The second part of Oliver Stone's Vietnam "trilogy" following Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July was also the first of a triumvirate of collaborations between the director and composer John Williams.  Their collaboration would prove to be especially fruitful, with JFK and Nixon both being blessed with outstanding music; and Born on the Fourth of July set a very high standard right from the start.  Stone's moving, sometimes horrifying movie elicited one of the best performances of Tom Cruise's career; and one of the best scores Williams wrote around the time (not one of his best phases, it has to be said).

The score mixes two wildly opposing styles; Williams does it with flair and while the dissonant textures of some cues might on paper seem bound to fit in poorly with the disparate sounds of glorious, elegaic string writing and powerhouse emotional themes, they actually blend together surprisingly well.

The former style is exemplified by "The Shooting of Wilson", which contains some of the most "difficult" music Williams has written since rising to prominence with Star Wars.  This is adult material and those who love him only for his family scores will be disappointed, but those who are fonder of the more mature side to the composer could barely find a better example.  Many people criticise Williams for just cranking out catchy tunes and repeating them ad nauseum; this shows exactly how much more to him there is.  He hasn't been the most in-demand composer in Hollywood for almost 30 years without reason.  Further reason is provided in the incredible final cue, unquestionably one of the finest in his distinguished career.  Classical music purists may mock Williams's decision to double the string section to wring even more emotion from the music, but the effect to the film music fan is stunning.  The two main themes for the picture are heard in all their glory, and no fan of Williams - or good film music in general - could fail to be moved.

Sadly only about 25 minutes of the composer's lengthy score were included on MCA Records' album; but those 25 minutes feature some of the most directly emotional and moving music Williams has ever written.  Also included are various songs, which flow well together though aren't exactly in keeping with the mood of the score.  Fortunately, they're all clumped together at the start of the album.  You can enjoy Van Morrison, Don McLean and Henry Mancini if you want - or just skip forward to the unbridled glory of Williams's music.  If only more of it was here.

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