5つ星のうち5.0A great movie made even better by a powerful soundtrack
2009年12月17日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
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Composer Brian May showed a lot of musical growth with this soundtrack, particularly compared to Mad Max which, although it has its moments, always struck me as primitive and disjointed. (According to Brian May, this was by design: "It was very jagged and shearing, and George particularly wanted me to antagonize the audience by making them feel uncomfortable.")
I've seen the movie countless times, but I didn't own the soundtrack until recently so I had never listened to it by itself. It's really remarkable to see (hear) how May embellishes the images. One thing I noticed is the motifs assigned to the major characters or tribes (note how the Gyro Captain's theme runs through the tanker chase). I was surprised to hear the marauders' motif when Max enters the compound, but it's a brilliant way to inform the scene. (We "know" Max is a good guy, but the compound defenders don't.) And the way he brings back the final drumbeat from the end of "Mad Max" at the end of "Finale and Largo" is very satisfying. (I hadn't listened to the "Mad Max 1" soundtrack since I got rid of my record player sometime in the early 1980s, but I just listened to it again recently and was surprised to realize that the distinctive and dramatic three-note phrase ["BUM-BUM-BAAHHH"] that May uses so well in MM2 was first used here.) I don't know why George Miller used Maurice Jarre instead of May for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, but I thought Jarre's music was too whimsical and lacked May's gravitas.
Sadly, some cues are missing entirely, or are out of order. One of the things I hate about soundtracks that were mastered in the age of vinyl is that a soundtrack was often cut up and reassembled to fit two sides of a record, and cues were often left out because there was no room. But now that we have CDs and digital downloads, there's no reason a soundtrack can't be released in its entirety, in order, with additions like expanded liner notes. I would love to see a remastered and extended version, similar to the new Escape from New York CD.
There was a little event in the California desert in November 2009 based around this movie, and they had a small pirate radio station broadcasting "Wasteland Radio." When I pulled into the event and heard the track "Break Out" playing, it brought a big smile to my face and put me in the mood immediately--and also inspired me to finally buy this album. I find myself using it as the soundtrack to my freeway commutes.