Customer Reviews

Two Mules for Sister Sara / Days Of Heaven

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

 

 

'Days of Heaven' has one of Morricones most haunting soundtracks which complements the movie's vast visual presence and doom ridden narrative. Its combination with a lightweight western comedy sountrack on this CD soundtrack is incongruous - thank goodness for programmable CD players!

DAYS OF HEAVEN was once a film without a released soundtrack though many fans had begged for one. Finally one was released and it was nominated for a Grammy Award to boot. This is a very different Morricone than most people will encouter if all they've heard is his music for the spaghetti westerns. It has a haunting, nostalgic feel to it, and goes for lighter orchestrations than the usual Morricone score. He doesn't always score the most obvious scenes and that makes for a different feel to the picture, but when he does score a scene, you do not forget the images it accompanies. A brief note, the CD contins a cue that is not in the film, and a couple pieces from the CD are shortened in the film, especially THRESHING, one of my favorite cues.

As to TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA. I did not think it was a lightweight incongruous western. It fit right in with Eastwood's DOLLAR films, though it's more American due to the director DON SIEGEL (INVASTION OF TH BODY SNATCHERS, DIRTY HARRY, etc.) Perhaps it's Morricone's sense of humor that doesn't allow his score to become too serious; his score seems to play off the fact that Shirley MacLaine's Sister Sara realy isn't a nun but someone of a less-than-sacred profession, and the music reflects her playfulness and ribaldness. One note: there is one cut on the CD that is not in the film. Instead of it, they could've put on the attack by the Indians, or Sara's climb to the top of the train bridge.

These two scores show Morricone's range and are a welcome addition to any Morricone collection.

This review is a bit of a cheat because I don't own this particular CD though I've long owned the Eastwood-MacLaine movie on VHS and the 1978 "Days of Heaven" original soundtrack LP, so I'm quite familiar with the music.

And I do LOVE the music; what a thrill to see the great Ennio Morricone at last week's 79th Academy Awards ceremony receiving his Oscar. (Yes, okay, it was a tad awkward watching the weathered Eastwood translating Morricone's emotional Italian for American audiences, but moving nonetheless.)

The observation has been made here that Morricone's composition for "Two Mules for Sister Sara" is at its best and most memorable when playfully underscoring the feisty MacLaine character; I'd have to agree--I remember almost nothing of the soundtrack for "Sara" when it concentrates on the action, especially the lengthy battle near the end of the film.

On the other hand, after nearly 30 years (!), the exquisite orchestral "Days of Heaven" soundtrack remains a towering achievement and one of my personal favorites. Morricone's yearning, beautiful music is by turns lilting, wildly celebratory, lushly romantic, achingly melancholy, and darkly ominous--a perfect match to the majesty and sweep of Malick's elegant, elegiac masterpiece. (Accordingly, the 5 star rating is primarily for Morricone's "Heaven" music rather than for "Sara".)

In short, though "Two Mules for Sister Sara" was very entertaining as a movie, I'm not sure the world truly needs a full original soundtrack for it; it's inconceivable to me however that the score for the epic "Days of Heaven" still lacks its own separate release on disc.

One final note: though the item for review is a double-soundtrack compact disc, I notice the majority of the remarks here address the movie rather than its music, and only the Eastwood-MacLaine movie at that. (What's up with that??) Kudos, then, to reviewer Mark Eakes from Lompoc, CA for his thoughtful review of the merits, pro and con of this CD.

This review refers to the "Days of Heaven" tracks on the CD. Track 12 on wards. Even though as some reviewers had noted, only 25 minutes. But it's 25 minutes of heavenly music. 25 minutes of soothing lyrical tranquility that breezes past your eardrums so fleetingly, but yet so memorable that it remains with you for the rest of your life.

I have been searching for this soundtrack since 1998. Now, my long wait is over ever since I have received this long-begotten CD in my mail yesterday. With excitement I have not felt since I was kid, I quickly inserted the CD into the DVD-ROM drive. Almost by instinct, I chose the title track "Days of Heaven", the last track on the CD; soft strings that starts slowly and it revolves around a familiar tune that repeats itself again and again for 3 minutes, but it doesn't irritate me one bit, unlike 80's wall-to-wall music.

I am aware that this is not the complete soundtrack to the film. It's sad that the tracks are bundled up like a double feature with Two Mules for Sister Sara. I really hope that whoever is holding onto the rights to the soundtrack, would release an official album. This is the least they can do to "The Maestro", considering that he was given a lifetime Oscar. He's the film composer equivalent of Stanley Kubrick. Geniuses in their respective mediums, but never recognised by the Academy. Not that they need it anyway.

As one of the many people in the U.S. who engaged in a letter writing campaign to the film company, begging them to release a soundtrack recording for this movie, I can assure the previous reviewer that it wasn't available in the States when the movie was released. I can't speak for Canada, but as one of the people lucky enough to see the movie at it's New York Premier, and having seen it many times after that just to bask in the music and magnificent visuals again and again, I can tell you there was no soundtrack available when it first came out. The initial response we received to our letters was that a soundtrack wasn't planned at that time. It came out several months (nearly a year) after the initial release of the movie.

That aside, it is a dreadful shame that the entire soundtrack to Days of Heaven is not available by itself, as this recording is missing several essential pieces in the original LP soundtrack recording. The fact that this CD version hasn't been available for awhile, and used copies are nearly eighty dollars as of March 2004, tells me this soundtrack desperately needs to be re-released!

If you ever find this one at an affordable price, buy it immediately-this is gorgeous music...

I bought this for the Days of Heaven portion, but Two Mules is great stuff, too. Perfect Morricone, but not so perfect transfer. The track increments are slightly off for some of it, so that if you advance to the next track, you're coming into a song already about 4 seconds old. But that said, it's the kind of random album you'd stumble on at a garage sale on vinyl, in which case you'd be listening to it from start to finish anyway; so if you just want to play somebody one track from it, you can always pretend you dropped a late needle.

I do want to correct one of the reviewers, "Days of Heaven" was initially released as a soundtrack upon the release of the movie but didn't stay in circulation for all that long. And with the pairing of "Two Mules for Sister Sara" this particular disc is once again going through the ranks of obscurity and hard to find, I know because I have spent 20 years searching to no avail. I was finally able to obtain "Days of Heaven" and shame on me from a music downloading site from a stranger from Denmark, he had no idea how much this music meant to me...it was my holy grail. It's a uplifting experience but sadly only 26 minutes of music that you never want to end.

Being a fan of Ennio Morricone, I was surprised to hear how boring the music for "Two Mules for Sister Sara"was. Compared to his other soundtracks, it pales. "Days of Heaven" on the other hand is absolutely gorgeous, but be warned, "Days of Heaven" is not the same entire soundtrack that was released on LP in 1978. The beautiful opening song, (I'm not sure of its title) is not on the CD, nor is the slide guitar music on the disc either. I could have lived with the "Sara" music if "Days of Heaven" was complete, but it's not, and that's what makes the combination so disappointing.