Willow - James Horner - Soundtrack Review

Willow received an expanded CD release in 2022. The original soundtrack remained one of James Horner’s most popular works. The original album featured 73 minutes, 8 tracks, with 3 tracks over 10 minutes, and Bavmorda's Spell Is Cast as an 18 minute track, but still 30 min were missing. Willow stands out as one of Horner’s finest soundtracks with a powerful and majestic main theme and fabulous action tracks.

The movie

Willow is a 1988 American fantasy adventure film directed by Ron Howard and produced by Nigel Wooll. The film was executive produced by George Lucas and written by Bob Dolman from a story by Lucas. The film stars Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis, and Jean Marsh. Davis portrays the title character, an aspiring magician who teams up with a disaffected warrior (Kilmer) to protect a young baby princess from an evil queen (Marsh).

Here is trailer

Even though George Lucas developed the idea in 1972, he had to wait until the mid-1980s to make the film because visual effects technology was finally advanced enough to execute his vision. Lucas approached Howard to direct during the post-production phase of Cocoon in 1985. Bob Dolman was brought in to write the screenplay, coming up with seven drafts that Lucas was actively involved in the developmental process of each draft.

The film was released in 1988 to mixed reviews from critics with praise for the visual effects and character designs but criticisms for its direction and plot. It grossed $137.6 million worldwide against a $35 million budget. While not the blockbuster some expected, it turned a profit based on international box office returns and strong home video and television returns and received two Academy Award nominations. A television series that served as a sequel to the film was released on Disney+ in 2022.

The music

The plot of Willow offered James Horner with a rich variety of various topics to compose music for. Horner described the music (quoted from in the liner notes to the expanded edition) as “one of the most relevant balances between concert and cinema.” The composer explained the rationale behind the music: “I am a musicologist, […] I listened to, studied and analyzed a lot of music. I also enjoy metaphors, the art of quoting and of cycles. The harmonic draft of the Willow score […] came from such a cycle, from such mythology and music history that I was taught, and that myself convey with my own emotions and compositions.”

For this core Horner developed 14 leitmotifs, a significant theme, different harmonies and shifting orchestral colors. The overall score is built on traditional symphonics, but Horner expanded the traditional orchestra with enough percussion to require 10 players to play the various drums and whirly tubes, added three additional woodwind players to cover the Japanese shakuhachi flute, pan pipes, didgeridoo and medieval shawms. Keyboards included two pianos, two synthesizers, Alpine horns, mandolins and more.

The famous heroic theme is introduced around 1 minute in Enchanted Forest and varied throughout the whole score. The theme is mostly played by the brass sections, especially horns, but sometimes by flutes, oboes and clarinets. A fabulous piece that uses this theme is Willow's Journey Begins with some dissonant parts in the middle of the track. And Willows Theme presents the main theme in a wonderfully orchestrated track! I found a great live performance of the theme:

The theme for Queen Bavmorda, played by Jean Marsh (famous for the British Tv-Serie Upstairs, Downstairs) can be first heard in Death Dogs, also played by horns. The whole tracks reminds of the action tracks of another well-known Horner score Krull (1983) and the part around 1’22 reminds of the similar music in Titanic. Bavmorda's Castle increases the haunting atmosphere. A love-theme is introduced in Escape From The Tavern, a fabulous action track in the typical James Horner style in his score from the 80s, wonderful orchestrated, and a real pleasure to listen to! More action can be found in the second part of The Sled Ride, Canyon Of Mazes, Tir Asleen, and the last track Willow the Sorcerer.

Horner was a big fan of the Japanese shakuhachi flute which he uses a lot in his soundtracks. Willow is no exception here, and this flute is used for the music Horner composed for the magic world in this movie. For the “real” world” Horner composed music in a more traditional way, and these two worlds and the different composing style are overlapping each other which makes Willow one of Horner’s most ambitious soundtracks. Horner was very specific in his instruction and told the Kazu Matsui, the player of the Japanese flute, to improvise freely on the melody. This style can be heard in the funny music for the dwarf Willow and his people, music composed in a circus style, with a dominance of the solo violine.

The expanded Intrada release offers the soundtrack on 2 CDs with a lot of new material. Willow is not only one of Horner’s most popular scores, but it is also one of his longest with a running time of more than 100 minutes.

Willow was not the first time that director Ron Howard and composer James Horner worked together, in total, they worked on seven films together until Howard started his collaboration with Hans Zimmer. Horner praised the collaboration with Howard: “Ron has his heart which comes through on a lot of his films, and that’s what I go for, that’s what I aim for on every project. I never aim for the surface elements. I all the films I worked on, there’s always that “What is the hear of the film?” – and I try and nail that. Ron is so warm-hearted, it just happened we just clicked like that.”

James Horner, who was an avid pilot, was killed in a single-fatality crash while flying his Short Tucano turboprop aircraft. He was 61 years old and is greatly missed these days!

Let celebrate this soundtrack with another clip: