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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you want to hear a Highland score more saturated in Gaelic instrumentation and rhythms than perhaps any other modern score. Avoid it... if your patience for thematically redundant performances by the Gaelic pipes, whistles, and fiddles is within normal boundries. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
In the film, Burwell's effort is a stirring and authentic piece, sufficiently epic in size and theme to accompany the fantastic visuals of the locations. On album, with the scenery stripped from the equation, Burwell's score begins to show a few faults, and the listening experience for many viewers of the film may falter. The title theme introduced at the start does become redundant after five tracks with interpretations of the exact same thematic construct. The redundancy factor also applies to the performances by the specialty instruments; by the end of Rob Roy, the pipes, whistles, and fiddles --all staples of the ethnic genre portrayed-- begin to wear considerably on the nerves, especially when considering the monotonous rhythms that often carry them through their lengthy performances. There are a few explosive moments of beauty, but without enough of an orchestral emphasis to help the listener identify with the score, they too get lost in the overall package. The most interesting moments of the score are, surprisingly, the cues representing the unpleasant scenes in the film, including the emotionally traumatizing "Troops in the Mist" and "Honor Inflamed." Burwell also writes interesting material for the percussion section during the "Rannoch Moor Retreat" cue within the "Rannoch Moor Suite." None of the specialty instruments in the score stand out with a superb solo performance, and Miriam Stockley's magnificent voice is largely lost in the mix. The performances by the group Capercaillie, whether of their own writing, a traditional piece, or Burwell's material, create simply too much Gaelic saturation to enjoy the score. This trouble works its way back to the lack of a dominant orchestral sound, which is --along with the specialty instruments-- what made the concurrent Braveheart a classic for many listeners. Despite a poorly designed album package for Rob Roy, the score has a few thematic highlights at the beginning and end, and if you listen only to them, you'd be doing a great service to your patience. ***
* not original score by Burwell
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