Certainly one of THE best. Unquestionably Top 10. I had the good fortune to hear this played live in concert in London under the baton of Nicholas Dodd a couple years ago (along with "City of Lovers," "Night at the Opera," and more) and it sure is a wonderful piece of scoring. Really gets you pumped for the adventure ahead. A fantastic way for Arnold to have burst onto the Bond scene.
Agreed 100 percent. I love the score to GoldenEye, but David Arnold set the mood perfectly for the Gunbarrel sequence of this film, going back to the classy sounding Bond theme. Then the very climax of White Knight? Such an explosive ending.
"Backseat Driver" is still the best, but "White Knight" is up there (along with "Come in 007 . . . " from TWINE and Blunt Instrument" and "Miami International" from Casino Royale).
Agreed that the last two films have missed Arnold. (Still, to me, there have been a lot of things these Craig movies have missed. The last one wasn't content to be bad enough on its own--it had to make you think less of the other recent films too. Man . . . .)
It was certainly up there - which was problematic because everything he wrote after it - everything - was worse! It was literally down hill after White Knight.
I remember when I first saw the film nearly 20 years ago at the cinema... as soon as it finished I raced to Tower Records before it closed to buy the CD. Those were the days... White Knight is exceptional.
My favourite of his is Quantum of Solace - wonderful music.
As for the album, the standout cue for me is 'Backseat Driver'. That has everything but the kitchen sink in a very busy cue, but never loses coherence in the music or the mix.
This cue was by far the biggest statement that "Bond is back" following the musical misfire of Goldeneye. I miss David Arnold's big and brassy approach to scoring from the 90s... keep hoping there will be a surprise announcement that he's returning to Independence Day 2, but alas.
The entirety of the TND score is still split across two releases, is that right?
Hardly. There are still a good many cues from TND that have never been released, however you're right that there are two different releases in existence (one that has been out-of-print for a long time now).
The first album pretty much just has the songs and music from the first half of the film, all the way up until Bond and Wai Lin are exploring the sunken Devonshire in "Underwater Discovery" (because Arnold was still scoring the second half of the film when the album had to be assembled).
Then around 2000, a second release came out with most of the music from the first album and 7 previously unreleased cues from the second half of the film. This album was however missing the Sheryl Crow and k.d. lang songs and the cue "Station Break." This is the album that has been out-of-print for a long time now. And there's probably about 20-25 minutes of music from TND that has never been released.
In short, like so many of its James Bond score brethren, TND needs an expansion badly.
"Backseat Driver" is still the best, but "White Knight" is up there (along with "Come in 007 . . . " from TWINE and Blunt Instrument" and "Miami International" from Casino Royale).
