Rating: 5
This Academy Award winning score is an epic one with an expanded ‘son of Out Of Africa’ kind of sound. The lush orchestration and gorgeous long-limbed writing is typical of latter-day Barry. What is not typical is the way he disperses the film into a spectrum of themes (he normally converges to simplify, clarify and amplify the emotional arc). The John Dunbar theme acts as a focal one, though each episode of the film has its own music. Though this approach takes us on lots of short journeys rather than one long one, it yields great variety and serves up characters, action, romance, loss and sweeping landscapes in spades.
The compositions are excellent. The John Dunbar theme evokes the dignified solitude of the narrating character while the Two Socks theme is sweet and emotive. Journey To Fort Sedgewick is a sweeping piece of classical stature. Never has Barry been more heart rending than with the Journey To The Buffalo Killing Ground, a sad inversion of the Dunbar theme. Never has he inspired the need to cheer more than in the euphoric Rescue Of Dances With Wolves. Never has he held an audience so taughtly than with Pawnees.
The word ‘masterpiece’ is overused but in this case it’s appropriate. Dances is an expansive, romantic, stirring, memorable soundtrack that explores the inner character of the characters at hand. It is an all-Barry score, though there is more stark, dramatic and hard-driven action than normal, using more complicated rhythms than normal.