Louis Barron Bebe Barron - Forbidden Planet Original MGM Soundtrack (23 tracks) +Album Reviews

A prototype

Timothy P. Scanlon | Hyattsville, MDUSA | 12/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This was a clever film, a sci fi rendition of Shakespeare's "The Tempest." A trekkie whom I dated in my single days referred to the film as a prototype of Star Trek. So the film, shot when I was just a boy, was a prototype, in many ways ahead of its time. So, thusly, is the music. While electronics have become a way of life in the "developed" world now--How long has it been since you've heard a phone "ring?"--in the mid 1950s, they were still fantasy. The film works simulataneously at three levels, the interstellar voyage of the characters, the far more advanced technology/prehistory of the Krell, and the subliminal, and very animal, instinctive id. The composers did a clever job of mixing electronic sound effects with a "musical" tone, some later mimicked by a number of minimalist composers, to develop the ambiance of these levels.If you haven't seen the film, maybe that description will entice you to see it. And the soundtrack will remind you of they mystery and intrigue of the story."

Powerful electronic score

H. F. Gibbard | Dark City, USA | 03/23/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I know of only two films that are "haunted" by their film music: Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, and this one, Forbidden Planet. By "haunted," I mean that the film music forms an independent subtext about off-screen events, communicated directly to the viewer, which expresses something more profound than the emotions and experiences of the on-screen characters. In this film, the music is used to evoke a dead race, the Krell, that live on in their machines. We never see the Krell, but the ethereal music stands in for them. Listened to separate from the film, this score for Forbidden Planet has a visceral effect on the listener. Some of the tracks are loud and jarring; others lend themselves to quiet meditation. It's not film music in the traditional sense, but it's fun to listen to while the conscious mind is occupied elsewhere, say in reading or working."

No theremin used here folks.

J. C. Ray | 07/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Louis & Bebe Baron, pioneers in electronic film music.

It is clearly stated in the album's liner notes that no theremin was used in the creation of this landmark score and with good reason, the artists actually created by hand specialty circuits (in keeping with the basis of cybernetics) to create either individual sounds or sometimes even a huge long circuit board for a complete musical piece, it took them almost a year to do the entire score.

Worth owning just for the historical significance but IMO it definitely has a musical flow to it that has artistic merit."

Musical score or sound effects?

R. Bernard | Sarasota, FL | 02/07/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was never quite sure whether the score for this movie was music or sound effects. The two seem to blend together. If you loved the movie sounds, you'll love this CD.

This music is unique, a product of genius. I played it at work one day and one of my co-workers got the heebee-jeebees because it brought back memories of being terrified by the movie when he saw it as a child in 1956."

Kitschy but classic sci-fi score.

James M. Shertzer | Winston-Salem, NC USA | 07/04/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was about 12 when "Forbidden Planet," MGM's fabulous 50s blend of space opera, Shakespeare and Freud, was released. I first saw it from the third or fourth row of a palatial Washington DC theater, surrounded by a huge CinemaScope screen and enveloped in magnetic stereo sound. Needless to say, it made an lasting impression, and the eerie "electronic tonalities" -- a frontrunner to today synthesized music -- created by the Barons knocked me out. (Desperate, I even tried once to record the film's main title sequence over the phone from a theater to a tape recorded set up at home -- didn't work.) There was no available recording of the score until a LP disc on the Planet label in the 70s or early 80s, and this is the first CD issue. It's a must have for fans to the film and sci-fi generally, and its historic value is not to be undervalued. Although it's pretty musical for an electronic score (with recognizable motifs for major characters and incidents), it's more musical special effects than music per se, and not everyone will find it endlessly listenable. In fact, some might say it's a perfect disc to put on to clear out unwanted hanger-ons at a late-night party. But people who don't know exactly what they are getting aren't likely to buy this in the first place, so warnings don't seem applicable. (By the way, whoever entered the tracks on the computer is way off; there aren't repeated tracks, and it's not "Once around again," it's "Once around Altair.""

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