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John Williams: Unpopular Opinions


Bilbo

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7 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

I can't stand his insistence on pushing this sound. It's all over the Rathtars track as well; just meandering, percussive noise.

 

The worst offender is the start of Clash of the Cranes. Irritating, aimless noise.

 

I was going to mention that, but it gets a bit better after the opening. Although not enough for the track to be in my playlist.

 

Never liked the Rathtars either.

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9 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

I can't stand his insistence on pushing this sound. It's all over the Rathtars track as well; just meandering, percussive noise.

 

The worst offender is the start of Clash of the Cranes. Irritating, aimless noise.

 

I've heard of CLASH OF THE CRANES, but what's RATHTARS?

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I like The Rathtars too!

 

I prefer Across the Stars over Han Solo and the Princes Theme!

 

If this thread had been a contest, Manakin Skywalker would have been the winner!

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The Force Awakens is the weakest Star Wars score.

 

Home Alone 2 > Home Alone.

 

Jaws 2 is on the same level as Jaws.

 

The Book Thief is among Williams' best works of the last 20 years.

 

The first Harry Potter score is one of Williams' most uninspired works of his career.

 

The same applies to the first half of Hook.

 

CE3K > any Star Wars score.

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35 minutes ago, Ricard said:

CE3K > any Star Wars score.

 

That I can drink to.

 

10 hours ago, Quintus said:

I never particularly got into Temple of Doom outside of Parade of the Slave Children. It's a score I ignored as an album of music.

 

Funnily enough that's the one cue from Temple that I usually skip. I'm not sure why, but something about it rubs me the wrong way.

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Speaking of The Rathtars, I've spent the past decade+ memorizing every note of JW's Star Wars scores, and The Rathtars is the only cue that I cannot memorize. I can listen to it ten times in a row, and completely forget what I just heard once it's over. There's absolutely zero structure.

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1 hour ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

Speaking of The Rathtars, I've spent the past decade+ memorizing every note of JW's Star Wars scores, and The Rathtars is the only cue that I cannot memorize. I can listen to it ten times in a row, and completely forget what I just heard once it's over. There's absolutely zero structure.

 

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It doesn't help the track's structure that it's an amalgamation of, what, 3 cues (Han Solo Returns/Rathtars/Escape in the Falcon)? Complete with microedits of each cue, unused music and an alternate.

 

Not that the music in complete form is much better; it's jarring in the film.

 

At least we got You're Han Solo from the Lego game.

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4 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

The only one I agree with

 

But it loses the charm the first one had by pumping up the orchestration. I really like than chamber music aspect of HA1.

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20 hours ago, Sharky said:

Funnily enough that's the one cue from Temple that I usually skip. I'm not sure why, but something about it rubs me the wrong way.

 

ToD is my favourite score but I'm not crazy about that track either. To me it sounds like Williams going "Alright, listen up chaps, you hear that field drum? That's right, you're about to watch a very important scene in this film. Are you all sitting comfortably? Good, I present unto you...my Slave Children's Theme!" In other words, it's a tad obnoxious. However, I think the moments in film where the children are wrecking the dining table and escaping the palace are stellar. This section from the credits is just irresistible:

 

 

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Well, the theme itself is hinted at a few times beforehand in the film, sometimes in a warped state (for example when Indy first discovers the mine after taking the Sankara Stones). In the track itself, it also comes in right after the introduction. That's the instance I find slightly obnoxious. Besides, all the other open fifths are pretty boring, and some of the shrieking violins are very irritating.

 

My point is, the short grand statements of the theme when we see the children running work well in film, but the end credits version I linked to is the one that really satisfies me musically because of its definite ending. But that doesn't appear in the Slave Children's Crusade track.

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Absolutely, it's one of my favourite themes of his, it's just the first short portion of the track that irks me slightly, and the other plodding bits I mentioned. The rest of the score...11/10.

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I don't know if I have any opinions of John Williams that are unpopular, as all opinions of his music get shared on this forum eventually.

 

I guess I am one of the few that considers HPCOS to be a really great score and not just a rehash of HP1, though.

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2 hours ago, Loert said:

To me it sounds like Williams going "Alright, listen up chaps, you hear that field drum? That's right, you're about to watch a very important scene in this film. Are you all sitting comfortably? Good, I present unto you...my Slave Children's Theme!"

 

Exactly! And that's one of the cue's virtues IMHO.

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

I guess I am one of the few that considers HPCOS to be a really great score and not just a rehash of HP1, though.

I like HP2 more than HP1. If HP1 gets 10 points, HP2 gets the points of HP1 and 5 extra points.

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The beginning of Slave Children's Crusade might be one of my all time favorite Spielberg/Williams combinations of visuals and music.

 

I also like the Rathtars.

 

I didn't think these were necessarily unpopular opinions but I guess they are here?

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Yes, it is very rare to have two positive opinions about John in a row here in this forum.

 

My unpopular opinion is that this decade is one of john's strongest, maybe the strongest. Quality time.

 

And The Book Thief is his second best score after CE3K.

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12 hours ago, Loert said:

 

ToD is my favourite score but I'm not crazy about that track either. To me it sounds like Williams going "Alright, listen up chaps, you hear that field drum? That's right, you're about to watch a very important scene in this film. Are you all sitting comfortably? Good, I present unto you...my Slave Children's Theme!" In other words, it's a tad obnoxious

 

You don't like his trademark set pieces? First JW fan I've ever known who doesn't like them. Seems incompatible actually.

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45 minutes ago, Quintus said:

 

You don't like his trademark set pieces? First JW fan I've ever known who doesn't like them. Seems incompatible actually.

 

Uhm...what? When did I ever say that?

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2 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

The lack of farts/fart interaction in The BFG represents one of the greatest missed opportunities in recent film score history.  

 

I was honestly pretty disappointed all the farts were unscored.

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