Ladyhawke Rescored

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!

Ladyhawk. A great Richard Donner adventure that time has not been kind to...

When first released in theatres way back in 1985, Ladyhawk felt fresh, fun and exciting. Powerhouse critics Siskel & Ebert both gave it a THUMBS UP; saying it had the potential to be "a classic". And yet, in Richard Donner's impressive pantheon of films, Ladyhawk often seems to neglected, forgotten or ridiculed by many modern movie lovers.

Why? Critics of the film usually point their disapproving finger at two things... Matthew Broderick's performance and the pop/rock soundtrack.

If you fall into this camp, then MusicEd has the Fan Edit for YOU!

While I personally enjoy many aspects of the original movie soundtrack, there is no doubt it instantly dates the film to it's 1980s origins and might feel at odds with the film's Medieval setting to the contemporary viewer.

But not anymore! MusicEd has arduously and meticulously replaced the original soundtrack with works of one of the greatest film composers ever -- Jerry Goldsmith!!! Ed has used Goldsmith's LIONHEART soundtrack with magical skill and has created a very different and wonderfully entertaining viewing experience.

As for Broderick? Again, Ed has mercifully trimmed back some of the more egregious moments, but in the end, there is only so much one can do without undermining the narrative.

The technical achievement here can not be understated. Audio replacement and film re-scoring is an extremely difficult task, that requires a great ear and exceptional patience. And while there are a few brief moments here and there in the fan edit where the viewer can hear the distinct tinny warble after effect of audio removal in some pieces of dialogue, this fan edit stands as a very impressive piece of work.

MusicEd taken a movie that very much felt like a product of the 80s and has given it a classic timeless quality.

Bravo!

Thumbs Up for a new generation!

:)

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!

Excellent sound mixing. I found that most fan editors (myself included) fall short on sound mixing. Balancing the dialogue, sound/foley effects and the music score is really an art, which is why it is worthy of its own Oscar category. After watching a few scenes on my cheap bluetooth speaker, I immediately could tell this was done right. I didn't need a fancy set up.

I hadn't seen this movie since college in the 1990s, but remember not being able to fully enter into the narrative because of how dated the soundtrack was. This was too bad as I am a sucker for fantasies from the 1980s. I decided to give this movie another chance with a new soundtrack. What a difference! MusicEdge91 does an excellent job making the soundtrack seem seamless and organic with the mood and tone of the original. I forgot I was watching a fan edit, the soundtrack flowed so seemlessly. Highly recommended.