Customer Reviews

Troy

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

I purchased this CD solely for the purpose of hearing the touching "Remember Me" by Josh Groden without even seeing the motion picture itself. Josh has a spectacular voice and it was a shame he didn't have more minutes to share it with us. I thought the rest of the music basically was "ok" but I heard bits and pieces of "Titanic" coming though. Horner is a musical genius for sure but I felt that this soundtrack should have had more "drums" and french horns to relate the sheer excitement exploding from the music that would make the listener sit up and take notice. I hope when I see the movie it will do so. I have always felt that music can make or break the mood of a motion picture and Titanic being one of the best I have ever heard still moves me. I play "Remember Me" over and over again, it has a lasting beauty that lingers with the listener and relates so much to the imagination even tho I do not know to whom this song is meant for in the movie but I imagine it to be for Achillies and his lover.

This is one of the most spectacular orchestrations imaginable. It accurately represents to feel of steel, the flash of bronze, the dash of bodies down those sandy hills to the beach or up those walls. The songs of the eastern European women are typical of scenes when the war dead are being cleared away. Hey, it's not a joyful occasion. I think there are many features about this movie and its presentation that are European in flavor and difficult for some Americans to get a handle on.

I liked the music so much I bought the soundtrack I can't remember ever having done that since a hundred years ago for "Somewhere in Time".

It's like an opera, each character has his own theme. The music as the Greeks (Achaeans) move toward the walls of Troy for the first time is dissonant and unresolved, like ... hey ... war itself.

Th love music for Briseis and Achilles is really beautiful. I love this album and recommend it highly for careful listening as to how the themes match the epic actions.

I loved the movie, amazing indeed, and the soundtract is plus 5stars, in fact i give it a 10+ james horner did an excellent job, also Josh Groban, he's outstanding, if u havent heard of this young man then go out and buy this cd plus his latest cd closer, which he sings in 4 langauges....Remember Me, is brillant, as well as tanya....i cant spell her last name, but her vocals to the song, outstanding,....
I cannot say enough great things about this cd!!!

Horner's score is a pastiche of themes he's used in countless other film scores. While his work during the 80's was still fresh and interesting, his recycling of those same elements today is tired and grating. Listening to the score I was constantly reminded of other films. "Oh yeah," I'd think, "that's that horn he used in Red Heat. And in Willow. And in Aliens. And in every score he's written in the last 20 years." With so many "borrowed" elements, Horner's score never finds its own voice (except for the 'wailing woman', and I can't believe anyone can enjoy her caterwauling) and remains a pedestrian, rushed, and utterly forgettable effort. Yared's score is far superior: haunting, uplifting, epic. Shame on Warner Brothers for forcing its removal.

Reading all the other reviews, I can't understand why everyone claims that the music was "jarring" and "annoying", amongst other things. Listening to it, I could really relive the battle scenes, the triumph, the glory, the desolation, all of it.
Whoever complained about the lack of romantic elements, the Iliad ISN'T supposed to be about romance. It's about war.
So what if its a Gladiator rip-off? (which I don't think so, by the way)
The music is beautifully apt, especially Achilles Leads the Myrmidons. My only complaint is the contant repetition of the eerie woman singing in the background. It can get on your nerves after a while.
Other than that, the tracks do tell the story well.
The grandeur to returning to Troy, in Track 2.
The bravery of Achilles in Track 3.
Briseis and Achilles's love in the Track with that title.
Reliving Hector and Achilles' struggle in Hector's Death.
And last but not least, the mournful reminiscence of Troy with Josh Groban's Enchanting "Remember".
What I can say is, all those who dissed this soundtrack are philistines.
Cheers.

If you want to hear the inklings of Horner's "Braveheart" then buy this soundtrack. It only tells the story of war and not of the many love stories that coincide. This is the WORST soundtrack I've every purchased. I'll save everyone the misery of not posting it on EBay and instead just throwing it in the trash!

Let's hope Warner Bros will release Gabriel Yared's rejected score which seems to be getting great reviews!

I can't understand why they dumped Gabriel Yared's original score, which you can hear at www.gabrielyared.com/flashsite/index2.htm, but I can understand why they hired James Horner. From Apollo 13 to Titanic, he is one of the best soundtrack composers out there, with the likes of Hans Zimmer(Gladiator) and Howard Shore(The Lord of the Rings, which in my opinion, is the best music ever written). Troy has excitement, sorrow, romance, passion, and inspiration woven through the chords. There are a few tracks that are better as movie-enhancers than stand alone songs, but overall, well-worth a listen. I am starting to be a Josh Groban fan and I think he handles the final track, "Remember Me" quite well. My favorite piece in the score is the Achilles and Breiseis theme (not the track, but the repeated theme). A great buy for soundtrack lovers like myself.

Ok, the only reason bought this soundtrack was because i saw the trailer and i loved the music in it. Normally, i wouldn't have gotten soundtracks just because of the trailer. That music isnt necessarily in the soundtrack and can be a bit misleading sometimes. But, i went on the website and the music playing at the website was the music from the trailer, so I thought, it has to be in the soundtrack. Well, it isnt. Most of the soundtrack sounds too soft, too much the same and it doesn't have a particular melody to it. I give it a 3 because some of the music is good. And hey, you have to give it to Josh Groban for singing Remember so beautifully.

I'm not even going to start on the way the movie butchers the Illiad, reducing it to a bunch of modern platitudes about the power of love, with poorly developed and schizophrenic themes about greatness vs. domestic happieness and selfishness vs. service. But the way the movie mumbles without saying anything reminds me an awful lot of the score.

The pounding action music is powerful, but nothing Zimmer didn't do better in 'Gladiator'. More than enough reviewers have pointed this out.

The thematic music suffers from a severe split personality. On the one hand significant parts of the movie are scored with the 'wordless female wailing' that is popular in period movies today ('Mists of Avalon' and 'Gladiator' again are two examples where it works). On the other, half the movie is done in huge brassy orchestral cues that combine classic Horner self-plagarism with homage to the 'Ben Hur' type of ancient-times soundtrack. The driving, fluttery trumpet fanfare as the ships make landfall comes straight from the theme for the Klingons in the Star Trek movies he scored in the 80s.

The bottom line: buy the 'Gladiator' sountrack instead. It covers most of the same ground but is much more mature. Horner's score to 'Troy' scores few points as art but is at least effectivey accompanies a movie whose only real purpose is to keep teenagers glued to their seats with thousands of clashing CGI soldiers for the guys and Brad Pitt's (...) and the crease by Orlando Bloom's junk for the girls.

Originally, the soundtrack was written by Gabriel Yared. His music was also used in the trailers. But one month before public screening this music was thrown out of the window on the negative comments of a couple of people from a non-professional sample audience on unmixed music being used against the composer's will and without giving him the chance to modify the music on specific requests. Instead there came James Horner and wrote this soundtrack in one month... Apart from the fact that I don't believe it was but that Horner simply negotiated behind Yared's back to get to a blockbuster after being missing from it for a number of years, this soundtrack is without heart and strongly based on Yared's original ideas, copying even the melody for Remember.

My suggestion is to wait for Varese to negotiate with Sony on the release of Gabriel's soundtrack and get the real musical heart of this movie.