Customer Reviews

Oliver Twist [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

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

 

 

Pay no heed to the reviewer below. Any references found to themes from The Godfather are entirely coincidental (there are MANY three-note themes that sound similar; doesn't mean a thing. . . I mean, it's three notes!!) and, in fact, you could point to Portman's music leaning a bit toward sounding like more like Wojciech Kilar than anyone else and that's quite understandable due to director Roman Polanski's affiliation with that composer for quite some time.

What we have in Oliver Twist is pretty much the Rachel Portman we've always known, only now she's reached into unfimiliar territory for many of her listeners: dark, brooding themes and lots of minor key tonal centering. The score features a few notable themes, but only two are central to the score: Oliver's Theme and Fagin's Theme. Both of these themes are juxtaposed against one another effectively to create quite the wonderful English-sounding musical backdrop to Dickens' dark yet quirky character tale.

Portman's sensibilities towards strings and winds remain as strong as they ever have been, only this time she relies much more on use of the double basses and lower wind instruments to create carefully brooding textures for the more gloomy sections of the score. Her rhythmic action motifs are repetitive but effective and the simpler portions of the score are exquisitely well done and precisely orchestrated.

Overall, this is one of the biggest film score surprises of the year and I heartily recommend it to all Portman fans and especially to film music fans who have been disappointed in the 2005 film score year on the whole. This is a score to be long remembered and one to which Dickens himself would, I believe, give his approval.

I think the soundtracks great, but the same melody seems to be carried out through almost all of the songs. It's great to listen to kind of in the background, but if you want to listen to something to actually LISTEN to it, it's not the most intruiging.

I love this album.

If you've seen the movie, the soundtrack that goes with it (as well as the movie itself) is phenomenal.

If you're like me, a John William's fan, you'll be able to follow the movie through with this soundtrack alone. It is that good. Listening to it on a quiet afternoon or on the airplane, wherever you may be, can totally take you to that place in London back in the 19th century.

A lovely album. Must-buy.

iT WAS AN OLDER VERIONS THAT i THOUGHT. i WANTED A MORE RECENT ONE. CAN i RETURN IT??
I DID come fast and was a good price.
but not what I thought it was-i haven't opened the cd

The soundtrack is OK, but the latter half of the new Oliver Twist film uses a theme (Wanted: Bill Sykes and a Fierce Dog) that's extremely reminiscent (to put it mildly) of a major Godfather theme. I mean, to the point that I found it extremely distracting in the film. It's the same three note riff that's so important to some dramatic scenes in Coppola's film.

I found this movie absoloutly stunning. It was marvolous. so wonderful, i couldnt even get up to go to the bathroom! i can not even speak of how good it was! BRILLIANT! MAKE ANOTHER ONE! I WILL BUY SO MANY OF THEM! EVERYONE LOVES THEM, ALL OF MY FRIENDS.. WE ALL TLAK AOUT IT AT SCHOOL AND EVERYWHERE WE GO! THIS MOVIE IS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!