Soundtrack Review: These Amazing Shadows (2011)

These Amazing Shadows Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the documentary film score These Amazing Shadows by Peter Golub.

"Golub creates a subtle score that barely registers outside of it's content"

These Amazing Shadows tells the history and importance of The National Film Registry, a roll call of American cinema treasures that reflects the diversity of film, and indeed the American experience itself. The movies that made America it boldly claim on the film poster and maybe so. The directors of this documentary are Paul Mariano and Kurt Norton. The composer is Peter Golub.

Track List

Last time I heard from Peter Golub was his collaboration with James Newton Howard on "The Great Debaters", a score I found lacking, but still enjoyable. Lately Golub has scored "Countdown to Zero" and "Frozen River".

Big Ask

It's a big ask to score a documentary about the films that made America. That must mean films like West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz and Back To The Future to name a few.

I think Peter has chosen not to experiment to much and I think that was a good choice, yet I think it is a bit boring. There are too many filler tracks, even though it has a few gems hidden.

'Main Titles' has a good solid theme and just sneaks into the 5 star category of cues. I also liked the part where he creates montages to famous films like West Side Story and To Kill a Mockingbird. Of course he didn't use the themes from the movie itself, something that was blatantly clear to me as I was listening to 'Back To The Future Montage'.

Conclusion

This score is safe and complete, but lacks something special that craves my attention. Still, I think the director couldn't ask for a better score for his film. Documentary scores are different in that you don't have much in the way of special scenes like you have in normal films. Golub creates a subtle score that barely registers outside of it's content, actually that's a bit harsh because believe it or not, I kind of liked this score, but not enough to give it anything over 6.

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Listen to the These Amazing Shadows soundtrack by Peter Golub below: