Red Dragon [Enhanced] [Soundtrack]

When first watching the movie most people sat up attentively after hearing the superb "Main titles" (track 3) which arrives with closeup shots from Dollarhyde's book of newspaper clippings and Lecters grinning face etc. Rightly so. The music is chillingly effective in setting the mood with those screechy psycho sounds and booming power. Its a superb track and in the tradition of Bernard Hermmans Psycho score. Elfman admires Hermman and made no attempt to hide that he was influenced by him in this score as he wanted to return to old style movie scoring. The result is a very very effective score to a great psychological thriller. Elfman mentions that he listened carefully to Shore's score to Silence of the Lambs to keep a continuity going. But his work is still very much his own.

Many cues in this score are great. The terror of the schitzophrenia of Dollarhyde's normal side fighting with his Inner dragon. The booming power of revealing the Dragon aspect to the reporter. The lullaby sound of his childhood character and past (which can be heard first on track 1 (logos). One shocking cue where Graham switches on a light while observing a murder scene in a room, is a scream of chilling sound which relates directly to a section in the Novel of Red Dragon where the character almost hears the room silently scream at him when he switches on the light and witnesses the empty crime scene (apart from scattered blood stains) in front of him. Very effective score indeed in the movie itself.

For many it wont be the most 'listenable' score "outside" of watching the movie. One person even told me he had found it very boring after track 3 (the superb main titles.). Its certainly true in a sense that if you're looking for a constant stimulation score then you may not find yourself playing this score very much. But its superb to listen to the masterpiece of this score in the right conditions and see how Elfman put it all together. Its a "Score fan" Soundtrack for those appreciate the skill involved and not really a "Mass pleasing score" like is so common now. Hence this score will go unnoticed in the charts and will slip away unnoticed into the film score catalogue as a hidden masterpiece of film scoring

Screeching knife stabbing sound and rumbling power contrast with tinkly eery sounds. Wonderful. My only gripe is that the orchestral piece at the beginning of the movie was not included on the score (i was told it was by Mendhellson?). In the movie, directly after the Logos (track 1 on this CD) we are thrown abruptly onto the stage where an Orchestra is playing and Lecter is wincing and cringing at the bad playing of the Raspeal character. It rises and rises in excitement and is a very important part of the soundtrack for me. But for some reason this was left out and on this CD it melds quietly from "Logos" into "Revelation" (the scene in the doctors house after dinner) missing out all the excitement inbetween.

The CD-rom features are interesing on this disc (the reason why its called an 'Enhanced CD'). This confused many people for a long time who assumed it meant extra tracks. It includes the original trailer and screenshots (which can just as easily be downloaded from the internet). Also a far too short video interview with Brett Ratner (director) and interview with Elfman at the recording sessions which is interesting, with a few seconds of Hopkins talking about his love for orchestral and classical music. Its far too short though and once you've seen it, are you going to watch it again?. I doubt i will. Its not long enough and Hopkins appearance last a few seconds. So apart from the great movie trailer, the CD-Rom is not really worth getting TOO excited about. If it had included full footage of the recording sessions then it would be very interesting indeed. Anyway. Its a great score which will go unnoticed by many soundtrack buyers.