The Big Chill - Deluxe Edition
Writer/director Lawrence Kasdan'sThe Big Chillwas one of Hollywood's  first forays into baby-boomer navel-gazing, an examination of 60's  idealism gone sour during the subsequent selfish excesses of the Me  Decade and Go-Go 80's. It's Motown classics-dominated score became both  a commercial sensation and generational touchstone, facets that often  overlooked its status as one of the most artistically skillful pop song  scores ever set to a film. This deluxe two CD edition won't defuse any  of the often overweening nostalgia that's been its hallmark. Indeed,  this slip-cased, expanded set (which includes the 1983 album's complete  original track listing, as well as that of its 1984 sequel,More Songs  From the Big Chill) often seems to relish in them on the new  classic-rock dominated second disc,Bigger Chill: Music of a  Generation.  The second disc's tracks (which span more Motown, and a  gamut from James Brown to Lesley Gore) are "inspired" by the film and  not in it, but should more than please those enthralled by the original  collection. Also included are previously unavailable instrumental  versions of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want," Bert  Kaempfert's "Strangers in the Night" and the mock TV "J.T. Lancer"  theme, tracks that were the film's only "traditional" scoring touches.--Jerry McCulley