provides
a modern look at a story that was last featured on television in 1978
and on the big screens in 1939. Unfortunately, impressive cinematography
alone could not save this production from its poor pacing and
embarrassing acting performances by an assortment of teen heartthrobs
who were unqualified for the subject matter. The actual battle
depictions of the British Empire's 1898 campaign to reclaim the Sudan
are highlights that come far too sporadically to save the film. With
over sixty years of time between the original mini-epic by Zoltan Korda
in 1939 and 2002's extravagant production, it would be difficult to
compare the Miklós Rózsa score for the original with James
Horner's recent entry. The basic plot of the films is the same, but
despite the inherent appeal of romance set in conditions of war and
adventure, the modern version of
by Kapur
suffered badly from poor responses by critics and audiences. The
gruesome action sequences are accented by Horner's sometimes brutal
score, a work dominated in other sections by its heavily percussive and
vocal ethnicity. But the music is inevitably saved by the romantic edge
that accompanies the massive scope of the event. The project,
technically the only Horner composition actually written in 2002, gave
the composer yet another opportunity to score a large scale war epic
with a significant ethnic tilt. The historical war genre had been topic
of frequency for Horner in the early 2000's, with
in the previous year. The latter,
, and unfortunately failed to live up to its
expectations. The fault with
was its unaccomplished
welding of the Native American and Western genres of vocals and
orchestra into one coherent work. For
, Horner
once again has searched out a noteworthy ethnic soloist to enhance his
endeavors in a historical, worldly setting.
Whether or not the score is an accurate historical fit
with the Mahdist uprising in Nineteenth Century Sudan is probably
unimportant to today's world audiences (though it has spurred some
understandable debate amongst Horner's detractors). Horner succeeds
immediately in providing an indigenous-sounding effect that eclipses the
resources that Rózsa had available to him so long ago for the
previous film version. Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, cousin of the well
known Qawwali performer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, provides vocals rich in
the authenticity of the Qawwali culture that the British were attempting
to dominate during their colonial wars. Still representing Sufi Muslims
today, Khan's Qawwali music is a natural mix of poetry, chanting, and
traditional song that will sound foreign to even today's Western
audiences. Those who have voiced their opinions through the years that
The Four Feathers is a predominantly themeless score are
critically mistaken. Those who have voiced concerns that the score
contains, once again, a substantial and hindering number of
self-references from Horner's previous works are also mistaken in this
case, if only because of the contrast that the Qawwali vocals offer. The
score does feature several passages of straight Qawwali vocals that will
sound frenetic, unorganized, and scattered to most audiences, with
"Sniper!" a prime example. However, these passages by themselves only
occupy about fifteen minutes of an eighty-minute album, and are often
used in a duel with the Western brass in the same intended fashion as
Maurice Jarre's famous
Lawrence of Arabia. That is, in fact, how
the album begins, with the Qawwali vocals in a quiet, but unmistakable
battle with Horner's trademark brass. These instrumental entanglements
continue in "To Abou Clea," and the enchanting "Ghost of Serenity"
offers the ethnic elements almost alone. The explosive "Harry's
Resignation" continues Horner's use of the snare drum in the same
general rhythmic structures as heard in
Glory, representing the
British forces and their sense of honor. The snare contributes
throughout the score as the symbol of both the methodical British
advance and their bloated pride. Horner's integrated set of themes and
strong bass string presence create accessible and often exciting action
material, too.
Three strong action cues, with the fury of a full
orchestra, electronics, vocals, and a heightened percussion section,
occupy the best moments of the score, with "Escape" providing some
magnificent brass work (even if it does, at its climax, resemble
Horner's
The Mask of Zorro). The lengthy "The Mahdi" also
utilizes some of the best Middle Eastern and Western battling heard
within the same musical performing group in a long while. Even if you
can't handle the exotic and often wild pace of Horner's score for
The
Four Feathers, you can't help but be fascinated by its compelling
and sometimes tragic conflicts between musical genres within the same
cues. In various sequences,
The Four Feathers can be heard as a
powerful combination of
Willow and
Black Hawk Down, not as
flowingly romantic as the former and not as overbearingly exotic and
distancing as the latter. Horner also inserts a few important piano
performances into cues of contrasting sentiment, including "The Dance,"
"The Letters," and "Ethne's Feather." The last of these offers the
primary love theme for the film in a performance by flute to a result
much like the dreamy portions of
Casper. That theme defines the
score in its final cue. A powerhouse of 14 minutes in length, "A Coward
No Longer" finishes the score with extended and fully orchestral
performances of that romantic theme. Also important to note is the final
confluence of the Qawwali vocals and the orchestra in that last track.
Before the momentous, closing performance of the love theme, Horner
combines the orchestra with Khan's voice into a perfectly lyrical
accompaniment of each other, leaving the listener with a satisfying
resolution (of sorts) to the musical battle that had progressed
throughout the film. On album, the sound quality of the London recording
is superb. In fact, it puts
Windtalkers to shame, especially when
Horner utilizes his echoing electronic accompaniment in the softer
tracks. Overall,
The Four Feathers is Horner's most successful
blend of ethnicity and orchestra in many years, and it plays with more
than enough Western accessibility to satisfy casual listeners. Although
it may be difficult to appreciate during the moments of Khan's solo
Qawwali performances, Horner's balance of genres is still on target and
more than just interesting on album.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,515 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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