Wow, I just got back from seeing Atonement, and I thought it for the most part a very well done movie. Regarding the score, I didn't like the music played during the first part of the film (and they really overdid it with that "typewriter motif".) However, the score during the war part of the story was magnificent. The string music heard during the Dunkirk sequence was touching, and it included a brief snippet of a beautiful hymn called "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" sung by a group of soldiers in a bandstand overlooking the shore. And I thought the piano music with the strings played over the end credits almost sounded like something Grieg would have composed.

I am glad I went to see this movie.

Interesting. I enjoyed the work of the director (Joe Wright), actress(Keira Knightley), composer (Dario Marianelli) and pianist (Jean Yves Thibaudet) in Pride and Prejudice and appreciate hearing your review. Do you think the score deserved to win the Golden Globe for best original score?

Thanks for your response, guest1013. The score did not start out promising. As I hinted in my original post, the score at the first part of the film was heavy-handed and over the top. And the insertion of the "typewriter motif" made it even more so. The score took on a whole new character once the war began, and this is the music I left the theater mostly remembering and appreciating. It's mainly two themes: the one that starts the war section (first introduced on a harmonica and which appears again as a exquisite clarinet solo later on, and which also is heard again over the end credits), and the one heard during the Dunkirk sequence, with that cello moaning over the strings, recalling some of the music of Elgar. It is these two latter themes which give the film an emotional richness and provided the accompanying scenes with a great sense of loss.

In short(ahem), yes, I think the film's score deserved the Golden Globe it received.