This is another entry in my "Complete Score Breakdown" series, focusing on the complete scores to films who've had abbreviated previous releases or have gone unreleased.
Today we are looking at The Devil's Own (1997) by James Horner.
I've enjoyed this score for a very long time. Used to have the Sony audiocassette back in the day. When I first heard The Devil's Own score I was firmly entrenched in James Horner fandom back in the late 90's, when I had just been swept up in Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, Titanic, and others. I liked The Devil's Own score because the use of ethnic specialty instruments, new-agey synths, shakuhachi, beautiful vocals, and solo highlights and occasional orchestral performances really captured my attention. The song "There are Flowers Growing Upon the Hill", written by Horner, lyrics by Will Jennings, and vocal by Sara Clancy, bookends the score in two lush and gorgeous pieces: featured in Gaelic in "Main Title" and in English in "Going Home".
In recently revisiting the film and listening to the score, I discovered that The Devil's Own is the most complicated and interesting entry so far in my Complete Score Breakdown series. Quite complicated! I've seen the film a number of times before but until had no idea how interestingly the score-in-film differs from the score-on-CD. It differs quite a bit.
The current CD contains about 43 minutes of score (I am omitting the song "God Be With You", by Dolores O'Riordan, from the runtimes in this post as it was not written by Horner). It's a very nice album. If it were as simple as considering additional unreleased material in the movie, I would say the CD needs no expansion, which is a position I rarely hold. However, it's not that simple. Fascinatingly (to me), the score in the film runs only 28 minutes!
I'm not sure if Horner composed 45-60minutes of score for the film and it was edited down to 28minutes, or if his score was written for the film short and then built upon, rounded out and extended to make for a good album presentation. In the film, the score is extremely sparse; there are only 11 minutes of score in the entire first hour of the movie, and from there on the score becomes more frequent. Many cues in the film are significantly longer on the CD (for example, the CD track "Going Home" (7:11) is cut off at the 3:49 mark, omitting the reprise of "There are Flowers Growing Upon the Hill" and segueing into a Melissa Etheridge song). There are many differen film versions and album versions of cues. Some cues on CD are not used in the film at all, and some cues in the film did not make it to CD. There is not a lot of completely unreleased material, but when you factor in alternate versions, edited versions and extended versions, it makes for enough material to make an expanded CD worthwhile, in my opinion.
CURRENT CD RELEASE RUNTIME: 43min09sec SCORE AS HEARD IN FILM RUNTIME: 27min50sec TOTAL UNRELEASED SCORE RUNTIME (including alternate film version tracks and unreleased material): 10min30sec COMPLETE SCORE RUNTIME (including unreleased material, alternates, film version tracks and album version tracks, extended tracks, etc.): 73min **Again, these times omit the song "God Be With You" by Dolores O'Riordan
Score as Heard in Film Cue Titles and Cue Times: (unreleased cues named by me for identification purposes)
1. Main Title (1:49) 2. New Home (0:26) -- unreleased material 3. Irish Lads in America (1:23) -- unreleased material; features brief excerpt from CD track "The New World" 4. Irish Republican Navy (1:17) 5. The Pool Hall (1:27) 6. Launching the Boat (1:25) 7. Secrets Untold (2:24) 8. Tom and Sheila (1:13) -- unreleased material 9. The War Comes Home (1:16) -- unreleased material 10. Rory's Room / Burke's Threats (1:52) -- unreleased material 11. Discovery (0:55) -- unreleased material 12. Rory's Arrest (0:53) -- film version 13. Diaz is Killed (1:26) -- film version 14. Quiet Goodbyes (0:57) 15. Rooftop Escape (1:39) -- film version 16. The Mortal Blow Pt. 1 (1:45) 17. The Mortal Blow Pt. 2 (1:11) 18. Going Home (3:49)
Current CD Release Track Titles and Track Times:
1. Main Title (4:35) -- extended version 2. Ambush (2:31) -- not in film 3. The Irish Republican Navy (1:21) 4. The New World (4:32) -- not in film 5. Launching the Boat (3:03) -- extended version 6. Secrets Untold (5:03) -- extended version 7. The Pool Hall (2:39) -- extended version 8. Rory's Arrest / Diaz is Killed (4:16) -- extended and alternate album version 9. Quiet Goodbyes (1:02) 10. Rooftop Escape (1:45) -- alternate album version 11. The Mortal Blow (5:11) -- extended version 12. Going Home (7:11) -- extended version
Ultimately, I do think this CD deserves an expanded release when you consider the following factors: the material on the CD that is not in the film; the material in the film that is not on the CD; and the various alternate versions of cues that are both in the film and on the CD. When you combine those things, you would have enough material (I believe) to warrant an expanded CD, which I personally would enjoy very much.
This movie was not a real treat, but the album was pretty good. I actually like the "Ambush" track and listen to that probably more than the rest of the album. There was some music in one of the TV spots that sounded very Horner, but I only saw it once or twice and never learned what the hell it really was. Lots of pianos, like Sneakers/Steve Reich.
Man, watching some of the trailers on YouTube, they really tried their damndest to sell this turkey. Using Bram Stoker's Dracula in the TV spot I watched and Backdraft in one of the trailers.
I very much enjoyed this breakdown. As one of the proud and the few PATRIOT GAMES fans on this board, this score is right up my alley.
I would note a couple things not mentioned here that I think would make an extended release even more attractive:
- The main title (I guess it's more of a prologue) cue in the film doesn't feature any vocals. It's a gorgeous orchestra-only edit of the song that I was heartbroken to find out wasn't on the album. I'd buy an expanded edition for this alone.
- The "Going Home" cue is different not only in length but also in content. The film version focuses more on the brotherhood theme, giving it a few different goes and building to a much fuller climax. The album version regards it more in passing in a more contemplative guise. The album version is fine, but the film version is better.
Album version:
Film version (SPOILERS I GUESS IT'S A 20 YEAR OLD MOVIE COME ON YOU GUYS) - note especially 2:20 onward:
Film version (SPOILERS I GUESS IT'S A 20 YEAR OLD MOVIE COME ON YOU GUYS) - note especially 2:20 onward:
Great points, Mike! Thanks for adding more info. Honestly it was such hard work catalogueing the film score vs. album score I'm sure I didn't catch everything, like the two points you mentioned.
I'll also add that in the "Going Home" clip you posted, the music from 0:15-1:05 is either a small unreleased cue or an extended opening to "Going Home" not found on album. Incidentally, the music from 0:15-1:05 is similar to other unreleased material from the film, like "Rory's Room / Burke's Threats" ... kind of an ambient Braveheart/Legends of the Fall/Patriot Games sound.
I love Patriot Games too Mike! Also had the audiocassette way back when.
