Windtalkers

Director John Woo's South Pacific World War II drama Windtalkers concerns the use of the Navajo language as a code to get radio messages past the Japanese. You might expect that to mean it would be a good opportunity for Native American actors, and it is, but as a big-budget Hollywood feature it also requires big-name Anglo-Saxon actors, so the story is more about the Marines played by Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater, who are assigned to protect the Navaho radio men (and, if necessary, kill them to prevent their capture), than it is about the radio men themselves. About the same proportion of cultural influences can be heard in James Horner's score, which uses many conventional elements but mixes in a bit of Indian flute playing and singing here and there. Woo rarely uses Horner's music for underscoring; most of the time it's either carrying scenes or is absent. For example, the film opens with a long sequence showing the Navajos enlisting that begins in Monument Valley, and as Woo devotes lengthy helicopter shots to the breathtaking scenery, Horner borrows heavily from Aaron Copland in a nearly eight-minute cue called "Navaho Down." Since his music is used more in peaceful scenes than in the typically over-the-top action sequences Woo devises, much of the soundtrack comes across as surprisingly restrained for a war movie. But in the appropriately named "Marine Assault," Horner does get into the thick of the fighting, and he does so with predictable elements, such as martial drums and slashing strings. The Windtalkers soundtrack album does not prepare the listener for the level of violence in the film (which is comparable to that in Saving Private Ryan), but that may make it more palatable than the movie itself. ~ William Ruhlmann

「ウインドトーカーズ」のサウンドトラック。 音楽　ジェームズ・ホーナー、監督　ジョン・ウー、主演　ニコラス・ケイジ，クリスチャン・スレイター。ジョン・ウーとホーナーという顔合わせがまた異色で，「スターリングラード」以来とはいえ、最近のホーナーのついつい物思いにふけりそうなゆったりとメロディを奏でるタッチがウーの画面とどう溶け合うのか、というのは興味深いところ。今回も，一曲キャッチーなメロディというものがバシッとあるわけではありませんが、大切な任務を終わった後、そして人間らしいとまどいや勇気などを表すヒューマニズムあふれるオーケストラ表現は、戦争映画といえども，いつものホーナー流。他の戦争映画サントラに比べて戦争映画らしからぬのは、高音を奏でるメロディが多いからでしょうか。壮大にじっくり涙させる一作。 こういうのを聴いていると「ホーナー・サウンドには，夕陽がよく似合う」。感動系オーケストラ・ファンにおすすめ。 (C)馬場敏裕

第二次大戦のさなか、ある暗号をめぐって結ばれた男と男の絆、その実話をジョン・ウー監督がリアルに、ハードに映像化した「Windtalkers」。聴く者の感情に直接訴えかけるようなそのスコアはジェイムズ・ホーナーによるもの。104人ものオーケストラを率いて丁寧に奏でられた一曲一曲は、静かで、時に荒々しいメロディーラインが相まって、激しい戦火の様子を物語る。
bounce (C)入江玲子