Customer Reviews

A Scanner Darkly

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

 

 

Richard Linklater's innovative big screen adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly was good enough, but it's score is surprisingly excellent. I'm usually not that big a fan of film scores. For me to get any enjoyment at all out of a movie score, there has to be something about the music itself that sticks in my head and sticks out during the particular scene in the movie. I hadn't had any intention on checking out the score album to A Scanner Darkly until hearing the surprisingly touching and wrenching piece of music played at the final scene of the film ("Little Blue Flowers"), which was reason alone to check this out. Graham Reynolds, who I had never heard of before this, weaves a beautifuly diverse score that is as innovative as Linklater's filming technique. "Pose as a Nark", "A Scanner Darkly", "Are You Experiencing Any Difficulties?", and "A New Path" are superb and haunting to say the least. It's disappointing that the music from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke isn't included here, but considering how great Reynolds' score is, the disappointment is only minor. Definitely worth picking up for fans of the film and fans of film scores in general.

I was looking for the song they play through the credits of the film by Radiohead's Thom Yorke, but it's not on the CD so I was a little dissapointed. Other than that, I liked it a lot. What can I say? It's a movie soundtrack, so if you saw the movie and liked the music, go out and buy it.

At the end of "A Scanner Darkly" the credits certainly imply that 4 songs included on the soundtrack will be by Radiohead, various members of Radiohead, or Thom Yorke himself. Clearly, that is not the case, and while the music may be good it is not what I expect to get on the soundtrack when I watch the movie credits. It's nice to know that I already have the good songs from the soundtrack on my collection of CD's from Radiohead/et al. I'm sure the rest of the music is nice, but I'll leave it to the true afficianado of ethereal, instrumental melancholy.