With all the rip-offs of Star Wars being
made in the seventies and eighties, it looks like George Lucas himself decided to get in
on the fun and create a fantasy remake of his famous sci-fi trilogy. James Horner was
hired to compose the score, who had concocted some great music for another fantasy Star
Wars clone, Krull. The score to Willow stands
well among Horner’s other efforts. It’s basically the same style as
Krull, but it has a more mature sound. The addition of some
Celtic instruments and the Japanese sakauhachi give the music a more exotic feeling.
The themes are excellent, but not having seen the movie, I don’t
know exactly which theme is for which character. Willow’s Theme doesn’t
help much as it seems to be a suite of all the different themes. They are sprinkled
liberally throughout, with the heroic fanfare being the best of the lot. It gets quite a
few variations thrown at it to keep it alive and interesting. My second favorite is the
lush, romantic theme that always utilizes the sakauhachi. Another theme I was able to pick
out is one that strongly reminds me of Darth Maul's theme from The
Phantom Menace, with it's pounding brass sequence similar in style if not a
direct rip-off (which it's not, it just reminds me of Maul's theme). It just has to be the
theme for the skull-clad bad guy. While Horner utilizes the King's College Choir of
Wimbledon, I found the choral parts to be very minor. They are used effectively in the
score, but I wish they would pop up a little more, and have a bigger role in the music. My
biggest complaint with this CD is some of the horrendously long track times. All but one
of the tracks is over five minutes in length, with the longest topping out at over
eighteen minutes! This makes finding favorite sections much harder.
This is another classic fantasy score by Horner. It’s a tad rare,
and a little more expensive than normal, but it’s still cheaper than Krull. If you liked that score, or you enjoy Horner scores,
then you can’t go wrong with this one. *****
