FIELD OF HONOUR.

 

 

A somewhat neglected example of the music of Roy Budd in a war movie is FIELD OF HONOUR, the movie which was set in the dark days of the Korean war was released in 1987. The film enjoyed mild success in Europe mainly, but the musical score penned by Roy Budd is one of the movies more prominent and ingratiating attributes. Budd employed an oriental sound throughout the soundtrack and combined this with a more western sounding grandiose and dramatic style, the composer enlisting brass, strings and percussion to underline and support many of the action scenes, but then utilising plaintiff woods and rich and full strings in a highly melodic fashion to depict the Eastern aspects of the movies storyline. Like Jerry Goldsmith, Budd seemed to be at home writing this style of Oriental music, and the themes that he fashioned for this movie are indeed haunting and beguilingly magical. The score is one of the composers least mentioned works, and I think I am right when I say that not that many collectors were aware of its existence. The compact disc was released on SILVA SCREEN records (SIL1502-2), and is paired with the music from THE SECRET OF THE ICE CAVE by Robert M.Esty ll. But it is FIELD OF HOUNOUR that I will review and bring to your attention, as it is the more prominent and dare I say important work on the disc. The MAIN TITLES, open with a quite pretty wood wind motif, that is supported by Chinese harp and these two instruments supported by martial sounding timpani, soon establish themselves and the theme for the movie, the composer continues to employ the theme but adds to it more percussive elements that are in no way harsh or overbearing, instead these act as a background to some beautiful strings, that in turn are augmented and given depth by the introduction of brass and continued percussive support. Track 2, HOLE IN YOUR HEAD, is a typical Roy Budd action cue, with horns heralding the opening and kind of calling the percussion and brass to join them, dark sounding piano is also brought into the equation, again given support and elevated by the use of thundering percussion, and Chinese sounding instrumentation that punctuates the proceedings, the track is a sort of stop start action piece, by this I mean it erupts into rhythmic upbeat action mode from time to time, but also melts into a more romantic and calming mood, with the composer introducing his central theme in the lulls of the cue. To say that FIELD OF HONOUR is a good score, is certainly an understatement, it is a great score, but it is sadly one that is often forgotten, probably because the film was not a massive box office success. It is also a score that echoes many of the works of Jerry Goldsmith, it has pace, depth and solid thematic properties which even in the fast-paced action cues, manage to shine through. Roy Budd never wrote a bad score in my opinion and much of his film music is remembered where, as many of the films it was written for are long lost in the mists of time. Another Roy Budd to look out for, highly recommended.

1.
Main Titles (03:29)
2.
Hole in Your Head (04:04)
3.
Have a Look (02:07)
4.
Rats/Moonlight/Attack From Behind (03:27)
5.
On His Way (02:08)
6.
Chinese Attack (02:27)
7.
Rape Death (02:04)
8.
Sire Scouts Chinese (02:36)
9.
War Outside/Dynamite Raid (03:48)
10.
End Titles (03:13)