Forbidden Planet: Original MGM Soundtrack [SOUNDTRACK]

Bebe Barron, Louis Barron

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 5, 1995)
• Original Release Date: March 15, 1956
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Gnp Crescendo
• ASIN: B0000059UG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #138,916 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A prototype, December 24, 2002

By	Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This was a clever film, a sci fi rendition of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." A trekkie whom I dated in my single days referred to the film as a prototype of Star Trek.

So the film, shot when I was just a boy, was a prototype, in many ways ahead of its time. So, thusly, is the music.

While electronics have become a way of life in the "developed" world now--How long has it been since you've heard a phone "ring?"--in the mid 1950s, they were still fantasy. The film works simulataneously at three levels, the interstellar voyage of the characters, the far more advanced technology/prehistory of the Krell, and the subliminal, and very animal, instinctive id. The composers did a clever job of mixing electronic sound effects with a "musical" tone, some later mimicked by a number of minimalist composers, to develop the ambiance of these levels.

If you haven't seen the film, maybe that description will entice you to see it. And the soundtrack will remind you of they mystery and intrigue of the story.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars powerful electronic score, March 23, 2000

By	H. F. Gibbard "Noir Guy" (Dark City, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I know of only two films that are "haunted" by their film music: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and this one, Forbidden Planet. By "haunted," I mean that the film music forms an independent subtext about off-screen events, communicated directly to the viewer, which expresses something more profound than the emotions and experiences of the on-screen characters. In this film, the music is used to evoke a dead race, the Krell, that live on in their machines. We never see the Krell, but the ethereal music stands in for them. Listened to separate from the film, this score for Forbidden Planet has a visceral effect on the listener. Some of the tracks are loud and jarring; others lend themselves to quiet meditation. It's not film music in the traditional sense, but it's fun to listen to while the conscious mind is occupied elsewhere, say in reading or working.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No theremin used here folks., July 30, 2005

By	J. C. Ray "Filmbuff" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Louis & Bebe Baron, pioneers in electronic film music.
It is clearly stated in the album's liner notes that no theremin was used in the creation of this landmark score and with good reason, the artists actually created by hand specialty circuits (in keeping with the basis of cybernetics) to create either individual sounds or sometimes even a huge long circuit board for a complete musical piece, it took them almost a year to do the entire score.

Worth owning just for the historical significance but IMO it definitely has a musical flow to it that has artistic merit.