Customer Reviews

Witness: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been collecting movie music now for almost eight years. So why haven't I noticed before how talented a composer Maurice Jarre is? The music which he brings to "Witness", flowing like a waterfall of kaleidescopic colors from the synthesizers, seems to me to be filled with awe and reverence for the Amish people depicted in the movie and their culture. This is evident in tracks like the Main Title theme (variations of which are heard throughout the CD)and "Building the Barn", which provides a light-hearted, classical air to what might be an ardurous task for anyone else; yet the track accentuates the people's goal of working for the greater good. Toward the end of the disc is what sounds like a chase sequence which has to be heard to be believed. I guess I just never saw Jarre as being capable of creating such drama and beauty in sound before.

The movie's great. The soundtrack, on the whole, is reasonable - although, like most soundtracks, it generally doesn't stand up by itself; it needs the film.

There is one very major exception to this, though: the track Building the Barn. This is wonderful music and well warrants buying this CD. Absolutely beautiful!

During the 1980's Maurice Jarre picked up on a somewhat popular concept (and perhaps inspiration from his son, Jean-Michel) and scored a few films using mostly synthesizers and what he called an "electronic ensemble" featuring Nyle Steiner, Michael Boddicker, Ian Underwood and others. Some of the scores worked very well on film (Fatal Attraction) while others did not (Dead Poet's Society).

Witness is one of the scores on the positive end. It contains some the most lush and beautiful passages ever heard from electronic instruments, and some nice themes. I would rate the film 5 stars (instead of 4) except that there really isn't that much music to listen to when just putting the CD on the stereo and listening. Though not a single track on here will annoy anyone, and the Main Theme and Building the Barn are both worth the price of admission, and make this album well worth owning.

Sam Cooke
Wonderful world

Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took
But I do that I love you
And I know thatif you love me too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonomitry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now I don't claim, to be an A-student
But I'm trying to be
For maybe by being an A-student, baby
I could win your love for me

{repeat first two blocks)

Peter Weir's "Witness" is one of the finest movies of the '80s, and Maurice Jarre's soundtrack is every bit as good. Excellent theme, excellent atmospheric stuff, and the barn-raising theme is wonderful. Before there were CDs, I owned the tape, and I'll always have a copy of the music in whatever format is around.

Bad Pun. Sorry. Like The Mosquito Coast, Maurice Jarre stamps his Brand of moody electronics all over WITNESS and the result is a success. Movie and music blend well. Maurice Jarre knows what hes doing.

The soundtrack of this movie goes along with it so well. It explains the movie to a tee. It expalins with out words how the life is for the characters of the movie. If you like the movie, you'll like the soundtrack.

.....What A Wonderful World by Sam Cooke.

I've watched this movie a dozen times and never, never do I lose my love for the movie. It's an endearing, but riveting, classic I've come to include in "My Top Ten Favorites". It never ceases to satisfy me, story, music, scenery, actors, all. If you haven't watched this in a while, pull it out of your stock and enjoy! You will not be disappointed.

IT'S WHEN THEY ARE IN THE BARN FIXING THE CAR AND STARTED TO DANCE