A well-made film, but a gigantic ripoff of a music score

Rating: 7/10 (8 August 2005)

I enjoyed this movie very much, but I'm also aware that the music score written for it has been lauded by many as one of the finest scores James Horner has ever written. Why, then, do you suppose it didn't receive an Academy Award nomination? A score this prominent, on which viewers have heaped unstinting accolades, was ignored? Probably because the composers' arm of the academy doesn't view plagiarism that lightly. This score is rife with the kind of borrowings for which Horner has become notorious over the years. The main theme, heard prominently and developed throughout the "Call to Arms" and "Forming the Regiment" tracks (to name two on the CD release), is a transparent reworking of the ten-note theme of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man." In "Brave Words, Braver Deeds," a melody from the Offertorium movement of Gabriel Faure's Requiem is utilized without alteration, appearing twice. The "Burning the Town of Darien" track lifts a chunk from Ralph Vaughan Williams' sublime "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis." The entire "Charging Fort Wagner" sequence is another transparent rescoring by Horner, this time of the opening movement of Carl Orff's dramatic cantata "Carmina Burana." These are merely the ones I could identify. I'm no music historian; a sharper ear could likely pick out more. No mention is given, either in the liner notes to the CD or in the credits for the film, of these other composers. At least in films like "Greystoke," "Elizabeth," and "Excalibur," the composers whose music got borrowed received a mention alongside that of the primary composer. When you read the credits of the old Errol Flynn film "Captain Blood," you'll note that the composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, receives a title card that gives him credit for "musical arrangement"--this, despite the fact that the music is almost entirely his. Korngold, pressed for time to meet his deadline, used a bit of Franz Liszt's music for a sword duel between Flynn and Basil Rathbone. The borrowed piece didn't amount to much, but Korngold insisted that he not be credited as composer, only as arranger. This was a man of integrity who wouldn't think of taking credit for another's work. The circumstances surrounding the scoring of "Glory" are unknown to me. Perhaps Horner had a tough deadline. Perhaps the director fell in love with the "temp track" and asked Horner to emulate those pieces instead of coming up with something original. It really makes no difference, though. A man of integrity would have demanded that those other composers receive their due credit. If you're going to stand on the shoulders of giants, you should be man enough to admit it.