The International [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] [Soundtrack]

Tom Tykwer (Composer), Johnny Klimek (Composer), Reinhold Heil (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil
• Audio CD (February 3, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Varese Sarabande
• ASIN: B001OD6HEK
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,187 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Meeting Schumer

2. Morgue

3. Salinger Comes Home

4. Wexler Meets The Consultant

5. Salinger In Luxembourg

6. Bugs

7. The Calvini Hit

8. Calvini Crime Scene Investigation

9. Security Check

10. Driving Into NYC

11. The Isaacson Files

12. Tailing The Consultant

13. Inside The Guggenheim

14. The Guggenheim Shootout

15. The Consultant's Death

16. On The Way To Moody's Bail Bonds

17. The Wexler Interrogation

18. Ella Leaves Lou - Calvini Headquarters

19. Istanbul

20. Chasing Jonas Skarssen

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Demonstration/Test Disc!, March 25, 2011

By 

M. Phelan (Bergen County, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The International [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

I purchased this CD hoping it would give me a good idea of the capabilities of my stero setup after upgrading speaker cables and interconnects and adding a tube pre-amp and a Music Hall DAC (Digital-to-analog converter) to my setup. This 2-channel disc was a great choice to test the highs and lows. Musically great as well - check out the samples.

4.0 out of 5 stars It's a great test-CD for a high end system, December 27, 2010

By 

S. Kosloske (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The International [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

I picked this up from a recommendation list in a high-end audio buyers guide. Since I'm a fan of electronic music, and recently got a really nice headphone setup for myself, I figured I should pick up some CD's on the "you've gotta hear this on a good system" list.

You definitely wouldn't want to put this CD into a shuffle mix, some of the songs here will sound very strange when not in the context of the whole thing. But for a complete sitting, it's a very good mix, and really does show what your system can do. There's quite a lot of low end in the CD, and you'll need a system that can cover everything down to subwoofer level freqencies to really get the full feel.

As for the songs themselves, I personally thought it was a well done set. Again, you really do need to listen to the whole thing start to finish, it's got a very specific flow to it, in my opinion.

If you're a fan of electronic music, and want to listen to a full-range soundtrack, this is a great test disk.

5 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Like listening to your microwave, January 6, 2010

By 

Jon Broxton (Thousand Oaks, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The International [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (Audio CD)

The International is a contemporary - and somewhat prescient - action movie/political thriller starring Clive Owen as Louis Salinger, an Interpol agent who teams up with a Manhattan district attorney to expose a high-profile financial institution's role in an international arms dealing ring. The film, which also stars Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Ulrich Thomsen, was directed by German leading light Tom Tykwer; as he did on his previous movies (notably Run Lola Run and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer), Tykwer teamed up with regular collaborators Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek to provide the film's score.

After the unexpectedly excellent neoclassicism of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, The International is a return to the Heil and Klimek of old, in that it is essentially a synth rhythm score prettied up with a few sampled string lines here and there. Most of the score comprises shifting synth tones, industrial sound effects, and electronic rhythms and pulses, occasionally overlaid with a specific `color' to make each cue a little more unique: tinkling synth strings and piano chords in "Salinger Comes Home", a more rambunctious rhythm and rumbling timpani in "The Calvini Hit", a sampled harp in "The Consultant's Death". For long stretches, though, virtually nothing happens. Cues like "Salinger in Luxembourg", "Bugs" and "The Guggenheim Shootout" offer virtually nothing in terms of musical creativity or an emotional connection. They're just there, like a metronome, presenting the repetitive thump of an internal beat over and over, but doing little else.

This score wouldn't be so disappointing if I didn't know what these composers were capable of; there's no personality, no depth, no real point to this score other than to provide the film with tempo, add another layer to the sound effects, and occasionally add a slightly warmer pseudo-human touch to what is otherwise a cold chase thriller. Scores like these really have no reason for existing outside of the film for which they were written; some electronic scores can be very exciting and entertaining, but unfortunately The International isn't one of them. For long stretches, it's like listening to an industrial mechanical hum, like the one your microwave might make while cooking your Lean Cuisine. Back to square one for Pale 3, I'm afraid.