Contrary to other posts that enjoyed the score, I was put off by it from the very beginning. It sounded like a western and after checking Elmer Bernstein's other works, I can see the influence. Having just done Guns of the Magnificent Seven, it appears (to me) that he stayed with the same style. It was especially grating near the end.
"We're going to need a bigger boat..."
I never have liked the score very much either.
shareWhen I first heard the score, I thought it was a Marlboro commercial from the 1970s !!! sounded western, it was inappropriate.
shareWhile the overwhelming majority of Bernstein's film scores have that signature syncopated, offbeat Wild West-ish style, he was capable on a few rare occasions of breaking that pattern with more setting-appropriate music. The only example I can recall, however, was the score to Animal House. I have no idea why he was able to break the pattern with that one.
shareNothing personal, but it would take a tin ear to think the score sounds like a Western. Yes, it sounds like Bernstein's orchestration and rhythms, and he did write some good Western scores ... but Remagen is the ultimate military-type score. The rhythms of the main theme are march-like, the brass blares "just like" a war movie score. And the main theme is based in a minor chord melody - very few Western themes (spaghetti Westerns, Lonely are the Brave excluded) are written in minor keys and it is incomprehensible how anyone could confuse Remagen's pulsingly aggressive, Euro-military score with anything remotely similar to Western scoring.
shareAlthough I am a fan of Elmer Bernstein's music, this is not one of his better efforts.
share[deleted]
Way to loud! Frequently I had to turn up for dialogue and turn down for the overbearing music. Subtitles would have helped me find the happy medium.
share