Customer Reviews

Syriana

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

 

 

As the product description states above, this score mirrors the film by being appropriately understated and nuanced. The title track is both melancholy and haunting, a feeling which runs through the entire soundtrack. Other parts have quite a bit of tension. One gets the feeling that there is always something bubbling under the suface here -- nothing is as it seems, which of course, is the intention of the film. Alexandre Desplat did a stellar job.

Desplat does what few can in "Syriana," mixing the adrenaline of a John Powell score and the extremely understated compositional style of Philip Glass. With Syriana, Desplat has proven his worth as a truly contemporary film score composer, using high quality sounds and music to not only back up a film, but to actually work with it simultaniously. Even if you haven't seen the film, Desplat's score is still a work of art to be purchased and enjoyed.
Highly reccomended for avid film score listeners.

Would I be considered a purist snob if I say I like my electronic separated from my orchestral stuff? This film score combines the two ala Hans Zimmer, et al. I can just picture the recording sessions in my head: Alexandre Desplat sitting in front of a synthesizer in a big recording studio alongside the Hollywood Studio Symphony awaiting cues from a conductor. Maybe he's positioned behind the first violins or in the front where a piano normally sits for a concerto. The engineer Charles F. kettering once said, "Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier." Fine. I can live with that. I've listened to Ravi Shankar's Concertos for sitar and orchestra and they're works of sheer delight. I see there is a concerto for steel pan & orchestra but I have yet to acquire it. It must be interesting. Also, if I can find a symphony or concerto that uses Turkish or Greek instruments that would also be a joy. Syriana does push the envelope a bit. Not only are you getting a symphony with electronica but you also get middle eastern percussion and flute. I guess I'll enjoy this frontier for now.

This is a good soundtrack. When I listen to it, I was just feeling that I was being into a tense place in it. Especially, track 1, 5, 7, 10 brought me to the real experience for it. So, if you love the movie, I bet you must love this too. Well done.

All right, I liked the movie. It's a tad hard to follow, but I liked it. It's a story that needs to be told, i.e., people in the US need to think about much of the stuff for which our corporations are responsible, etc. It's said to be a docudrama, based on Robert Baer's book "Hear No Evil" which I haven't yet had time to read.

But, truth be told, I like soundtracks that remind me of a film. I even have them of films I didn't like! (For instance, the film "Solaris" with George Clooney didn't do much for me but I found the soundtrack mesmerizing). Usually there's some melodies that evoke memories of the film, or just one that I like. (Another example, the later remake of the film "The Time Machine" I found to be silly, but I do like the music!)

The soundtrack of this film may, sure, be tense, appropriate to the film, etc. But, no, it's not something I can't wait to listen to, to put it mildly. It's not terrible, but you're not going to remember a scene in Syriana by listening to it, and think, "Oh, yeah!" Get it if you lose sleep over the film and just don't have time to watch it over and over. But, if not, get, say, Steven Colbert's audio book. It's more fun.

Remember the portrayal of Jim Garrison by Kevin Kostner, and Donald Sutherland playing the role of a
deepthroat-type character sitting on the park bench? and "Mr. X" explaining the Naval Intelligence
connection to the Kennedy assassination? Sutherland named the tune.

Like a Jazz composition without a melody line or a chorus we get to hear - like outa nowhere, the actors
in the Syrania movie break from one solo to the next held together by a constant real life drum beat we
already know from OPEC-related gas lines in the 1970s, $3 per gallon gasoline this past summer, and now our
winter heating bills. Oil and drugs now, or water of the future. Listen: You can hear the soundtrack
from Traffic, the 2000 heroin movie.

Each actor in this Syriana ensemble interprets the line with a careful ear to what the other players are
saying. During Syriana, one cameo role actor (William Hurt), leans to the Syrania CIA
agent (George Clooney), and out of audience hearing range whispers the name of the tune - an old standard
entertainment prone news junkies learned from Three Days of the Condor (the 1975 movie)
or Six Days of the Condor (the book by James Grady).

Syriana, as a movie is in fact a close re-make from just one break-out scene in Three Days of the
Condor; picking up from the downstairs meet between Turner (Robert Redford), the "Alsatian gentleman"
Joubert (Max von Sydow) and "The CIA mastermind" Atwood (Addison Powell), and when the name of the
mastermind's tune is revealed. Then much to Turner's surprise, Joubert kills Atwood. Shoots him right in
the head with a gun equipped with a silencer.

Add to this Three/Six Days and/or the Syriana stack the 1953 overthrow of Mossadeq. The Mossad
assassinations of the Munich terrorists. The Beirut Barracks Bombing (which Mossad had a video of, but
didn't bother to warn the 220 Marines and 21 other U.S. service members killed that day).

See the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, blamed on Syria. See the inadvertent
transfer of a Stinger missile to the wrong guys. See the death of the Shah, or King Faud, and their
respective offspring. Take your pick.

See the historic CIA support of Usama bin Laden's boys in Afghanistan, in their war against the Soviets.
See the CIA support of the MKO terrorists in the 1980s, and now again in 2005 - against the founders and
followers of Imam Khomeini's Islamic Revolution.

See today's headliner, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Iranians Moving Ahead with Nuke Production.
See the mysterious plane crash last night that killed Ahmad Kazemi, the commander of Iran's Pasdaran
Revolutionary Guards.

Not unrelated, see British Lawyers Linked to $1m Payment for Favours at the US Congress, and
The DeLay-Abramoff Naftasib Oil (Russia) Money Trail.

Don't forget who "they" is. They Tried Twice to Assassinate Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

Or, as movie critic Bruce Kirkland says, "The C.I.A. seems to be serving the interests of the U.S. oil
industry" and "Syriana is several parallel plot lines running concurrently..."

If you want to see the past and present, or where the tune is going, Syriana (the movie) is a two hour
plus ticket that goes lightning quick, and like The Matrix (1999), Syrania should be seen a half dozen
times to get it just right.