JOHN WILLIAMS

Ralph. I'm impressed. Thank you very much for that detailed account of your listening session. And I can totally see where you are coming from and what you like and don't like. I'm still shocked though that "The Chase" cue didn't do it for you... but after reading your comments on "The Arena" it's all starting to make sense. However, I still think that "The Chase" is just as coherent and memorable as "The Arena" and some of Williams' previous Star Wars work... but just in that new millennium John Williams style which unfortunately has turned you off and so many other Williams fans. But you know.. you say that the cue is too chaotic. Well, I would have it no other way due to the scene it was composed for. Just love how Williams throws the main motif around to the percussion and then to the orchestra and then back to the percussion, etc, etc. Oh how I would love to hear this piece in its entirely for the scene that it was composed for. No editing, no looping, nothing... I want to see the cut Williams got when he composed this piece with the music in it. I'm sure it would absolutely blow our minds. Damn you George Lucas and Ben Burtt!!!

-Erik-

Well, it is a bad score. LOL. There are only hand full of cues that I like... but the awful middle sections of the score are filled with just terriblel, light, fluffy, romantic music that makes me want to puke. But then again, Williams was given such a bad film to work on.

Anyway, I understand where you are coming from. You don't like... can't win them all. At least you can appreciate it for what it is.

-Erik-

I like the cues Erik mentioned well enough, I just don't seem to listen to the prequels very often. I think it'd be content with a "Best of Prequels" disc, because many of those tracks I can do without, especialyl in AotC. RotS is a pretty good listen if I'm remembering correctly, but it's been a while.


Regardless, If I ever have an inkling to listen to Star Wars music, I tend to listen to the original trilogy, and from that, I tend to listen to the Empire Strikes Back. Or the various concert suites. THe prequels just don't get a lot of play. Maybe they should. That chase cue is awesome.

If you like a more concert hall sound. IMHO, I still prefer the original release which was a re-recording conducted by John Williams. A perfect album!

http://www.amazon.com/Jaws-Original-Mot … amp;sr=1-2

-Erik-

Agreed, Erik.

I was brought up with this MCA re-recording of Jaws and it was so different and - ultimately - a disappointing listen as I had become so use to the re-recording. Now though both have their merits and I sometimes listen to one over the other and vis versa.

New from Prometheus: Images

http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=8306

Only noticed this post of Erik's today. Actually I agree with his points on all but one of these pieces, but thought I'd get my opinion in anyway!



Is this the cue that starts up halfway through the asteroid field scene, or the one that plays as Jango Fett escapes the water planet? I don't think the film needed an action cue in the latter scene if that's the one you mean.



I'm kind of partial to this one. I see what you mean about it standing out from the rest of the score - and I think the opening chase scene music is a pretty good template for what this film could have been. However I must protest in Williams' favour - the scene stands out from the rest of this pretty disjointed film like a sore thumb. It has more of those silly Spielberg jokes per 10 seconds than any other part of the film, and is basically an excuse (an incredibly well-blocked and edited one) to get people excited for five minutes. Musically, 'Anderton's Great Escape' was an excellent response to the tone of one scene in an otherwise inconsistent film* - had he approached it in the more modernistic style of the other action scenes, people probably wouldn't have laughed when Spielberg wanted them too. That is, if they did laugh!

Mind you, I can't argue with what you say about him doing the same cue a few years before in THE LOST WORLD. Perhaps think of it this way - if 'Anderton's Great Escape' hadn't so popular, it wouldn't have ended up in the temp track of ARSENE LUPIN, and become one of Debbie Wiseman's better action cues.

* Whenever I listen to the score or watch the film, I find the soft string music at the end such a cop-out - Spielberg trying his best to close things off in a pat fashion, but it just isn't convincing. Ann Lively's haunting vocals should have been the last thing heard in the score.



Do you mean the electronic bit?
Looking back on the score, I see what you mean though. I like the album arrangement of the cue, but had the piece been more in his terrifying WAR OF THE WORLDS mode, it probably would have made the scene more impressive. (It's hard to be scared of motorbikers in hyper-colour suits tearing robots apart without the most intimidating music.)



That's funny, because that was the one bit of scoring in THE PATRIOT that I really felt worked. Most other people would have scored it in slow motion (say like Horner's car chase music from A BEAUTIFUL MIND), but Williams wrote one of the best fast-paced string-based action cues he's done in years.

My mummy did make such delicious ratatouille...

No they don't have the liner's and the 7th disc is corellian edition, I believe the 8th is a cd rom with images.

Wow!

And no discussion?

That last comment probably measn it's another write-off for me?
I'm really not in the mood for another experiment...

Yep. Just listened to the sound clips.
NOT for me.

<sighs deeply and puts on Jane Eyre>

Oh....

After listen empire strikes back a lot, and Return of the jedi....It's true what a lot of people said.

Return is less focused and more irregular than Empire.

Sorry , Martijn

Rejected Star Wars Opening

I agree with you but then I do have a taste for that style of music.

I completely understand why it turns people off too.