Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

by

Klaus Badelt

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For starters: I don't know if Klaus Badelt or Hans Zimmer was responsible for the rousing main theme of the movie (aka Jack Sparrow's theme) but whoever it was, THANK YOU. Brilliant job.

This is a wonderful, wonderful soundtrack. As others have noted, when I first heard that epic theme blasting out as Jack approached the harbor, I wanted nothing more than to commandeer a ship and devote my life to piracy (ahoy!). I went out and bought the CD... and... well...

Disney did a very poor job in organizing it, IMO. There's only about forty minutes of music on this CD - I haven't had the luxury of seeing the movie as often as I want to analyze missing music, but I'm fairly certain several key scenes with good music don't have a place on the soundtrack. Further, the exciting and wonderful end credits... which I stayed in the theater for... aren't here. The beginning of the end credits - "He's a Pirate" - is there, but it cuts off after only minute and thirty seconds. Arg!

I'm giving this CD five stars anyway because the music really IS good enough to forgive the abridged version. For those that would like to see a full-length CD released, I recommend writing Disney and asking about it. This is a marvelous, marvelous soundtrack and it belongs on the shelf of anyone who loves a rousing score.

Like many of the viewers who have already commented on this page, I knew I had to grab my hands on this CD the moment I left the theatre. The credits which replayed the main theme was the icing on the cake. My first disapointment was seeing that I would have to wait for almost two weeks to buy the soundtrack as it came out on July 22nd. That in itself is downright puzzling as most movies now will even release the soundtrack before the movie even hits theatres.

Now after finally finding a store that had this CD, I knew my wait would be well worth it. I couldnt wait to hear the main themes that sounded so unforgettable in the movies.

While the music on this CD is great, I could not help but be terribly dissapointed by what Walt Disney records put out to buysers. If the music wasn't so amazing, I would consider getting a refund on the CD. The organization of this CD has got to be the poorest quality I have ever seen on a movie soundtrack. Its as if a six year old snuck into the studio, hit a lot of buttons that put random pieces of music together and the producers never caught it.

Not one title save for one or two has the correct music attached to it. When seeing track #7 was "Barbossa Is Hungry" I knew the music would be when Ms. Swann found out that the pirates were cursed. But no, on this CD you hear the main theme played.

The first track "Fog Bound" has a happy fiddle playing in the beginning of it, when there was none to be found in the movie. Track #14 is titled "One Last Shot" which is in reference to Captain Sparrow using his bullet on Barbossa, which killed him. Instead the music heard on this track is of the final few minutes when Jack escaped onto his boat and Will and Elizabeth kissed.

These are just a few examples of the terrible disorganization that appears on this CD. To top it off, nothin is even in sequence. The "Underwater March" which is track 13 comes after the music you hear in the final battle which is "Skull and Crossbones" on track 11.

The final kick in the but was the total track time on the CD, which is just a shade under 44 minutes. Does Disney think we're that dumb to think there was just 44 minutes of music in a 2 1/2 hour movie?! Music from two of the four major battles are missing, those being the fight between Jack and Will in the shop and the crew of the Black Pearl taking over the ship that Jack had stolen.

So lets see Disney, you leave 30 mintues of the CD blank, you give us music that isnt chronological, and you dont give accurate titles. Essentially, you would have to see the movie about 15 times to know where the music fits in scence for scene.

Now after all is said and done, I am still giving it three stars because the music is that good. The main theme in this soundtrack has got to be one of my 5 favorites of all time, and having over 100 soundtracks, thats a statement not taken lightly. Sure it may sound like Hans Zimmer's "Gladiator", but c'mon, everything done by Zimmer sounds similar. "The Rock", "Crimson Tide", "The Peacemaker", all sound nearly the same. Gladiator joins the ranks of those three in some scences. So why are we to think that one of Zimmers disciples Klaus Badelt isnt to do the same. Harry Gregson-Williams, Trevor Rabin, and Badelt all have the same percussion dominant touch in their soundtracks, just as Zimmer did in his 1990's glory.

Sure it may sound repetitive, but if you enjoy that kind of music, who cares? Don't you think Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach had music that sounded similar at some point? That is a bad comparison, but each composer has his/her own style, so if you loved Gladiator, you wont be dissapointed in this music.

In closing, if you loved the music as much as I did, buy the soundtrack. But be warned, there are a lot of problems with this CD which will downright annoy you. But for those 10-15 minutes where you can clearly picture the scences in the movie, or when you hear that main theme playing, you'll know the money was worth it.