It was with great satisfaction that I found out David Arnold was the composer for "Amazing Grace." You see, I've been clamoring for Arnold's work ever since his second film "Stargate" and had been hoping to hear more from him than we have up until now. The Bond series aside, he's not been involved with many mainstream films and that's probably by design. While "Amazing Grace" is not a blockbuster effort, it is certainly a project where Arnold could predictably deliver something memorable.
Upon listening to the score for the first time, I found much of the music to be dormant and predominantly used as background fare. It wasn't until the final 2 tracks that this thing came to life for me and it did so with excellence. The second-to-last track (cue 24) is a beautiful piece of work. It's the kind of music that is uplifting and inspiring with a soaring orchestra delivering one exquisite note after another. It was the first time on the soundtrack that I was able to truly grasp the main theme, and thus, led to another sit-down with the score. I came to the conclusion that "Amazing Grace" really is a soundtrack that requires multiple engagements to truly acknowledge its excellence.
After dazzling me by the closure of the score, I went back and listened to the soundtrack once again and this time, I found differing results. I was able to grasp onto the main theme in all its subtleties and was able to appreciate the music more so because of it. While there is still a good amount of underscore to contend with, there is a high quality of music that is worth your patience to get to.
The last track, which gives us a rendition of the "Amazing Grace" melody that we're familiar with, is presented with bagpipes leading to an orchestral finish. I'm glad that Arnold elected not to use more of this theme throughout and that he chose to write original music for the film instead. Using the melody that we hear in the final cue as the baseline of the score would have given off a tarnished, transparent feel to the production. I'm usually always a proponent of original music as it is, anyway!
Looking forward, and as bad as this sounds, I'm still looking forward to the day that David Arnold re-teams with Roland Emmerich so that we can get more of the blockbuster music that we hard in "Stargate" and "ID4." Until then, however, efforts like the one heard in "Amazing Grace" will tide me over.
Final Score: So, how to ultimately grade a soundtrack that requires a minimum of two tries to fully appreciate it? Easy, this one goes out to David Arnold fans only and everyone else should hear this one out in the movie before purchasing it. Since I fall in the former, my grade (while not terribly high) will reflect my fandom.
