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Williams' worst cue


EdwardHall

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We all have our "off" days. I nominate "Training Montage" from SpaceCamp. Oh, and "Departmental Pride and the Cat" from "The Towering Inferno" is the most unintentionally funny name for a cue.

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"We don't wanna grow up", followed by both versions of the finale from ROTJ (the Ewok stuff - "Yub Nub" or however it is called - and the Victory Celebration)...

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Oh, there are many. But in the end, it would be a few tracks from JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME. At some point, the happy-go-lucky Arab jazz music becomes grating.

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HEARTBEEPS is campy, both film and score, but great fun nonetheless! It would not be on my 'worst' list.

While the cue itself is great, I also don't think the sugary Americana over Anthonly Hopkins' court speech in AMISTAD is particularly good. It hammers in the point too much.

So there are at least two ways to see this -- one the musical cue itself (independent of the film), and second how a cue works in a movie.

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This thread won't be an intentional bait for controversy at all. But still, since we're on the subject....

Theme from The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.

Still, fair fair, I don't think it's absolutely dreadful, it has some merits here and there. But it's a weak theme, and I don't like the orchestration.

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I love Banning Back Home! He surely showed folks like Dave Grusin how it should be done. Why can't Williams write a whole CD like that?!

"Banning Back Home" (either version) is the best thing Dave Grusin never wrote!

No love for "Rosewood", or "1960s TTY"? I used to like you.

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The one from Tintin that sounds like it was temp tracked with Zimmer.

I like that cue quite a bit. It's like Pirates of the Caribbean minus everything bad about Pirates of the Caribbean.

As for me, I'd probably choose Fluffy's Harp. With so many great cues left off of the album, I find it baffling that they decided to keep this in.

The "future techno rock music" in The Moon Rising is also horrendous.

His worst scored cue for me is the music for John Quincy Adams' introduction in Amistad. It's so overbearing that even I have a problem with it.

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I love Banning Back Home! He surely showed folks like Dave Grusin how it should be done. Why can't Williams write a whole CD like that?!

It's far too cheesy for me, a slice of twee suburban Americana which just turns me off. I much prefer Grusin in that mode.

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Yeah, I think Williams had all but lost interest in George Lucas' weak prequels by the time he got to the climax of the final movie. The melody is lame and the choral design completely pedestrian.

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I'm probably the only one here who prefers Battle of the Heroes to both Duel of the Fates and Across the Stars. Yes the melody is simple, but that's its strength - it's like plainsong or organum with 20th century harmonies. Love the John Adamsish flourishes as well.

 

I will say though, I prefer the variations in The Boys Continue.

 

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I'm probably the one here who prefers Battle of the Heroes to both Duel of the Fates and Across the Stars. Yes the melody is simple, but that's its strength - it's like plainsong or organum with atop 20th century harmonies. Love the John Adamsish flourishes as well.

I can get into it if I'm in the right mood.

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In a way, Duel of the Fates kind of reminds me of Hedwig's Theme (with the main motif in the brass near the beginning), only without the low strings and orchestration that otherwise separates the two.

Speaking of which, any opinions on Hedwig's Theme?

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In a way, Duel of the Fates kind of reminds me of Hedwig's Theme (with the main motif in the brass near the beginning), only without the low strings and orchestration that otherwise separates the two.

Speaking of which, any opinions on Hedwig's Theme?

I can see what you're getting at, but Grievous's Theme from ROTS reminds me much more of Hedwig's.

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In a way, Duel of the Fates kind of reminds me of Hedwig's Theme (with the main motif in the brass near the beginning), only without the low strings and orchestration that otherwise separates the two.

Speaking of which, any opinions on Hedwig's Theme?

I can see what you're getting at, but Grievous's Theme from ROTS reminds me much more of Hedwig's.

In what ways? Next to Hedwig's Theme, Grievous' Theme has far more brass, pitched percussion, extended techniques in the strings, and...

and a driving tempo, and...

and...

Um...

...

...

...

...

...

You were telling a joke, weren't you? :mellow:

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In a way, Duel of the Fates kind of reminds me of Hedwig's Theme (with the main motif in the brass near the beginning), only without the low strings and orchestration that otherwise separates the two.

 

Speaking of which, any opinions on Hedwig's Theme?

 

I can see what you're getting at, but Grievous's Theme from ROTS reminds me much more of Hedwig's.

 

In what ways? Next to Hedwig's Theme, Grievous' Theme has far more brass, pitched percussion, extended techniques in the strings, and...

 

 

I wasn't thinking of the orchestration...

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Whoops. I was listening to this...

You said "theme," so I went with it.

Anyway, the similarities are, at best, superfluous. The melody appears in the brass, sure, but it deviates with heavy string runs, snare drum in the percussion, and the choir.

Overall, the orchestration is what differentiates it from Hedwig's Theme, but I can see how you drew the comparison.

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