Buy it... only if you are an established fan of John Barry's predictable constructs and lush instrumentation from the latter part of his career.

Avoid it... if you desire any significant variation on that reliable Barry equation for dramatic topics.

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Ruby Cairo: (John Barry) A largely forgotten film because of its distribution delays, Ruby Cairo (released originally under the name Deception) is a suspenseful action/mystery flick with star power that just happened to suffer from some bad timing in its release date, not to mention an abysmal script. The year of 1993 was stocked with blockbuster films and soundtracks, and it was easy for a film with as flimsy a plot as Ruby Cairo to simply wash away into obscurity. When Andie MacDowell's husband (Viggo Mortensen) dies, she learns, with the help of the mysterious Liam Neeson, that he maintained immense fortunes across the world. Her investigation allows for some spectacular visuals in the production, but sour and predictable plot twists caused the film to sit on shelves for most of 1993 without a distributor. When Miramax picked it up at the end of the year, there was some warranted head scratching. One of the film's more redeeming elements, however, was its score by veteran John Barry. The composer was enjoying a period in his career when he was accumulating Academy Award nominations and wins for scores of immense and melodramatic romance, creating often simplistic but very appealing scores that flew off the record shelves. It was also a time when the composer's Moviola compilation albums were becoming hot due to Barry's tendency to score the biggest of Hollywood's epic dramas. Quietly, Ruby Cairo came in between these epics and his final year of heavy drama (in which he wrote the impressive scores for Cry, The Beloved Country and The Scarlet Letter), and while it is very much reminiscent of this period of his work, it has more ethnic flavor than his usual entries. The film's worldly locales, including the opportunity to score for scenes in Latin America, allowed Barry to deviate from the typical, neatly packaged melodrama that audiences had become accustomed to hearing from him.

Given its naturally expansive traits, Barry's music was especially well suited for the lush cinematography on display. As to be expected, the score is extremely thematic, almost to a fault. This was nothing new, of course, since Barry had long been accused by others of conjuring music that is little more than songwriting orchestrated for a large performing group. The theme itself is very typical of Barry's career, serving up yet another variation on the tune for his romantic strings. The performances of the title theme don't develop much past the normal primary string/secondary brass equation, however Barry does allow it to climax at several points with the assistance of a synthesized choir, most notably in "Pyramic of Cheops" and "Carnival Chase." To add the South American feel to the score, Barry employed the talents of Ottmar Liebert on the flamenco guitar for simple but elegant accompaniment to the orchestra during a handful of the thematic sequences (and, most importantly, the statement of theme which begins the album). Some of the more refreshing aspects of Ruby Cairo are those during which Barry emphasizes percussion or other more dynamic effects. The prancing snare of the "Berlin Fashion" and the methodical piano of "Come, We Must Hurry" present more challenging music, and some of it gains the same power of suspense that can be heard in the heavy, underwater sequences of Raise the Titanic. Barry also uses a rattle to accentuate both sustained rhythms and certain visuals on screen. Curious to the ears is the rare use of the synthetic in this period of Barry's career, with the light electronic chorus in two places, a synthesized harpsichord, and a Basil Poledouris-inspired tone setter for chasing scenes. All of these elements mix well in "Come, We Must Hurry."

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Although the ethnic instrumentation really doesn't bring enough spirit to the score to overwhelm you, there are a few cues in which Barry combines percussion with those trademark strings for a more enjoyable result. The thematic highlight of the album is the "Raking It In" cue; it's simplistic, for sure, but for fans of Barry's music of this era, it doesn't get much better. If you're not a die hard fan of his predictable constructs (or if you're related, perhaps, to the Monty Norman family), then you might not find enough material unique to this effort to please you, especially if you are bothered by his repetitive nature. Overlapping material is the inherent problem with the album. There are breaks from the constant performances of the title theme, though they only add up to about a third of the running time of the score on album (which runs for about 40 minutes, minus the song at the end). The 2001 Prometheus release of music from Ruby Cairo is the second for the score. A little-known Japanese Sony album of the score had been available in the 1990's but had become very difficult to find for Western collectors. One of the non-Barry songs was dropped from the 2001 album, although the one featuring Kristina Nichols that is heard at the start and end of the film (which is a very decent song by Barry, as always) is included. The sound quality, given the recording's recency, is excellent, with particular clarity during the percussive performances (much like The Scarlet Letter). Perhaps even more importantly, the re-release of Ruby Cairo on album, albeit limited in availability, meant that every one of Barry's film scores of the 1990's was finally available on album (including the 25 minute suite from Indecent Proposal on its song compilation). For Barry fans, this score will be an expectedly pleasant experience. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.85 (in 27 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.52 (in 24,822 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.