The General's Daughter: Music From The Motion Picture [Soundtrack]

the general's daughter: music from the motion picture [soundtrack]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This John Travolta-starring military-themed thriller hardly distinguished itself with critics, who almost universally lambasted its overwrought ambience and painfully obvious plot points; a whodunit that begged the question "why'd ya make it"? But even the most turgid Hollywood fare can have its delightful musical surprises, and that's where The General's Daughter redeems itself. Veteran Carter Burwell turns in a brooding orchestral score that finely underplays the histrionics with subtlety and emotional weight. But it's Greg Hale Jones's ingenious digital reworking of half-century-old Library of Congress remote recordings (made in cotton fields and prisons) of African American folk music and spirituals that's the real revelation here. The opening "Sea Lion Woman" is both haunting and unforgettable, a gratifying reminder that studio alchemy can enhance the humanity of music as well as sublimate it. Minus points for trotting out the cinematically tired Carmina Burana once again; it's enough to make one want to Orff themselves. --Jerry McCulley

The General's Daughter: Music From The Motion Picture,Carter Burwell,Milan Records,Pop,Soundtrack,Soundtracks,Soundtracks & Film Scores

The General's Daughter: Music From The Motion Picture [Soundtrack]

Average customer rating:

Haunting Score
tHE GENERAL DAUGHTER
good music
Foolish movie. Great soundtrack. Typical Burwell.
Ghosts of the Deep South...

The General's Daughter: Music From The Motion Picture
Carter Burwell
Manufacturer: Milan Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

1990s | By Decade | Soundtracks | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B00000JCEY
Release Date: 1999-06-15

Tracks:

She Began To Lie - Christine And Katherine Shipp
Mighty Good Road - Kelly Pace And Group
Rachel Rocket - Wash Dennis/Charlie Sims
Gonna Rise And Fly - 22 and Group
Exercise In Darkness
Epiphytic Shuffle
The Body
West Point
The General's Story
Congratulations
Footprints
The Tape?
The Conspiracy
Kent's Story
The Hurt Locker
Out Of Her Misery
The General's End
O Fortuna - CSR Symphony/Slovak Philharmonic Chorus
All Through The Night - Ray Colcord
She Began To Lie (Re-Mix)

Amazon.com

This John Travolta-starring military-themed thriller hardly distinguished itself with critics, who almost universally lambasted its overwrought ambience and painfully obvious plot points; a whodunit that begged the question "why'd ya make it"? But even the most turgid Hollywood fare can have its delightful musical surprises, and that's where The General's Daughter redeems itself. Veteran Carter Burwell turns in a brooding orchestral score that finely underplays the histrionics with subtlety and emotional weight. But it's Greg Hale Jones's ingenious digital reworking of half-century-old Library of Congress remote recordings (made in cotton fields and prisons) of African American folk music and spirituals that's the real revelation here. The opening "Sea Lion Woman" is both haunting and unforgettable, a gratifying reminder that studio alchemy can enhance the humanity of music as well as sublimate it. Minus points for trotting out the cinematically tired Carmina Burana once again; it's enough to make one want to Orff themselves. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews:

Haunting Score.......2007-05-16

This score is very haunting and just like the movie grips from the very begining and won't let go.

tHE GENERAL DAUGHTER.......2005-10-19

Excellent music when I heard the CD I could easily remember the scenes in the film. The music is very moving. It fits the army theme without all the 'gungho' drums and bugles. some how it made me think how unfeeling and sinister the army can be. I feel this music cannot fail to move anyone who has seen the film. Excellent.

good music.......2005-07-25

While nothing in the film works very well except perhaps the chemistry between Travolta and Stowe, the sublime soundtrack is another story. Descriptions such as "haunting" and "soul moving" are right on the money, one might also add ineffable to the list.

Foolish movie. Great soundtrack. Typical Burwell. .......2005-05-24

This movie was quite the pile of dung. But the soundtrack, that MUSIC is so solid that it's certainly one of the most ingenious scores in the last decade. Much hype has been ascribed toward the Library of Congress remixes, songs featuring new background beats coupled with pleasant nego-songs (see also Moby's remixes from his Play album for a close comparison). Those songs are the highlight, no question, but Burwell's songs are not to be overlooked.

Echoes of Fargo, Hamlet, Barton Fink, and The Man Who Wasn't There are present here, but Burwell isn't a leech when it comes to his music, and he takes a splendind, darker direction with this score than, yes, even Fargo and Hamlet - as dark as those were.

Burwell aficionados won't be disappointed here, neither will fans of darker film scores along the lines of David Julyan's Memento, Thomas Newman's Flesh and Bone, and especially Philip Glass' Fog of War.

Ghosts of the Deep South..........2005-05-08

If anyone needed to be reminded of the importance music can have on the emotional and contextual impact of a movie, they would only need listen to this soundtrack after seeing the film that inspired it.

An ocean of ink has been used to vilify the sloppy obviousness of the script, the ham-handed direction, and the disservice done in the adaptation of Nelson deMille's military-based thriller. Nearly most of its shortcomings, however, are truly redeemed by a brooding, chilling score by Carter Burwell that is so damn good, it seems like it belongs in another film.

But the watershed moments come courtesy the stylings of Greg Hale Jones, who sampled Library of Congress recordings of Black spirituals, field songs, children's patty-cake style cadences ("She Began To Lie") and mixed them with synthesizer and electronic drum lines that effectively underscore and highlight the film's themes of murder, betrayal, dishonor and retribution so much better than the script; like ghosts from the past of the Deep South that constantly permeate and haunt the lives of its native sons and daughters, and most especially throughout the events that take place in the film.

The result is so memorably effective, you're almost better off listening to it while reading the source material in lieu of watching the movie. Absolutely one of the most underrated scores of the last decade (equalled only by the remarkable RAVENOUS score by Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn.)

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