Search - Various Artists :: Windtalkers (Score)

During World War II, American forces needed a foolproof way to keep their radio communications secure from enemy code breakers. The elegantly simple solution is the subject of this unusual John Woo film: Navajo Americans were recruited and utilized their native language as a code that was never broken. Veteran James Horner turns in a score that interweaves the Navajo's ancient mysticism amid more somber and brooding orchestral writing that occasionally evokes Copland during his introspective, American pastoral prime. Horner has oft been knocked for repeating himself, and the occasional nod to Enemy at the Gates is both obvious and dramatically pragmatic. The brass, strings, and driving percussion that power much of "Marine Assault" and the final, musically jagged third of the score draw on some welcome postmodernism, helping to reinvent and bolster what could have been standard action cues. Though the score lacks the strong central melodic themes to make it a war-film classic, the power of Horner's moody music to evoke the sheer physical terror and mental anguish of battle is undeniable. --Jerry McCulley