MUSIC REVIEW: JOHN WILLIAMS -'WAR HORSE OST'

A Soundtrack from the Orchestral Maestro that Articulates Emotions Like No Other

By: Josh Moorhead

December 21, 2011

(Sony Records) If your Mom makes the best Christmas cookies ever, and for Christmas she made more cookies, and this year you ate them again, what could you possibly say about the cookies? The movie-going public has been gorging for years on Williams' goods. The man who gave us Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Jurassic Park and, more recently, Harry Potter has a touch of magic in his own wand. He has informed so much of what we know about cinema history, and one day he shall be surely, sorely missed. He is a giant.

War Horse is a very pretty film, and Williams' latest pairing is with equal giant Steven Spielberg. And Williams' composition for the movie is equally pretty; time will tell if it will measure up to the most viscerally notorious tunes from his back catalog, but in itself, this is a score that sits as well as anything, and it's still better than most other soundtracks in most other films.

As most, Williams' score for War Horse is evocative. There's cheery, flitting bits of flute (not a staple in the Williams armory) that are original on the ear and make you yearn for the home country, even if you're not from the home country, or even if you don't know where the home country is. In that way, the maestro accomplishes what he almost always has: transport. For better or worse, the score is quite effective at taking one to a distant Euro countryside nearly a hundred years ago, where people wore knickers and tilled the ground, and innocence had a shelf-life far exceeding its expiration today.

In that way, Williams himself, in being consistent, is throwing back to a time of yore for film scores -- his War Horse is a sweeping thing, orchestral (saying this of a Williams tune is like saying light is bright), and for that reason, even by myself, it might go unappreciated for years to come, as nowadays work like Hans Zimmer's on The Dark Knight, or Trent Reznor's on The Social Network (haven't heard the Dragon Tattoo score yet), or Cliff Martinez's stuff on Drive is just more interesting. But if in ten to twenty years, every movie sounds like it was composed by computers or '80s synth-guitar-playing robots, for Williams, we will be gnashing our teeth.
 

A lot of the score here is a whimsical thing, if not magical, as the movie itself is more often than not a plucky children's book, but there are the darker moments. Contrasting from the happy, dancing flute and nostalgia-inducing violins of the opener ("Dartmoor, 1912") or closer ("The Homecoming"), there are more subtle, eerie moments about ("No Man's Land") that are all about mood -- in this case, the dark discomfort (to say the least) of war. In this way, Williams shows he's also capable of playing the Howard or Reznor game, but Williams is at his best when he just goes for it with bombast. While there are obvious themes and motifs, and more reliance on the woodwinds and piano than usual, neither the "Raiders March" nor the "Imperial March" will be found here. War Horse is pleasant, accomplished, and confident as a score. And the emotions it stirs are sure to be appreciated in a greater library of Williams' work, as robots risk taking over the scoring biz. 

Standout Tracks: "Dartmoor 1912", "The Homecoming", "No Man's Land"

For Fans Of: Danger Mouse, Ennio Morricone