: (James Horner) At a time when every other
studio was venturing into the glittery new realms of science fiction
space epics and sword and sorcery extravaganzas, Columbia Studios
decided to sink the impressive sum of $27 million into
, a 1983 film that would merge the two genres into one bizarre
collection of ideas pulled from
. Director
Peter Yates claims many years later that the resulting failure wasn't
meant to be either a "sword and sorcery" flick or a bandwagon jumper.
Upon the resounding thud that greeted
,
but unfortunately the end result was equally campy and bordered on
ridiculous. Among the planet-domineering beasts in spaceship castles,
princes and princesses from rival kingdoms uniting the people in
rebellion, and fabulous creatures and tech toys from wild imaginations,
audiences quickly identified the concepts as both unoriginal and
relatively high on the cheese meter, even for the time. Decades later,
is remembered for really only two things: a very early
performance by a young Liam Neeson in a small role and an ambitious
score from James Horner written before his 30th birthday. The rising
composer was fresh off of his burst into the ears of mainstream
listeners with his rousing music for
, and it became clear to many that what Columbia wanted out of
him was another space opera along the same lines as that popular 1982
effort. Several reviews of the film through the years have criticized
the score not only because of the film's rather poor audio mix, but its
obvious similarities in style and motif to
. The
production was among the first to allow Horner a free range of choice on
his compositional approach, which makes the score's repetition of style
a bit surprising. A more thorough examination of the score for
, however, exposes it as a more unconventional and, in many
ways, interesting endeavor.
While Columbia didn't spare any expense in securing the
London Symphony Orchestra and a suitable choir for Horner's recording,
the studio was less generous on its time frame for the completion of the
music. Overwhelmed by the post-production schedule of a film already
missing its target of opening with
Return of the Jedi (by several
months), Horner was tasked with writing 110 minutes of massive
orchestral music in a matter of seven weeks, a job more daunting at the
time than it would be with the help of software in later decades.
Battling illness and a shortage of staff, Horner would eventually write
a score that would both extend his previous stylistic expressions while
also exploring ideas that would prove extremely effective in his scores
of the following eight years. Despite criticism of rehash from many film
reviewers, the
Krull score is showered with praise from their
film score counterparts, and most of those positive vibes are warranted.
Many of Horner's early scores featured the same derivative structures in
their attempt to glorify their fantasy elements. Without a doubt,
Krull is similar to
Battle Beyond the Stars, the two
Star Trek scores from Horner's pen,
Aliens, and
Brainstorm. You hear the same harsh brass tones, rising figures,
and static metallic rhythms in all of these scores, and
Krull is
equally guilty of that continuity. Themes for the heroic prince, evil
slayers, and the relationship with the princess are all developed well
in the score, each offered in lengthy, prominent fashion. The main title
introduces the first of these themes with a choral accompaniment perhaps
somewhat shallow in power, but combined with "Colwyn's Arrival" and
"Slayer's Attack," the first fifteen minutes are explosive thematically
and creatively. You'll immediately note that despite a well-rounded
orchestration,
Krull is absolutely dominated by its layers of
brass. Trombones offer the title theme with trademark Horner resonance,
though the French horns are restrained and the trumpets shrill at times.
High strings perform a love theme that would share many characteristics
with the composer's more elaborate successor for
The
Rocketeer.
As a highlight of
Krull, the woodwind-conveyed
love theme is provided with three full, unadulterated performances in
the film and expanded albums, featured best in the cue "The Slayer's
Attack" (which likely should have been split into two separate tracks on
the albums to set this performance aside from the rambunctious action
that follows it). In the final sequence of the film, during the track
entitled "Destruction of the Black Fortress," the strings perform an
awkward march with swishing percussion and wailing trumpets; its
staggered rhythms could easily be mistaken for the final starship battle
sequence in
Star Trek II. Percussion in a few of the battle
scenes echo the Klingon material in
Star Trek III: The Search for
Spock, with conceptual hints of
Aliens in its development as
well. The frenzied volume of hysteria in some of these outrageously
chaotic action cues, brutal in their brass tones, are a foreshadowing of
Brainstorm. Conversely, the opening minutes of "Riding the Fire
Mares" offer some propulsive adaptations of the score's heroic theme
into far more unique and enjoyable harmonic forms. The expansive
creativity in the handling of the ensemble is what makes
Krull
both interesting and, unfortunately, occasionally obnoxious. Horner's
experimentation with grinding electronic sound effects would continue,
though the score would use the choir in ways that the composer would not
explore much further. This, along with the sheer attitude of the brazen,
in-your-face brass performances, combine with a few frighteningly
dissonant passages to make
Krull a more difficult listening
experience than some comparable scores. Much of the methodology in the
handling of themes, unique percussion, and rhythmic explosiveness would
reach maturation in
Willow, still a far better score. While
Krull remains a fascinating listening experience for any Horner
collector, it is simply too derivative of the composer's other
concurrent efforts, with most of its elements put to better use in later
scores. By that time, Horner would also have jettisoned the overused
motifs of his first five years and the sound quality of his recordings
was destined to improve drastically.
Both the score and the film hold a distinct cult
status, and the great desire of film music fans to experience
Krull on CD led to three releases of it from 1987 to 1998. The
Southern Cross Records specialty label offered a 45-minute album in 1987
with all the essential music before expanding that album to 75 minutes
with two limited collector's pressings in the early 1990's (the second
pressing was a "gold" CD). The short-lived Super Tracks label offered a
limited 2-CD set of
Krull with 93 minutes in 1998, effectively
providing all viable music from the film. The original 1987 album offers
a balanced presentation of the score and its sound quality isn't as
archival as it could have been (bass strings are undermixed, though).
The expanded albums would mostly concentrate on extensions of the battle
music, often in the realm of irritating dissonance; some collectors held
on to their original 1987 copies of
Krull for its consistent
flow. The only absolutely essential cue missing from this first album is
"Main Title and Colwyn's Arrival," available on all the subsequent
albums. Even completists were largely satisfied with the two limited
SCSE editions. With superb sound quality and correct sequencing, the
presence of these albums made the announcement of an even fuller
Krull release in 1998 a significant surprise. For Horner fans,
this 2-CD release of
Krull is a fan's dream come true, and long
after it disappeared from the market, La-La Land Records issued a
re-pressing of the set that rearranged the tracks slightly and offered
two album arrangements as new bonus cues to bring the total time up to
nearly 100 minutes. The 2010 product was itself limited to 3,000 copies,
and instead of really improving upon the previously released material,
the focus of the set was to bring the music back into commercial
availability. La-La Land re-issued the same contents on another pressing
of 2,000 copies in 2015. The SCSE albums had sold at one time for $200,
and the Super Tracks one retailed for $40 before selling out. The
additional music on the 1998 and 2010 albums is interesting, but by no
means exceptional. With no new performances of the primary or love
themes in its contents, most listeners will not really need this
material. Sound quality is a non-factor in this equation; it's about the
same on the La-La Land, Super Tracks, and SCSE releases. Regardless of
which product you choose, the score is outstanding for much of its
length, but not worth unconditional love.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| 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 203,344 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
