HTF REVIEW: "Road To Perdition" (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Declan]

Stephen and Tommy................

in the words of the IBC station in Scrogged: "Yule love it"

 

[Nate Anderson]

I picked this one up sight-unseen, simply because I knew I'd like it, I knew I'd want it, and I decided to just buy it and not rent it first. (Besides, Blockbuster would probably have had the Pan and Scan version, which would've pissed me off!

Anyways, loved the movie...loved it, loved it, loved it!

 

[Ron-P]

Good movie, nothinig outstanding. I rented first. A very good one-time see, but not much replay value.


Peace Out~

 

[Jason Bell]

I was dissapointed in this movie. It seemed predictable, especially the end. The acting was good though. I just couldnt see myself watching this movie more than once. I'm glad I rented it first.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Put me in the rental column as well. I saw it on the big screen last summer, and haven't had much desire to see it again.

 

[Evan Case]

Currently in a neck-and-neck race with The Pianist as my favorite of the year. Gonna buy it this weekend and see how well it holds up to my memory.

(FWIW, I loved the music score.)

Evan

 

[DaveMcS]

BTW..the clickie on the main page is mis-spelled:

"Road To Predition (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED"

 

[steve frechette]

In the main page title it say "Road to Predition"



Spelled wrong, just thought I'd let ya know!

...woops just mentioned b/f me...sorry :frowning:

 

[Jamie Cole]

On the issue of the score:

Thomas Newman has done some wonderful work (I actually like the music he did for "Little Women" -- a nice period-style score that gives the film an "old-movie" feel). I'm a pianist so music really jumps out at me whether it's meant to or not... I typically notice things my film-watching companions don't.

The problem I have with Thomas Newman is he seems to be recycling musical ideas over and over again. His piano and keyboard-driven, percussive style plays the same in just about every movie I see that he scores. Honestly, you could interchange a lot of the cues between Shawshank, Beauty and Perdition and even the most discriminating ear couldn't tell the differece. It's just not distinct from movie to movie. In fact, my wife (a music teacher) heard a few bars of the "Perdition" credits and said "Hey... Thomas Newman."

The same can't really be said of some of the greats: Williams, Elfman, Goldsmith.

Just a thought.

 

[Brandon Conway]

The same can't really be said of some of the greats: Williams, Elfman, Goldsmith.

I'd have to disagree on Elfman. Though I love his music, Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns are way too similar, IMO.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I'd have to disagree on Elfman. Though I love his music, Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns are way too similar, IMO.

Gotta agree with this thought. I'm not trained musically, but it's very easy to distinguish an Elfman score - there's a definite sameness to many of them...

 

[Dave Mack]

With Elfman, I believe it is the similar arrangments instrument-wise... Choir, bells etc... than his actual melodies. If you played them soley on piano, they wouldn't sound that similar. Of course, it IS his orchestrations that contribute to the "Elfman" sound...

D

 

[WilliamG]

quote:The same can't really be said of some of the greats: Williams, Elfman, Goldsmith.

I disagree. I can 'spot' a John Williams piece a mile away .. as for Danny Elfman,

The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Batman movies, and Spider-Man all contain pieces of his 'signature'.

Jerry Goldsmith: take a listen to ANY of his Star Trek works, then put in Air Force One, listen to Alien, orFirst Blood. Same thing applies. With any good composer that sticks around long enough, some part of them becomes apparent in later works. This really applies to the 'classical' composers as well: Mozart, Beethoven,etc..

Sorry, this is a "Road To Perdition" thread, not music, but I could not let this one slip.
OK - back ON topic.:b

 

[Chris Farmer]

The ability to peg a composer' style does not make him a lousy composer. I can peg Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven also, anyone want to dispute their genius? Williams certainly has a style, but that doesn't mean he rips himself off. Put Star Wars, Catch Me if You Can, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan next to each other, the only thing that overlaps is the overall style, not actualy melodies.

 

[Marty M]

The ability to peg a composer' style does not make him a lousy composer

I agree completely with this statement. One of the reasons I like certain composers is their style of music. The soundtrack for this movie is one of the reasons I enjoyed the movie.

 

[WilliamG]

Chris-
Nononononononononoooo ...I didn't say that the ability to recognize a composer's style made him 'lousy'. On the contrary. If you'll go back and re-read Jamie's original post (#29) he says (paraphrasing here) that Thomas Newman's style is/was easily recognizable, and that the same can't be said of "some of the greats:Williams, Elfman, Goldsmith."

NOW, if you re-read MY original post (above yours),my implication is with most any GOOD composer that sticks around and is worth his craft that he will most certainly develop his own style or "signature", if you will. That is most definately NOT a bad thing! And I have never, and WILL never dispute the above mentioned composers genius.
I'm not arguing the point in a terse sense, just a mild disagreement.
Just wanted to clarify that, OK?

William
(Oh, yeah: Jamie- my wife and I are also music teachers/directors) For What It's Worth

 

[Chris Farmer]

Gotcha William, my misunderstanding. Since you had the "greats" part in your quote then said you'd disagree, I took that to mean that you didn't put Williams in the greats because you could recognize his style, my mistake. Oops :b

 

[Rob T]

I finally picked it up today. I got the DTS version. It was pretty damn good.

 

[Dave Falasco]

Well I'm coming to this party late, but I just watched the movie yesterday and I wanted to comment on the score. Earlier in the day, I watched "Shawshank" on TBS (also known as "The Shawshank Channel" ), and when I watched "Perdition" later that night I was struck by how similar the scores between the two movies were. I was not at all surprised this morning to discover they were done by the same person, because to me they were almost interchangable. I loved the Shawshank score, but the Perdition one left me flat because of that similarity. Or maybe it's all just association, because I loved the Shawshank movie but found Perdition to be only average.

Anyway, interesting point about the composer...normally I don't focus on the score of a movie, but the coincidence of having watched Shawshank a few hours earlier really illuminated how similar the two scores are.

 

[Dave Mack]

Popped it in last nite and only could look at the first 10 minutes or so but it looked pretty soft and had noticeable EE. Distractingly so... Does it get better??

D