Two moments when the music did shine through in the movie are the following:
* Death of King of Jerusalem - As well as being a very touching characterisation by Edward Norton and a nice attempt to put a face to that historical phantom king - Prester John - to my mind, the King was the Dante Alighieri of this story. When he died in the arms of his beatific sister (clearly the only woman for him), the polyphonic choral piece 'Vide et Corum' written for Hannibal by Patrick Cassidy (and based on Dante's La Vita Nuova sonnet - 'The Burning Heart' ) was a beautifully appropriate accompaniment. It captured the relationship closest to him, the vocal style of an era similar to it musically, and the elegiac quality. Beautiful temp track placement and far more appopriate than its use in the film it was written for.
* 'Valhalla' - the opening 4 minutes of this track from Goldsmith's the The Thirteenth Warrior gave this film's music a thematic kick that it was sorely lacking up to this point. That theme is stronger than anything I heard from Gregson-Williams in the score, and the editing of the scene nicely travelled with the piece. I haven't seen the McTiernan film, so its original associations mean nothing to me, and I like to think this was a nice tribute from Scott to a composer he could have treated better. I only wish they'd kept using the theme throughout the film.

James

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