Buy it... on the 2010 Intrada album, the score's only official release, if you seek cleaned up sound quality for the score's famous Star Trek-derived action cues from the climax of the film.

Avoid it... if you expect the challenging and arguably racist, stereotypical instrumental applications in the first two-thirds of the score to compete in any manner whatsoever with the unoriginal but still entertaining aforementioned action highlights.

Horner

Uncommon Valor: (James Horner) While the topic of the Vietnam War had been explored in smaller, more realistically explosive films for several years, the early 1980's merged it with the quickly evolving superhero genre, leading most notably to the franchise that resulted from First Blood. Another notable entry in this new sub-genre was Uncommon Valor, an adventure film aimed at raising awareness about soldiers still believed to be missing in action in Vietnam. The star power of Gene Hackman led the film to modest box office success, though the script's long first half of character establishment scenes, a major speed bump on the way to the outstanding rescue scenes at the end, reduced Uncommon Valor's longevity. The story essentially details the desperation of Hackman's character, a Korean War veteran convinced that his son, listed as MIA, is still being held prisoner in Laos. He assembles a crew of like-minded former military veterans to steal the equipment necessary to launch a secret rescue mission into an area of possible Americans in detainment learned by the leader through extensive investigative research. The film goes to great lengths to show the bonds that form between the men as they train together in Texas for their mission, and this familial attachment will prove valuable when the plot doesn't offer the happiest of endings. For young composer James Horner, the film was one of a plethora of 1983 assignments to result from his unexpected mainstream recognition for the previous year's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Many of his scores in that subsequent year exhibited styles (and often exact musical sections) that would be better known in manifestations in both the 1982 classic and its sequel, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. While Uncommon Valor was among Horner's more notable assignments at the time, the score is largely devoid of a following outside of hardcore enthusiasts of Horner's music, a circumstance contributed to by a lack of proper album release for several decades.

Another reason for a lack of overwhelming demand for the score is the plain fact that the majority of it is not positively memorable compared to Horner's other output of the period. The last thirty minutes of the film is where the meat of the score is confined, and this music is not surprisingly highly derivative of the composer's other, better recognized efforts. As a result, Uncommon Valor is one of those scores with highlights worthy of a place in any Horner collection, but a whole that is disappointingly lackluster and arguably inappropriate. Before the film's action scenes in its latter half, the music of Uncommon Valor is equally and sharply divided between the Vietnamese and American identities. Horner's handling of these extremes is appropriately functional in a basic sense, but their sounds are so diametrically opposed that they seem almost cartoonish. The application of a variety of specialty instrumentation appropriate to the region (shakuhachi flute, gamelan, mandolin, cimbalom, metallic percussion) is so brutally foreign in its disharmony that it threatens to become a racist representation of that culture by Horner. Similar primal sounds of clanging cutlery at mealtime would also define the Klingons in the subsequent Star Trek III. This material will sound alien to Western ears and it certainly makes the Vietnamese seem like filthy brutes, and it's an over-the-top caricature that is not a pleasant listening experience on album by any means. The closest Horner would come to such bizarre tones in his mature years would be the closing celebration music of a source-like variety in Willow. The other personality of the opening half of the score denotes the single-minded dedication by Hackman's character to prepare for the mission, including a propulsive sense of movement and a noble theme of contemplation. This alone is fine, but Horner felt compelled for some reason to write a spirited, upbeat military march for the band of men that Hackman assembles. He likely meant for it to underline the sometimes comical interactions they have on their way to forming a cohesive unit, but the composer's intended use of this theme over the end credits shows that he may have been out of touch with the heart of the film.

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More effective ideas explored by Horner for Uncommon Valor are hints of future successes, however, including a solo trumpet and supporting strings in "Final Escape" that foreshadow In Country (for many, a better Horner handling of the Vietnam topic; nothing in Uncommon Valor is as poignant as the highlights from the 1989 score), a brass suspense theme over exotic rhythms in "Main Title" that predict Vibes, and snare and rising brass phrases in "Pan Over Hill" that would inform Apollo 13. For many listeners, the ills of the first half of the score are forgiven by the cues "Escape Airbase," "Choppers Over Hill," and "Final Escape." This brazen action music is extremely typical to Horner's early mannerisms, however, the rising brass action fanfare of four note figures frightfully identical to the Star Trek scores. The trademark harsh tones of these players is a sound unique to this era for Horner as well. You can't help but roll your eyes at the familiar shifting of chords at 1:25 into "Escape Airbase." This is great stuff for Horner enthusiasts, but don't expect it to be able to support the whole album. In the end, one could argue that Horner missed the mark with Uncommon Valor, his music for the Vietnamese locations and Texas training scenes both badly beholden to stereotypes (and racist ones in the former). That, along with the unoriginal action music, can arguably be viewed as a poorly executed assignment by the composer. The score had long been officially unreleased, its highlights part of a popular 1998 "Suites and Themes" Horner compilation bootleg and the majority of the score traded on a "Pony Boy" bootleg since 2000. But Intrada Records released every available minute of music, used and rejected, in superior form in 2010 (including the pleasant "Brothers in the Night" rock ballad replacing Horner's orchestral recording for the end credits, a welcome switch). Ironically, the ten minutes heard on the "Suites and Themes" compilation album represents the only truly necessary material from Uncommon Valor, though the sound quality has been cleaned up to widen the soundscape on the limited Intrada version. Ultimately, these highlights make the score recommended to Horner collectors, but limit your expectations when exploring the rest of the soundtrack. Much of it you'll never listen to more than once. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13 (in 98 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.