The Bridge On The River Kwai: An Original Soundtrack Recording [SOUNDTRACK]

Malcolm Arnold

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 14, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1995
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002AN1
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #223,115 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Led in great part by Mitch Miller's recording of "The River Kwai March/Colonel Bogey March," this soundtrack became part of the mass-consciousness of the 1950s and following decades. The infectious and defiant whistling of the British prisoners of war is only one aspect of the film, though, standing alongside a score by Malcolm Arnold that (although winning an Academy Award) became overshadowed by Miller's commercial success. Often wading in folly as much as doom, Arnold views the adversities and will of the POWs in a way akin to Mickey's battle with the brooms in Fantasia. "Shear's Escape" floats in the life-and-death realism of the situation yet seems to find the playfulness and romantic abandon of a walk through a forest. "Overture," in its simultaneously laborious and stirring tones, prefers the stark representation of menace and captivity, orchestral sections battling one another as they search for a means of escape yet, in the end, find they must submit. And standing among it all is K. Alford's "Colonel Bogey March," the whistling tribute to another Disney film score that has always seemed to alleviate even the worst days of drudgery at a cruel job. --James Stockstill

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, fantastic music by Malcom Arnold, October 24, 2001

By	Newman (Olympia, WA United States) - See all my reviews

I saw this film a couple weeks ago, and I thought the music was just wonderful. I saw that the library had the 1989 Varese Sarabande copy, and when I got it I listened to it over and over again. I don't know how long this cd is, but mine was only 34 minutes long, because I only had the nine tracks, which was all I needed. The other three tracks look like they just have re-recordings of the Colonel Bogey march. But I'm sure it will please the next person who buys this soundtrack. This is just a beautiful soundtrack, I suggest anyone to buy it and put it with their other soundtracks from David Lean's films.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pluses and minuses, December 10, 2001

By	Judy Weisman (oak Hill, va United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A remastering of one the treasured albums of my youth.

Among the pluses: The original album featured the Mitch Miller arrangement of Colonel Bogey, whistled professionally, with the River Kwai March countermelody brought in by discrete steps verse by verse, then taken out the same regular way. In the new print, that is pushed to the end, and the version from the sound track restored. A wonderfully raggedy whistling of Colonel Bogey, with the River Kwai March swelling and overwhelming the whistling as the camera focuses on Nicholson's pride in his regiment, cut off when the camera shows Saito watching.

Among the minuses: Despite the claims of remastering the actual film music, the dynamics are substantially more limited than I remember from the theatrical presentation. Example: The scene "Nicholson's victory," in addition to standing on end every hair you possess, lifts you 4 inches off your seat, despite all the messages from your rational mind that the victory is completely nuts. A big part of that in the theater was the *explosion* of sound from the orchestra breaking into the introduction of the River Kwai March, as Nicholson's regiment break ranks to lift him to their shoulders. On the new CD, however, the loudness of that explosion is not something you'd remark if you didn't know what to expect.