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Braveheart: (James Horner) There can be no
discounting of the ongoing popularity of the film
Braveheart,
even more than a decade after its debut. The Mel Gibson epic, telling a
romantic version of the Scottish legend William Wallace and his people's
fight for territorial freedom, was an outstanding success at the time of
its release in 1995, although the true sign of the film's legacy is its
continuing, almost cult-like following many years later. Despite its
graphic violence, disturbing methods of killing, and themes of romance
lost, the film's quirky sense of humor combined with arguably Gibson's
career performance to float the legacy with a maddening stream of
interest. The same crowds that flock to the film's bandwagon often
discover James Horner's score along the way, and these
Braveheart
junkies have caused the composer's music to reach phenomenal sales
levels on two commercial albums. Profits from Horner's score on the
Decca/London label outweigh all three of Horner's concurrent 1995 album
releases on MCA Records (
Apollo 13,
Casper, and
Balto) combined. And yet, the two most interesting aspects of
Horner's music for
Braveheart is its general lack of masculinity
in the gravity of its performances and the systematic, obvious
statements of typical "Hornerisms" with greater frequency, arguably,
than many of his other works. The lack of genuine power in this score,
especially compared to a work like
Legends of the Fall, is a more
nebulous curiosity, but the repetitions of style are as blatant as ever.
As he has clearly stated, Horner is inspired by traditional Celtic and
Scottish influences in his works (sometimes inserting them when not
necessary, and some of his fans have become downright sick of
particularly the Irish elements in non-related situations). Naturally,
Braveheart would give him the opportunity to pour the latter
ethnicity on with all of his romantic power, though the composer
continued to blur the lines between cultural sounds, successfully
counting on the fact that most listeners won't realize the
inappropriateness of the application. After all, if Jerry Goldsmith
could use pan pipes for
Under Fire (set in Nicaragua), then
Horner may as well pull from the Andes region as well and insert a Kena
flute into William Wallace's fight for freedom. In the end, does it
really matter?
For intellectuals, those few who will argue about whether
the performances of the whistle in
Braveheart stray stylistically
towards either Irish or Scottish sensibilities, the answer to the above
question will be obvious. But when you boil it down to the overall feel
of Horner's achievement here, there is no arguing that
Braveheart
is an intensely attractive score when hearing it in the context of the
film. Listeners unfamiliar with many of Horner's other works make up the
vast majority of buyers of the
Braveheart albums, so issues of
instrumental technicalities and self rip-offs are moot. But for film
score collectors, the score remains a problematic entry in his career
because it is largely evidence of Horner's significant reliance on his
own material in previous scores (as well as the foreshadowing of the
future). When hoards of people within that community praise Horner's
work for
Braveheart as well, they seem to be willing to forget
that it is one of the ultimate self-referencing scores from the
composer, starting a trend during which, in the late 1990's, similar
scores would instead be admonished for this very same behavior. Just
because
Braveheart has transformed into a cult film doesn't
excuse Horner in this case for blatantly repeating several elements from
his previous successes. In its favor, though,
Braveheart features
several redeeming aspects to its recording, extending the romantic
pairing of modern orchestra and ethnicity into ghostly realms of beauty.
The heavy romanticism, with deep string themes jerking the tears right
out of audience, is a direct descendant of
Legends of the Fall.
The chilling boys choir's late performances are clearly derived from
Casper. The swells of battle, highlighted by Horner's newly
trademarked use of percussion at the time, take several pages from
Glory. A secondary phrase to the title theme exudes the nobility
of the concurrent
Apollo 13. The final three tracks on the first
album for the film are the culmination of Horner's best ideas of the
prior six years rolled into one fantastic suite. It is, without a doubt,
excellent music, but before you detail how
Bicentennial Man,
A
Beautiful Mind,
Enemy at the Gates, and other later scores by
Horner exhibit his "borrowing habits" in a harshly detrimental light,
you have to cite
Braveheart as the grand triumph of re-use
philosophy.
One aspect of
Braveheart that remains
extraordinarily overrated is its themes. Only three major ideas exist in
the score, with the two softer romantic ones often blending together.
The title theme heard famously on uillean pipes near the start of "Main
Title" and "End Credits" is an appropriately respectful idea. Fragments
of the theme extend over
Thunderheart-like rhythms in "Revenge"
and two extremely enthusiastic performances on pipes over bodhran drums
(an Irish frame drum) in "Making Plans/Gathering the Clans" and "The
Legend Spreads." The theme turns melodramatic on strings in "Sons of
Scotland" before the highlight of the score hits audiences at the 6:05
mark in "Freedom/The Execution Bannockburn," when Horner states the
theme in conjunction with its secondary interlude of nobility. The two
romance themes mingle throughout the score, both receiving beautiful
performances in "For the Love of a Princess" and the middle portion of
"End Credits." The first of these two is the flowing string melody that
shares its final bars with a theme from
Legends of the Fall, and
it also receives treatment in "A Gift of a Thistle" and, faintly, in
"The Princess Pleads for Wallace's Life." The other romantic theme in
Braveheart is far more tragic, punctuated by a gorgeous choral
performance at 3:10 into "End Credits" that strongly recalls the
melancholy tone of
Casper. This theme additionally graces "The
Secret Wedding" and "Murron's Burial" with similarly depressing tones.
Both of these two romantic ideas receive performances by a Kena flute
(the first one in "The Princess Pleads for Wallace's Life" and the
latter in "The Secret Wedding"), and while these renderings are
effectively pretty, the sound of the culturally misplaced instrument
might be a distraction for some. The ever-effective combination of the
London Symphony Orchestra and a boy's choir lends a familiar tone to the
romance themes in "The Princess Pleads For Wallace's Life" and
"Freedom/The Execution Bannockburn" (along with the "End Credits"). The
action material in
Braveheart is another highly overrated portion
of the score. Both "The Battle of Stirling" and "Falkirk" fail to stir
up a genuine sense of excitement (or even panic) at any point, a curious
circumstance when considering that Horner was better able to pull upon
his great action motifs of the 1980's in projects as flimsy in adventure
as
Sneakers.
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1997 "More Music" Album: | | |
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Both mainstream listeners and a healthy portion of
Horner fans will argue that
Braveheart is the composer's best
work of 1995 and thus deserved to win Academy Award that year. Horner's
supporters split their votes between this score and the more
inspirational
Apollo 13 that year, thus allowing the likeable but
inferior
Il Postino by Luis Bacalov to steal away the statue.
Debates about the merits of
Braveheart and
Apollo 13 will
continue, pitting patriotism versus romanticism. Technically and
dynamically,
Apollo 13 is the more memorable work. On album,
Braveheart suffices as a strong background listening experience,
with several lengthy passages of lush, but subdued underscore. The first
Decca/London album contained a full 77 minutes of Horner's most
significant material from the film and continues to be a sales
juggernaut. As mentioned before, the final three cues are the main
attraction, with Horner's suite of material for the "End Credits" often
performed by orchestras around the globe. The artwork for the
international edition of the first
Braveheart album was altered
to take advantage of actress Sophie Marceau's greater appeal in Europe.
Due to the growing demand for
Braveheart music as the cult
following erupted and maintained itself, a second volume of music for
the film was released by the same label in 1997; it motioned the
beginning of a marketing habit by labels to release "More Music from..."
for several years to come. The sequel album for
Braveheart hasn't
critically fared as well as those for
Titanic or
Gladiator, however, because the second
Braveheart album
really doesn't offer much of anything vitally new. Only seven minutes of
previously unreleased Horner music is presented unimpeded by dialogue
from the film, and while these tracks are pleasant enough, they don't
feature a blockbuster cue to get excited about. Instead, the album
relies on scenes taken directly from the film, sound effects and all, so
that the album is a sort of audio souvenir from the motion picture. The
traditional bagpipe songs in its contents are better suited for the
film's enthusiasts than the majority of film score collectors. Overall,
Braveheart is a well arranged collection of some of Horner's best
romantic writing for lush orchestral situations, but if you want scores
with a more unique punch, then
Legends of the Fall and
Apollo
13 are both more advisable.
Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download
Music as Written for Film: ****
Original 1995 Albums: ****
1997 "More Music from Braveheart" Album: **
Overall: ****
| Bias Check: | For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.13 (in 98 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.25
(in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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