Search - Stephen Sondheim, Dave Grusin :: Reds (1981 Film)

Reds (1981 Film)
Stephen Sondheim, Dave Grusin
Reds (1981 Film)
Genres: Jazz, Pop, Soundtracks
 
  •  Track Listings (16) - Disc #1

Warren Beatty's Reds is a brilliant failure, an epic near-miss. Even if it is too long and too sappy, the film's scandalously sympathetic exploration of Communism earns Reds a valorous place among mainstream Hollywood film...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Stephen Sondheim, Dave Grusin
Title: Reds (1981 Film)
Members Wishing: 4
Total Copies: 0
Label: Razor & Tie
Original Release Date: 12/4/1981
Re-Release Date: 4/27/1999
Album Type: Soundtrack
Genres: Jazz, Pop, Soundtracks
Style: Smooth Jazz
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 793018220323

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Warren Beatty's Reds is a brilliant failure, an epic near-miss. Even if it is too long and too sappy, the film's scandalously sympathetic exploration of Communism earns Reds a valorous place among mainstream Hollywood films. Unfortunately, the Reds soundtrack falters in the same way the film itself does. It takes a radical, potentially explosive premise and not only sentimentalizes, but--ironically enough--Americanizes it. Though the contributions by the Moscow Radio Chorus are deeply affecting and thoroughly transportive to pre-World War I Russia, many of Stephen Sondheim and Dave Grusin's instrumental passages ring false in their menace, and hollow in their emotion. Unlike, say, John Barry's From Russia with Love soundtrack--which brilliantly adapts traditional Russian music for Western ears--Sondheim and Grusin's compositions do little to transcend their deep Broadway/Hollywood roots. --Matt Hanks
 

CD Reviews

If you're here you must be a fan
07/02/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great buy if you, like me, liked the movie. The editorial reviewer above obviously disliked the movie, so frankly, his opinion is irrelevant. Enjoy!"
An excellent soundtrack to one of the finest films ever
04/13/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Comparing anything about Reds with From Russia with Love, even just the soundtrack, ... is absurd, really. To say that the film was sympathetic to Communism is to miss the point entirely--it wasn't, in fact, it was quite complex in its dealings with John Reed's love and eventual disillusion with the Party. It's a long movie, perhaps the person only watched the first half ... In any event, while it may take a special knowledge and understanding of history to truly appreciate what Warren Beatty created when he made Reds, it doesn't take much historical knowledge to enjoy one of the best movies ever made. The soundtrack is as powerful and emotional as the film, from its delicate love songs to the dramatic Russian choruses."
Editorial reviewer needs to take a soothing drink & relax
SusieQ | New York | 02/01/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Even though this isn't the place to say it, I loved the movie "Reds", though it's not without flaws, and the soundtrack is just as admirable. However, it's probably most enjoyable to those who admire the movie; I mean, it's not by any mean "easy listening", except for certain tracks. Guess these are the tracks the editorial reviewer meant by calling the soundtrack (& the film) "sentimental", which is probably not unjustified, but that's life. Sometimes life is sentimental; the early 20th century was, in many ways, a more innocent time. I think the soundtrack, with its mix of sentiment and sturm-und-drang, reflects this time accurately.



I'm a little fondly biased for the song, "You can't come & play in my yard" because my grandmother (born 1906) used to sing it, as her mother sung it to her!"