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Critically, there's no sense of style or excitement in the music for The Legend of the Lone Ranger, yielding a surprisingly boring score. There's no ethnic element at all for the Indian presence, and there's no significant Western influences in terms of Hollywood's conventions in the genre. The action music isn't terrible, the straight, simplistic, snare-driven Barry tendencies akin to the Bond scores defining the score's top cue, "The Valley Chase." The composer's main theme is helmed by seven-note bass riff that carries several narrated scenes, and the song rendition in "The Man in the Mask (Main Title)" is awkwardly performed by Haggard, whose inflection just doesn't mesh well with Barry's theme. Symphonically, this melody receives a flourishing orchestral moment late in "The Legend Begins" around the riff, which leads into a pop rendition for brass, harmonica, guitars, and percussion in "John and Amy Meet." This performance is distractingly out of place, and after the riff continues onward by itself, the cue does offer some better ensemble representations of the theme later. The idea is dramatic and slower on strings in the latter half of "The Cavendish Gang Strikes," the riff then occupying the middle of "The Breaking of Silver" during the narrative sequence before the full theme breaks out. Two instrumental versions of the song ensue, one in "The Man in the Mask" and a largely redundant repetition on brass in "The Man in the Mask (End Title)." The theme for Tonto is slow and relaxing, typical to light Barry drama. Previewed in the lightly suspenseful "The Legend Begins," this theme is expressed by harmonica over strings several times in "Brothers" and slows the pace in the middle of the broader suspense of "Ambush." The villain receives a morbid, stewing identity on low strings without much personality, Barry hinting at its presence early in "The Legend Begins." The idea struggles to assert itself with any malice at the opening of "The Cavendish Gang Strikes," informs the bland ambience of mystery in "Dynamite," and opens "The Final Attack" without much real menace to its sparse low strings. A motif for Silver the horse is a wholesome, ascendant one at the start of "The Breaking of Silver." Barry neglects to vary these themes satisfyingly, which wasn't unusual for him. The "William Tell Overture" is given a really poor recording for use at the film's climax. When you subtract the redundant song instrumentals and "William Tell Overture," you get only 20 minutes of uniquely original Barry music. A 26-minute album from Intrada Records in 2018 reprises the 1981 LP record and offers decent sound. Barry won a Golden Raspberry Award for this score, however, and only those seeking a complete collection of his music will want to pluck the few points of interest from its misplaced personality.  **   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.6 (in 40 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.33 (in 30,543 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 26:43