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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Undermined by the stunt casting of Richard Gere as Lancelot, First Knight is actually a reasonably good movie, with the rest of the cast (everyone from Sean Connery to John Gielgud) doing their job well, and great technical achievements in design, photography and, perhaps above all, music.  Since it's by Jerry Goldsmith, it gets judged by a different set of standards by the film music community, and what would be a career-best score for all but about four or five composers working today is routinely criticised and bemoaned by many.  Still, this is not the forum for political discussions - the music should speak for itself.

Unfortunately, the album on Epic Soundtrax doesn't really allow it to.  We all know the reasons why some albums have to be forty minutes long (or less) and those reasons are just as valid here as anywhere else, but this is one score that would really have benefited from a lengthier release.  The score's best theme - for Lancelot - doesn't appear a single time on Epic's album, despite being heard frequently in the film.  Fortunately a promotional release of the whole score did appear towards the end of the 1990s, which is infinitely, inconceivably better.

Guinevere's Theme is what crops up on compilations and is a pleasant piece, heard fully in "Promise Me", though it is very simple stuff.  The score's key attribute is its action music.  On the album, "Raid on Leonesse", "Night Battle" and especially "Arthur's Farewell" (which is mistitled) are great pieces, the latter featuring a large choir chanting in Latin (thus meaning that most reviews claim it rips off Carmina Burana, but such logic would mean that anything with counterpoint in it rips off JS Bach).  It's Goldsmith's most forceful and impressive piece of choral writing since The Final Conflict.  A truly wonderful - by far the best - arrangement of Guinevere's Theme is in "Camelot" (which is also mistitled), a driving and moving piece; "A New Life" is also very moving, a slightly more low-key track.  Probably the score's highlight is "Camelot Lives" (which is the third mistitled cue), which in the film is so incredibly moving that you forget any of the movie's shortcomings and get swept up by the emotion of King Arthur's death.  It's another choral piece, a moving elegy, quite stunning.

Highlights from the promotional release include the five-minute "The Ambush", "Abduction of Guinevere" and the sensational "Lancelot in Pursuit", one of the single most exciting pieces of action music Goldsmiths has ever written.  There are also some excellent variations on Guinevere's Theme, especially the touching "Camelot" (which is, in this instance, the correct track title!) and "Lancelot and Guinevere".

Many people say that this is a weak relation to a score like The Wind and the Lion or Lionheart, which I find to be most unfair.  There is barely a dull moment; it is a score with numerous excellent themes; wonderful action set-pieces; moving passages of reflection, love and loss.  True, the soundtrack album you can buy in shops does not present the score in its best light, but it is still a fine listen.  It's one of four truly world-class scores Goldsmith wrote during the 1990s, only just behind three of his very best - Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Mulan.

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