Apollo 13 [Gold CD, Soundtrack, Import]

Even if you didn't know this was another James Horner work, it wouldn't be too hard to tell. He again draws upon percussion, synthesized choral voices (ala Titanic), and a lone female vocal at the end (Annie Lennox!). It all adds up to a very good musical score to accomodate man's flight into space and the tragedy that was averted. The horns and percussion denote the military professionalism that encompasses the US space program, while the vocals denote the devine heights of flying in space. I noticed an irony to both of the movies Horner has scored- Titanic was tragic in that there weren't enough lifeboats, and the Apollo 13 crew was saved by a "lifeboat" that wasn't considered for that very purpose: the Lunar Excusion Module. The CDs also contain popular music of the period- also something I enjoyed.
I originally owned the GOLD CD version and was initially disappointed at the spoken dialogue from the movie covering many portions of Horner's score. In essence, it is a sort of short "radio" version of the movie with sound, dialogue and music. If you have never seen the movie, the GOLD CD would certainly tell the tale of what befell the Apollo 13 crew. If all you want is Horner's score, then avoid the GOLD CD as the movie dialogue covers most of those tracks. On the other hand, I now own the regular CD version of this soundtrack and actually miss the "story" as portrayed on the GOLD CD. On the regular version, Horner's score remains mostly intact as seperate tracks, and what little dialogue is available is also on seperate tracks (For the most part that is- there are some places where his score tracks are clipped at the beginning). If all you want is the music, both score and 60's rock mainly intact, then the regular CD version is for you. If you would rather have a 70+ minute audio version of the movie, than go for the GOLD CD version. It is almost like the regular CD version is the "unedited" raw source from which the GOLD CD is mixed into the final story version. I like both versions for what they are, but my favorite would have to be the GOLD CD.

Do people who want to listen to a Soundtrack, that want to hear dialogue from the mocie, even exist? I would think if you wanted to hear dialogue you would just watch the movie.

When I asked the guy at the store what was the difference between the gold version and the regular version, he told me that the gold version was higher quality because the CD was gold instead of silver. Being a person who is quite familiar with the concepts of analog and digital, this immediately struck me is not possibly being correct. I ended up buying the regular version not knowing that the real difference lie in the content. I was kind of disappointed with the dialogue on the regular CD, but apprently this problem is much worse on the Gold CD, so I guess I got the better of the 2.

Anyways there are only 7 tracks of James Horner Music on the CD, and some of them have the beginnings cut off. Despite the incompetence of the people who produced this CD, the music really is quite good.

Apparently there was also 2 versions of the braveheart soundtrack...and 1 had dialogue and one didn't. I didn't know that before I bought it and luckily got the right one anyways. ALso a great soundtrack, my favorite actually.

Both the regular release and the Gold edition have bits of dialogue in them that is particularly annoying. there are only 7 tracks of actual score, and the rest are all other artists and talking. I know there was a promotional release that was 12 tracks of score, but I can't find it ANYWHERE. you would think, with all the soundtrack lovers out there, they would make a killing with a re-release of the Promo CD...