Visit the Movie Wave Store | Movie Wave Home | Reviews by Title | Reviews by Composer | Contact me STARGATE Exciting action/adventure music gets new deluxe presentation A review by JAMES SOUTHALL Music composed by DAVID ARNOLD Rating * * * *

Performed by THE SINFONIA OF LONDON led by MICHAEL DAVIES and THE CHAMELEON ARTS GROUP conducted by NICHOLAS DODD Vocals NATASCHA ATLAS Orchestration NICHOLAS DODD Engineered by GEOFF FOSTER Music Editor LAURIE HIGGINS Produced by ROBERT TOWNSON Album running time 72:36 Released by VARESE SARABANDE Catalog number VSD-6743 Album cover copyright (c) 1994 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.; review copyright (c) 2007 James Southall

The absurd Roland Emmerich sci-fi hit Stargate never seemed to be a likely candidate to launch a very popular and very successful franchise, but that's what it did with the tv shows it spawned.  The film was a huge hit despite being very bad on nearly every level, but such is life; Emmerich's follow-up, Independence Day, wasn't nearly so cringeworthy, yet it attracted huge criticism whereas Stargate did not - the price of fame, perhaps.  One thing that did work was the music - I'm not sure exactly what made the filmmakers turn to unknown British composer David Arnold, but they did, and he provided a treat of a score.  (Well, somebody did, anyway - gossip persists over the extent of orchestrator Nicholas Dodd's involvement, particularly given how virtually identical scores he orchestrates for other people are to those he does for Arnold - regardless of how much truth there is there, the pairing of Arnold and Dodd was clearly a successful one from the start.) Arnold taps into the grand spirit of scores gone by for his music, writing in an expansive style which recalls the golden age - purists may scoff, but there is more than a hint of Erich Korngold here.  It's all anchored around the terrific main theme, and while the score isn't exactly monothematic, it isn't far from it - Arnold extracts an amazing amount of material from his theme, using it in a variety of very different contexts with great aplomb, indeed sometimes diguising it to the extent that it is virtually unrecognisable.  Its vinest variation comes in the "Overture", when it has a kind of expansive, Lawrence of Arabia-esque sweep; but later on, whether in its martial, aggressive variant, its colourful action one or in the original sweeping one, it remains very effective. Elsewhere, Arnold provides a secondary love theme, heard in "Daniel and Shauri" amongst others, which is surprisingly sincere and touching.  The hard-edged action piece "Leaving Nagada" is another fine piece.  Indeed, the whole score is highly-entertaining, just as the composer's other two scores for the director are.  A lengthy soundtrack CD was released at the time of the film but has since become out of print, so Varese Sarabande took the opportunity of putting out an expanded reissue; the extra material adds little, but is nice to have, and this colourful action/adventure score comes highly recommended! Tracks Overture (3:03) Wild Abduction (1:19) Giza, 1928 (2:11) Unstable (2:08) The Coverstones (:58) Translation and Orion (1:49) The Stargate Opens (3:58) You're on the Team (1:57) Entering the Stargate (2:57) The Other Side (1:$5) Bomb Assembly (!:09) Mastadge Drag (:57) The Mining Pit (1:35) King of the Slaves (1:16) Caravan to Nagada (2:17) The Eye of Ra (:41) Daniel and Shauri (1:53) Symbol Discovery (1:14) Sarcophagus Opens (:57) Daniel's Mastadge (:49) Leaving Nagada (4:11) Ra - The Sun God (3:23) The Destruction of Nagada (2:09) Myth, Faith, Belief (2:19) Procession (1:$4) Slave Rebellion (1:01) We Don't Want to Die (1:58) Execution (1:18) The Kiss / The Seventh Symbol (1:50) Against the Odds (:34) Quartz Shipment (1:28) Battle at the Pyramid (5:03) Surrender (1:45) Transported Horror (1:49) Kasuf Returns (3:06) Going Home (3:10) Closing Titles (1:13)