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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Aside from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (which is a phenomenon that really must be placed in a league of its own these days), The Patriot is one of Williams' best offerings in a number of years. As usual, it's a highly mature score with an abundance of nobility and heroic aspiration. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this score is Williams' return to dominance of brass in nearly all the sequences of significant volume. Not since the days of Far and Away and the Jurassic Park films have we heard such a romp of brass and percussion. With the typical full orchestra in tow, Williams creates a massively symphonic array of thematic passages. The trumpets get a workout once again, continuing to blast their hyperactive procession from the flag parade scene in The Phantom Menace. No doubt, a score from David Arnold could have yielded the same result. However, where Williams excels is in the development of his subthemes and ambience. An hour of listening to The Patriot reaffirms a belief in the types of scoring that Williams does for war films; he always produces a great result in the film, while some simply make much better albums. Whereas I never sit and listen to Born on the Fourth of July or Saving Private Ryan, The Patriot on the album is a varied, exciting, an interesting score. Williams employs, for instance the tolling of a bell in the fifth track to symbolize imminent death. Such brief, but incredibly important moments add an emotional depth to the entire score for The Patriot --not just the title theme or suite. Of the themes that Williams creates for the film, two stand out as noteworthy. The dramatic theme that represents the characters themselves has a winding, whimsical, wondrous personality. It is developed into a remarkable and enjoyable suite-like performance in the eighth track. It works particularly well --especially when performed by flute-- because it captures a bit of the dreamlike hope that colonial pioneers most likely felt. The bolder theme to represent the birth of a nation takes a page right out of Amistad, with three or four identical notes to begin. The theme, though, adds a remarkably fight-worthy secondary sequence with all the major-key gusto necessary to rattle the cages. The themes are used very frequently throughout, with very little "down-time" of ambient underscore. The few moments of string-heavy brooding have a deep, listenable edge like that of the theme from Born on the Fourth of July. Ironically, with plenty of snare and brass statements, the score has a distinct Jerry Goldsmith sense to it (at times, it's a cross between Amistad and Air Force One). There's very little ethnic element, and no solo artist dominates the whole of the score. So The Patriot is a lengthy, loud, and enjoyable parade of heavily patriotic, Americana music. On CD for film music enthusiasts, the action sequences will shake the floor with power, the flutes will capture the American spirit, and the character themes will delight the hardy fans of sweeping majesty. One of the only drawbacks of the score is its continuous repetition of the same themes and styles in one track after another (the same sort of redundance was the drawback for James Horner's The Perfect Storm this past week). This doesn't even take into account Williams' usual reprise of the concert suite at the end of the album. On the whole, The Patriot is still Williams at his typical mastery of action and drama. Although not a classic, it's a very enjoyable score. ****
The insert notes include minimal credits, but has no extra information about the score. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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