Enemy At The Gates (2001 Film) [Soundtrack]

James Horner | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 13, 2001)
• Original Release Date: March 16, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00005A8H2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,945 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. River Crossing to Stalingrad

2. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

3. Vassili's Fame Spreads

4. Koulikov

5. The Dream

6. Bitter News

7. The Tractor Factory

8. A Sniper's War

9. Sacha's Risk

10. Betrayal

11. Danilov's Confession

12. Tania (End Credits)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

For many an armchair history buff, the Allied invasion of Europe on D day in 1944 is seen as the decisive European battle of World War II. In reality, the war's turning point may well have been the German army's defeat at Stalingrad in the bitterly cold early months of 1943 after one of history's bloodiest sieges. Director Sergio Leone had planned an epic film version of those events, but he died before he could proceed. A decade later, French director Jean-Jacques Annaud's Enemy at the Gates has brought the saga to the screen in what's said to be the most expensive European production ever mounted. Annaud frames his epic with human dimensions by telling the true tale of dueling German and Soviet snipers, and James Horner's truly epic orchestral and choral soundtrack gives the story its sense of place, both geographically and historically. With nods toward some 20th-century Russian composers, Horner's music is by turns romantic, ominous, and modern, imbuing the drama of Shostakovich and Prokofiev with his own masterful sense of color and tension. He is still best known to general audiences for his hugely successful work on Titanic, but the sheer sweep and power of this score makes that work seem almost like a student's exercise by comparison. Enemy at the Gates is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime assignment, and Horner admirably rises to the challenge. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Score's a bullseye!, April 29, 2001

By 

Chapulina R (Tovarischi Imports, USA/RUS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Enemy At The Gates (2001 Film) (Audio CD)

Like the film itself, James Horner's soundtrack for "Enemy at the Gates" contains elements of several previous works. I detected segments from other Horner favorites, particularly "Braveheart" and the early "Star Trek" films. That in no way detracts from my enjoyment of this soundtrack. I've seen the film four times already, and I'm convinced the music complements the action perfectly. In fact, Horner's score consistently outshines the screenplay. The film's mood is repeatedly disrupted by banal dialogue, but the powerful and emotional soundtrack successfully maintains the suspense of the sniper duel. Horner's most original composition contains balalaika accompaniment, which conveys needed Russian "feeling" to a film whose characters are played (rather unconvincingly) by Cockney actors. I love the CD. I've played it already a hundred times without tiring of it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a good soundtrack, especially if you like Russian., April 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Enemy At The Gates (2001 Film) (Audio CD)

Enemy at the Gates, the movie and the soundtrack, hasn't been getting very many good reviews, and I don't understand why because I thought it was a great movie and a great soundtrack. Maybe its just too far above the heads of the juvinile minds of the cretics who want a movie with lots of noise and fake stuff exploding and dumb actors. .. . Well, anwyways on with the review!Horner seems to be a cheap composer in the fact that he copies a lot of his previous works. Believe it or not, and only a true soundtrack fan like myself would notice this, but in the sountrack to Enemy at the Gates, Horner takes a lot from his 1980's Star Trek Two: The Wrath of Kahn. The light background music played a lot during the film is directly from Star Trek Two. However, the Russian choral parts in the battle scenes are totally wonderful. I thought that this was a great movie, and this is great soundtrack.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent cd, but not an ORIGINAL score, March 2, 2005

By 

J. K. Moser "JKM" (Flemington, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Enemy At The Gates (2001 Film) (Audio CD)

James Horner's score for Enemy At The Gates is not a bad cd. It has some moments that are dark, and others that are contemplative. His love theme is decent and his chorale pieces are very good and very original. The rest is not. There are parts of this cd that can be interchanged with Horner's scores for the recent Troy or the not so recent Mask of Zorro. When Horner sticks to sounding Russian he does a good job unfortunately he doesn't and like much of his work after Breveheart, his music is recycled. That doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, because it is not. What it does mean is that outside the movie, the listener feels like they've heard the music before and in many cases they have.