Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #783
Written 12/2/96, Revised 3/3/13
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Buy it... on the 2013 Intrada Records album if you desire one of
James Horner's most poignant single career cues, a long, orchestral
powerhouse of solemn but beautiful melodrama for this film's memorable
final scene.
Avoid it... if you cannot tolerate Horner's rather stereotypical
application of trumpet versus shakuhachi flute for an American veteran
dealing with the Vietnam War, the solo elements of the score somewhat
uninspired without the full ensemble's gravity.
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| Horner |
In Country: (James Horner) An emotional tale about
a family's discovery of inner-strength, In Country was meant as a
vehicle of healing for a country seemingly obsessed with exploring
closure for the Vietnam War in the 1980's. The 1989 adaptation of Bobbie
Ann Mason's novel to the big screen by respected director Norman Jewison
follows the growing-up experiences of a 17-year-old girl and her
investigation into the person who was her father, a man who married her
mother at the age of 19 and was promptly killed in Vietnam four weeks
later. With that mother admitting that she barely even remembers her
father, the girl relies on rehabilitating her detached couch-potato
uncle (a superior role for Bruce Willis shortly after Die Hard's
debut), who is also a veteran of the same war. The gravity of In
Country is created through the faithful telling of a series of
little stories involving the girl and the way that the overarching
narrative builds up to its monumentally gripping climax as the family
visits the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately
for Jewison and the production, America had been oversaturated with such
Vietnam stories in that decade, culminating in a year in 1989 that saw
several similar movies (led by Born on the Fourth of July)
attempting the same resolution, and In Country suffered a quick
death at the box office and remains a footnote in the careers of Willis
and composer James Horner. The latter was in the late stages of a
triumphant period of ascendance at the time, during which the
challenging topics of war were common for him. While the subject matters
are different, Horner adapts some of the same solemn attitude from his
obscure 1983 music for Testament and his concurrent popular work
for Glory into In Country, breaking no new ground
stylistically in what could be identified as a purely Horner work at
every moment. While some movie critics lamented what they perceived as a
distracting role of the music in the movie at its release, much of the
story was left unscored, with only roughly 45 minutes of material placed
in the picture. In that music, Horner alternates between very subtle
explorations of his multiple themes for the various characters and
troubling dissonance for some of the harrowing flashback sequences,
requiring significant patience from the listener to appreciate the
payoff at the end.
The majority of underscore for
In Country is
constructed with the piano solos that inhabit scores like
Field of
Dreams and
Class Action, with notable solo brass performances
also playing towards a careful level of sensitivity. Horner doesn't try
to mask the fact that he utilizes noble French horns to personify
American heroism and the shakuhachi flute (Horner's staple of exotic
elements at the time) for the location of Vietnam. Out of this sonic
battle come several poignant solo trumpet performances for Willis' lead
character that are as crisp as they are stereotypical. Horner previews
his themes early and often in the score, the orchestra swelling in
"Distant Memories" for a major introduction. But, like the film, the
emotional punch is saved for the final scene in D.C., and Horner reacts
with appropriately overflowing melodrama for the full ensemble. While
the main theme for the film had been barely audible since the opening
cue, he unleashes it in grand style in the "Fallen Friends" finale with
a blast of the shakuhachi flute and follows a noble brass tribute to the
fallen with a lush, striking performance of the score's more solemn
secondary theme, first with strings as powerful as they were in
The
Land Before Time and then in a heartbreaking duet with the
shakuhachi. This is the only time in the work when the flute and trumpet
are in perfect harmonic synchrony, and Horner allows the
Apollo
13-like trumpet to replace the flute at the very end of this stellar
performance (which begins at 7:50 into that cue) to suggest that the
closure is complete for an American purging Vietnam from his system.
Despite the average components of the score's main body of underscore,
as well as some thematic phrases that will recall
Glory,
Legends of the Fall, and
The Rocketeer for some listeners,
the quality of this final cue raises the value of the
In Country
score to one of solid recommendation. A half hour of the score was
appended to a 1996 Romanian "Vivo" label release (essentially a bootleg)
of Horner's
Testament and later available on a 1999 Natty Gann
Records bootleg with a 9-minute suite from
Testament and Horner's
Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. While sound quality on these bootlegs
was commendable, the products were difficult to obtain and were missing
a third of the score. A 2013 Intrada Records album finally gave
In
Country full treatment on a legitimate, limited CD, and the quality
of the final cue will justify the price of this product for any devoted
Horner collector.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1996 Vivo Music Bootleg: ***
- Music as Heard on the 2013 Intrada Album: ****
- Overall: ****
Bias Check:
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,547 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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