Original score composed by Klaus Badelt. An adventure movie in the grand old style, albeit a modern one featuring the quirky talents of Johnny Depp, the 2003 film PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN seems tailor-made for a good old-fashioned orchestral film score. Fortunately, that's just what composer Klaus Badelt gives it. You'll find no pop-group promotional tie-ins here, just plenty of evocative mood music that captures the drama and panoramic vistas of this summer blockbuster.

This is a wonderful, wonderful soundtrack. As others have noted, when I first heard that epic theme blasting out as Jack approached the harbor, I wanted nothing more than to commandeer a ship and devote my life to piracy (ahoy!). I went out and bought the CD... and... well...

Disney did a very poor job in organizing it, IMO. There's only about forty minutes of music on this CD - I haven't had the luxury of seeing the movie as often as I want to analyze missing music, but I'm fairly certain several key scenes with good music don't have a place on the soundtrack. Further, the exciting and wonderful end credits... which I stayed in the theater for... aren't here. The beginning of the end credits - "He's a Pirate" - is there, but it cuts off after only minute and thirty seconds. Arg!

I'm giving this CD five stars anyway because the music really IS good enough to forgive the abridged version. For those that would like to see a full-length CD released, I recommend writing Disney and asking about it. This is a marvelous, marvelous soundtrack and it belongs on the shelf of anyone who loves a rousing score.

184 of 202 found the following review helpful:


Great score / somewhat garbled presentation  Aug 08, 2003 By KD
First of all, a wonderful score to a wonderful movie. Jack's theme is especially moving when played in its crescendo. The volume and pace is not something I regularly like being a devout fan of John Williams' work, but Badelt here has composed a score that will keep the tune and the movie in your head for hours. It makes me want to listen again and again.

But part of the reason I have to listen again and again is that the CD itself is so short. Only 43 minutes worth of music for an almost 2.5 hour movie? I would love to see a soundtrack at least once contain all (or almost all as space allows) music in the correct order.

One major gripe: I wonder what fool got a hold of this CD and wrote the track listing...they're either one jump ahead or one step behind. It's very confusing when trying to visualize events in the movie coinciding with the music. A better listing might be this:

1. Fog Bound
2. Will and Elizabeth / Jack Sparrow Appears / The Medallion Calls
3. Jack's Near Escape
4. Swords Crossed
5. The Black Pearl
6. The Black Pearl (cntd) / Commandeering the Interceptor

It gets confusing between tracks 7-10 - I've narrowed it down to: Sailing on the Interceptor / Ritual in the Cave / Elizabeth's Rescue / The Pearl Gives Chase / Battle / Walking the Plank

11. Duel in the Cave / Battle on the Dauntless / Jack is Cursed
12. Duel / Battle / Elizabeth to the Rescue / Last Shot
13. Curse is Lifted / Death of Barbosa / Opportune Moment / Black Pearl is Gone / Underwater March (for some insane reason, the marching pirates are placed at the very end of this track)
14. Jack's Rescue / He's a Pirate / Jack and the Black Pearl
15. Drink Up Me Hearties Yo Ho! / End titles (shortened)

Great fun to listen to though - pick it up today!

72 of 77 found the following review helpful:


Johnny Depp for Emperor  Sep 03, 2003
I am nearly fifty years old. A sober grown man. With children. Children with whom I have now sat through hundreds of movies. Many of which I have enjoyed. And I am not completely hardened in my sophistication. The opening music to The Lion King brought tears to my eyes when my little ones were but wee tots.

But still, these are after all just children's movies. In another life, I would never have seen them. And, really, one can't take such movies too seriously, can one?

And so, this summer, after the ritual badgering, I dutifully trudged into yet another Disney "adventure" movie. Named after that tired old ride in Anaheim I first went on in 1965. I mean really, how much can you expect?

And then, it happened. The swirling intoxication. The stunned feeling. What? Who? How? Was this a movie? Or a religious experience? Perhaps more like an addictive experience...

I cannot remember ever willingly paying to see any movie not starring a relative of mine more than twice, and I can count those movies on one hand. I have now seen "Pirates" four times. The only thing keeping me from seeing it again is the sense that this whole thing is just getting out of hand. I cannot get enough of it. It's like walking into a painting that you never want to come back out of. My children ask, with a note of concern in their voices, "Dad, you really like Pirates of the Caribbean a lot, don't you?"

And that Depp fellow. My God. I never had any idea who he was, but his name sounded like something created for a pubescent cover-boy for magazines published to hook thirteen year-old girls on make-up and bad music. Wasn't Depp the name of some hair-goo product back in the 60s?

I am a straight male. I have several good friends who are gay, but have never fantasized about any gender but the female. But now I understand how women can experience swooning crushes on male film stars. He is simply extraordinary. So sly, so seductive, so canny! I read an interview in which Depp said he went through a slight depression when he had to stop playing Captain Jack Sparrow. I can see why. His inventiveness and sheer pleasure in inhabiting the character come through in every frame. How can I admit to my children that I now troll through fan websites about a former teen heart-throb?

I often don't even watch the Academy Awards, and I certainly never have any emotional investment in who wins.

Except for this year.

Go Jack.

And, in a time when many big-budget movies are little more than a hodge-podge of loosely-connected "money shots" this movie puts all the pieces together, with a sense of fun and light-heartedness in special effects that are simply dazzling. I find myself laughing with dizzy appreciation when Barbossa barks out, "You'd best be believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner, you're in one!" and the grinning skeletons come into view, with Badelt's pounding score keeping time to the beat of their maniacal deck-swabbing. And then there's the scene of the pirate-ghouls slithering up from the darkened sea on the mooring cables of the Dauntless, like infernal cats stalking their prey.

And now to the music. I can just hear the effete aesthetes dismissing this score, as Mr. Zimmerman anticipates with his winking "overproduced by" credit on the cover-liner. "Bombastic." "Overdone." "Absurdly Stupendous."

Well, perhaps it is, for those who spend their lives evaluating such things. To me, it is absolutely transporting. I first listened to it while doing a work-out on a rowing machine and found that I tripled my usual distance. It was like mainlining some hazardous tachycardic amphetamine.

Once again, the children were wondering, "What's up with Daddy? Is he OK?"

Perhaps I am just losing my grip, having an adolescent movie get to me this way. But when those final credits roll, and Captain Jack narrows his eyes and says, "Now, bring me that horizon. Drink up me hearties, yo ho" and the music swells ... it is difficult to put into words the effect it has.

At this point my children have to yank me forcibly from the theater, lest I persist in watching the credits to the bitter end, and bid good-bye to the little monkey once more, wiping tears of exultation from my eyes.

This is not just another "entry" in the summer blockbust sweepstakes. It is an exquisite work of fantasy and inventiveness, a true classic, on the order of "The Wizard of Oz." I do hope Depp's performance garners not just awards, but a place in the pantheon, something we old fogies -- and our gently fogeying children decades hence -- will show to our children and grandchildren like a revealed treasure. I cannot recall any movie having such an effect on me.

34 of 36 found the following review helpful:


Highly suggested if you liked the movie...  Mar 17, 2004 By TK
I don't own that many movie soundtracks but I was very excited when I got this one. I absolutely love it, despite some of it's short-comings. The one MAJOR complaint I have is the length: way too short. Cheapie Disney ppl... The track listings are totally scrambled and mislabeled. Some person did however make a more acurate track listing that I printed out and put in my CD case:
1) Fog bound/Will & Elizabeth
2)Will& Elizabeth/Jack Sparrow appears
3)The Medallion calls/ Jack's near escape

4)Swords Crossed
5)The Black Pearl
6)The Black Pearl cont./commandeering the Interceptor
7-10) gets confusing - sailing on interceptor/ Ritual in cave/Elizabeth's rescue/The Pearl gives chase/Battle/Walking the plank
11)Duel in the cave/ Battle on the Dauntless/Jack is cursed
12)Duel/Battle/Elizabeth to the rescue/Last shot
13)Curse is lifted/ Death of Barbossa/Opportune moment/Pearl is gone/ Underwater march (for some insane reason the Marching Pirates are placed at the end of this track)
14)Jack's rescue/He's a Pirate/ Jack & The Pearl
15) End titles (drastically shortened, if you want the real thing I suggest just recording it off the DVD itself since that's the best part of the soundtrack)

When you first listen to the CD it sounds weird w/ lots of what I'd call "crackling" on the booming parts, it probably has something to do the recording but I have found if you have a CD player that has a "live" or orchestra setting, it takes the crackles out. (the mega base seems to make it worse)

In any case it's and extreamly moving get-up-and-do-something soundtrack. I can't tell you how much fun it is to listen to. I recently figured out how to play afew of the pieces on the guitar and that's almost as fun ^_^. If you liked the movie I'd really suggest getting the soudntrack, it's a LOT of fun!

-TK

23 of 23 found the following review helpful:


Where's the rest of it?  Aug 05, 2003
Obtaining this soundtrack immediately after exiting the theater registered as the next logical course of action for me. I was, however, greatly disappointed to find that the CD is filled with only half its potential. Why?! Was there not enough varied music in the film to include on the soundtrack? I find that unlikely, considering how many times the "main action theme" is on here, which by all means is a wonderful cue. Nevertheless, I find main themes that sparsely populate a soundtrack are far more effective: Lord of the Rings, with the exception of the Nazgul chant; Star Wars 'token themes' (Duel of the Fates, Across the Stars); Gladiator.

The song that played in the credits is noticeably absent. A ten minute long 'Caribbean Suite' or some such at the end would have been a great decision to make. Alas.

Concern over the movie's success being a deciding factor in how much time is spent on the soundtrack is foolish; look at the Time Machine: waste of a good score if you ask me.

I never understand why music from a film is left out of the soundtrack when there is plenty of room to spare for it. Pack in 80 minutes! Make the CD worth it!

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