The Green Berets [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] [Soundtrack]

Miklós Rózsa (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Miklós Rózsa
• Audio CD (January 4, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Film Score Monthly
• ASIN: B0006SSPZ8
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,872 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Main Title (Ballad of the Green Berets)

2. Petersen Caught / Sergeant Petersen

3. South Vietnam

4. Danang

5. Departure

6. Dodge City

7. Hamchunk Appears

8. Requisition

9. Casualties

10. All the Way

11. Bedfellows

12. Killing Zone / The Spy

13. Brutality / The Children

14. The Amulet / Confidence

15. Devastation

16. After the Raid / Alarm

17. La Seine (The River Seine)

18. La Java de Saigon

19. Starlight, Starbright / Ready to Fire

20. Crash Landing

See all 31 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Limited edition Film Score Monthly CD- only 3,000 copies made. Miklós Rózsa never agreed with the politics of the movie The Green Berets (1968), but by that time in his career, he no longer had the luxury of picking and choosing his movie projects -- if he wanted to do any film work at all, he had to consider even the improbable ones, such as this. Rózsa's contribution to the finished film is debatable. His scoring of some sequences is wonderful, such as the earnest, string-laden music accompanying the military move to Vietnam and to the base camp outside Danang. Some of the material here recalls the other end of Rózsa's career, and his scoring of the war movies Five Graves to Cairo and Sahara -- the music depicting the attacks on the base camp and the uncovering of a spy could have slotted right in with those 24-year-old scores, or with Rózsa's film noir period of the late '40s. His lighthearted music depicting the activities of the unit "scrounger," Sgt. Peterson, and his sitar-laden work underscoring the scenes of Vietnam civilian life are less memorable, though it is interesting to hear Rózsa writing for the Chinese zither. This CD contains the original scoring for all of the scenes, including Rózsa's use of a set of orchestral variations on "Onward Christian Soldiers" that was later supplanted in the editing of the final film in favor of his original material underscoring the death of Sgt. Provo. All of that is fine material, but how well it fit in with the movie's gung-ho political sentiments and macho sensibilities is questionable -- it was almost too sophisticated for the material it was intended to accompany, though it did make the movie seem more profound and serious than it otherwise would have. The CD is well produced, with excellent sound throughout, and is a very satisfying release of an interesting late-career detour for the composer. -All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound Track Out Of Time!, October 10, 2006

By 

Bromptonboy "Bromptonboy" (Doylestown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Green Berets [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

Aside from the opening and closing tracks (which are choral tracks of Barry Sadler's famous tune - The Ballad Of The Green Beret) - if you close your eyes - you almost feel you are in an asian flavored version of Ben Hur when listening to this sound track. No surprise given the composer - Miklós Rózsa.
All politics aside, I cannot help but be moved by the opening chorus of The Ballad Of The Green Beret - it is immensely stirring. The movie itself is like a John Wayne WW2 movie taking place in Vietnam.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rozsa's score like a moment in cinematic time, July 21, 2008

By 

Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Green Berets [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

Miklos Rozsa's score to "The Green Berets" from 1968 was recently reissued by several private vendors in a 1,000-CD issue this year. I was fortuante to find this gem, which is hardly the harbinger of great film score writing but is a timepiece refecting the era of this American film, which was shot in Alabama and Mississippi.

Aside from Barry Sandler's stirring hymn that opens and closes the film, no individual moment from the 31-part score really stands out individually. Everything congeals to describe the action and emotion going on screen, helping you stay involved with the storyline.

I haven't seen the film in a while and I never recall the song "La Java de Saigon", a French tune sung by a breathy soprano and accompanied by piano, accordian, guitar, percussion and bass about half-way through the proceedings. I can't recall that being part of the film.

What I recall most about the film is its politics -- about as far right on the political scale as anyone can suggest. This was one of the earliest Vietnam films, produced from a Gung ho America must defeat Communism perspective. It was released before the 1968 Tet offensive pretty much changed attitudes and helped TV newsman Walter Cronkite -- who was considered America's most trusted person in 1968 -- to declar the war unwinnable. Once these events occurred, it was the beginning of the end for American support for the war.

You don't get any of that in the film score. It's pretty much a walk through 31 scenes of the film that Rozsa accompanied with music. While entertaining throughout, it's hardly Rozsa's best work -- that would probably be the score to "El Cid" -- but it is representative of old-style movie scoring very late in the century when this type of romantic audio engagement with cinema was dying, being replaced by the coming avant garde movement. When you compare the score to 1971's "Planet of the Apes" to this one, you'll see what a throwback Rozsa was at this point in time.

Today, we appreciate this far more than we did 40 years ago, when we thought the avant garde scoring of the 1970s had much to contribute. That movement was about dead by 1980 and guys like John Williams were bringing romance back to film scoring in "Star Wars" and elsewhere. So appreciate the score for "The Green Berets" -- if you can find it somewhere -- for something that never really left us and, thankfully, is back in full force today.

5.0 out of 5 stars Miklós Rózsa's Green Berets Soundtrack, April 12, 2010

By 

L. Bjergo "Old Barbecue" (Ridgecrest, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Green Berets [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

I have ALWAYS loved The Ballad of the Green Berets. But I believe Miklós Rózsa's rendition is the BEST! This soundtrack sounds very Oriental and exotic, with its instruments, score, etc. It's almost like being in Viet Nam. I watched the movie, then searched for MONTHS to find the original soundtrack. Listening to the CD, I can see scenes from the movie, the beautiful exotic locations, the action scenes etc. The next best thing to actually being there. Overall, a very good soundtrack!