Search - James Horner :: Troy

Director Wolfgang Peterson took Homer's The Iliad, excerpted the epic Trojan Wars, ditched those troublesome Greek gods, and largely hung his film's fortunes on copious amount of CGI wizardry and Brad Pitt. Immersing himself in the sword 'n' sandal genre largely revived by Gladiator composer James Horner (whose work here replaced the original score of Gabriel Yared) faced some challenging musical choices: Employ the dark synthetic goth textures of Hans Zimmer, or evoke a more traditional, heroic orchestral tack? The veteran scorer's "3200 Years Ago" arguably goes Zimmer one better, its dissonance-laced textures and dark percussion evoking an ancient, frightening world. There are similar intrigues ("The Temple of Poseidon," "Hector's Death," "The Wooded Horse...") elsewhere, but whether because of the haste with which he composed the score or other filmmaking pressures, Horner also dispenses some cliched, orchestral heroism more worthy of Steve Reeves or Ah-nold. Aficionados often accuse the composer of repeating himself, and the repetitive brass arpeggios he uses as frequent punctuation here do seem straight from the playbook, not to mention Enemy at the Gates; at least he's thematically apropos. There's a closing nod to Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia lyricism, and then Josh Groban gets to burnish his career with a suitably melodramatic take on David Foster's bathetic, neo-exotica ballad Remember Me. -- Jerry McCulley