Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An amazingly original and stunning movie soundtrack, July 26, 1999
The soundtrack for Ravenous by Damon Albarn and Michael Nyman is absolutely unique and powerful. It is reminiscent of great film scores like those of Ennio Morricone for the spaghetti westerns back in the 1960's. It encompasses many Old West traditional instruments with a modern twist to create an unmistakably distinctive sound. The intro. starts off with the military tune of `Hail Columbia' with the American flag whipping in the breeze--an ironically triumphant contrast to Boyd's disgracefully earned promotion to Captain at a victorious military banquet. After this the music changes into an off-key banjo and squeeze-box for Boyd's journey to Fort Spencer. The most bizarre musical sequence is the music at "The Cave", which starts off with a strange whining sound, which subsides into an eerie chime, then builds to a crazed crescendo as Colqhoun attacks the other men. The chase scene of Toffler is accompanied by a frenzied banjo song which seems to fit more with Colqhoun's joy than with Toffler's terror. The adrenaline-charged cliff music is intricately webbed with a heart pounding bass guitar rhythm that accompanies Boyd's frightening encounter with Colqhoun and his bone-snapping freefall down the cliff and through the pine trees. This is followed by a beautiful, dreamlike theme which transforms Boyd's quivering anguish into something elegant and heart-wrenching to watch. The music progressively gets darker when Ives returns, and Boyd's `Cannibal Fantasy' is a gloomy, fatalistic theme that captures in its pessimistic tone the hopelessness of Boyd's addiction. After Ive's seductive speech to Boyd, there is a nervous panic-building piano beat that pounds and pounds until the discovery of Cleaves' body. The highlight of the score comes with the movies culmination-- a pulsing mantra of low keyboards, chanting voices and drums gives the climax a added touch of gothic gloom and grandeur. This bizarre, trance-like masterpiece finishes with the death-embrace of Boyd and Ives. The score adds immeasurably to the brilliance and uniqueness of Ravenous, and it lingers with you long after the movie is over. Go buy this soundtrack!!!
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Atmosphere for Both Eating in and Dining Out!!, November 20, 2003
Many scores/soundtracks don't seem to cover all the basics that a movie requires. They oftentimes seem to go for the marketing tool that works "after the fact" feel, hoping to sell more albums instead of help out the movie. This hurts quite a few films, too, because it allows certain table settings to slip through the cracks. Too often there is opting that instead takes faces that an audience knows, giving them that flavor of the moment instead of letting the levity and the sounds of situations shine through. Ravenous was an exception to that rule, however, making something that captured the bizarre blends of horror depicted in the moment.When I first saw the movie, I was actually moved by the score and I thought that it accented many of the moods all too well. The frantic situations, the ones that were almost funny but that shouldn't be, and the horror was something I thought was fantastic. Atmospherically the films was a work of art, and I found later on that it wasn't simply the pictures that were making the film. It was instead the brooding sounds circulated through the scenes, making moments like the one captured in "run" applaudably funny instead of horrific, that made me like it so much. So I went out and bought this work by Nyman and Albarn and I've had it in my listening lineup ever since. Even if you really aren't a fan of scores, you might want to give this work a go. I'm not normally one to pick up tracks of this nature, normally staying away from soundtracks of any sort altogether, but this is a versatile piece with real potential. It works as interesting background sound, making walking through the park or eating lunch with your discman on an interesting experience. That and the conversation highlights it can spawn make with friends makes it well worth looking into.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
hypnotic, October 18, 2003
In a webzine interview Michael Nyman explained that while the score is attributed to "Damon Albarn & Michael Nyman", none of the individual pieces were actual collaborations. Albarn wrote about 60% entirely by himself, then Nyman came and wrote the rest. That said, there are no "dodgy" tracks on this soundtrack. They're all excellent, and very unique. My favourites - Colquhoun's Story, Let's Go Kill That Bastard and the end titles - have complex layered melodies and strong rhythm. Keep in mind though that this was for a movie about cannibalism. Some tracks are particularly tension filled, but even the whimsical band pieces, like the flavoursomely off-key "Welcome to Fort Spencer", have a distinctly sinister tone. And can I say that it's fun trying to guess who wrote which track.
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