Cheap The Princess and the Warrior (Music) (Original Soundtrack) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Princess and the Warrior

Beautiful soundtrack, mediocre pop songs
As other reviews have noted, only half of this CD (about 35 minutes) contains actual music from the movie soundtrack. The rest is songs "inspired by" it, and although they're co-composed by Tykwer / Klimek / Heil themselves and the guest singers are fairly respectable, I just wasn't impressed. "Mediocre cookie-cutter trip-hop", say I (and I do like good trip-hop, e.g. Portishead or Laika, but this isn't it.) Now, the good news is that the bona fide soundtrack is very, very good. Like the movie itself, it's recognizably similar to "Run Lola Run" but very different in mood. Only "Truck Attack" has a driving beat; the rest pulses and hums, but only enough to make you nervous (in a good way). In particular, "The Roof" cranks up the tension steadily for seven minutes until it breaks into a flurry of piano arpeggios -- the big jump of course -- and dissolves. So five stars for the soundtrack, two stars for the songs, but I'll put my thumb on the scale and average it at four stars because the soundtrack itself is indispensable.

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Captures the dreamlike quality of the film
If only more movie soundtrack CDs were like this...

We see a lot of soundtracks to American films claiming the content is "Music from and inspired by..." In most cases, at least to me, the "inspired by" portion couldn't be more inaccurate. They seem to serve no other purpose than a marketing tool to clutter up the overstock bins in discount chain stores once the movie leaves the theatres.

The content of this particular CD can lay truthfully claim to contain "Music from and inspired by" the film. And what terrific content it is.

Composed by director Tom Tykwer's musical co-horts, Pale 3, about half of the CD contains the material from the score. It works much the same way music did for "Run Lola Run": it complemented the story and moved it along. The difference here is that the music for "The Princess and the Warrior" is much subtler. Like "Lola" it is largely electronic, but softer. The closest it gets to "Lola" is the "Truck Attack" piece, which dr!ives an important plot element in the film.

The other half of this CD contains songs taken from the score's arrangements, with lyrics provided by the various special guests brought in to lend their vocals to the work. The lyrics stay close to the themes and events of the movie. With the exception of the film's theme song, "You Can't Find Peace" (featuring Skin, formerly of Skunk Anansie), none of these pieces appear in the film. Snippets of "Fly with Me", featuring Franka Potente, the film's star, can be heard in the film's trailer.

The best thing about this soundtrack (and, indeed, the "Run Lola Run" soundtrack) is that it lets the listener take home some of the experience of the movie. I think that's a pretty cool thing indeed.

Recommended.

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For Fans Of The Film Only!
Anyone who has seen Tom Tykwer's epic third film, "The Princess & The Warrior", knows that there must have been a lot of money floating around when it was being made. The same can be said of the soundtrack also, as the co-composing team of Tykwer, Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, under the newfound moniker Pale 3, have struck gold after cooking up a storm with their rave-flavoured accompaniment to "Run Lola Run". And like the film, the follow-up could not be anymore different, as the thumping beats of "Lola" are exchanged for heartbreaking strings and slow-burning stunners that add to the film's emotional texture unlike most plop-pop soundtracks that are geared to make money.

One nice little subversion is that Pale 3 have taken various score sections from the film itself and have transformed them into stirring pop songs that interlink with various moments and characters within the film. On the whole, it works, but will leave curious listeners who either haven't seen the film or didn't like it cold, as you're not going to feel moved when Louise Rhodes trills to chilling effect "I knew I'd find you there / Now our story can really start" unless you adored the film, not to mention Sissi and Bodo. That said, the best songs are Skin's "You Can't Find Peace" (singing as though she's in unspeakable pain), Rhodes' "Escape (Afraid Of No One)" (amazing ending!) and Beth Hirsch's "The Tunnel" (sampling one of the best score pieces from the film). And Franka Potente continues to follow Marianne Faithful in the name of spoken word with "Fly With Me", which again soars or falls judging on how much you enjoyed the film.

The other half of the CD is score cues taken from the film itself, and again highlights the amazing versatility of Pale 3. Combining low-fi electronica with some stirring string arrangements (recorded in California - classy!), the talented troika masterfully crank up the tension (hear "The Roof") as well as absorb the listener with soothing melody (hear "Opening (Sissi Search)"). But the humdinger here is "The Escape", which sounds exactly the opposite of what the title suggests. My advice: watch the film, be amazed, then blast this as loud as you can from your CD players! Truly wonderful.