Customer Reviews

Mutiny on the Bounty [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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

 

 

Film Score Monthly, the magazine for the connoisseur of movie music, has released its 100th album, the powerful soundtrack to 1962's controversial Marlon Brando epic. Like the movie for which it was composed, Bronislau Kaper's Academy Award-nominated composition is brash, thrilling, tense, playful, reflective, and dynamic. Only Miklos Rosza's Ben-Hur matches it in sheer scope and sweep. Kaper's use of South Seas rhythms and chorus, along with familiar English melodies, add authenticity to the seafaring saga that moves from the North Atlantic to the the South Pacific.

The album itself gets the deluxe treatment. Each respective disc has stars Brando, Trevor Howard, and Tarita pictured on it. The forty-four-page book tells everything that one wants to know about the movie, from historical inadequacies to filming in the Pacific to construction of the ship to Brando's temperament and increasing waist size. Notes are also provided that give insight to each of the album's sixty-seven tracks.

This particular album is as much a history-maker as was the film that spawned it.

The folks at FSM have outdone themselves with this one. Limited to a production of only 3000 copies, students and fans of film scoring should scoop up "Mutiny on the Bounty" as soon as possible.

Hopefully, the release of Kaper's monumental score will create interest in the film and it, too, will receive a much-needed deluxe multi-disc treatment.

A fan can only hope!

What has happened to film music of the past few decades? There are exceptions, of course, but just compare this symphonic accomplishment to the bland, nondescript synthesizer score for the Anthony Hopkins/Mel Gibson film "The Bounty." The use of electronic music in a film set in the eighteenth century is a ridiculous idea anyway. (Not that that would stop others from using it to even worse effect later, as in the Daniel Day-Lewis version of "The Last of the Mohicans." But I digress.) As stated elsewhere, here are three versions of the score, clocking in at just under four hours; you won't want it to be a minute less. Whatever you might think of the 1962 film itself (and most critics' opinions seem to have been based on what they had heard about Brando's difficulty on the set, and not on an objective view of the finished product), Kaper's score cannot be faulted. There is so much more beyond the striking and memorable main theme: among the delights are motifs and melodies of symphonic power, sea chanteys, authentic Tahitian music, and more. The pressing is limited to 3000 copies, but it won't sell out that quickly. The greater part of the music listening public is a generation whose members spend their time downloading and burning, and aren't likely to plunk down the cash for a three-CD set of the symphonic score to a film they've barely heard of. But don't wait too long. This is spectacular music, spectacularly transferred to disc. It's almost better than we deserve. Enough said. (BL, Tucker, GA)

This is an absolutely stunning movie score given the CD release of a lifetime by Film Score Monthly.

This 3-CD set features nearly four hours of music written for one of the screen's great epic films from the 1960s.

So much was written about Marlon Brando's behavior during the filming of the tale that most critics were against the film when it was released. Still, that did not prevent it from being nominated for seven Academy Awards, including nods for Best Original Score and Best Song. (Music Oscars for that year went to Maurice Jarre for "Lawrence of Arabia" and Henry Mancini for the song "The Days of Wine and Roses" -- and thanks to a reader for pointing out my mistake of citing the previous year's winners in my original review).

Most books that review films still credit the 1935 Gable/Laughton version as the best ever, but some of us think differently -- we see this as one of the most underrated g-r-e-a-t films of all time, and Brando's "Fletcher Christian" is one of the screen's -- and Brando's -- most extraordinary creations.

The film is a great adventure story, magnificently filmed and beautifully cast.

Its crowning glory is Bronislau Kaper's masterpiece of a score -- one of the greatest ever written and one of the most magnificent recordings of a score ever done. This 3-CD set captures not only the original score as heard in the film, but a complete "alternate" score that was written for one of the first edits of the film before reshooting and reediting made it necessary for Kaper to rework his music for a different film. Additionally, there are the recordings done especially for the MGM Deluxe Edition LP recording.

There is so much to assimilate in this recording...the majesty of the Overture and Main Title (with chorus)sets the mood for great adventre and heroism. Leaving Portsmouth Harbor accompanies one of the most remarkable sequences put on film as the Bounty is prepared for getting underway. Kaper's inspiration for the final form of this piece owes a bit of debt to a similar sequence in Miklos Rozsa's "Plymouth Adventure", but the tribute to empire with "Rule, Brittania" truly gets the blood roused. The alternate cue for this sequence is fascinating, but the correct choice was made for the final cut. The island/native music is unique, authentic and infectiously rhythmic. The South Seas are perfectly captured in these wonderful cues.

The score's love theme, known as "Follow Me" in its choral setting, is also one of the great themes of the 1960s and is beautifully used within the film.

I could rave on and on, but the proof of the score's greatness is in this set. As it is a limited edition, any fan of this movie and great film music would be wise to invest in a copy at the earliest opportunity.

[...]

Bronislau Kaper's soundtrack for 'Mutiny On The Bounty' is nothing short of magnificent. In fact it's simply phenomenal, outstanding, superb, extraordinary & every adjective imaginable that denotes greatness. I first saw 'Mutiny On The Bounty' when I was 10yrs. old, in 1962. I fell in love with the entire package that was presented on the motion picture screen that day but I left the theater haunted by the music which kept playing over & over in my head. So I quickly snatched up a special LP box set at the local record store which included a souvenir companion book, making this one of my most prized possessions. Sad to say the book was lost or misplaced years ago but the record remains, though rather worn. Long out of print, I'm amazed to see that Amazon is not only offering this once again but in an extended version comprising the ENTIRE film score plus extras. A 3CD box set with a souvenir book. One can indeed go home again! Well, enough history & nostalgia. It's my feeling that Bronislau Kaper's soundtrack for 'Mutiny On The Bounty', like the film itself, was never really given it's 'propers'. Never has there been a more stirring soundtrack on par with any Miklos Rosza soundtrack. The'MOTB' soundtrack also ranks up there with 'Spartacus', 'Lawrence Of Arabia', 'Doctor Zhivago', 'King Of Kings' & 'El Cid'. The overture, departure from port, battling the storms around the Horn, the intensity of cruelty & punishment aboard ship is underscored brilliantly, building towards the climax. Kaper's music echoes & builds upon every feeling & psychological emotion of captain, crew & Brando's Fletcher Christian. The photography in the movie is stunning & Kaper's Tahitian portion of the score makes us feel as if we're in reprieve from the cruelty, sharing moments in paradise too. The love theme ("Follow Me")is both beautiful & haunting, presented as an instrumental, sung in Tahitian & English. All through the movie, music is the perfect compliment to what we are seeing on the screen. Kaper's score for the burning of the Bounty & the death of Fletcher Cristian is heart wrenching. One finds in listening to the music of 'MOTB', you too are on a splendid journey of musical notes brilliantly scored. If you've seen the movie, the music will take you back invoking the very images that played out over & over in my head 47yrs. ago. If you haven't seen the film you'll simply enjoy this extraordinary symphony. You've got to admit this has to be one heck of a motion picture score if this reviewer still brags about it 47yrs. after first hearing it or this reviewer is just plain nuts. I'm sure upon hearing it for yourself, you'll agree with the former. Thanx Amazon for making this available.

I've been searching for this for a long time. It has the complete LP tracks as well as the complete soundtrack for the movie. WONDERFUL. And it has some very interesting information in the little booklet included with it. What a find!