The Great Raid


Colosseum (4005939667320)
Varèse Sarabande (0030206667325)
Movie | Released: 2005 | Film release: 2005 | Format: CD, Download
 

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# Track   Duration
1.The Rescue9:07
2.Liberate Food4:43
3.Execute2:28
4.Raid Begins3:16
5.Writing Letters4:22
6.Rangers Start2:09
7.Campsite3:02
8.The Great Raid3:49
9.Burning Bodies3:30
10.Stealing Medicine1:51
11.The Future2:20
12.Stalking2:45
13.Closing Titles4:28
 47:49
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The Great Raid - 06/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at
The Great Raid seems like a film forty years after its time; the sort of flick that should star Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston or Steve McQueen and have music by Ron Goodwin or Malcolm Arnold. Instead, it stars Benjamin Bratt, James Franco and, curiously, Craig McLachlan (who was Henry in Australian soap Neighbours, which also kick started the careers of Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce amongst others) and has music by Trevor Rabin. Despite my usual view on Rabin's output, I was at least mildly optimistic that The Great Raid would at least give him the chance to move away from the kind of crappy film that even a fine film composer would have difficulty in finding inspiration.

The opening Rescue suggests some kind of sustained action, but is rather more John Williams' Saving Private Ryan filtered through soft focus orchestration. Imagine Omaha Beach as arranged by Randy Edelman; the delicacy is somewhat lost, but the noble intention is there and Rabin just about staves off bombast. The major melody from Omaha Beach is a heavy influence here, but the main theme is a rather more upbeat, martial anthem and pure Rabin. A typically memorable, if equally typically, simplistic effort. It's occasionally overplayed and its appearance in the titular eighth track is especially overwrought, but it appears infrequently enough to avoid becoming overbearing. The first wisp of action kicks off in Raid Begins and it's not bad stuff. Again, nothing exactly astounding, but then not entirely reliant on drum machines (although there is percussion aplenty) and with surprisingly little residual Media Ventures sound. If anything, a hint of David Arnold, but without the sophisticated orchestration and counterpoint.

There is surprisingly little action overall and much of the score as actually rather understated and often genuinely dramatic. The first half of Writing Letters is an especially appealing piece of writing with some lovely cello lines. True, the composer is perhaps laying it on a little thick and one almost senses that he's trying too hard to be emotive yet subtle, but that doesn't undermine its effectiveness. Ever since Saving Private Ryan and Zimmer's Thin Red Line, war scores have tended toward introspection and, rather too often, tedium; witness Rachel Portman's lifeless Hart's War or Horner's Windtalkers. Fortunately, here Rabin keeps the ball rolling, while avoiding tiresomely bombastic action - indeed, the action and suspense are just welcome changes of pace to break up the quieter material. Not quite up to the considerable standards of the aforementioned Williams and Zimmer or, indeed, Michael Kamen's poignant Band of Brothers, but The Great Raid is still an engaging effort.


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