By Hans Zimmer, 1999

Hans Zimmer, trying to avoid war-movie clichés, accompanies the dramatized carnage at Guadalcanal with a weepy and wistful score. Like the Terrence Malick film, the music, with its sad violins and underscored orchestra, invokes a war that is more introspective, a fitting backdrop to the often purple poeticisms in the voice-over narrations. Zimmer provides occasional adaptations to the American folk hymn "Christian Race," but his overall effect is much more otherworldly.

Instead of the earthier martial themes associated with warlords or heroes, this is the soundtrack to a melancholy Valhalla, a story seemingly told by battlefield casualties who are already angels. Less predictable is a brief closing track (written by Francesco Lupica) strangely titled "Sit Back & Relax" that sends out a surreal "cosmic beam." --Joseph Lanza

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