood. It's hard to say whether it were electronic demos or orchestral recordings. The director also asked him to minimalize the amount of electronic instruments used in the score and resort mostly to a live ensemble. Devoid of the context and his usual tricks, Hans Zimmer had to find a new language to live up to the very hard task. His "help" though was classical music. Renowned for his replacement of composed music with classical pieces, Malick (on Days of Heaven, most of Ennio Morricone's music was replaced with the music of Camille Saint-Saens and in his most recent The New World he uses Wagner and Mozart in many places, which led James Horner to frustration) most likely asked the German composer to refer to certain pieces, which can be noticed in the final score. Still, in one of the early scenes Gabriel Faure's Requiem is heard (the 'In Paradisum' movement) and later, during the village massacre, we can hear Charles Ives' "An Unanswered Question", replacing Zimmer's reference to Wagner's "Prelude" to the drama Lohengrin.

Zimmer started working. Malick is said to have spent the whole pre-production in Santa Monica, where he established his production office for the film in the Media Ventures complex. He and Zimmer regularly argued on the corridors, but the composer says that they were very good arguments. For help, the German composer asked John Powell (who later took over the scoring duties on Endurance, a documentary produced by Malick) and Gavin Greenaway. Later, for undisclosed reasons, much of the music was rewritten Jeff Rona, who couldn't be officially credited for, as Rona put it, "political reasons" (John Powell's and Francesco Lupica's tracks are officially mentioned in the soundtrack part of end credits and the only credited "additional music" composer is John Powell), so he invented the phrase "visceral ambience". The music was recorded in Fox's Alfred Newman studios, one of the best in Hollywood. It was performed by Hollywood session musicians (today known as Hollywood Studio Symphony). The string section is said to have been tripled. Except traditional orchestral instruments, Zimmer added Tibetan drums, bells and chimes, three harps, a taiko drum and religious chants. He aided himself with Polynesian choirs, who chant their Christian songs in a pigeon English, and slightly Vangelis-like sounding electronic instrument called cosmic beam, performed by Malick's friend Francesco Lupica. Lupica himself improvised one of the tracks, called "Sit Back and Relax".

The film itself got mixed reviews. I believe it was completely misunderstood, which led some critics may say it's inherently incoherent and not understand the shots of nature. Hans Zimmer's score though was reviewed as very good, sometimes seen as the only coherent element of Malick's movie. As we will prove, this was one of the score's objectives. Alas, The Thin Red Line ended up to be the biggest loser in 1999 Academy Awards. It got no awards despite 11 nominations (including the score). Another big loser of that ceremony was the composer Hans Zimmer, who also lost the comedy/musical score Oscar to Stephen Warbeck (the German composer was nominated for his other great score, The Prince of Egypt).

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