1 |
The
Photograph |
2 |
I'll
Walk Alone - performed by Dinah Shore |
3 |
Knock Knock (Kyle Eastwood, Michael Stevens, Andrew
McCormack, Graeme Flowers) |
4 |
Wounded
Marines |
5 |
The
Thunderer (John Philip Sousa) |
6 |
Armada
Arrives |
| 7 |
Goodbye
Ira |
8 |
Symphony In G Minor, 3rd Movement (Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart) |
9 |
String
Quartet Opus #6, 2nd Movement (Joseph Haydn) |
10 |
Inland
Battle |
11 |
Flag
Raising |
12 |
Any
Bonds Today? (Irving Berlin) |
13 |
Summit
Ridge Drive - performed by Artie Shaw and His Gramercy
Five |
14 |
Vic'try
Polka (Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne) |
15 |
The
Medals |
16 |
Platoon
Swims |
17 |
Washington
Post March (John Philip Sousa) |
18 |
Flags
Theme |
19 |
End
Titles Guitar |
20 |
End
Titles |
REVIEW
At
first glance, this soundtrack album cover looks like it is
going to feature some impressive war music. It is inevitable
that memorable themes from Steven Spielberg’s Saving
Private Ryan (1998) and Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down
(2001) started playing in our minds. But
Clint Eastwood is no John Williams or Hans Zimmer.
A quick
research into Eastwood’s composer filmography indicates
that the actor-director-producer (now composer!) only began
dabbling with score composition six years ago in his own work
Space Cowboys. To date, he has five soundtrack scores to his
credit.
This 60-minute
album contains about 32 minutes of score material, and to
be honest, they do not evoke the grandiose of any WWII images
in our heads. Perhaps Eastwood is attempting to place more
emphasis on the emotional aspect of the story by creating
a somewhat heartfelt mood in his work, but they just do not
work against the film’s backdrop. The simple and unsophisticated
orchestrations may come off as dull and dreary to the impatient
listener.
To be
fair, the main theme sticks in your head, but it begins to
make you wonder whether there is any other refreshing tunes
other than the repetitive tinkling piano notes. But this theme
does make a good accompaniment for those melancholic moments
when you want to reflect on your own miserable loneliness.
Then there
is the other half of the album which features music from that
era in the 1940s, which eventually feels like fillers to a
monotonous album rather than complementary material to the
score.
We see
Eastwood being credited as the producer of this album. We
feel the multiple Oscar winner’s effort and attempt
to be multi-talented. But we suspect that the Golden Globe
nomination for his Million Dollar Baby score in 2005 was probably
what inspired him to do more of this music stuff.
We’ll
be damned to say this: but when we heard Eastwood’s
voice beginning to croon “I’ll Walk Alone”
in the supposedly somber and serious last track on this album,
we were secretly hoping that he doesn’t go into singing
anytime soon.
SOUNDTRACK
RATING:
 
Review
by John Li
|
