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Favourite Star Wars musical third act & end credits


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Favourite Star Wars musical third act & End Titles  

51 members have voted

  1. 1. What is your favourite Star Wars musical third act & end credits?

    • I: The Great Duel / Funeral of Qui-Gon / Augie's Great Municipal Band & End Credits
      0
    • II: Love Pledge & The Arena / Confrontation with Count Dooku & Finale
    • III: Battle of the Heroes / Birth of the Twins / Padmé's Funeral / New Hope & End Credits
    • IV: Battle of Yavin / The Throne Room & End Title
    • V: Clash of Lightsabers / Rescue from Cloud City / Rebel Fleet & End Title
    • VI: Battle of Endor / Dark Side Beckons / Darth Vader's Death / Light of the Force / Ewok Celebration
    • VII: Ways of the Force / Scherzo for X-Wings / Farewell and the Trip / Jedi Steps & Finale


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Some of the best music in John's career has been written in service of each Star Wars film's final act. They cover the gamut of triumph, tragedy, life and death.

 

So for all 7 films thus far in the Star Wars saga (and I've no doubt JW will redefine the discussion once again with The Last Jedi), which climax left the largest impression on you? Do you prefer the end credits suites with a patchwork of concert suites or newly-crafted montages?

 

And yes, it's fair game that TPM's third act is a butchered mess and AOTC's was a patchwork of music from TPM.

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I gotta say, as brilliant as TESB's finale is, I voted for ROTS. Just such a powerful series of cues covering the full gamut of emotions.

 

A few points lost for regurgitating Duel of the Fates and The Throne Room, but Padme's Funeral has to be one of the best cues written in the prequel trilogy. So understated, mournful and reflective at the same time. The counterpoint of The Imperial March and Funeral Theme was the work of a genius composer.

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Attack of the Clones is very close for me but Empire tops it quite easily with the Force Theme, Han and Leia's, Yoda's and The Awesome version of The Imperial March. 

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23 minutes ago, LampPost said:

TESB by at least 12 parsecs.

parsecs are a measurement of time, not distance.  (too much coffee this morning)

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Favorite third act music: ROTJ (from Into The Trap through Through The Flames is just utter brilliance, an amazing tour de force)

Favorite final music before the credits cue: Really tough choice between TESB's Finale (one of the best film music cues of all time), and The Jedi Steps, which while drastically newer is just so fucking good!

Favorite end credits medley: Again tough choice between the brilliance of TESB's and the awesomeness of TFA's.  Damn!

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"Confrontation with Dooku and Finale" might be my #1 JW track, but the Arena music makes it harder for me to pick it as the best third act.  Really, I could make a case for all of them except TPM.

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All the Star Wars scores have great music in their third acts, but for me ROTJ is the one that is just unbelievably good the entire third act

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OG ROTJ is okay, SE ROTJ is much better.  Yub Nub is fun and fits the movie, but not very satisfying musically in sequence.

 

If ESB weren't so transcendent, it would be a hard pick between AOTC and TFA for me.

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A very tough question to answer. My gut instinct is to go with ESB, but the competition is stiff indeed.

 

I know TPM and AOTC aren't in the running for me, even though they're both fantastic. I could imagine any of the other five at least temporarily becoming my favorite, though. ROTJ is the most completely satisfying, ESB is the most interesting, ANH brings me the most joy, ROTS brings me the most sadness, and TFA just has a great mix of emotions topped off by a superb credits suite. I guess it depends on what I'm looking for.

 

ESB is probably the one that's hardest for me to criticize, and I guess I'll vote for it here, but Williams has never ended a Star Wars film badly.

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TPM and AOTC are both way too chopped up. They don't flow as well as other SW 3rd acts. TESB is the best 3rd act of SW music but ANH is close. ROTS is good but also a bit messy and just not as impactful. ROTJ is cool with some truly unique bits, but somehow I have always felt like there are missed opportunities in ROTJ's finale, music wise but maybe its the film's fault as well.

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SW only because its two of my top favorite cues. I always found it interesting though that the rest of the third act (from "we did it!" to the X-Wings taking off) is completely without music.

 

ESB is probably the best though. Amazing stuff all the way through. ROTJ comes close, but not quite (neither celebration tune is all that great). TFA might honestly have the best end credits suite if I can take my nostalgia goggles off.

 

TPM is also fairly excellent (minus Augie's which is the worst piece in the entire film) and ROTS is alright (for a Williams film of course). 

 

I'm highly suspect of anyone who voted for AOTC. 

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15 minutes ago, DominicCobb said:

I'm highly suspect of anyone who voted for AOTC. 

 

I'm with you there. The whole arena sequence tracking is an abomination. Confrontation with Count Dooku might be my favourite pre-credits cue in the series, but using the concert version of Across the Stars (without the credits ending JW wrote) for the credit roll was a terrible decision.

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23 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

I'm with you there. The whole arena sequence tracking is an abomination. Confrontation with Count Dooku might be my favourite pre-credits cue in the series, but using the concert version of Across the Stars (without the credits ending JW wrote) for the credit roll was a terrible decision.

 

The arena tracking and the Geonosis battle tracking. 

 

I'm a big fan of the pre-credits cue, but I don't know, I think it may be a little overrated here. I mean, it's great, but it certainly isn't good enough to make AOTC have the best third act of any of the SW scores (I mean seriously?). And I think either way the end credits isn't really on par with the others. Simply put, in my mind its not a true suite (as its just one theme). An amazing theme for sure but I tend to want and expect more from the end credits.

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On 3/6/2017 at 3:09 PM, Tom said:

parsecs are a measurement of time, not distance.  (too much coffee this morning)

 

Argh 😂

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3 hours ago, artguy360 said:

To its credit, the pre-credits cue in AOTC is fantastic, mostly. I love the force theme rendition as Dooku travels to Palpatine and the solo voice that sings during their conversation and the ominous build up during Yoda's monologue leading to a great rendition of the Imperial March which transitions into a full blown, sweeping Across the Stars. That whole musical sequence is beautiful. But iirc there are some inserts or some weird editing along the way that chop it up a bit.

 

Well the Imperial March is an insert and the album track is badly microdited. Can't remember what other edits the film version had.

 

In complete form it's so much more rewarding and haunting. Including that dark, low male choir rendition of the Emperor's Theme would really help that OST.

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My ranking of the action music that makes up the third act of the 7 star wars films

1 ROTJ

2 TESB

3 TPM

4 AOTC

5 SW

6 TFA

7 ROTS

 

My ranking of the "final cue before the end titles" of the 7 star wars films

1 TESB

2 TFA

3 AOTC

4 SW

5 ROTS

6 ROTJ

7 TPM

 

My ranking of the end credits cue of the 7 star wars films

1 TFA

2 TESB

3 SW

4 AOTC

5 ROTJ

6 TPM

7 ROTS

 

 

So, I guess, the final tally (1 point for 7th place -> 7 points for first place) are:

19 TESB

15 TFA

13 AOTC

12 ROTJ

12 SW

9 TPM

4 ROTS


How bout that, TESB wins

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3 minutes ago, Jay said:

So, I guess, the final tally (1 point for 7th place -> 7 points for first place) are:

19 TESB

15 TFA

13 AOTC

12 ROTJ

12 SW

8 TPM

4 ROTS

 

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 3:17 PM, mstrox said:

If ESB weren't so transcendent, it would be a hard pick between AOTC and TFA for me.

 

We're not so different, you and I.

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:up:

 

TESB has great third act action/dramatic music, an AMAZING finale cue, and a GREAT end credits medley

 

AOTC has some really great third act music (Love Pledge and The Arena are both stellar, and the Dooku chase and Dooku battle music is fun too), a PHENOMINAL finale cue, and such a cool breakdown to Across The Stars AND Anakin's Theme AND The Imperial March for its end credits.  I might not love it as much as TESB or TFA's end credits, but I'm impressed by it every time.

 

TFA has a mixed bag of third act music, primarily due to the chopped up nature of it in the film, incomplete nature of it on the OST, and the fact we don't have an expanded release to really get everything Williams was trying to do.  Then the finale cue is one of the best and most haunting film score cues of all time, and the end credits medley is just astonishingly amazing, so impressed that in this modern age he spent the time to arrange all that, and the results speak for themselves.  Best end credits music of the 21st century!

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It has to be Empire, as great as the others all are. It flows seamlessly from cue to cue. 

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50 minutes ago, Red said:

It has to be Empire, as great as the others all are. It flows seamlessly from cue to cue. 

Yes, especially with the transitions to Vader's shuttle on Bespin. Seamless. 

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I just love love love Love Pledge, and The Arena as well.

 

Battle of Yavin and The Throne Room are amazing of course, but I've also heard a bajillion and a half times

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It's great stuff, for sure. But I don't think The Arena really holds a candle to Battle of Yavin when it comes to action music, for example. I've heard those SW cues a bajillion and a half times too but only because they're so fantastic.

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11 hours ago, Jay said:

I just love love love Love Pledge

 

Hmm. :lol:

 

------------

 

Here's a question I have: Do filmmakers actually think in terms of acts? If not, did they used to think in terms of acts?

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1 hour ago, Will said:

 

Hmm. :lol:

 

------------

 

Here's a question I have: Do filmmakers actually think in terms of acts? If not, did they used to think in terms of acts?

 

Yes.

 

And the third act encompasses more than just the climax through to the end.

 

These are of course up for debate but third acts for the films approximately start

in TPM starts when they leave Coruscant.

in AOTC when they leave Tatooine

in ROTS right after Order 66

in SW when they leave the Death Star

in ESB when Luke arrives on Cloud City

in ROTJ when the fleet enters hyperspace

in TFA when they leave Takadonna 

 

So if we're really talking about music for the third act, it's a bit more extensive than what's in the poll.

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5 hours ago, Will said:

Here's a question I have: Do filmmakers actually think in terms of acts?

 

Any good storyteller thinks in terms of acts. It remains the best way to structure a story. Without it, you just end up with a bunch of events happening one after the other without any real sense of direction or build-up.

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4 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

 

Any good storyteller thinks in terms of acts. It remains the best way to structure a story. Without it, you just end up with a bunch of events happening one after the other without any real sense of direction or build-up.

 

You mean, like a Zack Snyder movie?

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