I found the score to be moody, ambiguous... and utterly perfect for the tone of the movie. It doesn't draw a whole lot of attention to itself, yet at key moments, it was quite effective at heightening the poignancy of the situation at hand. I liked how the drum solos contributed to the sense of urgency in several scenes. To me, the score was a perfect fit for the movie- simultaneously spare, thoughtful, and evocative.

The subtlety and ambiguity is in stark contrast to something like... Memoirs of a Geisha, which has received such praise for its score. Is it just me, or did it sound completely derivative of The Last Emperor, only "Japanified"? :-/

> Is it
> just me, or did it sound completely derivative of The Last Emperor, only
> "Japanified"? :-/

It's Filmtracks and its traditionalist hard-on for anything Williams/Goldsimth/Horner, be it new release, long lost promos nobody gives a crap about or their morning dumps.

> The subtlety and ambiguity is in stark contrast to something like...
> Memoirs of a Geisha, which has received such praise for its score. Is it
> just me, or did it sound completely derivative of The Last Emperor, only
> "Japanified"? :-/

Yes indeed.

If a reader needs any proof of this, just listen to track 3 of "Memoirs of a Geisha" ("Going to School"), and then listen to the (18 years prior) 10th track of "The Last Emperor" (Main Title Theme, by David Byrne). The Geisha sequence is such a verbatim quote of the opening 20 or so seconds of the Last Emperor track that I find it very difficult to believe that Williams thought he could get away with this. I instead think he may have meant it as some kind of tribute, perhaps.

A fair score anyway, though. Not nearly as good as "Munich", in my opinion. "Munich" I uphold to be Williams' 2nd greatest score EVER, second only to Schindler's List.