Patriot Games

After the ultra tense thriller of Hunt for Red October, the 'central' character of Jack Ryan was brought to be a bit more important (let's face it, Sean Connery's 'is he or isn't he nuts?' sub captain was the main character of The Hunt for Red October). They therefore drafted in well known (and slightly geriatric) Harrison Ford to play Ryan and he then went and did lots of sub-James Bond stuff, well for two movies anyway. Since Patriot Games had some vaguely Oirish connection James Horner drafted in his old pals at Clannad to come and write some vaguely ethnic Enya (who used to be a member of Clannad) type music and this appears in Harry's Game. It probably constitutes the nicest track on the album, soothing and gentle. James Horner's own Main Title features Maggie Boyle who sounds very much like Sissle or Enya and so anyone who's heard Titanic will probably recognise the general style. Then again, the credits mention this track containing a 'Traditional Gaelic Song' so even the interesting bit isn't by Horner. Worse, the rest of the music consists of not ever so interesting action motifs and some of the most tedious suspense music that Horner has ever produced. The fact that one track, Assault on Ryan's House is 11 minutes of not a great deal happening, doesn't help much at all. Boat Chase is faintly exciting, but just isn't that exciting.

I must admit, there's not a great deal to recommend about Patriot Games, it's James Horner at his most uninspired and generic. I admit that the Oirish bits (which were a pretty original idea for Horner in 1992) are very nice indeed, but for a very similar score which is perhaps a little more exciting, I'd suggest Devil's Own which, curiously, also stars Harrison Ford. That score at least has some nice Irish jig bits which work much more interestingly than the none too exciting sections of this score. One to pick up if you're desperate or they are paying you to take it away, but if you have any other Irish James Horner stuff at all, then skip it since that isn't particularly wonderful and the rest is pretty much a drag.