Ladyhawke Rescored

Ladyhake is almost the perfect movie to see with kids or family, but the music definitely doesn't fit., it's good but the composer probably didn't see the film and the music doesn't fit the tone.
The new music is good and also fits the mood, the editor also went an extra step by removing some of the unnecessary scenes, unfortunately, he didn't remove the line when the bishop says "This isn't a prostitute place", removing it will make the film perfect and enjoyable for the whole family, but until he does, This is the definitive version of Ladyhawke.

I recommend this cut of Ladyhawke which is now much better, overall, than the original. I was not a fan of the odd original score which intentionally had a very modern sound (for the time) but seemed not to ever really fit with the action happening on the screen. Did the musicians actually watch each scene they wrote music for? I really don't think so. For me much of the original music was laughably bad and way out of place. No amount of nostalgia could ever make me like those music choices.

In 99% of the revamped scenes of this edit, the audio replacement is undetectable. It just sounds like it could have been a studio release. The 1% that sounds a little too thin is because of the extreme noise reduction applied to a very small handful of dialogue parts in order to completely obliterate the original score. So a few times people's voices become tinny and one or twice a little hard to hear. I would have maybe not used quite that amount of noise reduction and just let the original soundtrack bleed over a bit, doing my best to mask it with new music. Either way, it's still a very acceptable trade-off.

I gave scores of 10 across the board here except for Audio/Video Quality and Audio Editing, which I gave an 8 and 9 respectively. In my book a score of 8 out of 10 (or 4 out of 5) means "good."

The reason I didn't give a perfect score for Audio/Video Quality was some slight blocking and color banding in some of the footage. Nothing very noticeable, but there if you're looking out for it. Also, the opening musical piece sounded a tad muddled to my ear, though that muddiness did not continue.

If a surround track is available but an edit is released in stereo, the highest I'll generally give the audio editing is a 9, which is what I did here. As much as I would prefer a surround version of this, the new scoring is just too good not make the edit a permanent fixture in my movie collection.

And the reason this edit works so well is the time effort and love put into arranging the new scoring. Well done!

I am one of those who actually enjoys the original soundtrack because I'm a huge fan of the Alan Parsons Project, so I not only own the movie, but also the 2-disc limited edition soundtrack as well. That being said, I recognize that the synth-pop/orchestration that Andrew Powell and Alan Parsons provided are at times an odd choice for this genre of movie.

So, I gave this version a shot after much consideration. First, this is FLAWLESSLY edited. The music score is appropriate for each scene and works surprisingly well. Everything works once the movie starts. I love the movie to begin with, so I was surprised how seamless this all sounded.

The only weaknesses worth noting is the main theme in the opening credits. I don't find this particular score particularly memorable compared to other works by Jerry Goldsmith and I don't know that it feels right with the opening credits. Maybe it would help with a hawk screech or two... if you watch the opening credits, you will know what I mean. Once the movie begins, everything works, but then again, I'm so familiar with the movie and the original music, this could have been me.

One more comedic observation is that the "riding" theme that is used bears a more than slight resemblance to the "...he rode a blazing saddle..." song from the Mel Brooks movie "Blazing Saddles." I couldn't help think about that every time it started up.

Anyway, this is a fabulous, flawless edit that works. I definitely recommend.

This score definitely compliments the tone of the movie more than the original score, it takes the forefront when it needs to and takes the backseat when appropriate. You can really tell how much care and effort went into this fan edit! Many kudos to MusicEd921 for this labor of love, it really breathes new life into this beautiful, underappreciated classic.

Full recommendations from me!

Having grown up watching Ladyhawke from a very young age, it was one of my mother's favorite movies, I have a lot of nostalgia for this film and the original score. While the original score is very much a product of the time, to me, it is still a great score. That being said, when I came across this edit, I was very interested to see what the viewing experience would be like with Jerry Goldsmith's Lionheart score.

First off, the sound editing for this movie far exceeded my expectations. There are very few instances where the sound effects are lowered or removed completely, but nothing that is distracting in any way. The dialogue is clear and the musical levels are good. I was surprised by how well the music matches up thematically in certain scenes. So kudos to the editor for hitting those marks.

To me watching this reminded me a lot of the Legend debate in terms of score. If you grew up with the contemporary Tangerine Dream score you probably prefer that vs the Jerry Goldsmith score which is more classical in approach. Having grown up with Ladyhawke, it's very hard for me to remove the memory of the original score and it still is probably the preferred version for me.

Overall though, I did enjoy watching this. While the Lionheart score can also feel a little dated at times, it definitely is a more classical approach and provides an interesting alternative to the film. Great job to the editor and thank you for putting this together!