Dances With Wolves [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] [Extra tracks, Soundtrack]

John Barry (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: John Barry
• Audio CD (May 18, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Soundtrack
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0001CCY7E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,101 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A late masterpiece restored (almost), May 23, 2004

By 

Scott Ross (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dances With Wolves [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

This is one of John Barry's masterworks - if not indeed his magnus opus - and we've waited much too long for a comprehensive reissue. Whatever you think of Kevin Costner's film (and I'd hate to base a friendship on whether or not someone loved "Dances with Wolves" as I did) it would be a far less exciting movie without Barry's magnificent score. Eschewing the more traditional Western sound pioneered by Jerome Moross and Elmer Bernstein, which eventually descended into rank imitation and self-parody, Barry went for a lush, poewerful symphonic rhapsody. While avoiding ethnic cliches in his music for the Native American characters, he found expression for the more violent aspects of tribal warfare through a stunning, resonant, absolutely plangent use of percussion that quickens the pulse and suggests menace without going into histrionic overdrive. Barry's melodic work is no less impressive: in his justly famous "John Dunbar Theme," for example, there is a weird, majestic inevitability to the notes - they seem to flow into one another in exactly the right way; you can't imagine a single cadence being any different. This new release restores much that was truncated on the original release of the score. "The Buffalo Hunt" - which accompanies one of the most original and exciting set-pieces in recent American movies - is given the full treatment here, and is therefore twice as satisfying. My only cavil: Barry wrote an hour and 40 minutes worth of music, so even this lovingly restored version is shorter than it might be in a perfect world. And I'm not sure why the producers added the film version of the Dunbar theme as a bonus track rather than reordering it to replace the album version within the score itself. Still, this disc is a major cause for celebration, an essential element for the shelves of any true lover of film music.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cornerstone of any film music collection, May 30, 2004

By 

James Luckard (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dances With Wolves [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

John Barry's masterpiece is simply one of the most breathtaking, moving film scores of all time. The rich variety of themes, and his trademark sweeping orchestration are unforgetteble. Most stunning, perhaps, is that the music that captures the epic grandeur of the American West better than any other was written by an Englishman, albeit one who has adopted the US as his home.

This CD does not present the score "in its entirety," as the liner notes claim, but there is a huge amount not available until now, and at the low list price, this is a must have for anybody who enojys film music.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, August 26, 2005

By 

Patricia Goodman (Canton, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dances With Wolves [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

I am reduced to a blubbering fool listening to this. I remember seeing this in the theater way back in 1990 and realizing that the music I was listening to at that time was gutwrenching, endearing and lump in the throat forming. John Barry captured the feel of Dances With Wolves to a tee. What a breathtaking journey he takes us on through this soundtrack. I am a fool for not buying this music until 2005. I have watched my copy of the movie over the years and now have this CD. The John Dunbar theme touches my heartstrings like no other song. Amazing how music can touch the soul. If you don't have this in your collection, do order it. You will be transported to a world that no longer exists. Excellent!