Search - John Barry :: King Rat: Original Soundtrack Recording

John Barry's musical sixth sense is legendary. Though he eschewed the wishes of director Sydney Pollack to score Out of Africa with indigenous tribal sounds (and garnered an Academy Award in the process), it wasn't from lack of musical range, as Barry had previously demonstrated so effectively on this score. The composer's work for the gritty World War II Japanese POW camp drama features a jaunty, if typically Barry-idiosyncratic, march and a string-dominated title theme unusual for the genre. The composer infuses his distinctively adventurous arranging skills with percussive elements that give the music a sense of place. It's a score that cuts against expectations and traditions in much the same way as Hans Zimmer's score for The Thin Red Line would 30 years later. --Jerry McCulley