The Forgotten


Colosseum (4005939661922)
Varèse Sarabande (0030206661927)
Movie | Release date: 10/05/2004 | Format: CD
 

Subscribe now!

Stay better informed and get access to collectors info!





 

# Track   Duration
1.An Unsettling Calm4:27
2.Remember...4:26
3.In Memories Only, the Empty Page7:52
4.Containment of a Darker Purpose7:51
5.The Experiment on Innocence4:15
6.Confronting Forever3:49
7.Re-Assembling Shattered Pieces3:51
8.Profound Emptiness... The Hangar8:47
9.Erasing the Truth6:03
10.Children, the Unbroken Bond3:39
11.End Credits4:29
 59:28
Submit your review Show reviews in other languages

 

The Forgotten - 03/10 - Review of Tom Daish, submitted at
Some films have, unintentionally, deeply ironic titles and The Forgotten has surely got to be the most deeply unfortunate titles ever bestowed on a major motion picture. The audience's appetite for M Night Shyamalan style, over clever, spooky horror, with twists is perhaps a little less than Hollywood hoped for. James Horner's score gets off to a promising start with the aptly titled An Unsettling Calm which features an intermittent violin solo over a cycling piano motif and a few well placed synthetic embellishments. It rather suggests James Newton Howard's wonderful score to The Village, although Horner never allows the violin part to soar above its background, instead, fragments of melody appear in bite size chunks giving a moody restlessness.

Remember... picks up where An Unsettling Calm leaves off, but the level of movement increases, as does the volume and by the second half of the track, a full blown synthetic percussion invasion has started. The multi-layered rhythms are interesting enough, but seem to belong in another score entirely, indeed, they wouldn't be out of place in The Island. They are fine enough as this kind of thing goes, but after the effectively haunting opening, shatter the mood rather mercilessly. Unfortunately, the opening tracks constitute just about all of the material worth hearing. Much of the rest is either the same kind of thing or endless, deathly dull sustained low string notes. Some, such as Profound Emptiness... The Hangar, feature some nice textures, but aren't really interesting as music.

As with all of the A list composers, Horner rarely does anything less than a professional job and the atmosphere is effective and well maintained, but at just a gnat's crotchet under an hour, not sufficient to engage the listener to the bitter end. After the promising opening, it seems unfortunate that, unlike the aforementioned The Village, Horner's score just seems to slip into a somnambulant state where nothing much happens. Howard keeps the music fresh and the ball rolling, all while maintaining a gorgeous autumnal atmosphere, but The Forgotten just fizzles out or repeats itself. Not exactly awful, but from a composer who used to create such exciting orchestral scores, a pretty unappealing and likely to be, deservedly, forgotten.
The Forgotten - 04/10 - Review of Andreas Lindahl, submitted at
Not much in common with James Horner's recent scores, such as The Missing and Bobby Jones, The Forgotten is a suspenseful score, dominated by quiet underscore and synths. If one should compare it to any other score by Horner out there, his thriller scores from the early 90's - The Pelican Brief and Unlawful Entry - are probably its closests siblings.

The soundtrack opens with a lonely piano, supported by percussion, synths and a synthesized violin, setting the tone for the rest of the score - this is a score performed by a small ensemble of instruments - piano and synths, basically - with no orchestra at all in sight. The piano restlessly goes from chord to chord and the music would have been surprisingly warm and tender, weren't it for the cold sound of the violin and the occasional echoing synths and percussion. The track title - "An Unsettling Calm" - is rather good description.

Horner's writing for piano and electronics continues in the following cues, without the presence of a real, strong main theme. Instead, Horner often revisits the chord progression established in the opening track. But it's mostly quiet underscore, with some more dramatic music from time to time and therefore easily drifts into the background while listening.

The music gets more disturbing and nervous towards the end of the third track, "In Memories Only, The Empty Page", with almost The Name of the Rose sounding electronics. "Containment of a Darker Purpose" adds some quite dirty electronic rythms to the mix, with low, rumbling piano and percussive outbursts. It's pretty annoying, actually, but it's at the same time interesting to here something that's so different compared to what he normally writes.

Order is not really restored until the discs penultimate track, "Children, the Unbroken Bond", with lush synth strings and the delicate piano from the opening cues returning again.

The Forgotten is certainly not one of James Horner's most listenable scores, and no matter how well it works in the film, the fact is that it's not especially memorable or interesting on CD.


Report a fault or send us additional info!: Log on

 



More