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Thunderheart: (James Horner) A fictional representation
of events that occurred on a South Dakota reservation in the 1970's,
director Michael Apted and writer John Rusco provide one of the most
authentic depictions of reservation life in Hollywood's history. In real
life, a militant group called 'American Indian Movement' defied the FBI with
violent results, although in
Thunderheart, the story has been twisted
to include a conspiracy to steal land from the Native Americans. A murder
mystery erupts from these actions, and it gives Val Kilmer the chance for
one of his best performances to date. His conservative, clean-cut FBI agent
attitude is challenged by his quarter Indian heritage, with the film showing
his slowly-developing mystical visions of ghost dancers as he is eventually
forced to choose between the law and the Indians. A fine film in all
regards, the project would mark the third and final collaboration between
Apted and composer James Horner. A superior piece than both
Gorky
Park in 1983 and
Class Action in 1991,
Thunderheart would
be a strictly small-scale score from Horner, who was in the process of
slowly phasing out his electronics-only ensembles in favor of more
orchestrally robust recordings. Not only would
Thunderheart be among
the last synthetic Horner scores, it would exhibit a maturity of heart and
substance that was often absent from his mundane synthetic scores of the
past. From
The Name of the Rose to
Vibes,
Field of
Dreams, and
Class Action, Horner's electronic scores have
bordered between disappointing boredom and fatal schizophrenia. While the
instrumentation is even more singular than usual in
Thunderheart,
Horner fine-tunes his approach with superb subtly that spices up an
otherwise basic atmospheric effort. The aforementioned moments during which
Kilmer's FBI character witnesses ghost dancing in the distance of the
beautiful prairies inspired Horner to use Indian chanting as a distinct
instrumental element in the score.
With these sounds of Indian chants mixed up front and
throughout
Thunderheart, you hear an authenticity that is a crucial
and intriguing aspect of the film. Another integral element of the score is
the shakuhachi flute, ranging in contribution from strikingly harsh to
rhythmically enchanting. This would be one the first times Horner
experimented with using the flute as a pace-setting rhythm tool in the kind
of way that listeners would eventually hear in
Legends of the Fall
and numerous other efforts. Along with a powerful mixing of electric drums,
this rhythm would explode in the finale "Run for the Stronghold" cue, a
highlight of the score. Other elements in
Thunderheart worth
mentioning are an extension of the piano solos heard in much of Horner's
work at the time, as well as a deep synthetic bass that occasionally drones
with the same impact as in
Vibes. All of this is mixed together with
a slightly wetter than usual mixing quality, meaning that the score echoes
more than other purely atmospheric Horner scores. With the flute often
trailing off in extended single blasts, this echoing nature heightens the
mysticism of the Indian culture during their many magical moments in the
film. There is almost no thematic material even hinted at until the FBI
character finally embraces his roots at the end of the film. After the
monumental "Stronghold" cue, Horner establishes a slow, elegant synthesizer
theme with outstanding flute accents on key visual moments in the film. The
finale of the score is without much of the Indian chanting, which is an
integral part of the entire package, but the finale two cues nevertheless
are the appealing duo on the album, with an alternation between the throaty
pip-like rhythms and respectful theme. If you enjoy Horner's more
minimalistic efforts, then
Thunderheart could very well be the
champion of the lot. Even for those Horner collectors who typically enjoy
the larger orchestral works,
Thunderheart has enough interesting
development to bridge that gap between the bombast and a purely intellectual
environment. It also stands as one of Horner's most surprisingly effective
and important scores in its respective film.
****
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The insert includes the following note from James Horner written in March, 1992:
"In providing the score for Thunderheart, director Michael Apted
and I wanted to include Native American sounds but realized that the
picture would also need a somewhat mainstream approach to keep things
accessible to the audience. The results brought singers and players of
Native American music in a fusion with the electronic ensemble.
The allowed me to give the score several moments of complexity,
reflection, even mysticism, and still remain appropriate for the
picture."