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Somewhere buried deep inside director Guy Ritchie’s subconscious is the vision of a shadowy image you might see for a few seconds on the screen. As we hear the Oscar nominated music of Hans Zimmer brilliantly surround the tale of Sherlock Holmes, Ritchie reveals an instant glance at the sleuth’s archenemy buried in the story.
If you look closely there’s a brief darkly lit scene of a man wearing black lurking in the shadows, a revealing mysterious moment. Somewhere in the script you hear the name Moriarty, a sense of morbid curiosity emerges and a stench of evil is in the air. Is Moriarty actor Ed Tolputt who’s credited as an the Anonymous Man in Sherlock Holmes, or is Ed a figment of our curiosity, an imaginary name, a ghost actor Guy Ritchie used that doesn’t exist who played the part of a dark cloaked figure and then disappears? Though Tolputt is credited as an actor in the television productions Friends & Crocodiles (2005) and Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle (2005), his anonymous credit might just be a clue that introduces us to the Moriarty character in the first Sherlock Holmes.
It’s not only a brief image of Holmes archenemy that surrounds Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories with mystique, but it’s the way the author uses the character throughout his novels. In every Sherlock Holmes story written except one, Holmes mentions Moriarty reminiscently in The Empty House (The immediate sequel to The Final Problem), The Norwood Builder, The Missing Three-Quarter, The Illustrious Client, and His Last Bow. We really never see him until The Final Problem; in fact Watson never meets Moriarty, but sees him once from afar in The Final Problem and relies upon Holmes to explain his battle with the criminal. Even in Doyle’s The Valley of Fear, which was written before The Final Problem, but published afterwards, Holmes tries to prevent Moriarty’s agents from committing murder.
Shockingly Moriarty only sends him a note of commiseration at the end, was it written before his death or after? When questioned about Moriarty in his film, Guy Ritchie explains, “Some kind of an appearance is probably the best way to describe it,” and our curiosity increases when the director says, “All will be revealed. I’m afraid I have to be slightly ambiguous about this but you’ll understand what I’m talking about when you see the movie.”
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Throughout Doyle’s novels the illusive Moriarty is the wicked super villain, a “Napoleon of Crime” as Holmes refers to him, the main antagonist of the whole series. Moriarty is a crime boss who protects the majority of criminals in England in exchange for their obedience and a share of their profits. Strange as it may seem his first major ‘appearance’ as a character is in The Final Problem, where Holmes is on the verge of delivering a fatal blow to Moriarty’s criminal ring, he must flee England to escape Moriarty’s retribution. “Usually Holmes plots are more localized and this was about taking over the world. And when you’re painting on a larger scale as we are, then I suppose that’s something inherent in the equation that you have to up the plot size. Otherwise it’s just a storm in a teacup,” explains Ritchie. Moriarty leaves England pursuing Holmes to Switzerland as they both fall to their deaths during a battle atop the Reichenbach Falls. This is the demise of James Moriarty, but was this really the death of Sherlock Holmes? Due to public pressure on the author, even though The Valley of Fear was written a year before Holmes dies at Reichenbach Falls, Doyle fakes Holmes death to protect Watson from being pursued by Moriarty’s gang, yes, Sherlock Holmes lives.
At the end of the film after Holmes’ fight with Blackwood causes him to plummet off the unfinished construction of the Tower Bridge, this time he actually dies by ironically being hung from the neck by chains.
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Holmes helps Irene Adler recover after the fight even though he handcuffs her. She explains that her employer is Professor Moriarty, warning him that Moriarty “Is just as brilliant as he is, and infinitely more devious”. Holmes replies, “We’ll see about that.” Then Holmes drops the key to the cuffs in Adler’s shirt and leaves her, returning to Watson. It’s the final scene between Holmes and Adler that reveals a glance of Moriarty at the mention of his name. The police arrive and explain that they found a dead officer near Blackwood's device, which was set to go off, a complex machine that used a remote control to release a cyanide derivative into Parliament’s chambers to murder them.
Now that Adler has fled the scene, Holmes deduces that chasing Adler and fighting Blackwood was a diversion by Moriarty, who used the distraction to take a key component of Blackwood's remote control device from the machine. This illusively evil man is a criminal so powerful that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle creates a mystique that only reveals his ‘presence’ in The Final Problem. Perhaps this is basis for the script of Sherlock Holmes 2? Then will be time for the composer to find the sound of Moriarty, to explore what might become the darkest music to ever be used in this series. Composer Hans Zimmer loves to embrace the unknown; it’s the challenge of discovery that’s exciting when he has to solve a puzzle. Just like Holmes trying to unravel his next case, it’s in an unknown musical universe where Zimmer will find the ultimate solution that will solve the case.
Sherlock Holmes takes place in 1891. You need to pay close attention to details as the bumbling Inspector Lestrade hands The National Police Gazette newspaper over to Holmes. The headline on the newspaper is “London in Terror” and the date is Friday, November 19, 1891.It’s clever details like this that are not obvious because Guy Ritchie leaves us a trail of clever clues in the tradition of the author, even though the film is a new updated adventure of Holmes not based on Doyle’s books. As Hans Zimmer’s mindset is drawn from the inspiration of the middle of the industrial revolution his score wheezes, screeches, and splutters. There is no reverb; the magnificent performances are right next to your ear. Hans and Lorne Balfe approach Sherlock Holmes with a sense of humor, a score full of extraordinary multicultural references.
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The film’s beginning pursuit leads the duo to a satanic sacrifice that serial killer and occult sorcerer Lord Blackwood is about to commit, until Holmes and Dr. Watson change the madman’s plans closing another successful case. Lord Blackwood is tried and hung by the neck, but mysteriously returns from the grave and plans to commit mass murder. Holmes must pursue the evil one once again.
Dealing with Watson’s new fiancée and the dimwitted head of Scotland Yard, the relentless and zany detective must discover clues that will lead him into Blackwood’s twisted web of deceit, his mass murders and black magic, that are all part of his next plot.
The story is surrounded by the deadly seduction of temptress Irene Adler, who is secretly manipulated by James Moriarty. This first film is a setup that will take it’s viewers into a whirlwind of clever crimes, a hair raising mystery, and the thrilling adventure of a battle of masterminds in Sherlock Holmes 2.
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Just like Hans Zimmer who sits at his studio’s master control conjuring up how to solve his latest musical riddle, Sherlock Holmes is an eccentric scientist consumed by the excitement of the macabre as each clue uncovers the answer to a puzzle.
At the opening of the soundtrack the Main Theme is established in Discombobulate, an impish, mischievous rhythm that carries a playful tune from 1891.The dominant Main Theme is used in He’s Killed The Dog Again and almost everywhere, but is surrounded by a vast variety of composing styles and instrumentation. Like a gypsy’s dance by a camp fire in I Never Woke Up in Handcuffs to My Mind Rebels at Stagnation, which begins with a quiet moody piano with a few instruments revisiting the theme, but transforms into a full orchestral ending, you hear the variety in both cues. It’s thrilling when Holmes takes a running dive out of a tall building’s window into the River Thames where he surfaces with pipe in hand; it’s hilarious as he puts his pipe in his mouth while swimming to the boat where Watson and Adler await. This scene defines the absurdity and humor of Zimmer. In two specific sequences, one where Holmes is in a bare knuckle boxing match fighting a vicious brut where everyone is betting, we hear The Rocky Road to Dublin as sung by The Dubliners.
This scene is where the title of the twenty minute score cue Psychological Recovery…….6 Months comes from; it’s a quote from Holmes’ narrating. It would be just another scene except for Guy Ritchie’s use of sound effects, music, and narration. As we see Holmes being beaten to a pulp all of a sudden everything changes, we begin to hear him narrate his thoughts about using Wing Chun on his opponent, what moves he has to make to take the ruffian out and then he destroys him. This is when everything changes, the visual technique of altering the speed and action of the fighters from punch to punch, movement to movement, the muted sound as we hear Holmes thoughts in the foreground while the rest of the sounds are muffled. After Holmes narration ends suddenly everything returns to the reality of Holmes on the verge of being destroyed. Just before his opponent pulverizes him the same visual and sound effects that were used while we heard Holmes’ initial thoughts return.
The effects are emphasized as Holmes turns his original thoughts into reality by using his knowledge of Wing Chun to destroy his opponent as we hear him say, “Psychological Recovery…….6 Months,” after his final blow. It’s Guy’s final dub of all of the sounds and music that elevates this scene. The second scene using this technique is when a set of cleverly located explosions are planted around a warehouse to kill Holmes, Watson, and Adler. When the explosions are triggered and the actors react, you don’t hear the explosions, but you see the chaos and feel the power in an altered environment.
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The director captures ‘the moment’ by psychological manipulation, customizing his art of filmmaking by altering the films speed, muting the sound, and using certain sound effects or music in an abnormal way to create a surreal sonic environment that’s similar to Brad Pitt’s fight sequence in Snatch.
The elements that make this score so great are a myriad of styles, instruments, and approaches that work from scene to scene seamlessly. Hans’ avant-garde style emerges when we witness the death of Blackwood’s father while he’s talking a bath. This is after Holmes gets out of jail and goes to the Temple of the Four Orders, an occult dabbling secret society.
The leaders, Sir Thomas and Lord Coward, reveal Blackwood was a former member and pleads for Holmes to capture him. Holmes declines their generous reward but leaves in pursuit, figuring out that Blackwood is the son of Sir Thomas, a secret which Thomas confirms. Sir Thomas and Ambassador Standish are killed by Blackwood allowing him to take control of the order. All hell breaks loose with Zimmer’s music when we see Blackwood sardonically murder his own father in his bathtub as bizarre symphonic avant-garde orchestrations accompany his death.
The music can transform from classic moments like this to the more hellish style of Han’s symphonic power. A character that is pursuing Blackwood bursts into flames and is totally consumed by fire from head to toe as we hear a relentless sonic explosion of instant melodic chaos.
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Both of these scenes run parallel in intensity to the fight between Holmes and Watson against Blackwood’s henchmen inside the structure of a ship that’s being built in a shipyard, the string players are a tour de force.
Zimmer’s style in Sherlock Holmes doesn’t give in returning to his past action scoring style that he’s known for. There is no solid wall of sound falling on you, but action packed intricate string performances that are melodically frantic, emotionally urgent and not an overwhelming mass of solid orchestrated devastation during the fight. Just one of the many subjects I discuss in the depth interview with Hans Zimmer on our homepage.
From his wild orchestral intensity and esoteric instrumentation to the search for the perfect upright piano sound that echoes the film’s period, Zimmer’s sense of humor combined with his ongoing search to satisfy ‘the idea’ is what makes his extraordinary instrumentation work. Like with his use of detuned and abused pianos, one was actually defaced in an underground parking garage at 20th Century Fox as he explains, “We rented 20th Century Fox’s underground parking garage one Sunday and did hideous things to a piano. Actually, that was the second broken piano we bought. I really wanted to destroy the first one, but when it arrived you could tell that someone had loved and cared for it all their life. I just couldn’t break it, so we had to find an abused piano. In the beginning I had someone to detune my piano, but it just sounded out of tune, so I had my assistant go to Craigslist on the internet and find a broken one. When we found a broken piano I thought, rather than use big drums what would a piano sound like if you dropped it down a flight of stairs?” The piano sound was one critical element for Hans. From the piano to a thirty two piece orchestra to a violin to a potpourri of unique instrumentation and those solo performances, these are the tools and emotions that are at the heart of the score. No matter what Hans uses for his music, whether it’s synthesizers, an intimate symphony orchestra, a broken piano, the Experibass, a cimbalom or just a single violin, Zimmer will tell you “It’s in the performance”. Listen to the last track on the soundtrack Catatonic, it starts with a gypsies violin crying, the impish Main Theme gradually works it‘s way subtly, gently, slowly, rhythmically like an “Om, Pa, Pa,” each note working it’s way into distant dark orchestral string overtones. The theme playfully returns, odd anticipation, and then it returns as if it’s instrumentally pulling the music along as the orchestra starts to gain momentum. It’s around four and a half minutes into Catatonic when the orchestra breaks loose into a relentless charge to the end, an emotional climax, and then it’s over as you’re stunned wondering, “Who are these great musicians?” That’s what’s so great about Sherlock Holmes, the variety of excellent performances balanced with a modest orchestra, different ways to use instruments, and the thoughts that made everything work together with the film.
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Besides the invaluable musical contributions by Lorne Balfe, you will hear performances by Aleksey Igudesman, Atli Örvarrson, Ann Marie Calhoun, Davey Johnstone, Noah Sorota, Tina Guo, and Diego Stocco. Behind excellent film music is the thrill of experimenting and trying new ideas. One groundbreaking idea is Hans’ collaboration with Italian sound designer, sound artist, inventor, and composer, Diego Stocco.
For inside the mind of Sherlock Holmes, the violin player, Hans and Diego used the Experibass, which is made up of a variety of stringed instruments invented by Stocco. It looks like the bridge and neck of a violin and a viola fused onto a Double Bass, a stunning hybrid that combines the resonance of a Double Bass with the sounds of treble instruments.
The discovery of the Experibass is just as daunting as when Holmes is playing his violin to a long vertical glass jar of flies flying around inside it, Watson enters, and then Downey says, “When I play internal clusters, they fly counterclockwise.” A new invention, a new approach to play music, a new philosophy on the interaction of flies listening to a violin, thrilling experiments that open up new worlds of possibilities. Holmes plays his violin throughout the film and sometimes at the most unexpected times. The character in the book used a Stradivarius and would quite often play his violin while it was on his lap. The off kilter violin in the film defines the attachment that Holmes has for his instrument, but even though the detective enjoys playing it, you won’t hear traditional classical sounds in the film.
Zimmer wanted room for his solo violinists, Ann Marie Calhoun and Aleksey Igudesman, to emotionally explode playing their hearts out. At times the violin solos are mesmerizing; lighting a fire with the friction from their bows’ velocity against the strings.
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Also we hear a strange uncomfortable cimbalom in many scenes, either performing the Main Title or ominously plucking rhythmically along with the piano. Traditional percussion is replaced with slapped garbage can lids and the other performers are allowed to torture their instruments, if Hans can drop a piano down a flight of stairs then there are no rules. Whatever a musician can do or even think of, if it works and they discover uncharted waters; Hans let’s the assault begin. Upbeat parts of the story are addressed by banjo, accordion, and even a brief bagpipe riff.
Zimmer’s score comes down to these zany quests for the specific sound, scientific experiments and entering the musical unknown to match the directing sensibilities of Guy Ritchie. Each artist has their style, but when combined, their chemistry merges bringing Sherlock Holmes from 1891 into the 21st Century to continue the legend.
Guy Ritchie was scheduled to direct the upcoming adaptation of the DC comic character Lobo since September, but now Ritchie has dropped the project in favor of getting started immediately on the upcoming Sherlock Holmes sequel.
Where Sherlock goes, Robert Downey Jr. follows, so he had to change his schedule dropping out of Jon Favreau’s Cowboy’s and Aliens. Producer Joel Silver revealed, “The studio wants us and Guy to focus on making another Sherlock Holmes, so we’re trying to see if we can do something quickly with another movie. We already have some ideas and good story points to start with.” A conflict of interest, now why would the producer/director team of both Sherlock Holmes and Lobo have to take the fast track right back into the new franchise? In Hollywood that’s an easy answer, money. Sherlock Holmes has performed well both critically and commercially. Its worldwide box office returns as of February 8th are approaching $421 million being the one hundred and third highest grossing film in history, with a take of over $201 million just in the U.S.
Downey recently won the Golden Globe for his performance, while the film was nominated for two Academy Awards including one for Best Music. Sherlock Holmes was still in the top ten films at the box office in the U.S. last weekend and it’s still making money. Definitely it’s financial momentum that drives the sequel, after all, for a movie that cost around $100 million to make, Sherlock Holmes is one of the big success stories of 2009.
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