: (John Williams) Director
Steven Spielberg's two World War II masterpieces of the 1990's
unanimously rank among the top war films of all time, but whereas
did so with the terrifyingly
realistic depiction of the lives of common soldiers. The film easily
swept through 1998 with the most consistently positive critical reviews
seen in years, and only the brutal and gory nature of the story's
execution, which almost gained the film an NC-17 rating, deterred
audiences enough to quell the overwhelming popular interest that usually
accompanied a Spielberg film. Robert Rodat's screenplay, Spielberg's
direction, and an ensemble cast that acts with subtlety yield a
compelling tale of the American military's attempt to return one soldier
home from France, all the while conveying a level of respect rarely seen
on film. The emotionally powerful production left Spielberg's usual
collaborating composer, John Williams, in a difficult position.
Williams' scores for Spielberg films, including
presented a number of unique challenges for the maestro. First,
the film's major scenes of action were deemed to be absent any music,
allowing the explosively impressive sound effects editing of the
production to more accurately represent the atmosphere of combat.
Secondly, the music that Williams provided amounted to less than an hour
in length and was to be mixed during only transitional scenes that
allowed audiences a temporary break from scenes of wartime intensity. As
such, the score's presence was not dominant enough to allow for
significant thematic development for the plethora of characters in the
unit at the heart of the story. At best, Williams could only provide an
overarching representation for their struggle together, and within the
short confines of his occasional synchronization points, any development
of those ideas would be minimal. Finally, the film had used the dramatic
theme to Marc Shaiman's
over its highly
popular trailers, and that music is about as far from the restrained
approach that Williams would take with the film as possible.
Generally, Williams succeeded in providing
Saving
Private Ryan with an appropriately restrained and respectful score,
but at a distinct cost. As is customary and almost mandatory for a
Williams project of this magnitude, a concert piece serving as a tribute
to the soldiers who perished was written and used over the end titles of
the film. Undoubtedly, "Hymn to the Fallen" is the highlight of the
score, especially given that the theme from this cue is only developed
with hesitation throughout the actual underscore of the film. Even
amongst Williams' solemn tributes to previous subjects of considerable
importance, this hymn is somewhat pedestrian. Gorgeous in its respectful
statements, it follows the pattern of the rest of the score by
exercising much restraint. Without the fanfares, the banging chimes, and
the bold harmonies that extend throughout the full range of sonic
spectrum, the hymn resides mostly in the lower registers outside of some
meandering violin, woodwind, and xylophone movements above the brass and
choir. There is nothing about the hymn to suggest the sharp edges of
conflict or patriotism. No pronounced snare or lofty trumpet solos as in
JFK and no overwhelming layers of strings as in
Born on the
Fourth of July are evident here. As a companion to a score with the
typical dramatic gravity of the maestro's writing, the hymn would be a
fine accompaniment. But the remainder of the score suffers in its
entertainment value because of its solemn duty to accompany the overly
grim and at times hopeless environment of the film. Williams has always
stated that his scores are not aimed at enjoyment outside of the context
of the film, and from his career of promoting and conducting his music
around the world, that statement seems more than suspect. But in the
case of
Saving Private Ryan, he indeed produced a rare soundtrack
that does not function to maintain much interest outside of the film,
repetitive in motific performances and lacking significant variance in
tone. The album is a product of the popularity of the composer,
director, and the quality of the film. Most listeners would have been
served just as well with a ten-minute single containing the primary hymn
and a combination of the "Revisiting Normandy" and "Omaha Beach" cues,
as well as the trumpet duet closing "The Last Battle." For a film that
runs almost three hours in length, that's a surprising statement in and
of itself.
Still, hardcore film score fans will find considerable
merit in Williams' underscore for the film's transitional scenes of
movement and rest. Unless you can appreciate the delicately sequenced
solos for woodwinds and especially French horn and trumpet, then the
album could very well translate into a boring, eventless 50 minutes of a
meandering and thematic void. So melancholy and subdued is Williams'
touch here that even the lightly tapping snare is mixed far at the rear
to avoid any sense of patriotic defiance. The lack of impactful thematic
integration, action sequences, and even any significant suspense causes
an abundance of low, rumbling, horn-dominated solos and dull,
repetitious sequences of aimless strings. Outside of a few distinct
moments of accentuation in "Revisiting Normandy" and "Omaha Beach," the
eight tracks in between the identical concert performances of the hymn
on the album feature no individual flavor. Parts of the score are
practically inaudible, which raises memories of the feathery touch that
James Horner utilized for some of
Glory's more somber moments of
reflection. But, in this case, there's nothing in the surrounding
material to salvage an engaging listening experience. Only in "Defense
Preparations" do fragments of action rhythms from the previous year's
The Lost World: Jurassic Park provide a contribution. This cue
alone, ironically enough, would likely function better if separated from
the rest of
Saving Private Ryan and placed with your library
collection of
Jurassic Park music. Otherwise, the slight and
hopeful swing towards the positive harmonic structures of the hymn in
the first half of "High School Teacher" represents the most robust
thematic statement in the latter half of the score. On the whole, the
work requires a devoted appreciation of the film and its subject matter
to float your interest in the lengthy passages in between the opening
cues and the hymn. The mix of the score is among its better qualities;
Williams returned to the ensemble and location with which he recorded
Schindler's List, and the recording of this Boston group and the
Tanglewood Festival Chorus is precise. The placement of the trumpets in
particular is worth noting; Williams seated the two trumpet principals
in the balcony above the rest of the ensemble to guarantee an
accentuation of a symphony hall effect he sought for the ambience.
Despite this arrangement, the recording does not sound as wet in
ambience as one might expect.
In early 1998, there were reports that a few of the
musicians in the Boston Symphony Hall broke down in tears during the
recording of
Saving Private Ryan. Unless this occurred during the
emotional hymn's performance, then it's far more believable that the
tears were caused by a screen with the rough edit of the film's visuals.
Speculation will inevitably continue about whether or not the extremely
restrained technique managed in this score was the most effective use of
Williams for
Saving Private Ryan. Ironically, the same debate
arose for another Tom Hanks film a couple of years later, Robert
Zemeckis'
Cast Away, which also strikes an odd balance between an
absence of score and the music's sometimes intrusive return to the mix
in later scenes. Much of this speculation about
Saving Private
Ryan's score comes from fans of extremely powerful war films such as
Platoon and
Born on the Fourth of July, both of which
enhanced by punchier, thematically strong music that functions well
independently. The trailers for
Saving Private Ryan only fueled
the debate further, because Shaiman's theme for
The American
President is as flamboyantly dynamic as the composer always tended
to be in such circumstances. And, frankly, the sound worked brilliantly
to give the combined visuals of the trailer an extremely heroic edge. In
the end, though, you have to chalk up Williams and Spielberg's decision
as one of measured necessity and move on. The entirety of the score will
be a slow, boring, and sometimes painfully unengaging listening
experience for many collectors, but the hymn remains a welcome addition
to any assembly of Williams' best themes. Re-recordings of this hymn
have often been quite successful, with stunning results sometimes coming
from various singing groups, and if you own one or two such
re-recordings, then those should represent the
Saving Private
Ryan score well enough to bypass the dedicated albums for the film.
A 2018 re-release of Williams' original album presentation is unable to
illuminate anything new in the score, reprising the 1998 album's
arrangements but adding the film versions of "High School Teacher" and
"The Last Battle" because the original album had taken the liberty to
pad the listening experience on those cues with material from "Omaha
Beach" and others. On either album,
Saving Private Ryan ranks
among the least of Williams' Digital Age scores to be recommended for
enjoyment outside of the film, for the score's appreciable, respectful
tact in context may struggle to retain the same impact alone.
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- Music as Written for Film: ****
- Music as Heard on Album: **
- Overall: ***
Bias Check: |
For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68
(in 91 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 360,131 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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