Customer Reviews

The Elephant Man: Original Soundtrack From The Motion Picture

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been a movie soundtrack collector for about the last year or two. It's amazing how some of the best music composers are alive today, not a hundred or hundreds of year ago, and they write music for the movies rather than concert halls like those who came before them. John Morris' score for "The Elephant Man", although at times a little too repetitive, is very fine. Whether the music is happy and vigorous, or light and pretty, or more dark and somber as many of the tunes here are, Morris creates the perfect mood for any scene. I especially enjoyed some of the moving and melancholy melodies on flute or strings. Deeply moving stuff. Barber's Adagio for Strings fits like a glove with the rest of the music, as if it were all composed by the same hand. This music indeed did a lot to enhance the emotional atmosphere of this most remarkable film.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

I am a huge fan of John Morris' work and also of Mel Brooks films, but this film touched me on an emotional level and very soon, I fell for the story of Joseph (in the film, John) Merrick aka The Elephant Man. The film was a brilliant masterpiece of artistry and emotion and still kept the soul of the late Joseph Merrick. The music in the film deserves a great deal of credit (besides the actors, who did a phenomenal Oscar worthy performance) and I loved each of the music pieces in the film. They totally capture the moment very well, with each different piece. My personal favourites are the Opening Theme, Adagio for Strings (not composed by John Morris), the Freak Show theme, and John and the Psalm. They are quite possibly one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever listened by the human ear and I for one applaud John Morris on his work in this CD. This CD deserves 10 stars! It is truly worth getting, if your a fan of Joseph Merrick, John Hurt (who played him on film), English historical films, or if your even a fan of John Morris and classical music soundtracks. This is worth it and I am glad I paid every penny for it!

Bravo!!

I have never seen this movie, but this is the type of soundtrack that makes me want to see it. I purchased simply for a copy of Adagio for Strings, but I was blown away with how good the entire CD was. Some of the circus style music may turn some people off, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like beautiful music with an odd edge to it, this CD is for you!

let me just say that buckethead uses sound bytes from the film in his stage show-and if he's into it shouldn't YOU be as well?!It never ceases to amaze me how lynch finds such passionate composers to work with and how well he can convey to them what feelings he wishes to express through "his" always-touching movie scores!it's so moving and yet remains classy-no sappiness involved what-so-ever!any fan of great film scores will cherish this album for many years as I already have.

What are these folks talking about? John Morris is a gifted film composer whose ELEPHANT MAN is a seminal film work. ELEPHANT MAN went on to inspire Christopher Young's HELLRAISER, particularly that score's main theme. Though the circus motif wears a bit thin, Morris' theme for John Merrick ("John Merrick and Psalm") is heartbreaking.

A simple score yet melodical and time honoured. It imitates what a painful experience the life of "Elephant Man" would have been yet, how beautiful and intelligent was his soul. Musically light, contrasting the relationships he held with many.

THE ELEPHANT MAN (1981) is a remarkable movie about a most remarkable man - Mr. John Merrick, called the Elephant Man because of a horribly disfiguring medical condition, was rescued from his life as a sideshow freak in late-Victorian England by Dr. Frederick Treves and moved to a hospital, where he was given the means to live out his remaining years in comfort and with dignity. John Morris (with some help from Samuel Barber) composed a score worthy of the film. In the movie, Merrick's life is an uneasy combination of the freak show and the drawing room - that is, his past as a circus attraction always threatens to overtake him, even in safe and infinitely more refined surroundings. This conflict is dramatized in the score, which I'll review track by track.

1. "The Elephant Man Theme." The Main Title is a perfectly conceived piece of music. The first half, with its Victorian music-box sound, represents John Merrick's boyhood; the second half, where bassoon, oboe, and glass harmonica enter, represents Merrick's surreal adult years in the freak show.

2. "Dr. Treves Visits the Freak Show and Elephant Man." Garish, tawdry circus music begins Track #2: Treves wanders about the carnival grounds in search of the much-advertised Elephant Man. Suddenly the forced-cheerful music fades away as Treves is led into a darkened room for a "private showing." Deep cello tones convey the chill and God-forsaken loneliness of the room; dissonance and an ironic repeat of the "Elephant Man Theme" convey all the horror, shock, and pity of Treves' first viewing of Merrick's deformed body.

3. "John Merrick and Psalm." From the depths of despair we are taken to Heavenly heights: Merrick's recitation of Psalm 23 convinces Treves and hospital chairman Frances Carr Gomm that his deformity is by no means mental or spiritual in nature. Serene flute notes begin the piece, which rises higher and higher, ending in a muted climax of strings.

4. "John Merrick and Mrs. Kendal." Here is another gentle and soulful piece dominated by warm strings. It illustrates a meeting of minds: John Merrick and Madge Kendal, a London actress, read a scene from ROMEO AND JULIET together in Merrick's rooms. The music depicts the growing attraction between the two, culminating in Mrs. Kendal's line, "Oh, Mr. Merrick! You're not an Elephant Man at all...You're Romeo."

5. "The Nightmare." The scene this music accompanies may be the most painful in the film to watch; in it Merrick's freak-show past finally catches up with him, and his refinement and newfound good fortune are cruelly mocked at him by a gang of low-lives and prostitutes. The music, however, is magnificent and conveys with full force the horror and humiliation Merrick feels as his worst nightmare is realized.

6. "Mrs. Kendal's Theater and Poetry Reading." The first half of Track #6 (which is presented out of sequence here; it should have come before Track #4) is what the theater orchestra is playing as Mrs. Kendal, being dressed for a performance, reads in a paper about the Elephant Man's genteel personality. The piece, though brief, brings us into the world of London high society. The second half was (I believe) originally meant for the Mrs. Kendal/John Merrick scene. This has a lovely pastoral feel, but the music that was actually used for the scene is more profound.

7. "The Belgian Circus Episode." This is not in the film but was apparently meant for the scenes where Merrick is being displayed at a Belgian freak show, much against his will. It is a tawdry-sounding repeat of the Elephant Man Theme with an interesting, desolate ending.

8. "The Train Station." This piece finds Merrick being chased and cornered in a London train station on his way home from Belgium. The twists and turns of the music brilliantly communicate his panic at finding unfriendly faces everywhere he looks. It has a forceful climax, reflecting Merrick's righteous anger at the close of the scene.

9. "The Pantomime." This joyous and dramatic waltz, reminiscent of Tchaikovsky or Johann Strauss, expresses the excitement of Merrick's evening of evenings, a visit to the theater.

10. "Adagio for Strings." Samuel Barber's elegy, relatively new in 1981, was the ideal choice for Merrick's death scene. It seems as though the piece was composed to communicate Merrick's very essence: gentle, pure of heart, and spiritually minded. As it plays, one knows a very special soul is passing from the world.

11. "Recapitulation." The final track is a medley that combines creatively varied versions of "John Merrick and Psalm," "John Merrick and Mrs. Kendal," and "The Elephant Man Theme."

Adagio for strings never appeared in Full Metal Jacket, you are thinking of Platoon......................silly person. I never heard this soundtrack so I have said all I have to say.

Lynch is like hitchcock in a lot of ways. he exercises dictatorial control over his movies, everything from the sounds to the actors are just like he wants it (he puts that piece of wood actor Kyle MacLachlan in his films and nobody can stop him), he's not out for a buck he's an artist. Lynch hadn't hooked up with Badalmenti yet when he got Morris to do this soundtrack, but if you listen both to this one and the Twin Peaks soundtrack you can tell Lynch is searching for a very definite sound. Far away, something that sounds more mysterious than it really is. A perfect sound for Lynch.

I really like the theme, its perfect, but like the Twin Peaks soundtrack it is really tied in with the movie, so it's hard to listen on its own.

As for the Adagio for Strings by Barber, that track is very blah, listening to it is like eating mayo on white bread to me, bland.

The sole reason for this album's existance is Barber's "Adagio for Strings," a powerful, moving piece that is seen in many other films, like Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The movie Elephant Man is decent, but this album is nothing besides "Adagio."