Windtalkers


RCA Victor US (0090266386727)
Movie | Release date: 05/21/2002 | Format: CD
 

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# Track   Duration
1.Navajo Dawn7:54
2.A New Assignment4:37
3.An Act of Heroism5:59
4.Taking the Beachhead6:17
5."First Blood" Ceremony2:08
6.The Night Before3:32
7.Marine Assault5:40
8.Losses Mounting5:06
9.Friends In War7:55
10.A Sacrifice Never Forgotten7:11
11.Calling to the Wind10:33
 66:52
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Windtalkers - 04/10 - Review of Andreas Lindahl, submitted at (English)
In a recent NPR interview, focusing on the score for A Beautiful Mind, composer James Horner said that he isn't interested in doing big, epic scores anymore. "They are a dime a dussin, anyone can do them and I have done my fair share of them", to paraphrase. And I cannot say I am surprised to hear that Horner is tired of doing these kind of scores, because he certainly has done his fair share of them. Maybe that's the reason Horner's score for Windtalkers seems to be so uninspired and derivate. And boring. This is not the work of an inspired and motivated composer.

The score is dominated by action music. No surprises there, since this is a score for war flick, but Horner who generally writes memorable action music fails do deliver the goods this time. Similar to the action parts of Enemy at the Gates, Windtalkers has a lot of dissonant, atonal and non-thematic moments. I remember when Horner wrote great, thematic action cues, for movies such as Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, Titanic and The Mask of Zorro. That’s the kind of action music I like. Still, Horner's early scores - Krull and Willow come to mind - were quite dissonant and chaotic when it came to action writing, so perhaps Windtalkers is Horner returning to his roots. Or something like that. Roots or no roots, the action music still isn't memorable or captivating. There are exceptions, of course. "Taking the Beachhead" and "Marine Assault" are two strong action cues, heavy with Horner's typical snare drum riff, brass fanfares and ostinato strings. But it could, and should, have been so much better.

To make things worse, the main theme is a complete bore. Horner, who is a master at writing excellent themes, has come up with a really simple and uninteresting theme that is repeated throughout the entire score, pretty much without any development or larger changes to talk about. Certainly nothing to write home about. And - surprise, surprise - the five note "danger motif" pays a visit in this score as well. Luckily, it's a very short visit. Not like Enemy at the Gates, where the same motif refused to leave. How rude. And annoying.

Horner uses Native American chantings and ethnic flutes to represent the Navajo portions of the story. It's used in the opening and closing tracks to great effect, but that's pretty much it. A more generous employment of this sound would have been welcomed. Instead, Horner relies on endless string lines, that don't seem to go anywhere, for the softer and more quiet parts. It's a technique he used in A Beautiful Mind as well and to be frank it's really quite boring.

I suppose it must sound like Windtalkers is a horrible score. It's not. It's just that we have heard this sound from Horner so many times before. And he has written scores in the same style that are so much better than Windtalkers. Horner clearly needs a break from scoring big budget action films. He has said many times that he wants to score intimate, personal dramas, and I think that's an excellent choice. Just think about his recent score for Iris. That's the Horner I like. And that's the kind of music I love.
Windtalkers - 04/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at (English)
James Horner's recent releases have not inspired the world. We can only assume that the success of the score to Titanic was a by-product of the of the film and not a great deal more. Although he has scored plenty of high grossing and successful films including the 2001 Oscar winner, A Beautiful Mind, few of the scores have been notable. Unfortunately Windtalkers continues the trend. What makes it sad is that the music itself isn't all that terrible, not especially inspired, but by the end of the album there's almost nothing new and little to recommend to anyone who owns any number of other earlier (and probably better) Horner scores.

Given that the film is about the use of Navajo Indians - sorry, Native Americans - during the Second World War, it is unsurprising to note that the music starts with an unsurprising call to the wild, courtesy of Phil Ayling's Indian Flutes. There is surprisingly little of the flutes throughout the rest of the score, but the cliché isn't really necessary. The first few tracks open reasonably strongly, the action material here is more interesting than Horner's other scores of late, with more than just endless string runs and brass hits. It is written with that basis, but Horner adds more layers - usually trumpets and odd bits of low brass that overlap to form some moderately interesting and surprisingly tense counterpoint.

Although interesting enough to listen to, the main theme seems to be pulled from the James Horner Generic Noble Main Theme Wizard, the threatening motif is yet another re-run of Willow and the old Aliens Khachaturian ballet motif. It is sad that when the score is at its more generic and themeless, that it's actually more interesting since it tends to sound less like something else. Unfortunately, there isn't a great deal of variation in the action scoring so it all starts to become a bit boring.

Although not taking the CD length to the extremes of some of the recent Horner releases, one can't help feeling that a passable 45 minute album lurks in there somewhere. Up to a point, the action is quite good, but the sameness of it starts to get wearing, the boringness of the main thematic material becomes obvious. Undoubtedly dramatic dynamite in the film itself, but on CD, another bridge too far. Yet another Horner score where it's been done better elsewhere.
Windtalkers - 08/10 - Review of Paul Smolenaars, submitted at (Dutch)
Er zit een mooi thema in, maar helaas ook weer dat horner motiefje maar voor de rest een mooie en spannende score


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