Goodbye For Now - Jean-Pierre Rampal/Claude Bolling
I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard - Reds ST
Comrades (I) - Dave Grusin
Internationale - The Moscow Radio Chorus
I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard - Heaton Vorse
Comrades (II) - Dave Grusin
The New York Waltz - Dave Grusin
Bloody Border - Dave Grusin
Comrades (III) - Dave Grusin
The Red Army Is The Most Powerful Of All - The Moscow Radio Chorus
E.J. Mellinger's Rag - Reds ST
Winter Escape - Dave Grusin
Marriage Proposal - Stephen Sondheim
Comrades - Dave Grusin
The Engine - The Moscow Radio Chorus
Goodbye For Now - Stephen Sondheim
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 »s. 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« less
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!"
A telescoped course in the inspirational power of music.
R.P. | 04/14/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"When I was younger and just beginning to study the effect of the Soviet Union on world history, I asked my mother how so many people could endure such a distasteful and unappealing social system. She replied, quite wisely: "If you want to understand why people would accept such a system, take a look at what they had before it."
While the dreadful Czarist system by itself could move a downtrodden people to revolt, it helped that they had some powerful and inspirational music to keep them motivated. After seeing Warren Beatty's incredible film in the theaters, we purchased the soundtrack and listened to it. I'll never forget hearing the Moscow Radio Chorus singing that unforgettable, uplifting song. It stirred me immeasurably, made me want to march shoulder-to-shoulder with good friends united in a common cause. That's when my father said to me: "That's the 'Internationale', the Communist Party anthem." I remember being horrified at myself for enjoying the song, and wondering if that made me a Communist. Then I remembered a quote by Leonard Bernstein, who said: "Music should lift your spirit, or interest your mind, or fill you with religious or passionate or dreamy or triumphant feelings."
And that music certainly did. After that, it was much easier to see why the people of Russia endured the oppression and the squalor of the Soviets for so long. The music kept them going in the face of all hardship, all fears, all hopelessness. That's pretty powerful.
So is this amazing soundtrack. Four stars."
Great movie bsed on a true story.
Jean-guy Tardif | Montréal | 01/03/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Just one question. Why is this film so expensive to purchase?"
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1