American Film Symphony – “Music from the Films of Ridley Scott”
Album Reviews | Jun 15th, 2013
Record Label: BSX Records
Genre: Film Score
Buy on Amazon.com
Ridley Scott has directed a lot of great movies. Great movies usually means great film scores as well. Some of the movies featured on this Ridley Scott best-of compilation include Alien, Legend, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, and Prometheus.
Although I like Ridley Scott movies, I really only like his second half of his career and the music that accompanies the movies. Everything from 1492 and later basically. The earlier scores & music from Blade Runner, Legend and The Duellists is just okay for me. The problem with those movies is they tend to sound too 80s.
The theme to 1492 by Vangelis is such a haunting awesome piece. This track in particular isn’t up to par with the original in that it just feels like a cover song…which it is basically. Its ok but the chanting isn’t as good as the original version. Gladiator is by far my favorite movie from him and one of my favorites from Hans Zimmer. “The Battle” and “Now We Are Free” are represented here. For Black Hawk Down, “Leave No Man Behind” is selected but what’s odd is picking Joe Strummer’s version of “Minstrel Boy.” The Robin Hood track and Prometheus track end the soundtrack on a high note I think.
The music isn’t as good as the originals but it’s something different. They picked some good pieces to play but I would have picked some different ones for some of the movies like in Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood and another Gladiator track. My biggest complaint for these type of compilations is stick with the scores and leave out the singing tracks because it just doesn’t sound the same.
Bottom Line: A good selection of score tracks but the singing tracks are skippable
Notable Tracks: 1492, Gi Jane, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven
Overall Rating: