Buy it... if you have little patience for the overtly optimistic nature of Rachel Portman's romance writing and seek a repackaged variant of that harmonic sound in a serious historical setting.

Avoid it... if you expect the score to completely abandon the trademark Portman ostinatos and flowing harmony that translate into a potentially misplaced sense of positive spirit for this context.

Portman

Hart's War: (Rachel Portman) Despite a public relations campaign by M-G-M to paint Hart's War as strictly a character drama, it is still a traditional war film in its themes of escape, destruction, maniacal killing, the weapons of war, psychological breakdown, and redemptive dignity. Against all odds, a group of American prisoners subjected to the conditions of a 1944-1945 Nazi camp devise a plan to escape the compound and demolish a nearby ammunition factory, and the film portrays the adversity experienced by the involved prisoners while trying to prepare for that assault. Nevertheless, the film concentrates heavily on the character development within the camp rather than the escape itself, giving it a cerebral touch that many audiences wrongly expecting a Bruce Willis ass-kicking contest were bored to death by. Given that the filmmakers wanted to establish Hart's War as a tale of inner strength and resolve, they chose one of the world's most romantic film composers to balance the setting and action of war. By bringing Rachel Portman onto the production team, they hoped to add the depth of heart that was needed to adequately make Hart's War into an introspective and thoughtful exploration of character that reaches beyond the usual sounds of war films. As director Gregory Hoblit explained, "Hart's War is not a war story. It is fundamentally about captured American soldiers finding grace, dignity, and honor. It is also a movie one would not expect Rachel Portman to have scored..." Indeed, when thinking of a WWII drama about a Nazi prisoner of war camp, Portman's fluffy romance music doesn't seem to fit the genre in any way. The reason for her employment here was obviously not to paint a pretty picture of the situation, but instead to match her authentically organic and melodically rich preferences for an orchestral ensemble with the agenda of the picture. Her career is more varied than most casual collectors know, though even in the periphery, where some of her most intriguing non-romance material exists, there's nothing quite like Hart's War.

It is not the first time that filmmakers have wished to concentrate their war films on the characters' dramatic development by using a romantically-inclined composer. The film that immediately comes to mind is Platoon, for which Georges Delerue was hired (and then replaced with the infamous Adagio for Strings). The dramatic impact of that film was reliant upon the romantic and heroic approach of the music, both in the case of Delerue's work and the adagio. To an extent, John Williams approached Schindler's List from the same direction, too. In the case of both Delerue and Williams, however, there was knowledge ahead of time that both those composers could deliver stark, restrained accompaniment for war topics if necessary. When it came to Portman, it wasn't really known if she had the capacity to effectively capture the brutality of war. Her music for Hart's War, in many regards, continues to leave that question unanswered. One thing is for certain: it's nearly impossible for Portman to completely lose the charm of her compositions when she's given a full orchestral ensemble. There is an intangible optimism that prevails in all of her orchestral works, likely due to her lyrical constructs. In Hart's War, while there are moments of reflection, there is rarely a truly despairing moment. Even when brazen action and killing is taking place on screen, there is a kind sensitivity that permeates the environment, aided by a perpetual sense of movement in the composer's light rhythmic propulsion in each cue (on piano or strings). Her title theme is both heroic and noble, making the same use of solo trumpet techniques heard in The Legend of Bagger Vance. Other than the quiet trumpet fanfare (which is typical in its application to the same extent that Jerry Goldsmith's The Last Castle was a bit predictable), there isn't any indication in the instrumentation that this is a wartime score. It could very well have accompanied a domestic drama of some sort. The curious lack of a snare is compensated for by the occasional rumbling of timpani. Heavy in the string section as usual, Portman's bass is mixed with emphasis during moments of action or anticipation.

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The harmonic intensity of the score is consistent throughout, and with only a few moments of total dissonance, it's hard not to credit Portman with achieving the goal the director presented to her. Aside from debating the merits of the Hart's War score for its genre, it is still an impressively dramatic piece of music. She interpolates her omnipresent piano into several cues, reminding the listener of Cliff Eidelman's early war scoring efforts. The drab tone of its more repressed cues will remind of Stephen Warbeck's war-related efforts of the early 2000's. Apart from the film, the score is consistently powerful in substance and resonance, and it's thematically pleasing as well. The title theme may bother a few listeners in its resemblance to Williams' JFK in its opening bars. But Portman doesn't disappoint those film music collectors eager to be swept away by a heroically dramatic theme. While she may still allow hints of her comedy writing to slip by every once in a while (especially in her trademark string ostinatos), the overall somber tone of Hart's War distinguishes this work from all of her others. A secondary theme of adversity, heard most extensively in "End Credits," is about as troubled as Portman's mainstream writing gets. There are a few moments in The Cider House Rules that feature a strong brass accompaniment that can compete with what was recorded for Hart's War, but never with this intensity. The final two tracks of the album are a dramatic powerhouse of a duo, and they could have alone gained this score an award nomination had the film's opening been timed better. At the same time, even though Portman fans will be undoubtedly impressed by this album and score, there are lingering concerns about the lack of brutality in her style (and how that may affect the score's atmosphere in the film). The album is shorter than many other soundtracks from the Decca label, but the included presentation is by far enough to establish an easy and consistent listening experience. In sum, Portman didn't go out on a limb for Hart's War, staying surprisingly close to her preferred style of operation while adding just enough intensity to service the genre of war without raising any serious questions. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 28 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.23 (in 25,299 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.