JOHN WILLIAMS

Indy 4 was a lose-lose situation for Williams when it came to film music enthusiasts. It's been 19 years, and expectations were sky high. I don't think there's any way, Williams would have been able to meet the expectations fans had. Same situation as with The Phantom Menace.

I for one like the score very much, and don't quite understand the flak it's taken. I mean - what did people honestly expect?!

GEISHA had praise from everyone, didn't it?

Atmospheric scoring is a more apt word.

You're right when it comes to initial reactions indeed; but it's a score very-little talked about these days, something which begun shortly after it was released. People played it, some talked about it and skipped over - in violent contrast to what floods the forums nowadays. Also in comparison, Memoirs of a Geisha is ages ahead in all aspects of the vast majority of the material that suffuses everyone's ears these days.

The way i see it, Geisha - in its own terms and within its time and era's standards, is correspondingly right up there with those gems you mention.

Memorable themes, to begin with. Although I find the themes for Irina, Mutt, and the Alien plot appropriate, they are nowhere near the spectacular quality he showed in Azcaban´s (or any former Indy movie´s) theme development. I remember being more than thrown aback with The Phantom Menace at first, even if I learned to appreciate it later on. I just didn´t like the themes. Across the Stars, however, was absolutely fantastic, and Geisha was incredible.

So, what I am saying is, he is still totally capable of writing great tunes. He just missed this fantastic oppurtunity to do it again.

I didn't expect too much at all.
I am quite unhappy personally with the direction Williams has taken this decade, and completely expected him to approach the last Indiana Jones as he did the prequel Star Wars trilogy.
And he did.
Which simply means I'll play the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogies a lot more, as that's a style I'm far more comfortable with.

I don't know what the issue is, though?
Surely anyone interested in Williams would have noticed this progression ever since Phantom Menace, and to still expect Williams to do what he did twenty years ago, in the face of the overwhelming evidence of his changed style this decade, seems rather wishful thinking to me.

I like not.

I find most of his current action stuff experimental.

Don´t like it. I skip it forward if I can.

Even his themes are far more complicated than ever.

There are exceptions, of course, which I really adore. The great new Azcaban themes and the Geisha stuff more than anything else.

Yeah, I thought so. :D
That´s why I made myself clearer.

I've listened today to the track "Cadillac Freefall" of Terminal Velocity (Joel McNeely)! I noticed that this track sounds so much 80' Indy like, and blows basically the action music of IJKCS away in terms of the old Williams style. There was a time McNeely was heralded as the next John Williams, perhaps we should reinstate that impression. What a kick ass track and everything I heard in that piece I wanted to have in Indy 4, alas

I can only agree!

Williams has more than one classic score but 'Geisha' isn't one of them.

But Alan, we could put 'classic score X' and it would barely get a few replies compared to the latest Zimmer, Powell, Giacchino!? And, of course. Williams, who has had even more mileage due to Indy recently.

Well, I was talking about the excellent thematic material in Geisha and Azcaban, not the whole score. There are certainly better scores from Williams out there, but regarding to the question if he´s still able to do the good stuff from earlier, I was only referring to the themes.

The above quotation is copyright James E Southall, about three weeks ago.