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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you've been tempted to venture into James Horner's synthesized, atmospheric work and want to hear his best material along such lines. Avoid it... if no amount of intellectual minimalism will lure you away from Horner's larger, orchestral recordings. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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. ****
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." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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