Well if Titanic can be revisited, why not Braveheart? So what has this album got that the original one hadn't? Well, not too much except - just four previously unreleased tracks and a lot of the dialogue from the film plus five tracks comprising fifteen numbers of Bagpipe classics played by 1st Battalian Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders which you will consider either heaven or hell according to your taste.

The new material comes from early in the film and is represented by the four cues: "Outlawed Tunes on Outlawed Pipes" which is just that, pipes against long held plaintive and atmospheric string chords; early Church mode music, sung a capella, for "The Royal Wedding"; joyful folk music, with pipes and drum for "Scottish Wedding Music"; and sad, plaintive music with electronic wailings for "Prima Noctes".

The screenplay was quite memorable so that the dialogue, integrated with Horner's music makes for a rather winning entertainment The dialogue includes a number of tracks with Robert the Bruce's narrative, King Edward the Longshanks' (the magnificently wicked Patrick McGoohan) ironic declamation - "The trouble with Scotland is that it's full of Scots... Perhaps the time has come to reinstitute an old custom - Prima Noctes ... If we can't get them out we'll breed them out!"; and William Wallace's impassioned cry to battle, "Sons! Of Scotland,... Will you fight?..." followed by the sonically spectacular battle music. Although Wallace's heroic call is sub- Shakespeare Henry V and Laurence Olivier, it is nevertheless a thrilling highlight of the film.

An album for dedicated Horner fans.

Reviewer

Ian Lace

Reviewer

Ian Lace