The Right Stuff / North and South (OST) [Soundtrack]

This is great CD. I bought this specifically for the North and South recordings. It is one of the best movie compositions of our time and deserved a well earned Oscar. I often just watch that great series just to hear the music and its variation for different scenes. To finally own it on a CD, means many hours of listening pleasure, (from tract 6 -12). Listen to tract 6 -the main theme and you will get an inkling of what I am on about. Even though only a few of the music is featured here it is still worth it. You should give the movie and this music a try it is a great composition. Discovering the Right stuff(tracts 1-5) was also a pleasant experience for me as hitherto, I did not know of it.

My review here might be slightly different, I write it as an aircraft enthusiast who happens to love this film for the historical events that it portrays rather than the music itself; as a visual thinker the soundtrack helps me to 'see' those momentous events of many years ago now.

I downloaded Bill Conti's The Right Stuff _ North and South tracks 8 to 12 as MP3 files from Amazon.Co.Uk.

Track 8 'Breaking the Sound Barrier': This starts at 15:43 with what sounds like an Elgar type theme as the B-29 Superfortress X-1 carrier ship taxi's past the press and many of the film's main characters then takes off. This track continues to where the X-1 starts her attempt at breaking the sound barrier. Is one of the two iconic tracks for this film.

Track 09 'Almost Ready': I could not find this theme on my DVD but definitely a 'filler' track.

Track 10 'The Training': This track starts at 'What Gus is saying is we are pilots' at 01:31:44 and depicts a short 'activity' clip showing the astronauts doing physical exercise preparing for their duties. Contains a variation of the main theme.

Track 11 'Glenns Flight': The theme here is very reminiscent of part of Gustav Holst's 'Mars' theme from his Planets suite before it develops into a softer theme. Interesting because on my DVD the actual Mars theme from the 'Planets' Suite is used at 02:21:00 which develops into his Jupiter theme. A good track nevertheless.

Track 12 'Yeager's Triumph': Probably the best known theme from the film, starts at the point where Yeagar has ejected from the NF-104A Starfighter and Ridley is in the rescue vehicle driving to the crash sceme at 02:55:00 and there is the plaintive theme with just the one instrument and the driver asks 'Sir, over there; is that a man?' and Ridley replies 'Yea, you damn right it is!' and the Right Stuff theme develops from there and goes into the film credits. Incidently, the theme at the start of the credits is the same as where Yeager rides the towed X-1 in triumph after his record breaking flight, for me another iconic moment in this superb film, a nice link into the end of the film.

I have been looking for a soundtrack to this film for a long time and these five tracks have gone a long way to meeting my needs. There is still much music in the film which has not been published and I hope it will be in the future however in the meantime this five track download is worth considering.