Project X
James Horner
" Horner back then rarely failed! "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the limited release
Project X is a movie about the military's use of nuclear experiments on apes, and how one guy changes their entire operation the moment he doesn't follow their orders anymore. A typical 80's movie with a darker tone but above all a heart, it was a movie that was memorable for several things. But surely the biggest impact came from James Horner's score. Long time considered to be forgotten among the 100 titles of his career, Varèse Sarabande released it in 2001 as part of their club releases. Needless to say, even the so called weaker Horner scores still ignite firework displays after all this time.
I'm not going to start by saying which score this music resembles parts of, because I would be here all night if I would do that. It's easier to let the music answer that instead. The first track ("Main Title") already states two complete opposite moods, one is the jungle sound that's represented with native flutes (Mighty Joe Young but mostly Batteries not Included's flute music to call the ships) while the other are the rumbling electronics that represent the harsh culture of the city (Commando style to say the least). But when Virgil, the leading monkey is introduced to Jimmy (Broderick) and his new environment, the music becomes distinctly more emotional, representing the style of Cocoon and containing a theme which bares resemblance to Searching for Bobby Fisher's main theme. This will become the main theme of the movie.
Project X as a score is however the most magical when we receive what Horner does best, namely create emotion that goes straight for the heart of the story. "Learning to Fly", "New Friends", "Ghost Call" and "Flying" contain some truly inspirational stuff, mostly mixed with the main theme. If I have to pick one out it would have to be "Learning to Fly", after a comedic intermezzo Virgil seems to pick up the flying habit faster than any ape, and Horner presents this with wonderful inspiring music (by that unleashing the secondary theme of the score, namely the bond theme). After a brief atonal collision representing the inevitable crash, Horner still sooths the flight instructors with native flutes, as it has to remind them these are still playful and harmless creatures that don't understand what they are doing. This is truly brilliant.
Same goes for track 7 "Student Pilots" which combines Willow's quirky village music with the bond theme and the main theme, becoming truly inspirational in its mix.
But with track 8 we have reached the border of the soundtrack, receiving the music that shows us finally why the apes have to fly the simulators in the first place. "Bluebeard's Flight" offers us the already classic danger motif mixed with the lonely opening minutes of Aliens (expect to hear more throughout the score). Still, the best piece of emotional music (as Nick Redman agrees with me) is "Ghost Call", a sorrowful and tantalizing piece of music which combines another statement of the main theme with flutes, it basically symbolizes James Horner's talent at understanding what kind of emotion a specific scene requires.
But that means that emotion usually triggers a response. And the response in this case is mayhem. Mayhem during the film, mayhem on CD. 20 minutes of it, creating an uprising that the people weren't ready for. In "The Rescue" Horner"s still quite timid with Aliens' opening minutes and the four note motif, "The Tower" dares to toy with the mind more (and especially the instruments of the orchestra) while "Chimp Rumble" dares to quote Honey, I Shrunk the Kids opening in its totality.
The amazing power and rhythm coming from "Chain Reaction" is surely enough to get excited about, but the same can be said about Mighty Joe Young's theme statement and Aliens send off in "The Escape" (2.50) and the major Cocoon fanfares in the excellent "Flying" track.
Even though Project X listens extremely long (75 minutes), it has one amazing quality. This is classic James Horner stuff. It is not the best of Jimmy's career, but having composed so much amazing stuff during the 80's, even his so called lesser efforts contain so much that today's music simply lacks. Meaning even for 75 minutes, this is inspirational stuff that doesn't bore at all. Which makes it obvious, Project X is a Horner must have, simply because it contains so much identical ideas and textures that became something magical in his latter (or earlier) scores. Take it from me, today's music is a joke if we have to listen to music composed 20 years ago to get that emotional connection from our filmmusic.
Tracklisting
1. Main Title (4.54)
2. First Lesson (3.17)
3. Losing Virgil (4.11)
4. Learning To Fly (3.02)
5. The Plea (1.03)
6. New Friends (5.48)
7. Student Pilots (5.00) Excellent track
8. Bluebeard's Flight (6.13)
9. Ghost Call (4.09) Excellent track
10. The Rescue (6.00)
11. The Tower (6.02)
12. Chimp Rumble (5.48)
13. Chain Reaction (4.36)
14. The Escape (4.12) Excellent track
15. Flying (4.28) Excellent track
16. End Credits (6.09)
Total Length: 74.58
I'm not going to start by saying which score this music resembles parts of, because I would be here all night if I would do that. It's easier to let the music answer that instead. The first track ("Main Title") already states two complete opposite moods, one is the jungle sound that's represented with native flutes (Mighty Joe Young but mostly Batteries not Included's flute music to call the ships) while the other are the rumbling electronics that represent the harsh culture of the city (Commando style to say the least). But when Virgil, the leading monkey is introduced to Jimmy (Broderick) and his new environment, the music becomes distinctly more emotional, representing the style of Cocoon and containing a theme which bares resemblance to Searching for Bobby Fisher's main theme. This will become the main theme of the movie.
Project X as a score is however the most magical when we receive what Horner does best, namely create emotion that goes straight for the heart of the story. "Learning to Fly", "New Friends", "Ghost Call" and "Flying" contain some truly inspirational stuff, mostly mixed with the main theme. If I have to pick one out it would have to be "Learning to Fly", after a comedic intermezzo Virgil seems to pick up the flying habit faster than any ape, and Horner presents this with wonderful inspiring music (by that unleashing the secondary theme of the score, namely the bond theme). After a brief atonal collision representing the inevitable crash, Horner still sooths the flight instructors with native flutes, as it has to remind them these are still playful and harmless creatures that don't understand what they are doing. This is truly brilliant.
Same goes for track 7 "Student Pilots" which combines Willow's quirky village music with the bond theme and the main theme, becoming truly inspirational in its mix.
But with track 8 we have reached the border of the soundtrack, receiving the music that shows us finally why the apes have to fly the simulators in the first place. "Bluebeard's Flight" offers us the already classic danger motif mixed with the lonely opening minutes of Aliens (expect to hear more throughout the score). Still, the best piece of emotional music (as Nick Redman agrees with me) is "Ghost Call", a sorrowful and tantalizing piece of music which combines another statement of the main theme with flutes, it basically symbolizes James Horner's talent at understanding what kind of emotion a specific scene requires.
But that means that emotion usually triggers a response. And the response in this case is mayhem. Mayhem during the film, mayhem on CD. 20 minutes of it, creating an uprising that the people weren't ready for. In "The Rescue" Horner"s still quite timid with Aliens' opening minutes and the four note motif, "The Tower" dares to toy with the mind more (and especially the instruments of the orchestra) while "Chimp Rumble" dares to quote Honey, I Shrunk the Kids opening in its totality.
The amazing power and rhythm coming from "Chain Reaction" is surely enough to get excited about, but the same can be said about Mighty Joe Young's theme statement and Aliens send off in "The Escape" (2.50) and the major Cocoon fanfares in the excellent "Flying" track.
Even though Project X listens extremely long (75 minutes), it has one amazing quality. This is classic James Horner stuff. It is not the best of Jimmy's career, but having composed so much amazing stuff during the 80's, even his so called lesser efforts contain so much that today's music simply lacks. Meaning even for 75 minutes, this is inspirational stuff that doesn't bore at all. Which makes it obvious, Project X is a Horner must have, simply because it contains so much identical ideas and textures that became something magical in his latter (or earlier) scores. Take it from me, today's music is a joke if we have to listen to music composed 20 years ago to get that emotional connection from our filmmusic.
Tracklisting
1. Main Title (4.54)
2. First Lesson (3.17)
3. Losing Virgil (4.11)
4. Learning To Fly (3.02)
5. The Plea (1.03)
6. New Friends (5.48)
7. Student Pilots (5.00) Excellent track
8. Bluebeard's Flight (6.13)
9. Ghost Call (4.09) Excellent track
10. The Rescue (6.00)
11. The Tower (6.02)
12. Chimp Rumble (5.48)
13. Chain Reaction (4.36)
14. The Escape (4.12) Excellent track
15. Flying (4.28) Excellent track
16. End Credits (6.09)
Total Length: 74.58