The Patriot (3CD) (John Williams)

Intrada announces a 25th-anniversary edition of John Williams' Oscar-nominated score to the 2000 Columbia Pictures/Centropolis film The Patriot. Throughout Williams' long and treasured career he had developed a fresh, Americana voice, first coming to the fore in his 1969 score to The Reivers, then furthered a few years later with The Cowboys and quite powerfully in an unexpected place—-the Smallville sequences of Superman. It was a style that he would return to periodically and The Patriot provided a showcase for this style. The score involves three principal themes that correspond to protagonist Martin's past, present, and future—the war trauma theme, the love theme and the patriot theme. As the themes weave throughout the score, Williams' beloved epic style is on full display, as well as exciting action music. It's all here in this lengthy and powerful work.

Williams wrote his score for The Patriot over the course of about two months, a length of time he described as "fairly generous." He then recorded the score over eight sessions between May 6 and May 20, 2000. For this expanded 3-CD set, producer Mike Matessino took a meticulous approach to restoring the score for full presentation as well as preserving the unique and artistic presentation of the original Hollywood Records album. As Matessino writes in in his producer's note:

For this presentation, Sony Pictures transferred the Genex digital back-up 8-channel magneto optical disk (MOD) cartridges, which preserved Shawn Murphy's SDDS mixes. Performance edits were recreated, and the two-channel stereo mix-down process precisely followed what was done for the original soundtrack album. Careful attention was paid to the shortcomings that Murphy had originally noted in 2000,specifically to how SDDS's two additional front channels could compromise audio clarity and breadth of the stereo mix. The entire presentation was monitored in this regard so that the end result would preserve all of the subtlety and dynamic power of the original recording.

The 24-page booklet includes detailed notes on film and score by John Takis and features a cover design by Stéphane Coëdel.

The film is a historical war drama set during the American Revolutionary War. It follows Benjamin Martin, a South Carolina farmer and war hero turned pacifist, who is reluctantly drawn into the fight for independence after a brutal attack by British forces claims the life of his son. As he leads a militia against the British, Martin grapples with personal loss, revenge, and his duty to his family and country. Starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger, the film blends intense battle sequences with emotional drama.


- Intrada