Editor Reviews:

Amazon.com:
Just as director Steven Soderbergh paid tribute to the atmospheric black and white thrillers of the postwar period with this movie, composer Thomas Newman came up with a score that strives to evoke the majesty of works by the likes of Miklós Rózsa, Max Steiner and, of course, his own father, Alfred Newman. For once the enormous ensemble credited as the Hollywood Studio Symphony does not feel wasted: most of the brooding ambiance is created by thick, dark clouds of strings, and tension often rises from the strings' juxtaposition with brass. Newman also makes good use of oft-neglected instrumental voices: Check out the harp on "Muller's Billet," "Trip Ticket" and "Golem," for instance; it really makes you wonder why that instrument isn't used more. In terms of mood-setting, the music is perfect: listening to cues such as "Kurfustendamm" will instantly transport you back to a rainy street in 1945--or rather, a Hollywood backlot made to look like a rainy street in 1945. Sure, this is a deliberately retro soundtrack, but it's done with elegance and deep understanding of a certain classic scoring style. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Rating : - A Good Dose
-Channeling the old Hollywood scores from yesteryear is what Thomas Newman does with this fantastic score and which is why it works so brilliantly. The score starts with the Main Title track, which after some pretty loud horns, and strings settles down to play the beautiful theme for the movie. How great is the theme for this movie?, even people don't care much for the score admit it's fantastic melody so I think that should be proof to what a great theme that Newman as composed. It reminds me a little of the love theme from "The Mummy" but I'm guessing it's a happy accident. I love the little French horn he brings during the last 34 seconds to play this little tune that we never really hear again during the album.

-One criticism that people love to bombard the score with is that apart from the main theme there's no other memorable moment on the album. I do agree that nothing lives up to the main theme of the movie, but that's not to say that the other tracks aren't fantastic. "A Good Dose", "River Havel", "Such a Boy", "Countless Redheads", "Muller's Bullet", "Dora" and "Jedem Das Seine" are all wonderful cues that more than justify why this album is so great to listen to. I do hope that those people accusing it of only having a great theme and nothing more come around and listen to the album again, because there's a lot more that Newman has to offer here other just his wonderful theme.

-We do get a lot of versions of the main theme from a version done with an oboe to one done with tremolo strings. I love how the track "The Good German" it starts with the just the chords playing before the solo violin comes in plays the main theme. It really lets you appreciate the theme to a great level because even it's stripped down to just the chords it's still a fantastic theme. It's a shame that the movie never lives up to the music, but then again a lot of great composers write great music for less than great movies so this is nothing new

-I would have loved to see Newman get his Oscar for this but I guess he was no match for Gustavo's 6 minutes of guitar plucks. Hopefully someday he'll write something wonderful like this again and finally get his much deserved Oscar.