Speed (Original Score) [Import, Soundtrack]

Mark Mancina, Speed (Related Recordings) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 14, 2003)
• Original Release Date: June 10, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Soundtrack
• Label: Warner Spec. Mkt. UK
• ASIN: B00008O88S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,879 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Main Title

2. The Rescue

3. Entering Airport

4. Rush Hour

5. Helen Dies

6. The Gap

7. Choppers

8. Pershing Square

9. Fight on Train

10. Dangling Feet

11. City Streets

12. Wildcat

13. The Dolly

14. Move

15. Pop Quiz

16. Freight Elevator

17. Elevator Stall

18. End Title

Editorial Reviews

Mark Mancina's score to the hit 1994 thriller starring Keanu Reeves. 19 tracks. Warner Music. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Has lost a lot of its power since 1994, December 8, 2002

By 

Inspector Gadget "Go Go Gadget Reviews" (On the trail of Doctor Claw) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speed: Original Motion Picture Score (Audio CD)

As big action movies moved away from big orchestras Speed redefined the action sound in the latter part of the 90s. Jerry Goldsmith was apparently in line to score the movie before Mark Mancina and the Media Ventures group were brought in. I have no doubt that Goldsmith would have delivered something epic, and if he had stayed on board the bus instead of hopping off before it hit 50 mph then perhaps action scores would have taken a different course since 1994.

As it is, Mancina and the Zimmer team seemed to get it right and found a way to appeal to audiences who are quite susceptible to identifying melodies and motifs, and the film may well have not even have been such a big success had they fumbled the ball. The score is often fast moving and exciting, though I have to be honest, the appeal has dwindled a lot over the years, and it really begins to flounder in non-action scenes, which are mostly all at the beginning of the movie but since the CD is non-chronological, they're scattered throughout.

There are not many actions scores out there that get blood flowing as fast as this (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory and Rambo: First Blood Part II - Original Film Soundtrack, New Expanded Edition being two other such scores that have retained their power) and usually resort to what I call "Action Noise"; a lazy and unimaginative route so many musicians have taken in the past decade. Speed was once fresh in ditching traditional use of orchestra and brass sections in favor electronic cues and mad synthesizer beats. But over the years the score has lost its edge and now feels cheap, weak and puny. The main Speed theme has no bite anymore (however, the secondary theme still sounds amazing).

Hans Zimmer and his now defunct Media Ventures group owned the action score genre and many of his protégées went on to use the same, tired, strings-driven, synthy sound for countless other, forgettable action films with no iconic melodies or identifiable themes whatsoever. This trend lasted until The Bourne Identity in 2002, in which Media Ventures graduate John Powell took the same approach and homogenized it to the point where it sounded EVEN MORE generic. His tepid sound for that series has now unfortunately become the benchmark for modern action scores. Where a director/producer would once say "Give me a score in the vein of Speed" they now say "Score it like a Bourne movie", which is just another way of saying "I don't care about themes, melodies, motifs or any deeper meaning or feeling that music can convey".

It all began with Speed, and it was once one of Media Ventures' best, but as a serious music fan, an action score fan, and Zimmer fan I now feel mostly indifferent to this dated score CD.

Ironically, Mark Mancina ended up giving us one of the best action movie scores of the past two decades with the critically-mauled Speed 2: Cruise Control three years later, a score that broke away from the synth trend and delivered a massive orchestra firing on all cylinders. While that score took 13 years to get a release this much inferior album got a dual release with the Speed soundtrack (IE, the dated and irregular songs barely featured in the film).

As usual for score CDs from this period in history, the track listing is completely out of chronological order. If you are ripping the album to your MP3 player or I-Tunes then THIS is the correct order to rearrange them into:

1. Main Title
2. Elevator Stall
3. Move
4. Elevator Peril
5. Dangling Feet
6. Freight Elevator
7. Pop Quiz
8. Rush Hour
9. City Streets
10. Choppers
11. Helen Dies
12. The Gap
13. Entering Airport
14. The Dolly
15. Wildcat
16. The Rescue (best use of the brilliant secondary theme)
17. Pershing Square
18. Fight on Train
19. End Title

The cover art is horrible, and the score is far from complete. I can't imagine an expanded album being released any time soon so if you really, really want it, and find it for cheap then go for it. Otherwise hunt down Mancina's infinitely superior Speed 2: Cruise Control (Original Score).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a rush, November 12, 2002

By 

Brandon Cutro (Tyler, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Speed: Original Motion Picture Score (Audio CD)

Speed is Mark Mancina's first major film score. He had some before this one, but this is the one that broke him into the film scoring world. The score itself is nonstop action music that never lets up until the "End Titles". The "Main Title" contains a heavy percussive beat laid over blasts from the brass accompanied by strings. The theme appears in bits and pieces throughout the score. The first half of the album is by far the best with highlight tracks including "The Rescue", "Entering Airport", the incredible "Rush Hour", "The Gap", "Helen Dies", "Choppers" and "City Streets". These cues showcase the main theme in several spots. "The Rescue" really shines at the end as the strings burst into a heroic main theme moment. "Rush Hour" is the best cue on the soundtrack with over 6 minutes of pulse pounding thrills. "The Gap" showcases some incredible string work and "Helen Dies" plays the main theme in a very stately fashion. The second half of the album gets a little tiresome with hardly any thematic material, just a bunch of synthesized rhythms and drumbeats. The "End Title" gives a breath of fresh air as the main theme is stated with the piano and soft strings to finish off the score. If the entire CD consisted of the awesome music of the first half, the rating would have been 5 stars. Action music fans will enjoy every minute of this and with good reason.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Tracks!, September 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Speed: Original Motion Picture Score (Audio CD)

Great music! Mark Mancia really captures the elusive music a movie like this would have!