Morlock's soundtrack review (NO SPAM!)

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Thu May 09, 2002 11:07 am

Here is the run-down on this thread:

This thread is dedicated to movie soundracks that are strictly insrutmental- meaning tunes, not songs.

This is the kind of thread that will be filled with posts by me.

In this thread, composers I like (Mainly John Williams) will be mentioned several hundred times.

This thread will surface often with the name of the last poster being 'Morlock'.

Please refrain from off topic posts.

No rules apply to me.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Thu May 09, 2002 11:26 am

First up:
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones
By John Williams

This is a ST (Soundtrack) only for fans of Star Wars music or John Williams in general. It is basicaly a combination of most of the previous SW themes.

If you want the best music, it comes about 3 minutes into four tracks: #9 #10 #12 #13.
The best parts of the ST are in the three older themes: The Droid invasion (E1), Luke's theme (E4) and the best one- The Imperial March (E2).
The only purely new theme is 'Across the Stars', which, unfortunatly sounds too much like 'Hook' for my liking.

The rest of the soundtrack is complementing music- meaning it only works in the movie, not independatly. Whether its good or not will be revealed on May 16th.
A solid Soundtrack, but only for selected buyers.
8/10

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Sat May 11, 2002 10:47 pm

Air Force One
By Jerry Goldsmith

This is, IMO, Goldsmith's best all around ST. 'Patton' has a great theme and 'Planet Of the Apes' has extriemly effective music, but AF1 is great in both ways.

The music is especialy effective, since it sounds Russian or Slavik.

The main theme is all out Dramatic- which fits the movie, but since it's played from the start, he has no room to get more Dramatic as the time goes on.

The best tune is 'Radeck's death', both in effectiveness and great music to listen to. Before I got the ST I rewinded the part when Radeck was shot over and over again just for the music.
A great ST- both with and without the movie.
8.5/10

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Sun May 12, 2002 10:41 am

I usually do not rate the score as having that much effect on a film, the best films always have a good score though. One of my favourite scores is to a rather unheard of film featuring James Spader called Storyville.

Nearly every scene in the film is complimented by this outstandingly subtle music, it is one of the things that sticks most with me in this film. The music is obstensibly the same track, but it is part of every scene and without it this film would have struck me as fairly standard. It added tension, comedy and eroticism in equal measure

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Sun May 12, 2002 11:29 am

I agree Sleep, sometimes a song doesn't have to be blared out (Imperial March style) to have an effect, sometimes subtle music even FX can make the difference in a film, music is there to complement, not replace.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Sun May 12, 2002 3:59 pm

The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring
By Howard Shore

In this Oscar winning ST Shore proves once again, as in 'Philidelphia' and 'Silence of The Lambs', that he is great at movies with dark story lines.

The reason I don't really like his ST's are because they work only and exclusivly with the movie- The ST of 'Silence of the lambs' could give you nightmares, and IMO the LoTR ST was pretty dull.

My point is Shore almost never has any original themes that are plesent to listen to without the movie. Which is why I was shocked that he came up with something so original, carefree and beutiful as 'Concerning Hobbits'- which is one of the best tunes I've ever heard.

But even the greatness of the latter could not redeem the entire CD. Some might say that the theme at the start of track 13 and a few other times, the big dramatic theme is also a great original tune. But the truth is that that tune is just a rearangement of Allan Silvestri's theme for 'The Mummy Returns', which is directly inspired by Jerry Goldsmith's score for The original movie (The original comedy remake, that is

).

For the only redeeming theme- I give it a
7/10

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Sun May 12, 2002 4:14 pm

To balance the last one off with what was IMO the best score last year was.... (I dare you to guess by who it was!

)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone
By John Williams

This was IMO the best ST last year- it has a relativly large number of themes, which vary from very Dark to very Beutiful.

It is done by my favorite composer and the best one in modern times.

The Movie is a kids movie- so everyone involved behind the scenes has had a very succefull expirience in childrens books/movie. The most noticable among those are the director, Chris Columbus and John Williams (I posted a warning at the start!).

Since the movie was excpected to appeal to more or less the same audience as 'Home Alone' did, Williams made the main theme similar to his main theme in HA- with a dark Xylophone tune a la Tchaicovsky's 'Sugar Plum Fairy'.

My favorite tracks were: #2 -as it develops into the beutiful theme, #3, #4 #5 #13 and in #16 I loved what is possibly the best musical build up I've ever heard (Except for Jaws) during the chess game sequence.

A great ST- should have taken the oscar this year.
8.5/10

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sun May 12, 2002 6:04 pm

Originally posted by Morlock
My point is Shore almost never has any original themes that are plesent to listen to without the movie.

The thing I like about the LotR soundtrack is that I find the different themes very evocative of the places - so Concerning Hobbits really captured the essence of Hobbiton, and the same for Rivendell... Lothlorien is an exception, but that's because I disagreed with the whole way it was portrayed in the movie. But when I listen to the soundtrack, I can see in my mind exactly what's happening in the movie at each point, so listening to the soundtrack recaptures the emotions of the movie.

@Sleep I'm not sure I agree... even if the soundtrack is not particularly noticeable, I think it adds to the overall effect. Sure, you can't make a good film from a soundtrack alone, but a soundtrack can have a big effect on the atmosphere even if it's not that obtrusive.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Mon May 13, 2002 1:24 am

@Georgi: I agree with you- that is the power of the ST, that it sounds like a certain place- but IMO it just isn't the kind of thing I want to hear when I turn on music.
I was reading The Return of the king again last week- so I turned on the soundtrack, and it just fell into place, it fit with the aura of the books.

@Sleepy: I believe that in all movies, a well done score does make the movie much better, and certainly no score makes the movie either pointless or outright bad. Most scores need movies. All movies need scores.
My problem is that sometimes if I hear the score before I see the movie, because I know the score, and have a sort of photographic memory with music, I can tell whats gonna happen next. Like in AoTC I am almost sure there is gonna be a part reminicent of ESB- that it's all calm and friendly, but when the door opens, Darth Vader is there. That's the only way to explain the very sudden shift in the music.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon May 13, 2002 4:26 am

Originally posted by Georgi
@Sleep I'm not sure I agree... even if the soundtrack is not particularly noticeable, I think it adds to the overall effect. Sure, you can't make a good film from a soundtrack alone, but a soundtrack can have a big effect on the atmosphere even if it's not that obtrusive.

There are some films like 2001 that are extremely score based, then you have Momento which score is hardly there at all and isn't really important. Quite often silence is the best tension builder, i find tension music can be very hackneyed.

I sort of rescind my comments, i don't necessarily agree enough with them to argue the point

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon May 13, 2002 5:50 am

The score to a film is something that you shouldn't notice during the movie, but if you saw the movie without it, you'd definitely notice that something was amiss. The score should add to the movie, but not be its focus.

Take for instance the beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan. There was no score. The movie didn't need one.

Then consider movies like Psycho or Jaws without a score. They wouldn't have been half as good or one-tenth as scary.

Generally, I think the only movies in which the score should draw attention to itself are movies in which music is important to the movie's story, characters or plot, such as musicals (duh!) and movies like Immortal Beloved; can you imagine a movie about Beethoven without music?

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Mon May 13, 2002 5:58 am

I agree with Georgi on LOTR - take the Saruman/Orc music - very mechanical and drum-based, sounding like steel hitting iron. Perfect!

Thin Red Line has a very haunting soundtrack. Just right for the movie. Same goes for platoon.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Mon May 13, 2002 6:15 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave
can you imagine a movie about Beethoven without music?

Actualy- Amadeus which is about Mozart- the music wasn't very important to the movie, it was the behind the scenes of it, and Saliri's envy that drove the picture.

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Tue May 14, 2002 12:20 am

Gladiator
By Hans Zimmer

This great score, which was unrightfully beaten by 'Crouching Tiger...' for the oscar last year, is the best of last year, in addition to being one of Zimmer's best.

The score has some resemblence to 'the Rock', (done partly by Zimmer) especialy during the battle scenes.

What I like about Zimmer, is that he doesn't score in a conventional way. Until 'Hannibal' came along, all of his scores for Ridley Scott movies were in Waltz form, which makes the opening battle much more interesting, snice it has 14 seperate themes in the opening sequence alone.

I thought he really showed talent in tribal music, composing a piece that really sounded gritty and dirty, like Zuchabar was suppose to be. He also used a lot of local music very well in 'Black Hawn Down'.

I loved the very dramatic music he used in 'Return to Rome'. It sounded very much like a Wagneresque Germain march. (I know there's a name to it, but I can't remember it)

He made a great choice in choosing Lisa Gerrard to sing the theme. Her voice was perfect. Although, I thought it was too much that she won a golden Globe for it, as she didn't compose it.

I thought something along those line of Enya's/LoTR's cheap (attempted) oscar grab, in turning 'May it Be' from a musical composition into a song, just to get more awards.

A great score, probably Zimmer's best aside from "The Rock", which he didn't compose by himself. The best track, without a doubt, is the Gladiator Waltz.
9/10

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Sat May 25, 2002 3:50 pm

The Rock
By Hans Zimmer, Nick Glennie-Smith, Harry Gregson-Williams

One of the best scores ever. I just don't know which tracks are which composer's.

It is the best action score ever, with a great dramatic theme.

I said this in my movie thread- I got the DVD just becaue in the copy I had the sound was not great at the start. It starts off with the best music (Track #1 Hummel Gets the Rockets)- I'm amazed how the music fits so perfectly with the actiones, how right after you hear the soldier saying 'They're not coming for us, are they' the theme starts.

The action music is so perfected during the raid on the missile place- I'm pretty sure that's Zimmer's, since he is great at action movies (see 'Gladiator' and 'Crimson Tide' and you'll know what I mean').

The chase scene's music is also great.

I am not continuing simply because I'm out of words, but it is truely on my top 10, or even 5 of favorite Soundtracks.

Highly recomended.

10/10

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sat May 25, 2002 5:03 pm

Well this movie is on right now so I just have to give it a mention...

*wackawackawackawacka da-da-da-da-da! da-da-da-da-da!*
Shaft!

Quality

Robnark · Post by **Robnark** » Sat May 25, 2002 5:08 pm

On?! now?! where?!

(on a shaft related theme, feel the sig, cats)

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sat May 25, 2002 5:14 pm

Originally posted by Robnark
On?! now?! where?!

(on a shaft related theme, feel the sig, cats)

On BBC2, I assumed you were watching it since I just noticed your sig...

@Morlock ok, ok... not spamming...

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sat May 25, 2002 6:46 pm

The type of scores I like best, are the ones who really add to the movie, but the movie is not depending on it.

I don't like Beethoven (I played him too much when I played piano), but the use of his works in "A clockwork orange" really makes the film even better and increases the effects of many scenes.

The intro to Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra and Lygeti's experimental art music is very well used in 2001 IMO.

A score I've always loved is Scots composer Pat Doyle, performed by Birmingham Symphony orchestra conducted by famous conducter Simon Rattle. The music is rich enough to stand on itself, but the film is certainly not depending on the music.

Other good and effective original soundtracks are IMO The Godfather and Lawrence of Arabia. And of course Morricone's classical scores to Leone's spaghetti westerns!

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Sat May 25, 2002 11:22 pm

@CE: I am not sure about what your point was, so I may not be answering you at all.

I see nothing wrong with a movie being dependent on the music. As I have said several times before, I believe that many of the best film moments are worthless without the music, and I believe that the vast majority of movies that have music that can stand alone, wouldn't work with out the music- All of my examples above fit.

Other good and effective original soundtracks are IMO The Godfather and Lawrence of Arabia. And of course Morricone's classical scores to Leone's spaghetti westerns!

Actualy, these specific Sound Tracks are some of the few that I have that are not John Williams!

I definatly agree, The Godfather had a great score, plus I once saw an Italian movie that Ennio Morricone scored and ever since I look for movies which he did. It was such a simple, beutiful score.

I just saw Lawrence of Arabia earlier this year, and I loved Maurice Jarre's score, but on getting the ST, I was a bit dissapointed that there was only an hour of music, to the three and a half hours of the movie.
I have always thought that Jarre's scores were on a very wide scope, even when dealing with a relativly small movie like 'Dead Poets Society' or 'Witness'. And of course his other work with David Lean, 'Dr. Zhivago' was great. It makes him seem almost over-reaching at times, but, when the film is on also a huge scope, than he is perfect. He was a great match to David Lean because they both work on a huge scope.

Ennio Moricone's score for 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' is one of my favorites. It simply captures everything perfectly.
Also Morricone is one of the best composers out there, 'Malena' and 'Legend of 1900' are some of my favorite scores- 'Malena' for its simplicity, and the other for its just finley honed music