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My Blueberry Nights
(more) »rank: 19465by: Original Soundtrack
: : My Blueberry Nights Photos Amazon.com:Cinephiles will know My Blueberry Nights as Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's first American movie; music fans will know it as Norah Jones' first movie, period. Not only does she play one of the leads, but she also contributes a new song, 'The Story,' to the soundtrack. Backed by brushed drums, a stand-up bass, and a cool piano, Jones is at her jazziest and sultriest, oozing a sly honky-tonk, come-hither sensibility. Ry Cooder's score is represented by a trio of tracks; the best, 'Ely Nevada,' is a spooky little thing that feels lifted from a David Lynch movie, ...
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The Patriot: Original Motion Picture Score (2000 Film)
(more) »rank: 4988by: John Williams
: :Though Hollywood has long had a love affair with historical epics, it has sorely shortchanged America's own most compelling chapter, the War of Independence. And if this tale of a retiring Colonial hero whose family gets drawn into the war against the British has no shortage of production ironies--being helmed by a German director and starring Australian-raised Mel Gibson--its score is a solid, stirring effort by American John Williams. Largely eschewing typical bombastic epic fodder for a mostly understated score rich in his distinctive writing for brass and strings, Williams's music seeks out the story's emotional underpinnings as much as its battle-scarred action ...
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The Bourne Supremacy
(more) »rank: 7514from: Varese Sarabande
: :Novelist Robert Ludlum's amnesia-plagued, tough-as-nails spy/assassin Jason Bourne again proves that success begats sequels, be they literary or cinematic. As he did for the saga's initial big screen installment, composer John Powell concocts an electro-orchestral fusion score that seasons its tense, bristling rhythms with dollops of melodicism, synth-atmospherics and staccato string figures. Those welcome touches hearken back to composer's similar work on the '03 action-thriller The Italian Job, with Powell initially evoking the film's exotic locales by employing a savory synth pop-meets-Eastern European palate. The tension-building rhythms and percussion flourishes familiar from Powell's other action-centric scores are the score's musical pulse -- even ...
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Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(more) »rank: 8375by: John Williams
: :There's never been anything quite like the symphonic film music series that John Williams has forged for George Lucas's sprawling Star Wars saga. By the time the sixth chapter rolls around, Williams will have created a body of work that spans fully 30 years of his career, a virtual Ring Cycle of sci-fi/fantasy soundtrack music. While Attack of the Clones again achieves the high standards of its predecessors, it also succeeds by both forging some rewarding new musical themes at the same time it begins to bring the galactic fable full circle. The budding relationship between now-teenaged Anakin Skywalker and Amidala/Padme is informed ...
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A Beautiful Mind: Original Motion Picture Score
(more) »rank: 6309by: James Horner
: :This Ron Howard film parlays the troubled story of Nobel laureate John Forbes Nash Jr., a gifted Princeton mathematics professor tormented for decades by paranoid schizophrenia, into something considerably richer than typical Hollywood triumph-against-all-odds fare. Howard has teamed here again with frequent collaborator James Horner, and it's the composer who deftly shades the film's difficult emotional landscape and helps impart a compelling humanity. Horner's first task is not inconsiderable: musically portraying the arcane realm of mathematical theorems that are the story's backdrop. In doing so, the composer leans heavily on modern minimalist technique, bright flourishes that recur briefly throughout an orchestral score that ...
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The Last Samurai
(more) »rank: 5412by: Hans Zimmer
: :Whether Tom Cruise's portrayal of a 19th century American soldier cum samurai warrior will be remembered with the same pangs of pop-cultural bemusement that befell John Wayne playing Genghis Khan remains to be seen. But its musical soundtrack does mark an auspicious occasion: pop musician-turned-composer Hans Zimmer's 100th score since beginning his film career in 1988. A pioneer of fusing both the electronic and orchestral and the Westernized with the indigenous, Zimmer does both here with skill, drawing heavily on samples of the traditional Taiko (a massive Japanese drum) for its rhythmic action sequences, while constructing a melodic Western motif for Cruise's character ...
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The Piano
(more) »rank: 5740from: Virgin Records Us
:Album Description:2004 saw the celebratory release of the special 'Nyman at 60' digipak editions of six of his most popular soundtracks. With stock of these limited editions now depleted, the albums will be made available as jewel case (remastered) editions. To begin with, his most successful soundtrack 'The Piano' jewel case version will still include the extra track 'The Heart Asks Pleasure First / The Promise (Edit).' EMI.
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Beetlejuice (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(more) »rank: 9033from: Geffen Records
:Album Description:2004 saw the celebratory release of the special 'Nyman at 60' digipak editions of six of his most popular soundtracks. With stock of these limited editions now depleted, the albums will be made available as jewel case (remastered) editions. To begin with, his most successful soundtrack 'The Piano' jewel case version will still include the extra track 'The Heart Asks Pleasure First / The Promise (Edit).' EMI.
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Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(more) »rank: 4338from: Sony
: :The Star Wars cycle, George Lucas's stellar pop parable cum merchandising blitzkrieg, has long since made history as an unparalleled cinematic-cultural-marketing phenomena; somewhere Billy Jack should be in one envious, ass-kickin' mood. Phantom Menace, easily the most eagerly anticipated film of the '90s, returns to the saga's roots and allows Lucas to flesh out the history of some of the fable's core characters and conjure up a dazzling new cast of cohorts, antagonists, and alien realms for them to interact with and in. Thus, all composer John Williams had to do was essentially reinvent the world's most popular wheel. The film-scoring legend has ...
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Memoirs of a Geisha
(more) »rank: 5760from: Sony
: :Director Rob Marshall hired three of Asia's most fabulous stars (Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, and Gong Li) for this Japan-set movie, so one wonders why he didn't put in a call to a local composer as well. Was Tan Dun's line busy? Was Joe Hisaishi otherwise engaged? In any case, John Williams won the assignment, and he didn't end up with egg on his face. Mercifully, Williams left the bombast at home and put cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman to good use in this sensitive score. The lovely 'Sayuri's Theme' resurfaces at regular intervals, and it's good to hear Williams keep ...
