MIGHTY JOE YOUNG

JAMES HORNER

Rating:

Original Review: A giant ape, stolen from its idyllic homeland, runs amok in a large American city. James Horner is scoring the movie. This is where he rips off Max Steiner, right? Well, actually, no. Horner's music for Ron Underwood's movie is not quite as inspired as many of his fans were anticipating, but he hasn't done a pastiche of King Kong and, thankfully, he hasn't simply re-written Jumanji either. It's an enjoyable, but rather middle of the road score, which fulfils all its objectives and is fun to listen to without going overboard on the ambition or originality fronts. The first track, 'Sacred Guardian of the Mountains', begins with a recapitulation of Horner's three-note choral motif from Willow, performed by a variety of African tribal chants, and accompanied by some immense drums, before presenting the first (albeit brief) rendition of the lovely main theme - a soft and gentle woodwind melody which seems to reflect the benign nature of the film's titular primate. This theme, snippets of which appear in a multitude of other cues, is one of Horner's most versatile. It plays soft and whispery, energetic and colourful, and powerful and majestic, and boasts one of the most attractive melodies Horner has written for a while. The beautiful finale, 'Dedication and Windsong', is the most memorable performance of them all, where it is given a rousing rendition by a full and lush orchestra. The majority of the rest of Horner's score is action all the way, and many of his regular musical fetishes are present. Cues such as 'Poachers', 'Attempted Capture', 'A Broken Promise', 'Hollywood Boulevard', 'Freeway Crossing' and 'The Burning Ferris Wheel' feature the traditional wailing shakuhachis, the crashing pianos, the metal percussion, the throbbing trumpets and the bass-heavy, orchestral lines. The tracks all generate excitement and tension in abundance, and although they are really just a little bit too familiar for their own good , they nevertheless highlight Horner's incredible talent for writing action cues which leave you completely breathless. Horner's use of percussion is noticeably good throughout (especially in the excellent 'The Carnival'), and when strains of the main melody do emerge from the orchestral carnage, they give the score a welcome emotional boost. In addition, 'The Trees' has an interesting descending synth motif which sounds for all the world like some kind of enormous beast sighing in contentment. 'Our Last Chance - A New World', despite being a blatantly obvious reworking of one of the cues from Legends of the Fall, is proud and noble, while the other completely original element - seemingly taking its inspiration from Amistad - is Will Jennings' "Windsong", a vibrant, hopeful tribal refrain performed by a Swahili choir, which Horner also uses wordlessly to add a little ethnic colour to several of the score's early cues. I really wanted to be able to give Mighty Joe Young a bad rating, if nothing more than to prove to myself that I'm not totally infatuated with 99% of James Horner's musical output. However, the more I tried to think of things I didn't like about the score (such its similarity to many of Horner's other scores), the more I found things I loved about it. So, there's no point in denying it anymore. Mighty Joe Young is a solid, effective, highly enjoyable score which perfectly accompanies the on-screen antics of Bill Paxton, Charlize Theron and their monkey, and has occasional flashes of brilliance.

Track Listing: Running Time: 73 minutes 06 seconds

Hollywood Records HR-62172-2 (1998)

Music composed and conducted by James Horner. Orchestrations by James Horner and J.A.C. Redford. Featured musical soloists Ron Aston, Michael Fisher, Tony Hinnigan, James Horner, Brian Kilgore, Kazu Matsui, Ian Underwood and Roberto Zimmitti. Lyrics to "Windsong" written by Will Jennings. Recorded and mixed by Simon Rhodes. Edited by Jim Henrikson. Album produced by James Horner and Simon Rhodes.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1999. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.