Now, on to Richard Marvin's score. I sincerely hope this gets a release. This score marks the debut of a great talent! I can't remember if this is accurate, but isn't Marvin one of Poledouris' orchestrators? Don't let this fact give you any preconcieved notions. His style is not simliar to Poledouris... and I'm having a hard time comparing it to anyone else's style. It's nothing groundbreaking or unusual - thought the music is utterly explosive. With a huge, lush orchestral performance, Marvin has composed an AWESOME patriotic/heroic suspense score that will surely become a favorite to many. The main theme is VERY uplifting and EXTREMELY effective in the picture - and adds that certain "magic" we all hoped it would.

Definitely see the film. It's an intense ride and the score definitely plays out the thrills!

The one TV commercial I saw for this movie (I haven't seen the theatrical trailer) had the flavor of "We dare you to come see this ridiculous bomb" -- I really COULDN'T believe how ineptly cut it was -- but Mostow's BREAKDOWN was reasonably intelligent, and I love the whole setup, however, so I'll be right there in line on day one, just as I was for CRIMSON TIDE. It's weird to me when the marketing departments almost seem to TRY to kill something that should be an easy sell ... anyway, I'm sure it'll open huge.

As far as historians and experts debating the merits; I say, BAH! to them. It's just a movie, people. It's not intended to represent what 'actually' happened. Geez, why is everything torn asunder just because it's 'not what really happened'.

Anyway, I was shocked to see Dino De Laurentiis' name on the picture. I usually associate his name with duds.

But I give it Thumbs Up!

that and CRIMSON TIDE are the sub movies.

but, Im gonna see u-571 anyway in the hopes that I can add a third to that list, despite Roger Ebert's harsh review.

The score is pretty good, it seemed a mix of Hanz Zimmer and John Williams, and the main theme sounded at times a lot like "Hymn for the Fallen". In fact, the harmonic progressions that underpin the main theme are exactly akin to the Williams piece. One could argue it just sounds like many other good war film scores.

I have never been impressed with McConaughey as an actor but he does a fair job. For me the German sub captain had more presence than he did, and Keitel has a part that he can walk through.

Given that, the film does have moments that are tense and for a film that is PG-13 does a great job of telling a story minus a lot of senseless profanity for a change.

Shaun

I thought the movie was really good - one of the most suspenseful to come out in a while.

From what I can tell, Richard Marvin did a great job scoring this film... especially for someone new to scoring. Andrew, I respect your opinion on the film itself... but Shaun? Geesh... the score served the film well - and regardless of the AFO references, it was original and fun to listen to.

Why is it that so many people like you go to films and try and find every single BAD THING they can? This frustrates me so much in the fact that sure, you may not like the film... but hey, there's an entire crew out there that worked hard to put the movie together - and I'm pretty sure they are proud of the job they did. I respect every single one of the talents out there, including Richard Marvin's... simply because they are out their making movies and scoring films - and look who's not! You, nor me.

Looking for the BAD THINGS in the things we enjoy only spells one thing - misery. Or at least, I know I'd be miserable. I'm certainly glad that I can go see a movie and enjoy it simply for the fact that it's a person's expression of a story. Sure, I might disagree w/ how it was told, how the scenes were shot, how the music fit some scenes, etc... but I'd never call anything that is honestly trying to be good, filth.

Andrew, I can respect your comments...
Shaun, I'm disappointed in you.

Jeron

Cool - this is my 31st post! I'm a Member now!

I'm not knocking Richard Marvin's talent because I think he was a victim of temp track infatuation. What hurt this movie is the heavy handed patriotism of the score. It was out of place (because the tone of the film was hardly patriotic) and subverted several key scenes. When U-571 sinks for example. And there was too much music in this picture. I found myself getting distracted everytime the score cut in. A good movie with an all-wrong score.

quote:

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Originally posted by HAL 2000:
What hurt this movie is the heavy handed patriotism of the score.

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Hahahaha!!

The movie is about a small group of sailors willing to sacrifice their lives to say America? What kinda score do you want? This had to have a patriotic score. It was an extremely patriotic movie.

"Patriotic" scores ... I think U-571 the MOVIE had some shades of grey in it, it might have done well with something more ambiguous in the music, but unless or until I see it again, I won't comment further. Funny how this works -- the preposterous BATTLEFIELD EARTH had a nice Elia Cmiral score that I WOULD buy for the right price; the frequently thrilling U-571 (MUCH better than CRIMSON TIDE, by the way) has a score that didn't impact on me in the least.

Though I thought the performances in U-571 were just as good.