When it comes to James Horner, I always rely on two scores of his: Braveheart and Glory. Both had beautiful themes which caught me. I've heard Horner recycles many of his scores, which i'm not denying as false, but I just never noticed it from the soundtracks he has composed that I heard. If anything, most of his soundtracks I really don't like that much, just don't grab me like Braveheart and Glory did. In Glory, I remember watching it, me in my civil war faze at the time. At the end of the movie, Shaw (Broderick) standing on the beach looking out into the ocean wondering whether it was his last breath, his last look at life. And then the Beautiful theme came up. It captured me, I fell in love with it and it just warmed my heart and at the moment, all that mattered was that moment of music. I must have rewinded it like 3-6 times JUST to hear that theme. Just a wonderful, powerful and dramatic piece. The rest of the album is good as well, but that theme alone is what makes the album. A classic movie score in my collection and in my heart.

James Horner's score has been praised to the skies by a great many moviegoers. Why, then, do you suppose it didn't receive an Academy Award nomination--a score this prominent, on which viewers have heaped unstinting accolades, is ignored? Probably because the composers' arm of the academy doesn't view plagiarism that lightly.
This score is rife with the kind of borrowings for which Horner has become notorious over the years. The main theme, heard prominently and developed throughout the "Call to Arms" and "Forming the Regiment" tracks (to name two), is a transparent reworking of the ten-note theme of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man." In "Brave Words, Braver Deeds," a melody from the Offertorium movement of Gabriel Faure's Requiem is utilized without alteration, appearing twice. The "Burning the Town of Darien," track lifts a chunk from Ralph Vaughan Williams' sublime "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis." The entire "Charging Fort Wagner" sequence is another transparent rejiggering by Horner, this time of the opening movement of Carl Orff's dramatic cantata "Carmina Burana." These are merely the ones I could identify. I'm no music historian; a sharper ear could likely pick out more.
No mention is given, either in the liner notes to the CD or in the credits for the film, of these other composers. At least in films like "Greystoke" and "Excalibur," the composers from whom the extra music got borrowed received a mention alongside that of the primary composer.
Read the credits of the old Errol Flynn film "Captain Blood" and you'll note that the composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, receives a title card that gives him credit for "musical arrangement," despite the fact that the music is almost entirely his. Korngold, pressed for time to meet his deadline, used a bit of Franz Liszt's music for a sword duel between Flynn and Basil Rathbone. The borrowed piece didn't amount to much, but Korngold insisted that he not be credited as composer, only as arranger. This was a man of integrity who wouldn't think of taking credit for another's work.
The circumstances surrounding the scoring of "Glory" are unknown to me. Perhaps Horner had a tough deadline. Perhaps the director fell in love with the "temp track" and asked Horner to emulate those pieces instead of coming up with something original. It really makes no difference, though. A man of integrity would have demanded that those other composers receive their due credit. If you're going to stand on the shoulders of giants, you should be man enough to admit it.

This is a typical James Horner recording. It will stir your soul like no other soundtrack out there and will boil your blood during the action sequences, most obviously during the assault on Fort Wagner. However, like most other James Horner releases, it has more than its fair share of plagiarism, be it from Horner himself (though this is nothing compared to Enemy at the Gates, which is basically Willow with a new title) and other composers.

However, if you are able to put copyright laws aside for the duration of the CD, this album may well turn out to be the first CD you ever actually wear out...