Iron Man

Background

Iron Man is an American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. It was produced by Marvel Studios, directed by Jon Favreau, and written by the teams of Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as world-famous industrialist and master engineer Tony Stark, who builds a mechanized suit of armor to escape from captivity by a terrorist group and then uses the suit to become the superhero Iron Man. Composer John Debney was considered for the film after working on Favreau's previous two films, Elf (2003) and Zathura (2005), but "circumstances didn't work out" for him to join the project; Debney later reunited with Favreau for the sequel, Iron Man 2 (2010). Ramin Djawadi was hired instead. A fan of the comics as a child, he sought out the role after hearing that a composer had not yet been selected. Filming was already completed by the time he joined. Iron Man was released in the United States on May 2, 2008, as the first film in Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Production

Djawadi initially expected to compose a traditional orchestral score similar to those of previous superhero films, such as the Batman film series and the Spider-Man film trilogy. In their first discussions, Favreau told the composer that he wanted to take the music in a completely different direction than those previous superhero films and instead be inspired by the rock and roll genre and bands like AC/DC. Favreau felt Stark was more of a rock star than a superhero, and specifically asked for Djawadi to emphasize electric guitars in the score alongside the orchestra.

Because he was so excited to be working on the film, Djawadi began writing music as soon as he saw the trailer, before completed footage was provided for him to score. Favreau visited Djawadi to hear these ideas whenever he could. For sequences with a lot of visual effects to create the Iron Man suit, Djawadi would sometimes try to hold off until as late as possible so he could see the finished effects before writing the music, but other times he would start writing the music earlier and this influenced some of Favreau's editing decisions. Djawadi began his musical career as a guitarist and, unusually for a film score, he wrote most of the themes for Iron Man using the guitar, ensuring they would work for that instrument as well as the orchestra. There are several different themes for the title character to represent his different moods, including Iron Man's "kick ass" theme which features a machine-like rhythmic pattern; and a theme for Stark's playboy persona. Djawadi said the film was "setting up the Iron Man character" and he tried to do the same with the music, which was inspired by Downey's performance rather than any specific comics. He wrote additional themes that are "not so much character based, but rather plot based that carry you through the movie", and hoped to further develop his musical ideas in a sequel.

Djawadi worked with a team rather than writing all the music himself, which he attributed to time constraints and constant changes being made to the film throughout post-production. He was working at Hans Zimmer's Santa Monica-based film scoring company Remote Control Productions, where he started under Zimmer and other composers providing additional music for such films as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and Batman Begins (2005). For Iron Man, Djawadi followed the same "very efficient" process as Zimmer, using various Remote Control composers to create unique sounds and write additional music and arrangements. Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham said the studio was unsure about Favreau's plans for the rock-inspired score and Djawadi had "struggled to nail down the sound", until a session with "all the Remote Control guys" including Djawadi, Zimmer, and Steve Jablonsky where "the score started to come together". This included experiments using buzzsaws to make music. A rock band was recorded at Remote Control, with Aaron Kaplan playing electric guitar for most of the score. Favreau's friend Tom Morello of the rock band Rage Against the Machine also played electric guitar for the score, in addition to making a cameo appearance in the film. The orchestra was recorded at AIR Studios in London, conducted by Gavin Greenaway, while the final score was mixed at Remote Control.

Release

The soundtrack album was released by Lions Gate Music—which had a licensing deal with Marvel Entertainment at the time—on May 6, 2008, on CD and digital formats. In addition to selections from Djawadi's score, it includes: Jack Urbont's previously unreleased Iron Man theme song from the animated series The Marvel Super Heroes (1966); a big band-style arrangement of that theme by Favreau's previous collaborators John O'Brien and Rick Boston, which is heard when Stark is in a casino; and the song "Institutionalized" by hardcore punk band Suicidal Tendencies, whose lead vocalist Mike Muir went to school with Downey.

Critical response

Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks gave the score one star out of five and called it "all style and no substance", with criticism for the Remote Control approach of simplistic music and multiple additional composers working together. Clemmensen questioned Djawadi's claims about developing musical ideas throughout the film, and said the addition of an orchestra was undermined by the sound mix which gave it "a harsh, semi-synthetic edge"; he felt a rock band and keyboard alone would have achieved similar results. Jonathan Broxton at Movie Music UK similarly criticized the score as simplistic, finding it to be "another mediocre Zimmer knock-off" that was not good as film music or as rock music. He gave the soundtrack one-and-a-half stars out of five. James Southall of Movie Wave gave the score no stars, calling it "abysmal" and "another phoned-in score from Hans Zimmer's underlings". All three critics lamented the growing popularity of Remote Control's scores and similar music for big budget films.

Reviewing for AllMusic, James Christopher Monger was more positive about the score, giving it three stars out of five. He felt Djawadi had used a "predictably heavy hand", and compared the results to Metallica's S&M album which combined the heavy metal band's music with orchestral arrangements for the San Francisco Symphony. Kat Brown at Empire also gave three stars out of five and said the best parts of the score were the "joyously over-the-top metal" tracks that Djawadi wrote for the Iron Man scenes, while quieter parts of the score did not leave an impression. IGN's Sophia Tong similarly said the quieter tracks did not leave an impression, with melodies that were not developed. Tong felt Djawadi was successful at combining the rock and orchestral elements for the action tracks, and was able to "keep the action going" without detracting from Favreau's storytelling which made for a good experience in the film but a forgettable listen with the album. She gave the latter a "good" score of seven-and-a-half out of ten.

Christoper Coleman at Tracksounds said he was prepared to dislike the score due to the electric guitar and Remote Control's influence, but he actually felt it was an "industrially-clever diversion" for people willing to listen. He said Djawadi avoided crossing the line into "abrasive and unlistenable", and believed a more traditional orchestral score would not have worked for this film. Coleman graded the album six out of ten. For FilmMusic.com, Thomas Simpson gave a very positive review, praising the score as "a romp of power and adrenaline" which he felt was appropriate for the title character. Simpson gave the score four-and-a-half out of five stars and said it featured "over the top [music] that just made the [film] ten times better" in the same way that Zimmer and Klaus Badelt did for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Track listing

All music by Ramin Djawadi, except where noted.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.

Additional music

The following are noteworthy songs that are featured in the film but not included in the soundtrack album:

"Back in Black" by AC/DC:The film opens with Stark traveling in an army convoy, making jokes and listening to "Back in Black". This was seen to be aligned with Favreau's goal to make a "rock and roll" superhero film. Latcham felt this music choice was critical in helping to immediately establish Stark's character and attitude for the audience, showing him to be "a cool guy who [is] kind of a loose cannon".

"Slept On Tony With Dirt" by Ghostface Killah:This is an original rap song about Iron Man that is heard during a party on Stark's private jet. Ghostface Killah has used the aliases "Ironman" and "Tony Starks", and his debut album is Ironman (1996), all inspired by the Marvel Comics character. The rapper also made a cameo appearance in a different party scene that was cut from the film but included as a deleted scene on the home media release.

"Iron Man" by Black Sabbath:While this song is not related to the Marvel Comics character, Favreau wanted to include it as a "wink" to the audience. Latcham added, "We knew we needed 'Iron Man' by Black Sabbath for the bit." Some Marvel executives were reluctant to spend the large amount of money needed to license the song for the film's panel at San Diego Comic-Con, and it was not common at the time for music to be specifically licensed for such an event. Latcham fought for it, arguing: "If you put the Black Sabbath song in the piece, it's cool. If you don't, it's not cool." The song was ultimately licensed for the panel, the trailers, and the end credits.