Just watched this again after 30 years. Really finding the music to be a drag (despite the march, of course.) Seems so typical of movies from the 40's... which is unfortunate. I kept wishing for a more modern score... like Jarre from later Lean movies.
IOW: the visuals are 'modern' but the music isn't keeping up.
The music is the ONLY thing I don't like about this movie. It truly is kind of a drag.
shareYeah. I've been on a David Lean kick recently and it's interesting to me how crap the music is in a LOT of his movies. Or there will be one nice theme which is repeated about 5 trillion times until I can't take it any more.
shareI definitely agree. Not bad exactly, but banal adventure movie music.
I'm afraid that you underestimate the number of subjects in which I take an interest!
After 3 months, STILL no answer from wwestar. Not sure what you "score-haters" would be prefer? Some synthesizers? A hip-hop performance by the prisoners? Techo during the action scenes?
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
"Dated"? . . . Today, "The Messiah", the "1812 Overture", and the "Brandenberg Concertos" seem dated as well. So, it seems, the criticism itself "seems dated" -- by at least 100 years. (Personally, I wouldn't mind a little of that kind of criticism.)
shareYes, add booming electronics, some hip hop, maybe a little death metal. Re-engineer it all for IMAX 3D and add tons of cartoonish CGI. What was David Lean thinking, in 1957, not anticipating the jaded tastes of 21st-Century hipster movie watchers? Epic fail. What a hack. Or better yet, Disney or Dreamworks should immediately remake this movie, and do it "right". And cast some real actors, like Chris Evans or Robert Downey Jr. What's up with those wimpy windbags, Holden and Guinness? Spend $250 million, at least. Then release a video game based on the movie, toys in Happy Meals, and some Lego playsets. That's how a real movie happens.
shareAfter 3 months WHAT am I to reply to? I asked a question.
shareI don't think it was dated to the time it was filmed.
shareTo some extent you're right. The film was released in 1957 and the Colonel Bogey march is from the first world war. They paid a fortune for the rights to the music and they made a fortune when the song became one of the biggest hits ever in the UK and worldwide so they really had their finger on the the pulse globally for 1957 as to what music people really liked.
Renowned British composer Malcolm Arnold recalled that he had "ten days to write around forty-five minutes worth of music" - much less time than he was used to. He described the music for The Bridge on the River Kwai as the "worst job I ever had in my life" from the point of view of time.[30]
A memorable feature of the film is the tune that is whistled by the POWs—the first strain of the march "Colonel Bogey"—when they enter the camp.[31] The march was written in 1914 by Kenneth J. Alford, a pseudonym of British Bandmaster Frederick J. Ricketts. The Colonel Bogey strain was accompanied by a counter-melody using the same chord progressions, then continued with film composer Malcolm Arnold's own composition, "The River Kwai March," played by the off-screen orchestra taking over from the whistlers, though Arnold's march was not heard in completion on the soundtrack. Mitch Miller had a hit with a recording of both marches.
The score is just GOOD, while the movie is excellent as a whole.
As was mentioned, it was a rushed score that I think felt like it had to sound upbeat in order to bring out the excitement of the movie. I personally think a more dramatic score would have helped, but I don't think it's a bad score at all.
Here's a sampling of his work on Kwai https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKk6OGje63s
I really like Sunset. I listen to the rerecording/arrangement all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weXfJdqW2eA
To me it sets the tone of everything being quiet and hopeful, and a man looking back at everything he's done and finally feeling like he's created a legacy for himself.
I love the Mitch Miller and his whistling Gang best seller of "Col.Bogey March/River Kwai March", officially titled "March from the River Kwai/Col.Bogey".
share