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A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - 2015 3CD set from La-La Land Records


Jay

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5 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

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.

 

Like any film it's a Rorschach test for the viewer and we take away what is most applicable to us.  Everything you say is true, but I don't see any of it as the main point of the film or what Spielberg/Kubrick wanted to ultimately convey.  That's the difference between it being a rather hollow commentary on something purely speculative, and a deeply moving statement on real things.

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9 minutes ago, Knox Harrington said:

 

Like any film it's a Rorschach test for the viewer and we take away what is most applicable to us.  Everything you say is true, but I don't see any of it as the main point of the film or what Spielberg/Kubrick wanted to ultimately convey.  That's the difference between it being a rather hollow commentary on something purely speculative, and a deeply moving statement on real things.

 

I take it your vision is more in line with John Williams' reading?

 

 

I have only purchased three albums from specialty labels, and this score is one of them.

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Well I can't say I know what anyone involved truly intended, but I do see Williams' music as reaching beyond the bleak surface to the real heart of matters, rather than it being a synthetic facade.  The music and film both have such masterful handling of light and shade that I can't look at either as plainly happy or disturbing.  It seems to be about happy things in a disturbing context, but given the family men behind the film I err on the side of the emotional thrust being more important than the seeming scifi twistedness of things. 

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3 minutes ago, Knox Harrington said:

Well I can't say I know what anyone involved truly intended, but I do see Williams' music as reaching beyond the bleak surface to the real heart of matters, rather than it being a synthetic facade.

 

 

The most explicit statement on the ending from the behind the scenes that I know of. A good watch if you're unfamiliar.  :)

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Officially gone...

 

Quote
Quote

Is it gone forever or "TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK" though knowing LALALand started this thread.


Its SOLD OUT. Our webmaster entered the wrong info in the box. It will be changed shortly

MV

 

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It took just 3 days to clear out the last 100 sets of this release. These calls to action are no joke, at least when it comes to our little niche market.

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On 3/13/2019 at 7:44 AM, Jay said:

Yea when I saw it as a 20 year old kid in theaters in the summer of 2000 I don't think I really understood everything going on

 

That's understandable. The movie wasn't even finished in the summer of 2000 

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On 3/15/2019 at 7:25 AM, Chewy said:

It is still available on MusicBox ;)

 

Whew.

 

This was on top of my to-get-list. Glad I was able to order one from them this morning!

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On 3/13/2019 at 3:44 PM, Jay said:

Yea when I saw it as a 20 year old kid in theaters in the summer of 2001 I don't think I really understood everything going on

 

In the summer of 2001, I believe you were closer to 22.

 

;)

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3 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

Is "Abandoned in the Woods (album version)" and "Abandoned in the Woods (film version)" partly the same recording or is the former a concert arrangement of the latter?

 

The album version is an arrangement, though technically not for concerts; as it was pointed out earlier, the album version was originally meant to accompany the second half of the end credits

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On 3/16/2019 at 7:33 PM, Corellian2019 said:

The album version is an arrangement, though technically not for concerts; as it was pointed out earlier, the album version was originally meant to accompany the second half of the end credits

 

Sounds right to me.

 

Disc 1-16 Abandoned in the Woods (Extended Version) is the cue as it appears in the film, with unused music at the end that accompanied a deleted scene

 

Disc 3-5 Abandoned in the Woods (Alternate) is a revised or early version of the film cue, which accompanied a different edit of the abandonment scene (note that this version contains no music for the deleted scene at the end, so it's likely this was a revision). The film didn't use this alternate, instead opting for a trimmed down version of D1-T16.

 

Disc 3-13 Abandoned in the Woods is the concert version of the cue, originally intended for the latter half of the credits, and is completely separate to either the film cue or alternate.

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10 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Disc 3-13 Abandoned in the Woods is the concert version of the cue, originally intended for the latter half of the credits, and is completely separate to either the film cue or alternate.

I wonder why it wasn't included in the main program, where it was supposed to be in the movie (right after "Where Dreams Are Born").

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18 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

I wonder why it wasn't included in the main program, where it was supposed to be in the movie (right after "Where Dreams Are Born").

 

Listening experience I guess. Ending disc 2 with A.I. Theme (vocal version) creates a nice symmetry with disc 1 closing with A.I. theme (instrumental version). Considering almost the entirety of disc 2 is long stretches of atonality followed by multiple tracks of lyrical warmth, it would've been quite jarring to return to the dark and unsettling undertones of AITW (it perplexed me as a choice for the end credits as well, and was wisely replaced IMO).

 

Also, having a third disc definitely informed Mike's assembly choices on the set. If Williams' camp had mandated two discs only for the score then it probably would've ended up in its intended place at the end of disc 2.

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So, just got my order which was supposed to include A.I., and it’s not in there! Has this happened to anyone else here before? Do they set aside any extra or am I just going to get a refund?

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2 hours ago, BrotherSound said:

So, just got my order which was supposed to include A.I., and it’s not in there! Has this happened to anyone else here before? Do they set aside any extra or am I just going to get a refund?

Make sure to use the contact link at the bottom of the LLL main page — NOT the contact link in the order status page. They won’t see it if you use the latter link. I learned this the hard way with my HP Black Friday order.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 5 months later...
On 3/15/2019 at 11:34 AM, ATXHusker said:

No doubt some were purchased strictly for reselling once the price has gone up on the secondary market.

79 USD on Amazon. Still hasn't arrived.

 

I can't wait for the set. To my ears, the score to AI is a separate entity. It's like the Teddy in the film. It patches it self up when it's "hurt" and it's always there for the visuals. It tells the audience worldly things but also gives them the support they need. 

 

A JW score that gives humanity a glimpse of its soul. 2000/10

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So I missed out on buying this.

 

It's still up on LLL, but 'Out of Print' instead of the usual 'Temporarily Out of Stock'

 

How does LLL's site work when they still show the album on their site.

 

@Jay

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  • 7 months later...

Screen Archives is selling an un-sealed, UPC-punched copy for 60 bucks

 

https://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/33333/

 

Lowest price on Amazon US is $150

 

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B010IQZMG2

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No, the UPCs get punched for copies sent to reviewers or anyone else getting a free copy.  Someone who had one likely sold it to Screen Archives for like $20 and they are turning around and selling it for $60

 

The UPC punched copies are extras, not part of the 3,500 they licensed for commercial sale

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4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Oh, gotcha.

 

I have a slightly damaged copy that I'm planning to sell - I wonder how much I'll get for it.

How damaged? For how much? I might take it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
On 1/4/2021 at 1:29 PM, Brundlefly said:

Is it just me or are some of the alternates weirdly mastered and edited? Is it a pre-edited source that has been used for this release, just as Harry Potter 3?

 

I didn't notice any mastering anomalies, but generally don't look for stuff like that personally.

 

MM was given Shawn Murphy's digital files from 2001 of every take of every cue, and rebuilt all performance edits and built all 3 program from that (minus the two versions of For Always which came from the album master). So everything should sound exactly the same regardless of which program its in.

 

For JW scores, I think only HP2, HP3 and WOTW were ones where he got already performance-edited digital files that were of high enough quality to use (IE, he got those for HP1 but rebuilt everything from a new transfer of the analog tape because the digital was only 44.1khz)

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Definitely analog

 

EDIT: Oh, I see what you mean

 

I think Star Wars, CE3K, Superman, and maybe one other (?) were the scores that Tomlinson cut the performance edits directly into the 1st gen tape masters

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

I didn't notice any mastering anomalies, but generally don't look for stuff like that personally.

I think, in most of the cases it was me spending extra attention to the noticable level of hiss for the very first time which, however, is also audible on the other tracks from the main program. Sorry for the confusion.

 

I've just two questions left:

1) Is The Reunion alternate just an edited-down version of the original recording?

2) Is the Abandoned in the Woods alternate really the first version that got recorded? I'm asking because it sounds exactly like the version in the main program, just with a different intro and insert being clumsily edited into it. That is the track that really made me wonder what the sources of this release were.

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4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Weren't the master tapes already edited?

 

Aye, see my edited post

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