Ransom

Horner was brought in to score this movie after Howard Shore's music was rejected, giving him only about two weeks to complete the score. I suppose that is the reason this score isn't one of Horner's more original works, and because of the short time, I can be indulgent towards that. The music is very reminiscent of earlier scores, especially Clear and Present Danger. In fact, one of the motifs is taken directly from that score.

The music is very dark and solemn, with dark strings. It's not so melodic, thus if you expect to find sweeping themes in this score, you sure are going to be disappointed, but then such themes should sound very out of place in a movie like Ransom. It is only in the end of the score the music gets a little lighter and more optimistic and melodic. The "End Credits", the best track, closes with a great fanfare.

The latter part of the soundtrack is taken up by Billy Corgans's, in my opinion awful, music. It's just noise, and I can't see why so much of this music, about 25 minutes, is featured on the soundtrack, when just a couple of minutes of it was used in the film. Anyway, it's good they didn't mix these tracks with the score tracks. At least it doesn't interrupt the flow of the score, and is easily skipped. And what about those song names? "Squirrels With Tails"! What the...