Buy it... if you have always relaxed to James Horner's more lushly fluid dramatic themes but have never ventured back to his first official entry in the genre.

Avoid it... if the frightfully expensive pair of out of print albums for the score don't merit a mere twenty minutes of redeeming material that doesn't feature comparatively impressive sound quality anyway.

Horner

Cocoon: (James Horner) Ron Howard's reputation as a bankable director of "feel good" movies in the 1980's was aided significantly when he took over the reigns of Cocoon after production difficulties showed Robert Zemeckis the door. A lovable parable about the fountain of youth, Cocoon starred older actors and actresses in roles far more prominent that usual, allowing their discovery of rejuvenation to turn them as giddy as teenagers. This group of retirement home dwellers stumbles upon a ship of aliens collecting the cocoons of their dead comrades from the ancient colony of Atlantis and is given the choice of immortality in return for their assistance and acceptance. The movie was a significant hit in 1985, garnering Academy Award attention and leading to an unsuccessful sequel three years later. Howard's collaboration with composer James Horner began with Cocoon; Horner was immersed in a period of his career when fantasy and science fiction were the norm, from his two Star Trek scores to Aliens and Brainstorm. Unlike his other mainstream projects at the time, Cocoon was an opportunity to take a swim in the pool of drama, and in the process of exploring a more fluid and graceful thematic identity, he wrote what is commonly considered his first great dramatic theme. In the context of the more developed dramas that Horner would tackle in subsequent years, Cocoon may seem somewhat predictable and conservative, but the score was a discovery in 1985. Horner's set of primary themes for Cocoon established a style that has led to countless successes in following years, so even if you can't appreciate the score on a technical level, there is a sense of affection towards it that remains more than twenty years after its recording. For much of its history, the two most distinguishing factors of Cocoon's score were the somewhat sparse recording mix of its ensemble and the rarity of its extremely early CD release. The flat sound quality will continue to detract from the score's appeal for some, though the album received its own reincarnation in the 1990's and is no longer quite the top collectible that it was.

Thematically, Cocoon is often mischaracterized as a monothematic score, and while the film doesn't seem to make use of different melodies for individual lines of plot, Horner's theme can be divided into three distinct parts. Each of these is provided in succession at the outset of "Theme from Cocoon" and are rotated between in "The Ascension." The tingling seven-note prelude theme for mystery opens both the suite and the entire score and represents the fantasy element. Later development seemingly follows the lines of both the older folks' enthusiasm and the aliens themselves. The ensemble performance of the dominant title theme for the fantasy element at 1:45 into "The Ascension" is countered by a sensitive and romantic counterpart at 1:15 into "Theme from Cocoon." The former brass-led theme is offered in conjunction with the harshly metallic sound that Horner often produced in that era, though the latter theme for flowing strings is a striking foreshadowing of the weighty dramatic style that would culminate in Legends of the Fall. The mystery theme is given an elegant horn solo at 2:40 into "Theme from Cocoon." These ideas mingle so frequently they serve as interludes to each other, so it's understandable that most listeners don't separate them when enjoying Cocoon. A few distinct aspects of creativity in the score are worth mentioning; the use of woodwind instruments to imitate the call of an urgent telegraph message is brilliantly played at 1:45 into "Theme from Cocoon." No re-recording of the theme has ever effectively recreated the sixteenth notes merging into one continuous note. Fans of Horner's early action music will enjoy "The Chase," which heightens the fantasy theme with an assortment of percussive aides and brass tones that will raise significant memories of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Krull. Synthetic elements provide interesting accents as well; the use of a synth organ effect for moments of a religious nature are heard in the middle of "Discovered in the Pool House" and in "The Ascension." These synths are used to produce a ghostly moment of suspense late in "The Lovemaking" that resembles usage in Jerry Goldsmith's Poltergeist.

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Evidence of Horner's more playful side also exists in "Discovered in the Pool House," with some exuberant rhythms that would guide his later animation scores. The swinging jazz of "The Boys Are Out" is also an early venture by Horner into a genre he would explore several times with success. Along with the jazz, the understated acoustic guitar sounds of "Sad Goodbyes" would combine to form a greater portion of Horner's score for Cocoon: The Return, though all of the primary orchestral themes would be regurgitated as well. On album, the Cocoon score has spent 90% of its existence as elusive as the aliens themselves. Forty minutes of the score was made available on an extremely early and primitive Polydor CD that, like many at the time, went very much out of print within just a few years. Its value reached $250 in the mid-1990's before a re-pressing in 1997 was made commercially available (and the bootleg CDr market began taking off). Both albums offered identical contents, which unfortunately broke Horner's score into two halves with the presence of an absolutely wretched and badly dated pop song that sounds like a much better match for Ghostbusters than this. Songs like "Gravity" exist to remind us just how corny the 80's were and, inevitably, how much we'd like to ignore the fact that such music ever existed. The 1997 pressing by P.E.G. (another Polygram branch) itself fell out of print within only a short few years, and copies of that album (along with the original 1985 run) have eventually sold for $75. Despite its identical contents, the 1997 album is preferable for its slight improvement in sound quality due to a remastering. If you're not an audiophile, then the difference in quality may be too small to merit consideration. On the whole, with both Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return not readily available in stores, Horner's music for these films is often overshadowed and forgotten by collectors of the composer's popular scores from 1988 and beyond. The original Cocoon, however, remains one of Horner's important "discovery" scores and offers twenty minutes of engaging dramatic music that any fan of the composer should investigate. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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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.