Buy it... if you are typically attracted to Rachel Portman's predictably melodic works of the 1990's and seek an entry that is a bit more instrumentally and culturally diverse than usual.

Avoid it... if no amount of additional brass or percussion on top of Portman's comfortable strings and woodwinds can convince you to give her steadily pleasant tones another chance.

Portman

War of the Buttons: (Rachel Portman) A largely unknown 1994 arthouse film, John Robert's adaptation of Louis Pergaud's novel "La Guerre des Boutons" pits two idealistic groups of young, Irish school boys against each other in spirited, foul-mouthed battle. Their outdoor adventures are realized against the backdrop of beautiful cinematography of Ireland (which is a switch from the original French locale), causing the production to serve as a true representation of the country and its beauty and culture. Rising composer Rachel Portman wrote and recorded the score with Irish players in Dublin, making the project one of convincing ethnic authenticity. Portman was in the process of bursting into the American mainstream while continuing her writing of lesser-known dramas back in Europe. Her score for The Joy Luck Club had been met with a chorus of cheers from the film score community the previous year, and her concurrent efforts for Only You would prove to define the composer from that year forward as a regular expert of lush, romantic music for the big screen. Her styles are typically easily recognizable and frightfully consistent (especially for those who believe that one score of hers is more than enough of a sampling from all of them), but War of the Buttons stands out as a distinct piece in her career. The defining element in this particular score is the extra percussion that Portman demanded through her composition in order to adequately rumble the floor during the scenes of battle between the two groups of boys. With the settings for these confrontations often looking spectacular, the music needed to match the visuals with a similarly powerful expansive tone. Also of importance, of course, is the Irish flavor necessary for the project, and Portman handles this requirement through the usual heavy reliance on woodwinds to carry her themes. To her credit, she inserts just enough of that ethnic flavor to keep the score effective without allowing it to become burdensome to those who aren't fans of Irish-tinted music.

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The film opens immediately with these statements of ethnicity. A solo flute carries most of the catchy, Irish tune at the heart of the score, aided by the usual string accompaniment from the composer. Even in these sensible and often cute performances of theme, Portman immediately establishes the brass with much more authority than in her other scores. In general, War of the Buttons is a brass and percussion-inclined effort from Portman, which is exactly why the work is unique in her career. Early battle sequences are performed with a messy, though effective set of rhythms performed by timpani and a variety of assorted drums, with brass often accentuating rhythmic progressions. The battle sequences slowly gain more composure as those scenes of imagination become seemingly weightier, with the opening of the "Battle of Bunduff Castle" cue starting with an inspired snare rhythm and leading into nearly noble bursts of thematic energy. As the composer would accomplish in the similarly percussive live-action Pinocchio in 1997, Portman allows the drums to lighten its attitude for a few of the cues, including the inventive "Mobilization" near the beginning of the album. The brass occasionally break through their supporting roles and offer heroic statements of theme at the end of battle sequences, and they eventually flourish in the helicopter rescue scene near the finale of the film; at the very end of that cue, the brass section finally takes the title theme away from the woodwinds. Between the heightened role of the horns, the rumbling percussion heard throughout the score, and the truly spirited Irish flavor of the music, War of the Buttons is a score that Portman fans will recognize and appreciate as a unique endeavor in her career. In many ways, this work ironically has a more convincing militaristic tone than her dramatic composition for Hart's War nearly ten years later. Overall, it isn't strong enough to easily capture the attention of non-Portman collectors, but it will likely interest fans of her melodic styles who yearn to hear it packaged in different ways. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Rachel Portman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26 (in 28 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.23 (in 25,299 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.