Between broken optimism and the stubborn tread onwards. One of the greatest tunes ever put to one of the most tragically underappreciated movies ever made.
I spent so many hours walking Minnesota trails and doing my college reading listening to this soundtrack. I used to have the whole thing on CD. I miss it so much. It's good to see Atun-Shei giving this movie lots of love though.
I've spent many times running on trails in Northern California which is where they were and I've listened to this many times while taking a run and it brings a tear to my eye every time..
Fargo is one of my favorite movies/tv-shows all time, you lucky you live in Minnesota.Greetings from Finland, we have as bad winter as you guys have :)
This music is amazing. The beat is ominous and steady. The first notes strike six times, and the second, seven. This repeats throughout the piece. The first part sounds twisted and ominous, until the accordion comes in. It plays a melody that is a cross between a marching theme, and a somber feeling. But the best part of the whole thing is that the two parts don’t really fit, until they do…and when they do, they fit beautifully, and sound like a song you’ve never heard before. I’ve been haunted by this piece since the day I first watched the movie many years ago. It reminds me of life…hundreds of steady, individual pieces going on, that every once in a while, combine to make a beautiful sound, purely by coincidence.
I am a HUGE collector of film scores, been collecting since around 1989. I have at least over 5,000 on CD, over 100 on cassette and over 50 vinyl. I remember buying this score, since I buy by composer. At the time I was familiar with Michael Nyman, but not with Damon Albarn. The score was so odd and I thought it was strange. Somehow this score just grew on me and now I love listening to it and will always have a playlist on my iPod. Such an underrated score and equally underrated film.
T Sanchez There is something about this movie that I can't get enough of. This soundtrack also sounds like the ending theme,which plays when Boyd returns to the camp with a broken leg and after jumping off the cliff.
This movie is so damn good. I really don't get why some call the music unfitting and stuff, personally I love brutal movies with beautiful soundtracks.
+EuroTrasho Productions It is unfitting, it's completely unfitting. You'd have to be on a completely otherworldly drug trip to think this music fits the horror genre. At first i hated it, it broke the immersion and left me say there wondering what the fuck this kind of happy song was doing accompanying a dude trudging through the snow with a broken leg after a psycho just killed and ate all his friends. Now i just see it as part of that quirky, crazy movie that i just can't get enough of.
jxcream Well, it is a horror comedy. And, I dunno about you, but I'm a huge fan of italian exploitation films, and most of those feature "happy" music. The Last House on the Left, another one of my all time favorites, also uses unexpected music choices. I don't find it unfitting at all.
I love the way Hail, Columbia sores at the end of this song, especially in comparison to how it's used elsewhere in the film. As opposed to an off-kilter mockery, it's almost more like a reminder of the way things should be instead of how they are. It's appropriate that the most triumphant version of it on the soundtrack is attached to Boyd's theme (as opposed to the other officers presented in the film).
This song is a perfect representation of the movie. A nice, folksy melody on top lulling you into a false sense of security while an off-key, unpredictable plinking sound slowly makes you more and more uneasy. You know something is wrong but you can't put your finger on it.
This movie brings up themes of greed, gluttony, and excess, I also liked how they tied morality and aggressive expansionist ideology into the story as well. Definitely one of my top 5 favourites.
I remember the first time watching this movie. I was 17 in 2000. I was suffering to watch something. This had just started. At the end of it my heart pounding. Wondering how this movie wasn't the most talked about movie in that time. Watching these new things on wendingos. No a real one just a man who wants to eat you for power! Yeah, bring on the deer skull guy. A mad man is way more scary!
Still my favorite soundtrack, I must have been 12 when I saw this movie in theaters and not a year goes by without thinking of this tune. Perfectly haunting and beautiful.
This theme is actually beautiful and the defintion of perfection (in my opinion). I just finished watching it and I can't stop thinking about it! Wish this film got more love and appreciation.
The soundtrack is pure genius....i can smell the hardship, the beaver skins hanging to dry, mouldy potatoes, gangrene, pipe tobacco, sweat, tripe and cabbage cooking hahaha
@Anon Anon The best thing about this score is that they only used instruments from that era, 1846-1848, America Mexican war. Its brilliant. I cannot praise this score enough
About 7 years ago I was a family man, unpacking groceries with this song on loop. Soon I would throw it all away with my own hands. In hindsight, this track perfect fits my zombie-like march into the abyss.
This song creeps me the fuck out. The intro is so haunting and unsettling. Despite that it was such a good movie!! It leaves me wondering whether if stuck in the same situation if I’d ever partake in canabalism to survive. The plot twist was amazing.
I remember special ordering the sountrack to this from one of those long gone hastings stores back in 7th grade, I liked the pump organ piano sounding music bits, it reminded me of my grandpa who played an old pump organ piano.
I am Alberto stanghellini from Lucca, Italy, after I watched this movie on vhs , many years ago, I bought the soundtrack on Ebay uk, I like it and mostly he music.
Such an underrated, underappreciated 90s film that totally flew under the radar... Complete masterpiece from start to finish. One of my favorite hidden gems to rewatch every once in a while. I actually saw this in theater when it released. Along with the other 90s hidden gem, Event Horizon. Both totally solid films that never got the credit they deserved.
I just watched this movie for the first time, and I already knew going into it that it was going to be some kind of horror comedy, but even so the music seemed awkward and out of place towards the beginning of the film. It sounded awful and I regarded it as absolute cacophony. At first. Then as the film progressed I started to get into the movie's... ah, tone isn't quite the right word, it's more like... personality. I was really getting into the film's personality and liking it. Even the music, the very same music from the beginning, sounded appropriate. My perception of the score had gone from mindless noise to a sort of charismatic brilliance. I guess that describes the entire film in a nutshell. You may go into it unsure if you're going to like it, it might even put you off at the start, but it pulls you in and wins you over by the end. Just like Col. Ives The movie is Col. Ives. The viewer is Capt. Boyd. Will you give in to its demented charm, or will you continue to loathe it to the very end?
Articulate and well put I felt the underlying self loathing in the film pinned against brazen gluttony and debauchery the lunatic wit and clever writing made this film one of my top ten rare finds. The music still haunts me in hallucinations when I wake in the morning sometimes. But it’s a tune when I hear it makes me smile. The sort of I know something fantastic you don’t. I can’t believe this film only grossed 2 million dollars and was considered trash by so many critics over the trailer being a tad misleading
Honestly this film reminds me of Danny Boyle's film Sunshine, in the sense while watching it I had absolutely no idea what was gonna happen next. I remember being gripped to the screen when this came out.
I'm currently running a Wendigo scenario in my D&D campaign (Mutants&Masterminds actually) And this movie and soundtrack is SO on point. Players are loving it
I still need to track down this movie and watch it in full. This theme is so good! I listened to the full version of hail columbia on the soundtrack they have, and that's much more strained than the pretty earnest tone in this version. Definitely a thematic connection there.
This song was my favorite. When the mivie first starts. It does seem out of place but creepy as well. So it gives the feel of a really scary movie. But the song ends up fitting in after seeing the time and place the movie had taken place
Truly original, fits the theme of the film perfectly. It has been 14 years since my last review and this is still my favorite OST piece. I can't be sure though, I will let it sit another 14 years and let you know if it holds up.
