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The ending is deeply disturbing to me, though I accept that endings like this will yield different reactions depending on the viewer. David was designed to unconditionally love a mother. He was created to fulfill Monica's needs as a mother while her biological son could not. At the end, once all that remains are the descendants of humanity's artificial creations, a fake Monica is created to fulfill David's need to be someone's child. An idealised version of the real Monica is created to unconditionally love David. We see David make her coffee, watch them play hide and seek, see David tuck Monica into bed. All these events are repeated from Act I except the roles are reversed. Now it is David whose needs are being fulfilled, the artificial being now playing the role of a human once all humanity is gone. This is Spielberg & Kubrick's bleakest, most challenging ending because it shows how self-delusion can result in wish fulfillment. The cloned Monica is nothing like the one from David's past but he cares not. He believes the fantasy; he's reunited with his "mother", he believes his wish has come true. Yet the fairy-tale ending is as artificial as David himself.

It was only a matter of time... The Adventures of Han: https://www.halleonard.com/product/4492354/the-adventures-of-han?subsiteid=1 Han Solo and the Princess: https://www.halleonard.com/product/4492295/han-solo-and-the-princess?subsiteid=1

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It's no Botanicus Theme, that's for sure.

Thanks Maurizio @TownerFan for all the content from The Legacy of John Williams Website plus the 2 part audio interviews with Mike Matessino. Mike is great and Tim Burden always great insights from him. Hope more content is coming to the website soon keep up the super amazing work Maurizio !!!

Oh angel baby of course I am not John Williams. If I were I would be far too antediluvian to be able to use this...what did you call this...internet to communicate with all these wonderful people who think my... I mean his... music is even nominally worthy of being listened to.

The truth is...I am actually @John.

How insulting

I have a friend who made the argument, after watching this movie a few years ago, that The Dark Knight is just as dated as the 1989 film. But rather than the trappings, such as Prince, he argued that The Dark Knight, with its particular flavor of nihilism, anarchy, and chaos, is dated on a deeper, thematic level (my friend had always been a part of the punk counterculture scene, the apex of his involvement being around the time this movie came out). I can agree with him. It's not a bad movie, and I respect some of what it sets out to do: for example, the scene where everyone freaks out as the Joker burns all that cash. Stuff like that asks the question: is the Joker nuts, or are we "normal" citizens the crazy ones for allowing so much of our lives and our society to be dictated by these constructs? But god_damn_, do these characters never shut up about the themes and what the movie's about. I seem to remember the scene where the Joker is monologuing to Harvey Dent, immobilized in the hospital, about how all of his actions contributed to his desire for chaos and how they prove his point. The dude--the screenwriters by proxy?--just feels like they're so witty, it's like, "Dude, shut up!" There's a similar scene in Batman Begins when Bruce and Alfred are on an airplane and they're talking about how they need to create a symbol of fear or something like that...it's so explicit, it makes me laugh when I think about it. For all of its supposed campiness and cartooniness, Batman Returns handles its themes in a much more effective, and cinematically engaging--and yes, subtle--way. I never read the comics, but wasn't Batman's ninja training established for many decades?

The only problem I have with that scene is the Bugs Bunny stammering with the line "but I didn't. I, I, I didn't". That reading in particular felt a bit stagey in a 40's melodrama sort of way. Otherwise, the movie is perfect.

I wonder how many people in this thread see this as a servicable score but give it 1 or zero stars because it's 'cool' around here to completely trash the score. I'm no fan of the committee method of composing this (many composers would've come up with something better solo) but it's got a memorable main theme and some rather fun parts.

Thank you Thor! No, but that is certainly a great idea for a future podcasr/talk. Here we discussed mostly the new Superman release, the methodology of Mike's working process and the historical importance of this score in JW's overall oeuvre. I think there is a lot of information you might find interesting nonetheless. I know it's quite a long listen, but we kept a very informal tone all throughout, so I hope it's pleasant.

I honestly prefer the Masters of the Universe theme to Star Wars and Superman.

I like this piece of music a lot

This score is only temporary. It all has very dramatic music, of course. Boom, boom, boom. A march or something. It hasn't been written yet. And then, the tour moves on.

Thank you, Johnny. As someone said, "the sky's the limit!" I surely hope to get to Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma one day, even though they're extremely busy people and not easy to access for interviews. But I have others lined up who are as much interesting, I hope. Stay tuned. Thank you for your nice words and support!

March 2019, when this thread was created.

In 1999 I told Ricard that he’d need a better composer to do justice to this message board. He said, “I know, but they’re all dead.”

Hello, Here's a new podcast interview with Tom Hooten talking about his brilliant new recording of JW's Trumpet Concerto: https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2019/03/11/thomas-hooten-interview/ Hope you all enjoy! (ps: sorry for the lack of sound quality in a few spots! I did my best to filter out some noises)

On selfies, Williams always looks like he's utterly fascinated by smartphones. As if he's just about to say, "Does it talk?". Note also though that he's the only one who seems to be looking *into* the camera!

The amount of copies yo Agreed guys that being said however the amount of copies you can sell today for a limited edition expanded releases is different than it was in 1997 and 2000 back then you could sell 15,000 to 20,000 unit copies of a CD Soundtrack Album / Expanded CD Soundtrack Album release. Places like Varèse Sarabande , Intrada Records and La La Land Records now can only sell up to 5,000 unite copies of a Expanded CD Soundtrack Album release. Times had indeed change for selling a CD Soundtrack Album / Expanded CD Soundtrack Album release as MM said in recent podcast interviews.

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Bass is more manly, masculine and macho. It conveys the overwhelming manliness of men, their willingness to thump their car subwoofers to impress females and impregnate them.

Michael Daugherty: "The wonderful music of John Williams is old school: you hear counterpoint, counter melodies, great orchestrations, changes of tempo and rubatos. I must say, I miss the old days of film music; the scores of Alfred Newman, Max Steiner and Bernard Herrmann for example. That way of composing virtuosic film music may come back someday, but at the moment we are in a very technologically driven world of film music, that, in my personal opinion, has inhibited the creative possibilities."

Sexism!

Also part of my audio set up, because i use it to control my media center. My trusty old Samsung LCD, still as solid as a rock since 2007. I use MusicBee on Windows 10 in tabletmode to play my music, after a lot of tweaks to the interface. Its a work in progress.

Thank you for your great work, Maurizio, as always. As you know, I'm not that interested in expansions, remastering, contracts and all the 'nuts and bolts' of releasing soundtracks; so I wonder: Before I start listening, do you at any point during the interview talk about completely unreleased JW scores in any way, and the possible work that has gone into unearthing them?

They even say that there will be more expansions.

The scene would have been more powerful and emotional if it wasn't so melodramatic. Seeing the real survivors during the film's coda is the true emotional payoff for me. Queen: In Search For Freddy (2020)

Mehsogyny! People who ardently defend these sorts of movies as if they're grand masterpieces in response to even the most benign constructive criticism seem to be getting worse. It was apparent there was a polarised divide between viewers of TLJ, but now if a film like that or Captain Marvel "gave me da feelz", any criticism of its stucture or its final result is to be met with scorn and anger. The online factions fighting over something as banal as pop culture seem to be more militant than they ever were before. What the hell happened? Given that much of the criticism toward CM is that the protagonist isn't all that well developed, her origin isn't all that compelling and her wider role in the series seems like a retcon, I don't know, do the militant feminist defenders demand different forms of storytelling that us blokes have been used to for decades? Do they just want expressions of empowerment for empowerment's sake at the expense of character development? And if you dare reference slasher movie "final girls" or revered female icons like Ellen Ripley or Sarah Connor, the Twitter feminists reckon that a female character shouldn't need to be made to suffer like they did on-screen to achieve their icon status. Fucked if I know. These people all seem to have an answer for everything.

Great comments so far guys and good insights from everyone commenting so far !!!

With music by John Williams?

"Raider's March" may be overplayed, of course, and have a sense of over-saturation. Like "O Fortuna", "Stars and Stripes Forever" and so on. An evergreen. But damn, that doesn't take anything away from its sheer brilliance.

The 'I could have done more' scene feels false and betrays all that came before.

The idea is that an infantile robot that didn't understand human culture or emotions and was disturbingly obsessed with changing itself and gaining a woman's affection was the closest link to humanity. It's realistic and relatable.

Things are always evolving. There was a time when Paramount was completely closed off, but LLL managed to pry their vaults open (with Airplane! leading the charge). Universal similarly was less than accommodating (although a bit more accessible than Paramount - however only to certain labels) but has done a full 180 in recent times, actively driving to have their stuff properly archived, catalogued and released. Now we have Sony Music shutting third parties out so that certain titles may now never be made available (unless something changes). Disney's purchase of Fox could likely have significant ramifications for that studio's properties (still to be determined / clarified). Stalwarts of the industry like Robert Townson have moved on, others like Nick Redman have sadly passed on. Fortunately others continue the fight, too numerous to mention but including Mike Matessino, MV Gerard, Matt Verboys, Doug Fake, Roger Fiegelson, Bruce Kimmel, James Fitzpatrick and many more. Physical media versus digital continues to invite heated debate, with certain formats declining (and closure of pressing plants putting pressure on lead times) while others curiously re-emerge from obscurity. Titles that likely would have sold out in mere hours / days ten years ago can still be found a year or more after release nowadays. Pressing quantities have declined accordingly. Labels that may have previously released four titles a month have cut back to two or less. Re-issues of previously expanded titles are more commonplace (with sometimes incremental improvements if any). Shipping costs continue to rise and limit available funds for non-US resident purchasers. Interesting times for a soundtrack collector indeed.

It is great

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/23907-the-themes-of-howard-shores-the-hobbit/ House of Durin, The Company's Main Theme, Bilbo's Theme, and the Tauriel/Kili love theme are pretty good

I like them all

Parade of the Ewoks is great!

Unfortunately this cover is not on the site.

I was going to try on my lunch break but can’t get the site to load on my phone.

Love the site and use it often. I’ll check for you later today.

Just listened to part 2. I love your website, Maurizio. I have been really busy, so I have not had time to send you my own contribution (a synopsis and reflection of my college thesis), but I will get to it when I can. My copy arrives today, so I will be transferring it to my iTunes Maestro John Williams library and I will then play the CDs on my Dolby 5.1 speakers as soon as I can. I have to leave for Miami later in the afternoon to attend A Celebration of John Williams gala concert, where I will finally be seeing the Maestro conduct live and in person. Again, great job, Maurizio. Wouldn't it be great to get interviews with people like Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, and other people who have worked directly with the Maestro? You've already interviewed Gloria Cheng and Gil Shaham, which is a feat in and of itself. Wishful thinking here, but wouldn't it be great to get a brief interview with Steven Spielberg or even the Maestro himself?!? Phenomenal work and website. AMEN!

1. Blade Runner ... 6. A Clockwork Orange ... 27. Star Wars Ep.V: The Empire Strikes Back

You've missed out. It's a gorgeous score.

I would buy a Quartet Angela's Ashes produced by MM!

They barely break even on most releases, let alone make substantial profits. I highly doubt Sony gives two shits about the film score market.

Well, it DID make me shiver, but as far as I'm concerned, it didn't resurrect anything (unlike Korngold spinned too much in his grave). Marian - who would like to hear Silvestri's score.