Krull, Part I

I saw Krull for the first time my freshman year in college. My roommate was a Star Wars guy and one day asked if I'd ever seen it. Once he got over the astonishment of it, he immediately pulled out his VHS copy of Krull and we watched it right then and there. I was enthralled (sometimes it doesn't take much). I realized that there was a great deal in common with Star Wars but mostly the ways that it incorporates so many aspects of Arthurian legend (not to mention various other archetypes). Did the film have its weaknesses? Absolutely. Did it aspire to be greater than its budget allowed? Definitely. In the long run, it seems to have aged comparatively well when you place it up against many of the other post-Star Wars films of the time. This probably owes to the fact that it doesn't take place on Earth and its setting owes a great deal to the highly romanticized versions of the medieval Arthurian legends.

But I digress.

I don't remember how, but I acquired my own VHS copy as soon as I could. I even pre-ordered the DVD pretty much as soon as its released was announced. But the coup was when I was browsing at a Barnes and Noble (a Barnes and Noble!) and happened across the Southern Cross pressing of the score:

I was unbelieveably stoked. For the next 45 minutes I walked around the store, clinging to that CD like Gollum to his Preciousss. It quickly went on my playlist and I listened to it over and over again. As a matter of fact, it's been part of my regular listening rotation consistently since the day I bought it. At some point during college the now defunct Super Collector somehow acquired a set of master tapes from Krull and pressed their own release that was a more-or-less complete score for the film. The sound quality was no different from the the Southern Cross release, just double the music!

Then it finally happened.

The good folks at La-la-land Records (increasingly becoming the Little Label that Could) saw fit to release their own complete score (with a few bonuses) that seems to be mastered from newly recovered elements. The quality is much, much better. They seem to have removed the artificial sounding reverb from the original release(s) and applied a more natural-sounding reverb. The score is still bright and powerful, and the producers seem to have smoothed off some of the rough passages - of which there were many. For a lot of film music lovers this has been one of those "holy grail" scores. It has a bold main theme for the film's male protagonist, Colwyn, muscular action music for the adventure aspects of the score, brazen moments of pure orchestration that remind you that Horner is, in fact, a highly-trained, highly-skilled composer and a beautiful and yearning love theme for Colwyn and Lyssa - held captive by The Beast for the majority of the film - that in some distant way seems reminiscent to me of British folk song.

It's a fun film and, as I remarked to a friend, probably my favorite of the post-Star Wars fantasy failures. In recent years, though, it seems to have gained somewhat of a cult following. I would like to think that the terrific efforts of James Horner have something to do with it, but I also know that it's largely because - like Star Wars - the film remains largely upbeat for its duration (also a credit to Horner).

This is all prelude, though. There's more to come. Meantime, check out the first cue in the film, "Main Title and Colwyn's Arrival". Great swashbuckling stuff!