We Were Soldiers: Original Motion Picture Score
Since Francis Coppola's epochalApocalypse Nowhelped reinvent the scope of what a war film could be, the music of the battlefield epic has logically shifted as well, from heroic martial themes toPlatoon's introspective strainsof Samuel Barber'sAdagio for Stringsand the fusion of Hans Zimmer'selectronic-tribal soundscapes forThe Thin Red LineandBlack Hawk Down.Composer Nick Glennie-Smith seems to have taken his tip from Barber, composing and arranging an orchestral score of pensive grace and quiet, dramatic power for this Mel Gibson-Randall Wallace Vietnam war dramatization. It's music that underscores the point that the true heroism of war is often more about personal survival than it is about battlefield victory. The Spartan strains of Joseph Kilna Mackenzie's "Sgt. Mackenzie" (originally written as a tribute to Mackenzie's grandfather, a WWI vet) occasionally percolate up in the arrangements, giving the score a battle-weary sense of spirituality that spans the ages. The composer's solo-trumpet denouement "Final Departure" is as emotionally powerful as it is antiheroic, leading to a gospel-infused end-credit sequence that further underscores the story and scores a compellingly human sense of scale. The talented Glennie-Smith has toiled in middling comedies and actioners for years, but this powerful work promises exceptional things to come.--Jerry McCulley