A relentless, emotionless killer crosses time and begins to slaughter young
women in a West Coast American city. Our hero follows the killer across time,
finding it much harder to fit into our present than his adversary. Nevertheless,
our protagonist falls in love with a young woman, and when the police refuse
to believe his story, preferring to accept that he may really be the killer,
he must fight a desperate battle to save the love of his life. An ingenious
mixture of relentless suspense, thrills and romance, centred on an intelligently
constructed science fiction plot, the film is obviously The Terminator
(1984). And it would be if it wasn't Nicholas Meyer's debut feature as
writer and director: Time After Time (1979). For the T-800, read Jack
the Ripper, for Kyle read H.G. Wells, and for Los Angeles, San Francisco.
Instead of going back in time to fight for the future, Jack the Ripper (David
Warner), seen in the act of a murder in Victorian London, steals H.G. Well's
newly developed time machine and travels forward to 1979. By now Wells time
machine (yes, for the purposes of Time After Time, he really built
one) has been discovered and is touring the world as part of an exhibition
about the father of modern science fiction's life. As the story begins the
exhibition is in San Francisco, thus giving Meyer a fairly acceptable excuse
to locate the story in America. The machine travels not just through time,
but necessarily to whatever location it has been moved to in the future.
Wells (Malcolm McDowell) follows - the reason the modern discoverers of the
time machine can't get it to work is that it requires a key, without which
it will automatically return to it's base time. Having deposited The Ripper
in 1979, the time machine returns to Victorian London, and Wells, sure that
he has unleashed a monster into what he assumes will be a utopian future,
gives chase. The film is therefore able to make some telling contrasts between
what we know of the young H.G. Wells' hopeful vision of human progress with
the violent reality of late 20th century America. The Ripper rightly
tells Wells that in the past he was a freak, now he is in his element, serial
killers are the norm and he is in his element. Wells had idealistic dreams
of a better future, but it is the Ripper who was genuinely a 'Man Before
his Time.'
The film is actually a skilful addition to a sub-genre of science fiction
which weaves real historical characters into fictional narratives, and of
a smaller sub-sub-genre which particularly builds stories around H.G. Wells
himself. Of particular note are The Space Machine by Christopher Priest,
which postulates the 'true' story behind the events of not just The Time
Machine, but also The War of the Worlds, and the
British Science Fiction
Association Award-winning The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter, a
wildly imaginative epic sequel to Wells' original novel.
Just as Brian De Palma (Sisters 1973, Obsession 1975) and Martin
Scorsese (Taxi Driver 1975) turned to Bernard Herrmann to score their
early features, and Seven Spielberg (Jaws 1975, Close Encounters
of the Third Kind 1978) and George Lucas (Star Wars 1977) had
recourse to John Williams for a revival of the orchestral sound of the Golden
Age of Hollywood, so first time director secured the services of Miklos Rozsa,
assisted by that indefatigable champion of film music, Christopher Palmer.
Reading Nicholas Meyer's sleeve notes (retained from the original vinyl
soundtrack album) his love of old time film scoring is apparent. His notes
are no puff-piece from a man obliged to write something flattering about
a subject of which he knows nothing, but an essay of genuine enthusiasm and
affection, written by a film-maker with a real knowledge of the history and
function of film music. It is a shame that such a talented writer-director
has yet to make another film a tenth as good as Time After Time, which
remains one of the best and most under-rated films of the 70's. To say nothing
of being one of those extraordinarily rare science fiction films which, the
basic time travel premise accepted, is logically and coherently plotted in
a way which credits the audience with adult intelligence. Unfortunately,
Time After Time was a box-office failure, and Meyer has since spent
his time on such projects as the successful TV movie The Day After
and in writing-and-or-directing duties on several of the better Star
Trek movies.
By the late 70's, such was the sound and style of most studio pictures, that
the old introductory fanfares had been largely dropped. Meyer gloriously
revived the old Max Steiner Warner Brother's fanfare for the opening of Time
After Time, Rozsa spinning his opening title directly out the fanfare
(As Eliot Goldenthal would later do with the 20th Century Fox
fanfare for Alien3 - 1992), such that the Steiner necessarily
becomes part of the score and is therefore included on the soundtrack album.
Thus musically the film immediately connects the past and present, Steiner's
Viennese style, and the very foundation of film music, linking the movie
back to the musical sound world of late 19th century romanticism
and 1890's of the young H.G. Wells.
With this score Rozsa may not have added anything new to his canon, or to
film composing in general, but that is not the point. As with Star Wars
and Close Encounters, his music serves to anchor fantastical storytelling
in a musically familiar world. Elements of the suspense and action writing
echo any number of Rozsa's film noirs and biting urban thrillers of the 1940's,
while the style of his richly-hued romantic music is instantly recognisable.
However, Rozsa does not steal from himself, the themes are new, and what
gorgeous themes they are. The central love music is as sweepingly romantic
as anything Rozsa ever wrote, while a piano solo played by Eric Parkin, 'Time
Machine Waltz' is elegiac and lovely beyond compare. At one point the film
references Vertigo and the 'redwood's scene, though Rozsa approaches
it very differently to Herrmann. His suspense music is powerfully brooding,
while the action-chase cues are as exciting as anything ever written for
the screen. Just try 'Dangerous Drive' (for a desperate pursuit through the
streets of San Francisco liberally borrowed from in Highlander - 1986)
for absolutely breathless and explosively tense thrills. Rozsa also incorporates
a musical-box theme, an exquisite fairytale melody which besides marking
the passage of time, takes on chilling resonance as the story unfolds. 'Journey's
End & Finale' is one of the great romantic finishes to any Hollywood
film - of course if you know anything about the H.G. Wells love life it is
all nonsense - but still makes for satisfyingly superior film making.
Providence (1977) is generally acclaimed as Miklos Rozsa's last great film
score. It is the sort of subdued, serious, 'classical' score which wins plaudits
from critics who never normally notice film music - and of course
Providence was hugely rewarded film from one of France's greatest
directors. Time After Time is not just Rozsa's last great Hollywood
score, but perhaps his best film work since El Cid (1961). It is simply
one of the composer's great scores, and while not comparable to the vast
majesty of his epic works from 1950's, is worthy to stand beside
Spellbound (1945) and The Thief of Badgad (1940) as a film
music masterpiece. Rozsa himself certainly thought highly of this music,
reworking parts of it into his Concerto for Viola and Orchestra op.37
(1979), the premiere recording of which was made by Richard Kaufman and the
Nurnberger Symphoniker on the album Symphonic Hollywood Volume 1
(Colosseum CST 34.8048).
I should add that the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dr Rozsa
himself, play with tremendous fiery intensity, and the twenty-year-old sound
is absolutely superb. Quite simply, soundtrack albums rarely come any better
than this.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Gary S. Dalkin is Feature's Editor of Vector: The Critical Journal
of the British Science Fiction Association and a judge of the
Arthur C. Clarke Award (given for the Best Original SF novel
published in the UK in the previous calendar year). He also writes about
science fiction and fantasy for Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer
