Customer Reviews

Carrie [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've always loved Pino Donaggio's music since I heard the score for his maiden "Dont' Look Now" (1973), which remains my favorite tour of melancholic mind-states (and an incredible film about guilt, memory, projection and quauntuum physics... and strange blind psychics!).

Pino's score for "Carrie" followed in '76 and is as responsible for the success of that odd, wild film as any other element.

Donaggio captured with great lyricism the repressed feelings of romantic longing - and pure rage - that Carrie White kept hidden from her nutcase, born-again Mother, played so brilliantly by Piper Laurie. His Italianate-Venetian sensibility was wedded wonderfully to DePalma's operatic excesses, in full swing in the Seventies' craziest, well-scripted, well-acted USA horror film (before teenagers would come to ruin the genre in the 80s and 90s and on with sadistic snuff stuff like the Saw and the Chainsaw franchises).

To answer the quibbles below, Ryko and Varese include a repeat of Track One because, contrary to a prior reviewer, the exact same repetition recurs in the film. "Sue's Dream" is NOT the same as Track 1. Track 1 "Theme for Carrie" is repeated exactly in the End Credits when the screen goes black. So, there. The producers were just trying to replicate the experience of the movie and its original soundtrack. DePalma did exactly the same thing with Donaggio's Main Theme for DRESSED TO KILL in the film (another fine score of Herrmannic excesses).

This score has aged well, and it's nice to hear melody in a film score, as the current trend is ambience, and atonal slush and effects.

Katie Irving's "I Never Dreamed..." with music by Donaggio, is one of the loveliest Country ballads in memory. Perhaps a bit breathy, but sweet, and gorgeously orchestrated.

My only gripe: the new varese picture cover is awful. The Original United Artists LP cover was fine. This is lurid and cheapens the film and the score.

"It has nothin' to do with Satan's power, Momma! Somtimes if I concentrate hard enough I can MOVE things!!!" Go, girl!

I've looked off and on since the late 70s for the soundtrack to this movie. I never actually knew one existed -- I just could never believe that one DIDN'T! Although the movie "Carrie" is an excellent production, it NEVER would have had the impact without the BRILLIANT musical score of this soundtrack. It's ironic that after many years of looking for this this soundtrack on vinyl, I stumbled across it by accident on cd. If you're a fan of the movie "Carrie", you will LOVE this cd!

I know this is just an opinion, but I firmly believe that "Carrie" has the greatest musical score of all time. Yes, all time. I know there are lots of other movies with supposedly great music, but I don't think any movie has had as effective a score as "Carrie." "Carrie" is my number one favorite movie, a brilliant commentary on high school and society and religion and revenge, with brilliant direction from Brian De Palma and Acadamy Award worthy acting from all involved. It's really similiar to an opera in many ways, because in between the moment where they announce the King and Queen of the prom and the moment where Carrie hugs her mother, there is no dialogue, really, just music and inaudible noise as everyone panics (unless you count Carrie's mother's voice saying "They're All Gonna Laugh At You!"), and the music perfectly describes the emotion of Carrie. It is so effective. There are countless scenes in the movie where the music takes it to a whole new level, adding more emotion and feeling. The slow motion walk up to the stage is the most effective piece in the whole film, as the music alternates between peaceful and happy to evil and frightening and back again, then building slowly as Sue sees what's going on. Pino Donnagio is a genius, and the music is unfogettable. This album also includes some wonderful songs from the film, including "I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me," from Katie, Amy Irving's sister. It's an incredibly romantic song. This album is fantastic, and I urge you to pick it up and become engrossed in the operatic beauty of Pino Donnagio's musical score for the greatest movie of all time, "Carrie."

When Brian De Palma first saw Nic Roeg's psychological thriller DON'T LOOK NOW, the most important question he would ever ask was: who composed the score? That was one Pino Donaggio, and what Morricone was to Argento and Herrmann was to Hitchcock, Donaggio became to De Palma for CARRIE.

How important was the soundtrack? Imagine, if you will, JAWS without John Williams' terrifying, pounding theme. EXACTLY. Donaggio has been quoted as saying that he composed the CARRIE score as if he were writing for a grand opera, (in this case a "Grand Guignol opera.") The wistful, sad and eerie sense of melodrama with which this native Italian composer imbued the music is just one of the important components that made this high school horror drama so memorable (besides the unforgettable performances.)

Each track brings back a specific memory for anyone who remembers the film well (and I do). It was only fitting that Donaggio would work on all of De Palma's films afterwards (BLOW OUT, DRESSED TO KILL and BODY DOUBLE), and that he would work with directors as lauded as David Schmoeller (TOURIST TRAP) and Joe Dante (THE HOWLING).

One can only hope that this talented craftsman will still be plying his trade well into the millennium.

Pino Donaggio's score for Brian DePalma's classic horror film is justifiably famous, and one of the more popular soundtrack albums from that era. There are two versions of the soundtrack available on CD: one has some incidental lines of dialogue, including Piper Laurie's infamous "They're all gonna laugh at you" rant, which is a treasure, and might serve as a distinctive ring tone. Donaggio's score is a gem: his extended music for the prom sequence is brilliant (though in every album or CD I have encountered, the two tracks, "Contest Winners" and "Bucket of Blood" are separated by one of Katie Irving's vocal tracks: odd). What's missing from every pressing, as far as I have been able to tell, are a few tracks precious to fans of the film:
"(Love is Like a) Heat Wave" the fifties classic rock song heard as John Travolta and Nancy Allen cruise and plot their dirty trick,
"Education Blues" the song playing at the beginning of the prom sequence, a thumping anthem of anarchy that's very hard to come by, even online, and
the playfully clunky "Elephant Walk" Donaggio scored for the punishment sequences on the girls' athletic field.
So in this respect, existing pressings of this admired and worthwhile soundtrack might feel incomplete, but everything else is here: the haunting opening theme (just lovely) and the sinister, sensuous music that underscores most of the other moments of suspense and romance in this macabre, compelling, and eccentric film. Both versions of the CD have extensive liner notes, which give some of the fascinating backstory to the movie. The soundtrack is also available on iTunes, but as many fans have pointed out, it's not possible to buy only one song in that venue: one must purchase the entire album. For most fans this won't be an issue.

.... and it would be a sin not to own this priceless, classic film score to go along with your Blue-Ray disc of the film. :) This is primo and a must-have for all fans of Brian De Palma's masterpiece. (certainly not to be confused with the half-baked, retarded re-make attempt!) This music will bring back many of the fine memories of Carrie's good times and ..... not so good... Couldn't be without it. You shouldn't either.

I own the original lp import from Australia and just got the new cd from Varese Sarabande. I think this cd is a great cd and a enjoyment for the Pino Donaggio fans like me. I agree with other people's good reviews but I'm a little bit angered and confused by why Varese repeated track 1 twice? You see in the track Sue's Dream contains the end title right after the wild music cue where the hand comes out of the ground. A repeated track of track 1 for track 13 is not necessary and stupid. Rykodisc did this when they first released the cd and don't know why they repeated the first track?

Varese should have been more smarter releasing the cd the way it was supposed to be released and not looking on how Rykodisc released it. Carrie from Varese Sarabande is supposed to be a rerelease of the original 12 track lp. I for one will skip track 13 and erase it on the minidisc after I digially transfer it and will have to program the first 12 if I copy the cd in my dual well Philips Cd Recorder. I had a few people on Soundtrack Collector who think they know it all and think that track 13 is different and is played at the end but they are just lame cause I'm smarter than them.