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That is a great point. The sequel trilogy offered much less opportunities for pure, unobstructed musical expression. This is particularly evident in the movies directed by JJ Abrams, where only the Jedi Steps sequence stands out as as scene shot and edited with the purpose of the music doing most of the heavy lifting. I would say The Last Jedi is a much more musical friendly movie than the other two, though. In particular, a scene like the Spark is obviously designed, in an almost Spielbergian way, for the music to give it the bulk of dramatic grandeur, to the point where the scene would feel half finished without it. Lesson One, The Supremacy, The Last Jedi and Holdo's Sacrifice are other examples of this. It's also curious that among the greatest strengths of the music in The Sequel Trilogy are the character themes , and not so much the set pieces, whereas in the Prequel trilogy you have the exact opposite.

For anyone curious, here’s a scan of Doug’s dupe tape from the sessions which gave us the two new cues... and also confirms what we already knew from the written sketches in the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library: that “The Castle” was written and intended as the Main Title (and first cue), despite it appearing (in truncated form) in the final cut of the film after “The Ceremony” (in truncated form) and an edit of Jerry’s End Credits cue being used as the main title music instead...

To me quotas are a no-no. Somebody's best score might not be worth another composer's 50th and that's just life.

I guess it's a list of personal preferences, not a list of the greatest film composers.

Honest question -- doesn't that defeat the purpose of making a list of your top 100 scores? Seems more like you're trying to make quotas. I mean, if I had to list my top 5 favourite film scores and I couldn't split E.T. and Raiders, I wouldn't just choose one and omit the other purely to avoid multiple Williams scores.

Inception gets all the points over Tenet by virtue of actually feeling cinematic. Like it or not, it understood how to communicate memorable images and set-pieces within the heist genre it operates in, and it does it well. Tenet gets so lost up the ass of its own puzzle that it forgets to be a movie.

Yeah, if I had to list my top 100 favourite film scores, it would mostly be populated with contemporary composer's scores because I haven't had a chance to explore the Golden Hollywood scores yet.

On a Qatsi listening streaks this week… now onto Powaqqatsi. Probably my favourite of the three of Glass’ scores from an enjoyment perspective. The fusion of minimalism and world music is absolutely terrific here. The well known (three part) Anthem will be familiar from the Truman Show but the rest of the score is well worth exploring.

I thought I was the only person who had this opinion! Totally agree, both TPM and TFA are pretty great, but the other two don't seem to muster up quite the same level of enthusiasm, especially in the sequel trilogy. AOTC and ROTS are pretty decent, especially ROTS, but they don't match the variety and enthusiasm of TPM. Although for me, TLJ and ROS feel more like going through the motions. Professionally done of course, but it doesn't sound like a composer excited by the material (yes, I know age plays a part, but I think better material would have interested him more). I really missed the fanfares and travelling music in the sequel scores, they just aren't edited with those kinds of transitions in mind most of the time. You really miss those imperious music and images sections from the original movies and the prequels. George Lucas may have been an uneven director, but he did at least space for music, from the arrival of Vader at the start of Jedi (or the Emperor later on) to the various fanfares from the prequels detailed above, I really miss the lack of such moments in the sequels. It's all just a bit too efficiently edited.

A moment I don't see shared very often is the beautiful choir-less version of Anakin's Betrayal that plays on Mustafar. JW brings all the melodrama that the actors didn't. It's truly tragic music. https://youtu.be/lTxjxcoFepY

A concert of film music by the Cincinnati Pops is premiering right now on Youtube. According to the description it will be up on YouTube for only 24 hours after it premieres. I’m not sure of the full program but in terms of Williams, I see from the description that Schindler and Lincoln will be performed.

I know that some don't enjoy this small Williams score that much but I have to say that each time I played it back I get more into it. The piano melodies are truly wonderful and it real blessing to have that score before the less intimist SW sequels.

Yeah, but they're all dead.

Very illuminating, and accurate, observation. It actually reflects the difference between the Lucas films vs the Disney films. The former was heavily focused on setpieces and VFX spectacle, while the latter pulled back on the spectacle and refocused heavily on the characterization.

Last Black Man in San Francisco - fantastic!

I didn't know that MoTK was considered bad by any metric of measurement. From what I remember it's a solid fighter, but I do agree that it is outside the range of what I think of when I think of what a Star Wars video game is supposed to be. ... And the Holiday Special has Harvey Korman crossdressing as an alient tv host chef and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to dislike about that.

A really nice score from Goldsmith with a terrific main title and some nice scarry cues.

You were in both movies?!

Inception is a much more intimate story. It is not about WWIII. It is not about arms dealer or anonymous protagonists. It is a heist movie about a bunch of people trying to pull off the impossible revolving around the concept of time, love, lost, and family. The final scene with DiCaprio holding the kids and the spinning top has more meaning than the entire Tenet movie. Because it combines summer spectacle with cleverness of a indie film. It is a film that you have no idea what is going to happen next and how it is going to end. And even after it is over, people still debate about the ending. It is an absolutely masterpiece with an original and unique concept that translated to great execution. Tenet on the other end also has a great concept but far less successful with the execution. But then I also think Interstellar is a great film, and most people think that as well based on IMDB ratings, but it is extremely polarizing here. Sort of sideways to this discussion, over the years, I learned that film music fans have this weird obsession with movies that has a lot of spectacle and doesn't take itself seriously (although Tenet takes itself very seriously). Maybe because those movies have orchestral scores that they like. I remember arguing on FSM forum on who should be directing Dune and a bunch of people think Roland Emmerich is the right guy. Like seriously, that guy has one good film: Independence Day, and that aged terribly. Emmerich is a bush league director. And yet, I live in a world where Inception is a bad film, and Villeneuve is too self-indulgent, and Emmerich is some great director. I bet a bunch of people here also think Batman & Robin is a much better film than The Dark Knight because it is more fun. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and there is nothing wrong with having a difference of opinion. But I noticed that a lot of times, campy spectacle movies get defended a lot with film music fans. Just a side note.

I can't believe I have to wait until the middle of June for mine! I ordered Looney Tunes and Along Came A Spider at the same time, so I gotta wait for all 3 Surely 7 more Goldsmiths will be announced by then!

The merits and flaws of the prequels have been debated endlessly, but if there's one thing they had going for them was opportunities for musical expression. The Phantom Menace is particularly noteworthy in that sense, with its great variety of locales and set pieces, regardless of how well they actually work dramatically. Those aspects, combined with a plethora of vast establishing shots, dramatic scene transitions and numerous shots of ships taking off and landing, gave John Williams the chance to write what I think is his greatest collection of fanfares in any single score. I would even go as far as to say The Phantom Menace has the greatest collection of fanfares of any score that I know of, period. Listening to a mostly complete assembly of the score, I was awestruck at the sheer quantity of absolutely terrific and unique fanfares JW wrote for it: This score is an absolute treasure chest

Justice League Star Gal Gadot Confirms Joss Whedon Threatened to Make Her Career Miserable

I mean, sure. Things like some of that happened in the middle east and so on and actually could probably happen everywhere. But then, why not tell an actual story about women's fate under the Taliban or whatever. And I agree with AC1. Where in the world are infertile women ruling over fertile women, making them even lower class just by that criterion? I would as well rather expect that they would be praised like bee queens. And then at one point in the show they said, that it is mostly the man who is infertile and not the women. And latest then, this whole construct stopped making sense to me. And in addition I have seen Elizabeth Moss at least one time too many in the role of the surpressed and punished woman that prevails. Mad Men, Top of the Lake, Handmaid's Tale. Did she ever play another type of role? Then why do I know so much about the show? My wife is a fan. Otherwise, I would have stopped watching latest after the third episode. Serious question: Is there actually any film or TV show that you do like?

2:22 onwards Best string of fanfares ever. Edit @Romão:

It's the only score I listen to these days and it just dawned to me that its Main Theme is extremely close in style and emotion to the opening scene in Bertolucci's The Sheltering Sky, which scene is exemplary of how to use music in films (in that the music is telling a different story than the images). Just hear and see for yourself:

It's hard for me believe it too, but for other reasons. If what we see in The Handmaid's Tale ever becomes reality, then the few women that can give life will not be slaves, they will be seen as gods, as the last wonders of the world. They hold the future of humanity in their hands. The show wants us to believe it's the other way around but I'm not buying it. But the real theme of the show is the American political system and can't be discussed here.

Exactly mine would be 80 Williams, 15 Goldmith and some Horner, Morricone and Herrmann's one to complete. Now it's doesn't mean that I'm forgetting about the other great composers just that those score are my favourite regardless of their actual quality or innovation they did bring. I'll go further by saying that I'm quite sure this list doesn't really represent his actual 100 favourites scores but the largest variety possible among his favourites. It's more classy to present a list like that than the entire Williams filmography for exemple, plus it makes one looks more cultivate.

I'm Israeli. Chen is pronounced xən, not tsʰən.

I must admit, I don't like the show at all. This silly way of victimizing privileged white western women is completely unrealistic and in the way the story is told not really logical. But the score caught immediately my attention. It's really good in supporting the story, but nothing I would listen to at home.

Back in 2014, Romão and I flew to New York, where we stayed for a few days. We took a bus to Lenox and stayed at a motel nearby (it was the same place were the Tanglewood fellows were staying and one of the piano fellows even gave us a ride on one of the days). We used https://peterpanbus.com/ that offered reasonable fees for the travel between New York and Lenox, though it was a 3-hours bus ride. Probably faster if we had rented a car. The motel we stayed it was, if memory serves, the Econolodge. I think a two bed room went for about $100 a night.

Found a copy on Amazon for fiddy bucks

Like I said I hadn't heard the 1995 Sony edition in a while, I don't remember any specifics of its sound. But I agree, removing noise (especially with 1995 technology instead of today's) too aggressively is way worse than leaving it alone. Leave in the noise and all the music instead of removing noise and taking music with it! There are tons of albums from 1969 that sound amazing! Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Pink Floyd... Of course those were recorded intending to be heard on album, while The Reivers score was recorded to be mixed into the mono film and then they later made an album of out those recordings. It will never sound amazing, but hopefully it will sound better than either of these CD versions someday. And yea, I probably used the wrong terminology... But whatever is happening when the music gets loud that causes the distortion is a real bummer. It ruined my enjoyment of the wonderful music! I hope then original scoring elements are safe in a vault somewhere!

They literally ranked my #1 as the worst movie.

Well, let's be honest: Morricone was a genuine innovator. Film scores for 'western films' were turned upside down by Ennio and he was way ahead of his time, including his haunting themes with wordless voices. I don't think anyone did that before him for this particular genre, so I totally understand your point.

Copycat A really good thriller with Weaver at the her top (she's again named Helen in that one, different spelling though) so is Holly Hunter. Good plot too, kinda of remind me the one from Silence of the Lambs. Young's score is simply amazing, I really look forward to listen to it again.

Rio Conchos (LLL) Patton (Intrada) Gone With the Wind: Max Steiner's Classic Film Score Snow Falling on Cedars In regards to Patton, I've got to say I really like the original recording. Bought the Intrada album only a couple of months ago. I only had the Varese re-recording in my collection. I do like that disc but the echoplex effects in that wet recording is nowhere near as effective as in the original. Glad I picked it up. What a fabulous score this is. Karol

I still haven't opened mine either. Including the 2CD SACD edition. The problem is my amplifier broke down 6 months ago and I haven't had a chance to play any of my newly bought cds yet. There are 80+ of them. Very soon my new Amp will be here and that's when I'm gonna blast these on for massive premiere party. I ll have trouble which stuff to play first but it's definitely going to be John Williams.

I’m not sure why you expected it to be markedly different from TCW Season 7 which only came out last year If you’re comparing it to the earlier seasons of the show pre-Disney take-over, then it’s pretty clear that the rendering has improved significantly, particularly in terms of lighting and post-processing, you may notice there’s actual depth of field now. The animation is also much more fluid, particularly in the dialogue scenes, with a slight Rebels influence

Today I took the shrinkwrap off my digipak CD edition of "John Williams in Vienna"! Boy, is it nice, classy packaging. I like the front photo with JW, the orchestra, and some audience, with the reflective gold label up top. The back cover is a bit wordy because they wanted to name each cue AND the film it's from, but that's OK. The first inside flap has a cool picture of John Williams at the podium next to ASM, "duelling", with the caption "A Duel WIth Bow And Baton" - this was great! I don't remember it being mentioned before. Then you open that up and get a wonderful 3-panal panoramic shot from the side of the hall, with the audience applauding on the let and the orchestra applauding on the right, and when you remove the CD you see John WIlliams is in the center of the shot, waving to the crowd. Wonderful! The booklet is a nice 24 page affair, with nice clean white-background and nice black lines and topography. It is filled with really good pictures of the concert, various closeups of Williams, him with ASM, him conducting the orchestra, him and the orchestra facing front, etc. All the pictures were well chosen and really help show the atmosphere of the concert very well. The liner notes are by Otto Biba and split into 2 sections - "John Williams in Vienna" and "John Williams and Anne-Sophie Mutter", and each is presented twice, once translated into English and once in the original German. I guess this makes it easier than having to craft a separate German and English release. The first section is the more interesting one, describing the concert a bit including quotes from various reviews. The second is just a short series of accomplishments for JW and ASM. I am listening to the CD now and it sounds wonderful. Excellent performance and recording of that performance. What a legendary night.

Tortan definitely jumps out to me as one of his most accessible pieces in his concert ouevre. That thing is fun. The final movement of the Horn Concerto is also refreshing in terms of featuring an original, tonal, long-lined melody outside of his film work. I was kinda gobsmacked when I heard it, totally deserves an audition into any self-respecting JWFan's memory bank. I agree with Nick that the distinction Williams is making between his "commercial" work isn't snobbery but just a matter of expectation. I don't think we have to fear that John Williams isn't authentically a crowdpleaser at heart. He would not be planning to do another Indiana Jones movie at 90 if he wasn't. You can see it in his face when he conducts Jurassic Park or the Imperial March. He finds this stuff delicious, probably more than a lot of composers. But sometimes if you're a foodie you get sick of ice cream, even from Rome's finest gelaterias. Sometimes even the absolute greatest handmade slice of New York pizza from Brooklyn's legendary Dom DeMarco isn't what you're looking for. And you just want to indulge in some delicacy you've never tried, even if the rest of the world rolls their eyes and spits it out. Even if you do too! But never forget Anthony Bourdain's review of Waffle House, the routinely mocked American restaurant chain beloved by southern rednecks: I like to think John Williams hopes this sentiment could also apply to his Star Wars main title, right down to that warm yellow glow.

Phones and nachos should not be allowed in the cinema

The climax of the movie was one of the most boring and confusing action scene I've ever seen in a major movie. Yeah, the car chase was visually impressive, but at that point I already stopped caring about the plot and the characters.

I'm of the mindset that Thor secretly purchases these expansions when we're all asleep.

Catch of the day!

Here are the selections I'd include in my program: First Part (aprox 50 min.) 1) The Lost World (as someone also chose, would be a powerful opening to the concert and a piece I'd love to listen being played live) 2) Journey To The Island from Jurassic Park (full film version) 3) Becoming A Gheisa 4) Epilogue from The Fury 5) To Scarborough from Dracula 6) Willie's Theme from Temple Of Doom (new concert arrangement - world premiere*) 7) The Firebolt and End Credits from Prisoner of Askaban 8) Theme from Angela Ashes 9) Man Against Beast from Jaws (film version with full statement of the Jaws theme) Second Part (aprox. 40. min) Selections from Star Wars: 1) The Asteroid Field (film version - so people would not miss the Darth Vader's theme on the concert) 2) Anakin's Dark Deeds from Episode 3 3) The Jedi Steps and Finale from Force Awakens 4) Schindler's Work Force 5) Superman Suite (The Planet Krypton introduction+Helicopter Sequence) 6) Theme from The Terminal 7) Adventure on Earth (full film version) Encores: 1) We Wish You A Merry Christmass & End Title from Home Alone (specially if the concert is held in December) 2) The Throne Room and Finale from Star Wars (extended concert version)

Karol

IMAX doesn't make a bad movie good though.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco Sumptuously shot, Talbot's San Francisco odyssey plays like a series of vignettes and stories of individuals and community displaced by the gentrification of the city. The core premise is a good one, based on the lead actor's own story and brought to life by an affecting performance. But as these Sundance favourites tend to do, it meanders a bit. Still, it's a confidently directed drama, following the Barry Jenkins tradition of bringing life to rich Black stories. Oh and the film is scored as sumptuously as it's shot. Mosseri's lovely woodwind and string writing and the Nyman needle-drops add a lot to the film's personality.