13 Hours The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score 13 Hours The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi by Lorne Balfe.
Buy the score here (if available)
At a glance:
Geek Score: 95.4
Total Minutes Of Excellence: 38.6
Album Excellence: 72.8%
How are the scores calculated and what does it mean?
13 Hours The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi is a 2016 American biographical action war film directed by Michael Bay and starring James Badge Dale, John Krasinski and Max Martini. The gripping true story of six elite ex-military operators assigned to protect the CIA who fought back against overwhelming odds when terrorists attacked a U.S. diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012. Based on the nonfiction book “13 Hours” by New York Times bestselling author Mitchell Zuckoff and Members of the Annex Security Team. The score is composed by Lorne Balfe.
One of the most prolific composers of 2015 start the new year early on with a Michael Bay production so I assume some explosions are in order, also musically. The music opens with ‘Hero’, a very beautiful minimalistic theme, very emotional and soft. It’s a surprising opening, but a very good one. Love the way that it sounds, the music fills me with joy. It’s the simplicity of it that I love the most, it appeals to me on such a basic and profound level. ‘Welcome To Benghazi’ is much more ominous sounding, harsh gritty electronica sounds is the main thing here. This is not quite working for me, but Im just hoping it’s a segway to some amazing action music coming later on. I love the calmer cues here though. ‘Hero’ was a hit and then there’s ‘Downtime’s The Worst’ and perhaps the best one ‘Calling Home’. Again, there’s something in the way that it sounds. It appeals to me, it really “clicks” with me. The mood, the textures, the simplicity.
How about the action? ‘Welcome To Benghazi’ was too light, it felt more like a prelude. ‘Burn Them Out’ however is heavy and strangely there is a downward brass sound that feels right at home with with Terminator universe Balfe was recently involved with. This is a lot better though, the percussion is heavy and tight. As an Action Score, well a pure action score, it doesn’t score as high as I’d hoped except that one cue ‘Burn Them Out’. What makes this score really good though is the calmer cues and there are quite a lot of them. I love the way they build up, I love the ostinatos. They’re very “friendly” on the ear, just pure mood creation for me and I am in love with that. It’s the music I will remember from this, and while it might not be the thundering action score you might think it would be, it holds up and is a very pleasant score to listen to and enjoy.
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Hero
3. Downtime’s The Worst
4. Burn Them Out
5. Calling Home *
7. The Last Resort
8. All The Gods
10. Forgotten *
11. All The Hells
12. Going Home
13. 13 Hours
