Heaven & Earth - Kitaro
Horse Whisperer - Newman
The Fugitive - JNH
Amistad - Williams
Hard Rain - Young
Donnie Brasco - Doyle (Is there a song CD coz the online store doesn't distinguish and I want to be sure it's the score?)

Thanks a 1x10^6

Horse Whisper is a little different, it's slow and atmospheric at times leading into some country guitar and fiddle music, or lush themes on strings and woodwinds. To add to the atmosphere some tracks include sounds of crickets, Frogs, and the sound of a small water fall. It's still pretty good, but you have to give it sometime to seek in. Some of the music has been used in trailers like The Green Mile.

The Fugitive is an essential James Newton Howard score! The CD is short, but contains some great JNH trademark action music, with a large emphasis on rhythm. Surprisingly JNH says that he doesn't like this score, becuase never had time to mold it the way he wanted. But whats here is great stuff.

Amistad is the typical John Williams way of dramatic scoreing, with African influences.
It does have it's moments though, I enjoy the first 6 or 7 tracks alot. But nothing original here.

Hard Rain starts out good, but I found most of it hard to listen to, its all non stop action, but very tiny thematic material. It is Out of Print, so if you like what you heard in the movie grab it.

Donnie Brasco
I never heard this one.

Amistad: Great score for a great movie. The only way to truly appreciate this one is to see it within the context of the film. Williams' colonial/"John Adams" music is terrific. The ethnic African influenced cues are powerful. John Williams in top form, as always.

Fugitive: Tim was right on with this one.

Horse Whisperer: Not one I listen to often, though when I do - I truly enjoy it. The highlight of the cd (IMO) has to be track 12, "The Rhythm of the Horse." The Horse Whisperer is a great addition if you're into Thomas Newman. A great intro to his music if you aren't.

Donnie Brasco: An excellent Doyle score! Haven't played this one in awhile, though I will say that it's full of great, dramatic music. Doyle rarely disappoints. You'll want to seek out the Varese Sarabande release (not the song album, which is still in print). The Varese disc is OOP (last time I checked) and getting harder to find in regular music outlets. Intrada is selling it for $15.99.

Jeron
NP - The River (Williams) ****/*****

Has anyone caught the new "Fugitive" series on tv--Friday nights at 8...? It incorporates the original Howard theme. Nice to see it back in action....

quote:

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Originally posted by Jeron:
I need to correct TimT on a statement regarding [b]Hard Rain: it's very thematic through out. Dark and stormy (gee, figure that one out). If you like Chris Young (and his action material) at all, it's a must have. Definitely a good one to play in the car when the rain's beating down on the windshield.

[/B]

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--Kyp

"Amistad: Great score for a great movie. The only way to truly appreciate this one is to see it within the context of the film. Williams' colonial/"John Adams" music is terrific. The ethnic African influenced cues are powerful. John Williams in top form, as always."

Wow! That's just about the EXACT opposite of what I'd say! I thought it would've been a better score WITHOUT all of the Adams music, which (again, I thought) was TERRIBLY overbearing (or overscored). Amistad, for me, is an example of "The Uninspired Williams" (have you noticed that Cinque's Theme sounds a lot like the Our Man Flint theme?).

Shaun

I think the Amistad score, overall, is pretty good. Cinque's theme is awfully depressing, the African music is the reason to have the CD, but that's only a couple minutes IIRC, that is.

But like Shaun sez, it is uninspired Williams. How do you score a movie that is boring and presumptuous at the same time?

Heaven & Earth is amazing. I can see why some people thought it should have won an Oscar over Schindler's List back in 1993.