INTRADA Announces:
UNCOMMON VALOR
Composed and Conducted by JAMES HORNER
INTRADA Special Collection Volume 142
Intrada presents another long overdue James Horner gem from the 1980s -- the score for the 1983 Paramount film Uncommon Valor. The project presented Horner with some challenges outside the expected range of a military action film. In some ways it was Horner's answer to classic “military team” movie scores like Frank DeVol’s The Dirty Dozen and Elmer Bernstein’s The Great Escape, but the film’s chilling opening in Vietnam, the haunted quality of Col. Jason Rhodes’ character and early scenes of his stubborn, dogged search for clues to his son’s disposition called for something different and far more serious than a straight militaristic action approach. Although Horner does include a military march in this vein, the scores goes into a variety of different directions. Throughout the film, Horner often places ethnic instrumentation in chaotic settings while more Western, military ideas pulse in steady, predictable rhythms against them, conveying the idea of discipline and resolve in the face of the exotic and demoralizing culture of the Vietnamese “other.” For Rhodes' haunting by memories of his son as a young boy, strings harmonize in a bittersweet melody that ultimately reflects both duty and loss as it applies to the MIAs/POWs and their loved ones. As the team moves toward the Laotian border, Horner’s score takes on a more traditional heroic quality and tones down some of the ethnic elements to focus on the team’s exploits and cohesiveness. Horner’s approach to the military adventure aspects reflects his similar work on Star Trek II and The Rocketeer.
Uncommon Valor tells the story of Col. Jason Rhodes (Gene Hackman), a Korean War veteran whose son Frank never returns from the Vietnam War. Convinced that his son is still being held as a prisoner of war in Laos, Rhodes spends years researching the area and—with assistance from a wealthy friend played by Robert Stack, whose son is also MIA—rounds up a motley “dirty dozen” crew of vets from his son’s platoon, retrains them and launches a private mission to rescue his boy and the other POWs America has forgotten.
This release features the complete score, remixed and remastered from the original session masters at Paramount, and is limited to 3000 units.
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 142
Retail Price: $19.99
AVAILABLE NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6709/.f
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