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Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves: (Michael Kamen) When
Warner Brothers built enormous anticipation in advance of their 1991
adaptation of the famous 'Robin Hood' tale, few could have predicted
that a film with such a remarkable cast and high production values would
be such a critical flop. Despite his sky-high popularity at the time,
Kevin Costner was badly miscast in the lead, reducing all the high
spirit of the character into a troubled and introspective one... and who
wants to see a thinking man's Robin Hood? At the opposite end of the
spectrum was Alan Rickman, whose entertaining Sheriff of Nottingham was
so outrageously comical that he also defeats the purpose of the
character. The death blow of the film, however, came with the
production's murky and violent take on the story, making it unsuitable
for children and disconcerting for adults. The orchestral score by
Michael Kamen was thrown together at the last minute, overshadowed by
the very obvious and surprisingly effective use of several parts of
James Horner's
Willow during its immense advertising blitz.
Despite Kamen's efforts to fulfill the request for a swashbuckling score
of equal bravado, nothing he would accomplish symphonically could
compare with his collaboration with Bryan Adams for the song "Everything
I Do, I Do It for You."
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves became one
of those rare occasions when a film and its score were received with a
tepid reception while the end title song was such a monumental success
that it alone served as life support for the rest of the production. The
song spent significant time atop the charts and was recognized by the
Oscars, propelling album sales and thus bringing an unexpected infusion
of interest in Kamen's score. The overture piece for the score would be
adapted into a suite with fragments of the theme from the Adams song
(for Maid Marian) and performed endlessly by marching bands and
orchestral ensembles for a decade to follow. The brassy layers and
adventurous spirit of Kamen's theme for Robin is easily the score's
highlight, and it stands as perhaps the most memorable mainstream
remnant of a career cut short by Kamen's unexpected death in the early
2000's.
Interestingly, however, aside from the song and the
packaged suite of music from the score, the remainder of
Robin Hood:
Prince of Thieves on album exposes a score that badly underachieves.
Kamen's concepts for the film were fine; in fact, his primary themes are
quite good at compensating for the lack of energy in the performances on
screen. The bold fanfare that opens the "Overture" extends into the
ranks of the rolling title theme, provided faithfully by Kamen for
moments of Robin's heroic actions. The incorporation of the song's tune
into the score as Maid Marian's representation makes for two very easy
and enjoyable string and woodwind-led performances in "Maid Marian" and
"Marian at the Waterfall." The latter features heavier string textures
that highlight the drama of the relationship in the film. Bouncy rhythms
for the Merrie Men in "Little John and the Band in the Forest" are more
appropriate for the Mel Brooks
Robin Hood: Men in Tights,
prancing with too much comedy for this context. Woodwind solos in "Sir
Guy of Gisborne" are understated and bland. There exists no theme for
the Sheriff, with the cue "The Sheriff and his Witch" resorting to
underdeveloped groaning and whining string textures. Several missed
opportunities in the score are topped by "Training," which fails to
muster any vitality or sense of rebellion. Action sequences in "A
Prisoner of the Crusades" and "The Abduction and the Final Battle at the
Gallows" are general recapitulations of the overture, though Kamen does
provide a very strong structure to his themes in the last minute of the
score and film. Ultimately, the score has a few highlights, but it seems
rushed and fails, outside of a glockenspiel, to provide any interesting
instrumental colors. The performance by "The Greater Los Angeles
Orchestra" is punctuated by several heinous errors in the brass section,
and the ensemble is muddied by an extremely dull recording mix. It
cannot compete at any level with the vitality of
Willow or John
Debney's later
Cutthroat Island. The Adams song (with a slightly
different mix here as opposed to the single release for radio
distribution) truly is the highlight of the endeavor, and Kamen and
Adams would team up again to inspire a far more enjoyable score (and
another good song) for
Don Juan DeMarco a few years later.
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| Bias Check: | For Michael Kamen reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.14 (in 14 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.22
(in 32,684 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a general note about the score and song from two of the
producers/writers of the film.
