Customer Reviews

Walkabout (1971 Film)

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

 

 

Silva Screen and The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, under the
direction of Nic Raine, with the Crouch End Festival Chorus - David
Temple, Choir Master present this timeless release -
"Walkabout".

"Walkabout" (1971) is a complex
story of loneliness, alienation and social consciousness, as
director/cinematographer Nicolas Roeg using very little dialogue has
the camera (Anthony Richmond-cinematographer) tell this fascinating
tale of a young girl (Jenny Agutter), her brother (Lucien John) and
the young Aborigine (David Gulpilil) of the sumptuous beauty and
horror of the Australian outback.

But the real beauty of this film
is the score by the artistic John Barry, who has the gift of melody,
and he knows how to use it better than anyone else, for any film or
situation. Barry's score evokes perfectly a sense of childhood
yearning, a time gone forever. Our composer's score plays superbly
with rich and melodic tones, with his precise and poetic passages
blends shades of counterpoints, this is John Barry at his best.

The
remaining scores on the album - "THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS"
(1972), "MOVIOLA" (1992), "THE CHASE" (1966),
"ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND" (1972), "THE
BETSY" (1978), "THE CORN IS GREEN" (1978), "UNTIL
SEPTEMBER" (1984) and "SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON"
(1964), is music to feast upon and fit for a king.

Silva with these
"World Premiere Recordings" have given
"film-score-buffs" all the goodies wrapped up in one
bundle...this is a classic CD. Other titles to look for -
"Zulu" (SSD 1095), "The Classic John Barry" (SSD
1033), "The Essential James Bond" (SSD 1034), "Bond
Back In Action" (SSD 1100) and "Bond Back In Action 2"
(SSD 1119)...sharing the magic of this classic composer - JOHN BARRY!

Total Time: 65:46 on 17 Tracks...(2000)

As rare as the movie, it took a long time for this soundtrack to resurface...all thanks to Silva. Silva just recently have been piecing together some outstanding film compilations of various composers who's film scores in the past ended up on some dusty shelf. Anyone who hasn't seen the movie but know of Nicholas Roeg (the director) and John Barry (the composer)would think that the two would make a unlikely pair, judging upon Nicholas Roeg's often strange nature in making movies and you can never loosely describe John Barry's scores being remotely strange or out of place. John Barry had prior to that been associated with scoring James Bond films, so this may of seemed like a bit of a departure for him, a departure that may of lead him to score some of his most important films in his life. Walkabout only covers about 27 minutes, the rest of the tracks are from various other movies...the main focus of course is on Walkabout and deservely so because it has never been released. Bearing in mind, what you hear is the world premiere recording of the original score covered by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and what a great job they do. Walkabout was a movie that glorified in visual beauty and it would seem like a hard task for the music score to compliament the visual aspect of it, considering there is very little narrative but surprisingly it does a fine job.

The Moviola track was intended for the Prince Of Tides but nothing ever became of it after John Barry's departure and eventually finding it's way in a Imax film. An essential track being that it was so important to him. With the success of "Dances With Wolves", Moviola was a pivotal point that was to re-establish his career...that was not to be.

Unfortunately all the other tracks on the c.d, They Might Be Giants, The Chase, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, The Betsy (horrible movie), The Corn Is Green, Until September and Seance On A Wet Afternoon are light weight in comparison to Walkabout and they would hardly be worth purchasing if they stood alone.

I loved the movie, so when I stumbled upon the Walkabout c.d in the soundtrack section...I had to have it, and I don't regret having to pay a little extra for it.

This is probably one of John Barry's least familiar body of work. However, it is not to be missed. The music is full of beauty, yet with haunting regret.

I saw this movie years ago and I can actually say it did a lot to focus my view of life as a human and the values we, as overseers of this planet, interact with the natural world. I had looked for the music for almost 30 years when I finally found this cd. Still, after all these years, it can bring a tear to my eyes when I relive the scenes in the film.

This is my favorite Barry. Period. I have bought and lost this damn CD three times now, and recieved it for free once, yet I continue to get random urges to listen to it and always ended up buying it again.

If Barry's sweet melodies and heartbreaking themes touch you, you cant miss this CD.

Aggressively avoid this CD unless you are a John Barry diehard (or groupie). Barry has written many exciting and beautiful film scores over the past four decades. But the best of Barry's compositions have been recorded and released on CDs many, many times. Few film-score composer hit a home run every time. This CD has a consistent collection of strike outs. Sure there are snatches here and there of Barry at his best, but waiting for them to flash by your ears is not worth it (and you are likely to doze off and miss them entirely!). The art work on the CD booklet features a list of CD credits in a spiral of small print. The spiral design matches the music presented. The credits are hard to read without being put off. The music is hard to listen to without being turned off.