Buy it... if you'd like a good James Bond imitation score that serves as the best blend of symphony, choir, and electronics that Graeme Revell has ever achieved.

Avoid it... if the score's darker, more ambient half is too similar to Revell's usual electronic output to ignore.

Revell

The Saint: (Graeme Revell) On the British side of the big screen adaptations of famous old television spy series, one thing The Saint definitely had going in it's favor is that it wasn't as bad as The Avengers. Director Philip Noyce certainly had high ambitions for The Saint, replacing Roger Moore with Val Kilmer and offering top notch production qualities to perhaps, if successful, start a franchise of Saint-related films to rival the James Bond franchise. Critical and public response to The Saint was immediately poor, however, and the project quickly faded into obscurity. Surprisingly, this failure was not due to the hot-headed Kilmer, whose performance was actually quite convincing and funny; instead, The Saint was lacking that "special something" that would appeal to audiences above and beyond similar material being offered by the Bond franchise. One aspect that was definitely not lacking was Graeme Revell's score, which continues to serve as an anomaly in his career even ten years later. With a career overflowing with ambient, synthetic creations from his electronic library, Revell has never been associated much with dynamic orchestral scores. Ironically, his writing for The Saint in 1997 would foreshadow David Arnold's rejuvenation of the Bond franchise music more than any other, presenting a style of orchestral and synthetic blend that would serve well as an entry in Arnold's Bond endeavors. For The Saint, Noyce obviously wanted a blend of the old harmonic romanticism of the John Barry Bond scores and a touch of Revell's own electronic soundscape, and the result is a highly varied score that would seem more at home in fellow countryman Craig Armstrong's career than Revell's. Nevertheless, the score for this film is an easy highlight in both the film and in Revell's entire career. For fans of the original series, Revell even appeals to nostalgia by quoting Edwin Astley's old theme and integrating it into several cues.

Any good spy score starts and ends with a good love theme, and Revell does just that... literally. Even if the distinct similarities between the first eight notes of Revell's love theme for The Saint and John Barry's title for You Only Live Twice didn't clue you in, the rest of the theme's sugary, simplistic harmonics and lush string performances would do the same. This theme, which appears several times in the film and receives a full jazz rendition over the closing titles, is unlike anything Revell has ever produced. One of the reasons it works, however, is because he infuses that sound with a strong synthetic and percussive blend. Along with lofty strings and rambling piano are an electric bass, modern percussion, and some keyboarded effects. The balance that Revell achieves between these elements is the key to the success of the score. The love theme is specifically adapted to also represent the tragedy of the title character's past, and the film opens and closes with a love theme performance assisted by a solo boy's voice. In the "Prologue," Revell also introduces his own theme for the cool persona of the character, a quick twist of five notes that is easily adapted into a variety of situations throughout the score. The Russian villains are provided with a rising thematic progression often accompanied by adult chorus and a variety of modern percussion. Both "Break-In" and "Kremlin Riot" offer this theme with the Saint's new theme as counterpoint, usually in a slow and satisfying crescendo over the score's perpetually tapping rhythms. Another rising four note motif is used as the structure of this rhythm, usually consisting of cymbal tapping and (maybe simulated) bass string plucking. One of the most satisfying cues of Revell's career, "Kremlin Riot" combines every aspect of the composer's talent into one package, including a downright kick-ass rhythm set by a harder percussion line. The score would feature several of these more ambitious rhythms, tastefully rendered because of the equally heavy presence of the string section in their performances, though the commercial album would only offer two of these moments ("Prologue" and "Kremlin Riot"). In their heavier moments, they sound very similar to Craig Armstrong's typical hard-edged work.

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Unfortunately, Revell does revert to some of his more bland synthetic textures for most of the scenes involving villains or the hide and seek game in the central portion of the film. Both "The Tunnels" and "Tempelhof," as well as several cues not included on the commercial album, consist of music that more closely resembles the ambient sound effects in Revell's library. Those cues aside, however, the remainder of the score is a qualified success. The straight action cues, including "Race to Embassy" and "Red Square," feature the best orchestral suspense and tragedy to come from Revell, with the latter offering an impressive snare and timpani rhythm and a dramatic string and brass presence separated from electronics. The most attractive part of the score for most people, though, will be the enticing love theme, which receives three dedicated cuts on the commercial album. The finale piece is nothing less than gorgeous, especially with the solo boy's voice as a bookend. The 52-minute commercial album contains everything you really need from the score, though significantly more material from The Saint exists in bootleg form on the secondary market (as often is the case with Revell's music). A 77-minute expanded album would eventually yield to the release of the raw recording sessions over several CDs. On the 77-minute expanded bootleg, the most significant addition is the inclusion of Revell's harder electronic rhythms. In "Oxford, England," Revell uses electric guitars to accent that rhythm, and in "Emma's Pills/Escape," an extended, almost solo performance of this rhythm is presented. The most powerful and ominous bass rhythm exists in "American Embassy," a very strong cue that finishes with a bold brass statement of Astley's original theme. The structure would be much the same in "The Formula," except with a single trumpet performance of the old theme at the end. The bootleg also offers "Miracle Three," the film version of the finale and end credits (with the enhanced bass line), though the sound quality of this one cue is extremely muted. Two dramatic orchestral performances of the lighter themes occupy "Brief Calm" and "Warming Up," though the easy highlight of the bootleg is "The Saint Escapes Again," with a powerful rendition of all the film's themes in one triumphant symphonic explosion. Overall, only avid fans of the score will find enough in the bootleg to interest them, but there are some gems to be had in that material. You'll have to suspend your beliefs about Revell with this one. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Graeme Revell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.74 (in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.74 (in 15,157 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.