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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Alien Trilogy contains music from the each episode from the highly successful sc-fi trilogy.
Each of the tracks on the CD exudes quality and invention.
Each of the tracks on the CD exudes quality and invention.
Jerry Goldsmith's score for Alien takes up most of the CD and features tracks that are not included in the finished film. Jerry Goldsmith has done lots of other in this genre (like the first Star Trek movie) but rarely has it sounded so good. The main title is superbly atmospheric and effortlessly conveys both the stillness of space and the weird menace that lurks there.
James Horner did the sound track for Aliens and it doesn't sound bad at all. Horner did the soundtrack for Braveheart and Titanic (as well as the second Star Trek film). It is in the action music that Horner truly excels and in the track "futile escape" there is plenty of it.
The score for Alien3 is the real surprise though. Elliot Goldenthal's score is without doubt the best of the lot and trust me, that is saying a great deal. The music for Alien3 is the most engaging, innovative, diverse and powerful film score I have ever heard. It is both modern and classical, epic and intimate. I have listened to it a thousand times and have never got tired of it.
The CD also contains a small booklet about the films, composers and there history.
Anyone interested in the music for these classic films (or just looking for something different) should invest in this CD.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
A Good Buy
5 Dec 2000
Format:Audio CD
This is a good CD to buy especially if you don't want to buy all 3 soundtracks. As far as the original ALIEN, the original soundtrack is hard to come by, however the DVD has the complete score with great sound. This CD favors the first movie's score, with 7 tracks including "Main Title" and "Hypersleep" which were not included on the original soundtrack. Jerry Goldsmith's score is atmospheric and avante-garde and Cliff Eidelman(a great composer himself), does a superb job of recapturing this classic score. In my opinion, this recording exceeds the original. It is well performed by the RSO and mixed perfectly by Bruce Botnick. The original wasn't mixed properly, especially the End Title(which is not in the film)where the trumpet solo wasn't loud enough. Here, all the instruments are in perfect unison and at the right volumes. ALIENS(tracks 8-10) is by James Horner(TITANIC)and is influenced by the first ALIEN with a the main title mimicking parts of the original movie's opening. Part of "Bishop's countdown" sounds like Horner's own Klingon theme from STAR TREK 3. Horner does have a tendency to quote the work of others and himself often in his scores. ALIENS is not one of his best efforts(partly due to time restrictions James Cameron imposed on him). The film itself was great especially for a sequel. ALIEN 3 by Elliot Goldenthal is probably one of the best and underrated scores of the 90's. It deserves a better presentation here(only 3 tracks)but Eidelman handles the material capably. It's not exactly uplifting music but serves the film well and is approprietely atmospheric and dramatic at times. Unfourtunately, as with almost all RSO recordings, the sound quality is distant. You have to turn your volume way up to really hear the music fully. Otherwise, this is a great recording and sampling of the 3 scores and helps you relive the first 3 ALIEN movies.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Loved It
2 Feb 1999
Format:Audio CD
If you have watched and enjoyed (at all) any of the films in the Alien Trilogy, you will love this soundtrack. Though a re-recording, which alot of times are too self-induldgent to as good as the originals, this one is as good if not better. It makes available Jerry Goldsmiths Great score and re-visits James Horner and Eliot Goldenthals excellent scores. The conducting of Cliff Eidleman is not only unintrusive but quite good (BUY STAR TREK 6 if you like this recording) My only gripe is that it only has three tracks from Aliens and Three tracks from Alien 3, both worthy of better treatment.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A peek at the infamous score...
25 Aug 2005
Format:Audio CD
God bless them , the Royal Scottish Orchestra... no matter how hard they try, they can never quite get it right. All of their reproductions (Jaws, Superman,etc) always come out sounding too "concertish," and thus never quite sound right to those of us who've always wished for complete versions of the music and had in the meantime heard it only in the context of the film. And without fail, any time that Varese Sarabande releases these repros, the "real-deal Holyfields" are dusted off and presented to the public, thus nullifying their efforts (Superman, Jaws, and please God.... please.... Alien?).
Goldsmith's score to Alien has a notoriously sticky backstory... many of the cues you hear in the film were actually intended for use with other scenes, and in some cases, the music you're hearing wasn't even originally recorded for Alien, but was from a past film score. Even the end credits cue, "Symphony #2 (Romantic)" by Howard Hanson, wasn't originally meant to be the end credits music!
I have the actual original Alien score on vinyl, and I can tell you that in the end, as much as I love Jerry Goldsmith (RIP), this score benefitted from Ridley Scott's tampering. Much like in Citizen Kane, when, after the heavy dramatic wave of music by the great Bernard Herrmann brings the film's revelation to bear and closes the film, and then very quickly a peppy tune is played with the cast spouting lines as their names are plastered on the screen (as if to say, "Aw, it's only a show!"), Ridley Scott used Hanson's beautiful, simple piece to magnify just what an awful experience we'd just been through, trying to escape from Giger's wickedly designed ALien. It also reflected the peaceful sleep that Ripley was entering after the death of the beast.
Without a doubt, if you can, get a hold of the Alien Legacy DVD version of the film. It has two alternate audio tracks. One has Goldsmith's original score, with cues where they were intended, plus a pile of others that thankfully were excised, and the other audio track contains what can be called the actual soundtrack, complete with the Hanson piece and the eerie, lonely main title music from the film. As a curiosity, if you listen closely, you'll even hear Lionel Newman's baton cueing the orchestra to begin and stop, and even some comments from the conductor. For now, until a 30th anniversary version is perhaps released (maybe after Goldsmith's death, they will contemplate a rerelease), that is THE best source for music from the long lost Alien Soundtrack.
Goldsmith's score to Alien has a notoriously sticky backstory... many of the cues you hear in the film were actually intended for use with other scenes, and in some cases, the music you're hearing wasn't even originally recorded for Alien, but was from a past film score. Even the end credits cue, "Symphony #2 (Romantic)" by Howard Hanson, wasn't originally meant to be the end credits music!
I have the actual original Alien score on vinyl, and I can tell you that in the end, as much as I love Jerry Goldsmith (RIP), this score benefitted from Ridley Scott's tampering. Much like in Citizen Kane, when, after the heavy dramatic wave of music by the great Bernard Herrmann brings the film's revelation to bear and closes the film, and then very quickly a peppy tune is played with the cast spouting lines as their names are plastered on the screen (as if to say, "Aw, it's only a show!"), Ridley Scott used Hanson's beautiful, simple piece to magnify just what an awful experience we'd just been through, trying to escape from Giger's wickedly designed ALien. It also reflected the peaceful sleep that Ripley was entering after the death of the beast.
Without a doubt, if you can, get a hold of the Alien Legacy DVD version of the film. It has two alternate audio tracks. One has Goldsmith's original score, with cues where they were intended, plus a pile of others that thankfully were excised, and the other audio track contains what can be called the actual soundtrack, complete with the Hanson piece and the eerie, lonely main title music from the film. As a curiosity, if you listen closely, you'll even hear Lionel Newman's baton cueing the orchestra to begin and stop, and even some comments from the conductor. For now, until a 30th anniversary version is perhaps released (maybe after Goldsmith's death, they will contemplate a rerelease), that is THE best source for music from the long lost Alien Soundtrack.
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