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Kingdom of Heaven soundtrack is...


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CC gives it 5 stars. Might have to check this puppy out.

Justin - Who finds Gregson-Williams to be of extreme talent.

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Amen to that. The clips I've heard from Kingdom of Heaven sounds very well done, though I'm not sure I'd really enjoy all that choral music after a while. Looking forward to Narnia.

Ray Barnsbury

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I wrote the following after listening to the score for the first time last week...

"First listen... and I’m not that impressed. There is some nice choral work featuring mainly a female choir but the remainder of the score is typical of a MV influenced effort. Synth orchestra over top of a real orchestra, electronic percussion, duduk and other middle eastern instrumentation, electric violin and cello solos, some Celtic-like music, a moaning, groaning solo female vocalist... and there are even a few tracks that remind me of James Horner’s The Pelican Brief. Listen to "A New World" and tell me that’s not James Horner. And if you expecting big, loud action music a la Gladiator, you won’t find it in this score. While there are action cues they aren’t as big at Zimmer’s muscular cues, which could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Anyway, those are the elements that stood out for me and honestly this type of scoring is getting very old... with the exception of the wonderful choral work. But then again, this is my first listen so I might warm up to it with repeated listens."

BTW, I've listened to the score a few more times and still feel the same way about it!

-Erik-

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Alright here's my impressions

The choral work is just great, I love the women's choir that's used and the cathedral sound they got for it. I never really noticed any synth orchestra except for some percussion elements. Erik is right when it's not like Gladiator per se, although I enjoy this album a lot more than Gladiator. It has a more middle-eastern feel and the choir is emphasised with the one or two major themes. The album has only a few action cues, with Battle of Terak being the biggest and best along with Swordplay, but the quieter moments are still really really good. It's one of the few albums that I can listen to without skipping tracks.

I'm very satisfied with the score, even if Erik said that this type of scoring is getting very old but I guess I haven't listened to enough scores to hear it which I can understand (sort of)

Max

:( Sin City Robert Rodriguez

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OMG

I just watched the film. It's very good, and has Orlando Bloom really acting. Not to mention Neeson, Gleeson, Ison... uhm, Irons, Thewlis, etc.. ...

But the "alien" music really took me out of the picture. What I noticed was the opera scene "Vide Cor Meum" from Hannibal (by Patrick Cassidy, I think), and most prominently "Valhalla" from the 13th warrior (as Steef indicated). For the usual movie-goer, this will completely pass by unnoticed, and I have to credit the music as fulfilling exactly the emotional purpose of the scene. But for anyone who knows some film music and notices such things, it's really annoying. Anyone any idea what's the reason for this?

Compared to this, tracking of other prequel music into RotS is almost a non-issue...

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Ridley Scott probably fell in love with his temp track, and he probably thought Harry Gregson-Williams' music was not better then his temp music.

I think we can assume Scott will use Zimmer for his next film again.

It does make me wonder.

Is Jerry Goldsmith rolling in his grave?

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A superb soundtrack, much better than Zimmer's work in Gladiator by a long shot. It doesnt have the bombast or recurrent themes that brought the music down, but instead uses much more variety in terms of themes and is more restrained than most epic soundtracks, something I rather enjoy after seeing Troy and Alexander.

I also didn't mind the use of the Vide Cor Meum track during the death of King Baldwin in the film. It was well used and a rather emotional scene too. It was an opera, "Dante's La vita nuova" written by Patrick Cassidy so it isn't just exclusive just to that film. I have heard a few people complaining on other sites about it use in this film, but liked the addition. As for the use of other material from the 13th Warrior, I couldn't say for certain which scene it was used it, but it sounded liked it was used during the Seige of Jerusalem. I myself couldn't pick up on it, and doubt 99% of the people who go to see the film will either, so we should drop the sticks and quit beating the horse.

Also the best soundtrack to be out this year so far. I found it to be very emotional and compelling, and a much better listen than ROTS, which seemed pretty disjointed and lacking is substance. It will likely sound better in the film, but on album it just doesn't cut it.

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Yeah I saw this movie tonight and was so surprised when I heard the friggin soundtrack of the 13th Warrior in that scene where Orlando Bloom gives that speech. I gotta admit it brought a smile to my face. Like Jerry Goldsmith reaching from beyond the grave to deliver his genious music to a movie that is FAR more worthy of such great music than the 13th Warrior was.

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I also didn't mind the use of the Vide Cor Meum track during the death of King Baldwin in the film. It was well used and a rather emotional scene too. It was an opera, "Dante's La vita nuova" written by Patrick Cassidy so it isn't just exclusive just to that film.

Was it really a full opera?

I thought it was composed especially for the Hannibal-movie opera sequence and just used lyrics from Dante “La Vita Nuova”.

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I absolutely loved the score. I thought GW did a great job. The Vide Cor Meum was just totaly inappropriate in every imaginable way. The 13th Warrior fit the scene, but WTF? GW couldn't write something to fit such a basic inspirational scene?

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No, I am not. I am claiming that Harry Gregson-Williams' Kingdom of Heaven score would probably be better suited for Kingdom of Heaven than Jerry Goldsmith's 13th Warrior score.

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Ummm Chris.

Jerry Goldsmith DIED recently.

He's not gonna score the next Star trek film.

You of all people should know that death means nothing in the world of Star Trek.

Justin

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Saw the film again today. I listened to the score more carefully this time, and I still loved the score.

Basicaly, I noticed:

A main theme (general Kingdom of Heaven theme, not amazingly specific, just big stuff happening to our hero)

A battle motif (sounds similar to Tyler's Children of Dune Summon The Worms (the driving strings))

An ethnic sounding theme (Noticed it twice, once when Balian arrives in Jerusalem, and when he first comes to Ibelin)

And two other motifs that appeared at various times. One of them I noticed at the begining and the end, when Balian leaves his home town (with Godfrey at the begining, then with Sibylla at the end).

The Hannibal piece was still painfully inappropriate, and the 13th Warrior was fitting the mood, but I'm sure GW could (did?) write something more fitting for this specific piece. Though it did inspire to put 13th Warrior in my CD case for the next week.

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I don't believe anyone has mentioned this yet, but aside from the cues from Hannibal and the 13th Warrior, there is another scene that features a tracked in score from another film. Near the end, after the battle, a cue from Marco Beltrami's Blade II score is used. It's a great cue, but I hated the fact that it was tracked in, same with the opera cue from Hannibal. Goldsmith's cue, however, brought a tear to my eye. It was like Scott was paying tribute to Goldsmith by using his score, because I saw a clip from the today show that eatured Gregson-Williams' music in this scene, which is interesting. Anyway, I overall was disappointed that there were three cues tracked into the picture, and the film I thought was very good, but I will be eagerly anticipating the actual version of it, which is much longer. It feels somewhat truncated. I still enjoyed it immensely though.

Ted

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More than anything, it's just dissapointing. I see no reason why they should replace Harry's score with those small portions of those cues. Three pivotal moments in the film, where Harry had an ideal chance to work with his motifs- I can easily see his main theme played tragicaly instead of the opera, a supped up version of it for the 13th warrior portion, and an extension of his battle motif for the Baltrami part (or a re-introduction of the leaving France motif, though not keeping with the thematic loyalty of the film, it'd sure as hell be better than a cue from another score).

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Just saw it, thought it was great and I liked it better than Gladiator

I'll post my full on review tomorrow when I collect my thoughts

Max

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I don't know if anyone commented on this, but I picked up this score for 8 bucks used, so I don't feel burned I really like the Ibelin theme. I starting to wonder if thsi is the summer of choral chanting with at least half of rots being like this. I wonder if either composer knew what eachother scores would soundlike? Is gregson williams JW's cousins, brothers, uncles former roomate? For namesake :)

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Ummm Chris.

Jerry Goldsmith DIED recently.

He's not gonna score the next Star trek film.

You of all people should know that death means nothing in the world of Star Trek.

Justin

True. In the upcoming 'Parallel Universe' episode - 'Yesterday's Ratings Hit' - a variety of expired crew members are still alive and contributing to the world of Star Trek... Gene Roddenberry, Jerry Goldsmith, DeForest Kelley, etc...

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Saw GLADI-CRUSADERS last nite, I mean KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Enjoyable piece of crap, Rigley. Not as good as G.I. JANE will ever be but enjoyable nonetheless.

I was surprised, like many, of temped music from Jerry Goldsmith's epic THE 13TH WARRIOR score to feature in this movie. Was it an all-too-late apology from Ridley Scott to the butchered job he did on Jerry's ALIEN score or the fact that Tangerine Dream scored the American release of LEGEND? Either way you look at it, the temp worked well in this scene. A morale booster if you will. I can see Jerry :spiny: in his grave.

As for Irish composer Patrick Cassidy's "Vide Cor Meum" featured in the movie HANNIBAL. The cue was totally, God-damned-diddly wrong for this scene. As I was beginning to doze off, Paddy's opening bars immediately awoke me. God damn you Rigley! Can't you do anything right? Or is this the beginning of the end of Rigley Snot and his Snot Free production team? I did like the unmasking scene though. Was that last footage from HANNIBAL? Good to see Gary Oldman in makeup again. :spiny:

This is Hitch. Last surviving director of the Golden Era. Signing off.

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Rolling and active... he's scoring films even after his death.

The Flim-Flam Man so to speak.

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True.

Still, it will probably be the last film to feature Jerry Goldsmith music.

Savour it while you can.

Considering the serious lack of truly great composers out there I would not bet on that. All you need is another director to use a Goldsmith piece as a temp track and realize its better than the actual score.

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Well I saw the movie yesterday and I actually like it. I thought it was the best performance O. Bloom has given in a film yet. (COULD BE MATERIAL, POTC was crap as was his last few flicks, LOTR did not require that much "ACTING" on his part). Anyway, as for the score, well I was so into the flick that I did not hear the score so much which is sometimes a GREAT thing. HOWEVER, I did hear the choir and woman "MOANS" at the end titles and was kinda bored with it. I'll have to give the album a try and then get the dvd and listen to the score more intently while watching the film.

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I saw the movie and I waited trough the whole end credits, but I couldn't hear woman moaning. I really don't understand what are you reffering to. Are you talking about that wonderful song in arabic? I will tell you that it is not a woman moaning, but singing about God. The refrain of the song contains the most significant expression of Koran. La illahe ilallah, which means "There is no other lord worth worshiping but God". It's relevance in Islam is the same as oath to three gods in Christianity. The song is beautiful and touching, and it is far from moaning. Of course, it is no John Williams or James Horner, but thanks one God for that. I wouldn't like to hear another kitchy Groban love song in a relation with a movie ever again. Based on his excelent and very influental work on Gladiator (and many other movies), Zimmer would be a better choice for scoring Kingdom of Heaven, but who cares, after all?

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Kingdom of Heaven is officially a boxoffice bomb in the US. $20 million dollars in its opening weekend, and it will be forgotten in two weeks. With a budget of 130 million dollars and marketing costs of upwards of 50 million, it won't come close to recouping its costs. Now out of country $$$ will make it up as will DVD sales and rentals, they always do in this day and age. Still I've said it before, America is over the sword epic movies, not counting the LOTR trilogy, just the regular ancient history sword epics, not one has grossed 200 million dollars, and it seems the return gets smaller every time.

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Kingdom of Heaven is officially a boxoffice bomb in the US. $20 million dollars in its opening weekend, and it will be forgotten in two weeks. With a budget of 130 million dollars and marketing costs of upwards of 50 million, it won't come close to recouping its costs. Now out of country $$$ will make it up as will DVD sales and rentals, they always do in this day and age. Still I've said it before, America is over the sword epic movies, not counting the LOTR trilogy, just the regular ancient history sword epics, not one has grossed 200 million dollars, and it seems the return gets smaller every time.

agreed.

I saw the movie and I waited trough the whole end credits, but I couldn't hear woman moaning. I really don't understand what are you reffering to. Are you talking about that wonderful song in arabic? I will tell you that it is not a woman moaning, but singing about God. The refrain of the song contains the most significant expression of Koran. La illahe ilallah, which means "There is no other lord worth worshiping but God". It's relevance in Islam is the same as oath to three gods in Christianity. The song is beautiful and touching, and it is far from moaning. Of course, it is no John Williams or James Horner, but thanks one God for that. I wouldn't like to hear another kitchy Groban love song in a relation with a movie ever again. Based on his excelent and very influental work on Gladiator (and many other movies), Zimmer would be a better choice for scoring Kingdom of Heaven, but who cares, after all?

First off you take my comment as a religous slant and it's not. HOWEVER, sorry for the term "MOANING" but I did not find the music particulair engaging in the end credits.

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