Lionheart | ||
 | Composer: Jerry Goldsmith Label: Varese Sarabande Release Date: 1994-04-26 Producer: Jerry Goldsmith Conductor: Jerry Goldsmith Performer: Hungarian State Opera Orchestra Buy this soundtrack:   |   |
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More Soundtracks by Jerry Goldsmith
Reviewed by James - Grade: C Supposedly one of Goldsmith's best, this reviewer thinks he is about to get yelled at because he is not impressed.Everyone has their own favorite Goldsmith, but there are a handful of scores that are universally considered the holy canon, the uber-Goldsmiths, the Classics. These include Alien, Poltergeist, Capricorn One, Wind and the Lion, and the Rambos and Star Treks. Lionheart is part of this list, and I don't really know why. It is not that it is a particularly bad score. It just has no place with Goldsmith's best. Or even close. It just isn't all that and a bag of chips. But before everyone gets all worked up, let me emphasis that this is not a completely bad review. There is a lot to like in Lionheart. There are some nice tracks in here. "The Ceremony" has a nice rendition of the main theme played by the solo trumpet. "Failed Knight" and "The Circus" have some truly excellent moments among Goldsmith's best. But the problem is fundamental for me. I just don't like the themes. Not a single one of them. I find them to be cloying, cartoony, and all too often diluted by synthesizers (oh, how I hate them). All too often the music just seems to be 'here comes our hero, here comes Wiley Coyote, here comes the hero, here comes Wiley Coyote, here comes our comic relief! WOOO!!!" It's Mickey Mousey. I understand that Goldsmith was going with leitmotifs for this score, but just because the music needs to be obvious doesn't mean it needs to be silly. You don't need to look any further than Star Wars' leitmotifs to prove that. Compare William's "Imperial March" to Lionheart's Black Knight theme as heard in "Children in Bondage," and you'll see what I mean. Maybe I am not being fair. The score, as I mentioned, is not bad. Even Goldsmith on his worst day outshines most of today's composers. And even if I don't like the main theme, he does give it a beautiful solo in "The Ceremony," as I mentioned above. And somehow he does manage to pull all the pieces together into one helluva final track, "King Richard," a rousing finale that actually finds a way to make the themes work. I listened to that cue and found myself thinking, "well, where was that the rest of the CD?" Ah, well, maybe I was expecting too much. Goldsmith is my favorite composer after all, but this one just didn't connect with me. If you are looking for medieval action and adventure, check out First Knight instead. Now that score deserves to be in his holy canon! More Movie Soundtracks
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