Leaderboard

I just saw this shared on social media. Very cool! Williams and Jones already performed the GUNN theme live in a Mancini tribute concert some 4-5 years ago, but gotta dig the line-up of this recording session for an actual new Mancinin tribute album. Just wish the videos of the recording session itself lasted longer.

Amazing videos, that's so cool to see him jamming. It must have been quite a special experience for him. When Tracy Smith calls the Peter Gunn Theme a 'song', you can see on Johnny's face that he wants to show her that meme @Jay posts.

If that is the case, I would be very happy. It would be wonderful for him to win for an Indy film. He should've won for one of the first 3. And I do think Williams, when nominated, always attends the ceremony

I'm caught up to Ep. 5 now. Until I started hearing about this series last fall, I'd never even realized there was a video game by this name, so I'm watching this show with zero preconceptions. First, this is prestige TV at its near-finest. Terrific character development, amazing production values, and some truly gripping human story to keep your attention. I very much enjoyed watching the man-on-the-ground POV of the world starting to fall apart in Austin because I'm endlessly fascinated by how screen/teleplay writers choose to portray the end of the world. It's done very believably in TLoU. (It's also terrifying to think how quickly everything will go to shit in a shock-event situation like this. I kinda get the prepper mindset.) However, precisely because the producers go to such lengths to portray the decay of civilization as we know it as accurately as possible, I can't help but notice the way some elements stretch credulity. I agree with Jay the total unlikelihood that Bill & Frank's town would have gone undisturbed for 20 years, save one raider attempt. Bill somehow getting the regional gas utility infrastructure up and running so he could get his gas stove going was a little farfetched, to say the least. And the town itself, after 20 years, needed to show a lot more woody vegetation, roaming wildlife, rotting wood structures, eroding pavement, etc. Flags would have turned to bleached gray shreds. And gasoline would simply no longer exist in a usable form (Joel siphoning gas out of a car in that one episode was LOL-ridiculous). But I tend to notice this problem in all movies and TV: when something is supposed to look like it was undisturbed for a decade, the set decorators make it look instead like it was undisturbed for a year or two at best. But here I am nitpicking. The truth is that these things are completely forgivable in the face of such good storytelling. The way the writers play with our sympathies against the KC resistance and then for the resistance was really well done. And no matter how implausible it would have been in real life, Bill & Frank's storyline -- and the semblance of the old way of life they built under such bleak circumstances -- was beautiful.

Yaaayyyy!!!!! Atta boy, James Newton Howard! I knew you had it in you!!!! After sampling on Spotify, I took the plunge and picked up the LLL 3CD of Wyatt Earp. I listened today, with trepidation that it might meander or sag like Waterworld did for me. I’m happy to say this was not the case at all. I LOVED this score! Sumptuous cinematic themes, but also a great sounding orchestra, and a cracking good mastering. Never did I get bored, as the C&C presentation somehow mixes JNH’s big set pieces with welcome folksy sounding cues. It all is spread out so that nothing wears out its welcome. Even the less thematic underscore, such as the percussive martial music for I assume the gunfights or whatnot, give contemporaries like Tombstone or Silverado a run for their money. I only wish I had heard this prior to Arnold’s Independence Day, because now I have to un-hear the ID4 theme which rips off the Wyatt Earp Love Theme. Hopefully I can disassociate it, but I’m far more familiar with listening to ID4 for almost 30 years. Didn’t Arnold reportedly take some of his unused material from Waterworld and repurpose it for ID4 also? Strange relationship there. This is a triumph, an absolutely delightful presentation. I can’t believe JNH purposely made an effort to get away from this type of writing, but whatever. I’m so glad I gave it a chance because I now have a favorite James Newton Howard score.

I know I'm late to the party on this post but, yeah, SWON is top tier Giacchino. It, along with his Medal of Honor scores, still remain his very best work, bar none! I had the great pleasure of being at the recording sessions and to hear "Peenemünde" live was something I'll never forget. I thought the entire orchestra was going to blow the roof off of the Bastyr Chapel. And yes, Giacchino purposefully re-purposed his Nazi theme from SWON into SUPER 8 because he liked it and wanted to use it again. And here is super low res version on my Main Theme music video that was part of the game and on the CD release.

Can you believe it.... I own a copy of Superman The Movie in 4K. I just got very excited about the rumors that leaked earlier about a new transfer, and the box initially seemed to confirm it. Now, not so much. I might actually cancel my pre-order of the box. I don't really feel the need to shelve out that kind of dough for steelbok casings - or even Superman III and IV... movies I know I'll watch once, if even that. (I’ve bought them on DVD before - and currently have the BD set standing on my shelf - even though they’ve never been any kind of “go to” movies for me.) And honestly, the 4K stand alone issue of Superman II looks great next to Superman 4K! Maybe that's all you need, really...

Episode 4 blog https://bearmccreary.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-episode-104/

One is an absolute giant of film music, who composed consistently groundbreaking, detailed, and endlessly inventive scores... and the other is Hans Zimmer. Jerry's music may go out of fashion, but it will never go out of style.

Damn... there weren't meant to be follow up questions ;-) I guess Tombstone and Lost in Space. If I'm feeling mathematically challenged, I'd add Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Miracle on 34th Street, The Rescuers Down Under and Young Sherlock Holmes. But only if I'm feeling mathematically challenged. Oh and both Homeward Bound scores, True Women, Heart of Darkness, The Old Man and the Sea, O Pioneers... OK I'll stop now.

I have followed their journey in my peripheral. March 2021 they did an interview with Oprah. This meme was on point.

I experienced my first ever combined jerrygasm and hornergasm in one sitting.

Big Night Man, I like independent movies but forget sometimes the huge boon that digital cameras were to the industry; Even this film from as recent as 1996 is a bit hampered by poor picture quality just due to the budget. A shame! This is an interesting story of two Italian-American immigrant brothers in 1950s New Jersey who own an Italian restaurant. Tony Shalhoub is the chef, who wants to honor the original Italian recipes and refuses to American-ize the food; Stanley Tucci is the manager who has to stress over keeping the business running (it isn't doing well). Ian Holm runs a competing restaurant that is far more successful (with Americanized Italian food); Isabella Rossellini is Holm's wife.... who Tucci is secretly sleeping with. He's also sleeping with Minnie Driver, who he finds himself unable to commit to, perhaps due to his failures at the restaurant. Allison Janney also has a small role as Shalhoub's love interest. All of these various plot threads come together and go off in new directions over the course of the titular big night, when the brothers spend everything they have to try to get the recognition they need when Holm tells them he's convinced a famous singer to eat at his restaurant. A nice indepedent film directed by Tucci and Campbell Scott, and co-written by Tucci as well. I enjoyed the performances and delicious looking food shots more than the fairly thin story and character drama

Yeah, he praised Thomas Adés as a "genuine genius", in the Classic FM interview I believe: Perhaps also of interest:

Fun article from Variety.

Hahahahahahahaha I thought the same thing

I like that video very much

Well put. I have never, ever found a Goldsmith score that doesn’t have something redeeming or worthwhile. Considering his huge output, there is always something to discover and enjoy. Not every score he did is a masterpiece of course, but within each I’ve always found a gem of interest or pleasure.

Without spoiling anything, is it possible storywise to skip S1 and 2 and jump straight into S3 as if the other two didn't happen? Multiple scoregasms?

It's kind of amazing how little Speed 2's score has on common with Speed 1. It's really its own thing with the occasional cameo of an old theme, but always reworked and new and interesting.

Possibly or just that his style or muscular action writing feels positively quaint compared to HZ’s power anthems and crunching horns of doom. It would be a shame though. I would typically put JW as my favourite film composer but in fairness I’m more likely to reach for a Jerry score these days. I’ve always loved his music but there seems even more to explore and so many different styles to enjoy. It’s possible that his innovation isn’t as well appreciated these days and just how many of his scores were breaking new ground. I also sometimes think he’s underrated as a melodist. Even his more mediocre scores (which are likely to be better than most other’s best) feature some great themes.

Nah Carlotta's only in the first 5 episodes

Well, yeah, I'm one of the oldest people here, but an internet test told me that, mentally, I'm still in my thirties, so in a way, it's you guys that are old!

We've seen the first 6 episodes. It's pretty bad. I love Alexandra Daddario but she was miscast

Jebediah Papathanassiou.

I'm sure it's basically sacrilege but I often find that film composers using fairly clear classical precedents give the material much more rhythmic vitality; the similarity here is clear, albeit feels somewhat less intentional than other of JW's more well known lifts but that 5 note motif in Duel of the Fates sounds much more exciting than the Saint-Saëns, those longer, on the beat, chords in the background make it all sound a bit plodding rather than barrelling along like JW. Similar with the 10 note melody in DotF and the choral parts, which play off the beat so it keeps everything driving forward. People can bitch about JW for ripping stuff off all they like, but he always makes it his own and, in situations like this, turns it into something considerably more exciting for my money. (I'd say the same goes for Willow's theme/Schumann's 3rd Symphony - James Horner changes the time signature and gives it far more energy and momentum than Schumann did, much though I like Schumann!).

Kinky.

My bet: Williams won't win this year but will win next year with Indy 5.

I'm not as familiar with some composers as I probably should be, that said, I've seen a lot of films all the big guns have done scores for, and only a few have made me actively seek out soundtracks separate from the film. 1. John Williams - Few, if any, other film composers have his level of craftsmanship. I also enjoy his scores the most of any composer separate from the film. They are endlessly musically interesting. 2. Bernard Herrmann - Also very listenable removed from the film. He lacks JW's range, but makes up for it by being extremely good at writing like Bernard Herrmann 3. James Horner - Great melodic gifts, great orchestrations and counterpoint (before his world music phase). Just always fun to listen to. 4. Jerry Goldsmith - I am not as enamored by him as some here are, but I recognize skill when I hear it. His Star Trek scores are top notch. I wish he had a bit more counterpoint in his writing, and I think his woodwind writing is a little weak. 5. Alex North - I'm listing him almost exclusively for his score to Dragonslayer and the dropped score to 2001. I'm not familiar enough with his other stuff to comment. Those two are masterpieces. 6. Howard Shore - I only like his scores to the LotR trilogy, but they're so good, he gets 6th just for them. All the faults and foibles I find in Wagner are present in Shore's work. He could be no. 2 if he ever really learned how to compose. (jesting....slightly) 7. Michael Kamen - Also very listenable outside the films. Had the misfortune to write very, very good scores to three films that had hit pop songs attached to them, overshadowing his work (although I believe he co-wrote the songs for Robin Hood, and Three Musketeers). His score to Highlander is fantastic. Highlander is fantastic, actually (so are the Queen songs). X-Men and Die Hard are also underrated. He used orchestration as counterpoint, a real genius, and gone too soon. 8. Miklós Rózsa - Ben Hur alone is enough to get him here. I've not heard everything he did, but everything I've heard has been great. Classic Hollywood sound. 9. Ralph Vaughan-Williams - I'm cheating a bit, but he's one of my all-time favorite composers, and did work on 11 films, including Scott of the Antarctic, which became the basis for his 7th symphony. 10. James Newton Howard - Not the biggest fan, but he comes out with a good one from time to time. I really like King Kong and his more recent score to Jungle Cruise. Solid, if somewhat uninspired. 1,000,000. Hans Zimmer - He seems like a nice enough guy, and I don't begrudge him finding a way to make a lot of money, but I'll never forgive him for what he's done to film music for the past decade and a half.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild I finally returned to playing video games for the first time in months (half a year, maybe!) and decided to fire up BOTW. I got this game and the Switch on launch day in 2017 and put 80 hours in that summer before taking a huge break as other games came out or something. At that point I only had 1 divine beast done! In 2020 when covid hit I started playing again and put in another 120 hours, this time defeating all the divine beasts and then doing just about everything aside from actually fighting Ganon - found all the shrines (I think?), all the memories, started knocking off side quests. I eventually bought the DLC but didn't do much with it other than enjoying the route mapping and finding some armor and stuff. I ended up having a really fun time farming materials to upgrade all my armor from the fairies. Well now another 3 years later and I'm back in it. I hunted around for all the DLC armor except the one where the pieces are in Ganon's castle; I started the Champions Ballad stuff and got through 3 of the 4 beasts / Blight Rematches so far; The only thing I really have least is the end of that, the Master Trials DLC, and some main game side quest I never did (finding 10 Zora tablets). Then I guess I'll finally THWOMP GANON!? I'm really enjoying the Champion's Ballad DLC. I like that each brings 3 new shrines, and that you have to do something on the overworld to unveil each. So far I've had to go through rings via glider, sand seal, and shield surf (I imagine the fourth will be swimming and waterfall jumping), defeat an extra-tough Molduga (wasn't really hard or that different), defeat an extra-hard Talus (ditto), and some other random things. The rematches witht he Blight Ganons are thankfully not that hard (only Thunderblight killed me once) Basically all this is making me more hyped for Tears of the Kingdom. Feels weird to finally feel like I actually want to go find Ganon soon

Another Fun fact: "Suspecting Lois Takes the Plunge" is based on an unrecorded version of "To The Lair" from Superman TM. Not many people know that.

Sounds kinda familliar....

Woops! I haven't seen episode 6 yet, but never wrote about 5, so here we go The Last of Us 1x05 Endure and Survive Immediately after this episode, I had roughly the same opinion as I did on episode 3, which was that I liked it a lot, but couldn't help but think about cool stuff from the game that wasn't included. However as the days went on after watching, those thoughts subsided and I was mostly left just thinking about how good it was. It isn't perfect though; The Kathleen subplot was pretty undercooked and probably the least successful thing the show has done yet, I'd say. What worked great was everything Joel, Ellie, Henry, and Sam and of course the amazing action sequence at the climax. Henry and Sam's storyline was so different from the game, but good in its own right! Henry doing whatever it takes to help Sam, including turning Kathleen's brother into Fedra to get Sam's medicine was a nice parellel to Joel doing whatever is needed for his brother Tommy... not to mention doing whatever for Ellie some day, perhaps? Rewinding 10 days and seeing how they got from their hiding spot to Joel and Ellie's sleeping spot was nice and man, these two actors were really good! Lamar Johnson was pretty good at taking Henry through a variety of emotions in one single episode; I loved his cockiness that everything would be fine underground, his loving parental nature towards Henry, and the way he talked up Joel to get them to help. He's a smart kid. Keivonn Woodard was also really good as Sam! I can see him being cast in some network show before too long now. The best character moments in the episode was the kids together. Seeing Ellie actually laughing and having a good time with someone closer to her age was great to see, and a nice reminder that at 14 you're really both a child and an adult in different ways at different times. When they get through the tunnels and get to the neighborhood, I was like: OH NO! This was the HARDEST level in the entire game! I died so many times trying to get Joel down the street up into the sniper's nest. I guess it makes sense that the show simplified it by having the sniper be alone, instead of tons of hunters all over the place. Then when he has to provide cover fire to help the kids, so cool! The whole action sequence was pretty awesome, great imagery with the most amount of runners seen yet emerging from the hole, and of course the show's first bloater, standing there with a wall of fire behind it, ripping Perry's head off like a Mortal Kombat game. And then they managed to one-up the game again with that creepy child gymnastic clicker! Yikes that was freaky! Such a cool scene. I figured the episode would be ending shortly after that and wasn't expecting the sad ending to Sam and Henry's story to be included in the same episode. I loved that Ellie naively tried to use her blood to save Sam, and then even though she promised to stay awake she fell asleep (hey she's a kid - the same thing happened in the pickup truck). I liked that there's no way for her to know right away if Sam turned or not when he's facing the window (BTW: the fungus in the show seems to really crave sunlight, like the runners seen on the streets of Boston reacting to the sun) since he's deaf. I was kind of surprised how quickly Henry shot him! And then himself! It all happened so far, so little thinking and processing done. Nice moment that at the end as Joel is burying another kid (surely the emotions are somewhere in between having to bury Sara, and the endless kid corpses he buried in the Boston QZ), it is now Ellie who is trying to get them to move along. I wonde if she is thinking about getting to a place where her blood can be used to help people so no one has to go through what Sam and Henry just did.

It's a terrific score, easily a top 3 Broughton. Great themes, never a dull moment and everything you could want by way of an old fashioned western score (instead of some grumbly noodling that you often get now with gritty westerns... same goes for war film scores...). Silverado is indeed a bit more on the nose and doesn't have quite the tonal or emotional range of Tombstone, but only because Tombstone is such a great score (perhaps his best ever?!). While they aren't quite in the same league, some of his TV movie western scores are well worth checking out, notably O Pioneers! (what people in the 19th century said instead of FFS...) and True Women, which admittedly don't sound that promising, but are really lovely, albeit a bit more genteel than the more forthright styles of Silverado or Tombstone.

I forgot to actually post commentary on this: GREAT WORK! It was super interesting to hear a true, lengthy unrecorded idea for a score I love so much and otherwise know inside out and backwards. I can see why everyone involved likely thought it made sense to score the Hook's travel with Low Below, and I'm sure played by the full orchestra with Williams conducting this would be a corker of a cue to have. But even still, I can see why it was decided to redo it with Stick With Me, it just kind of makes more sense that way. And the redone version has become a pretty iconic cue and scene, I think. And I appreciate that you took the extra step and didn't just present the mockup, but figured out how to pair it with the film footage we have as well. Great job

And I bet she’s paid less than lots of other (probably men) who are considered more famous “stars”… quite an achievement though, must watch some of the other films she’s been in lol

.

The most amazing thing is that he doesn't even look at the keyboard. He just looks at the musicians' faces and is amazed at their playing...

Amazing he can still play the piano at his age.

Oh you're right! For whatever reason only Jar Jar's motif was on my mind. That's a shame... I was looking forward to one day hearing Jar Jar's Theme | EPIC™ VERSION 2.mp3

Willie’s Theme gets my vote. I was mind-arranging the concert piece while walking the dog the other day. Would love to hear it resolve on its own without a segue into the Raiders March.

these 3 to cap off KOTCS are underrated: Temple Ruins and the Secret Revealed The Departure Finale Although, I feel like that will change once we get the complete score with 'The Wedding' and 'Knowledge Was Their Treasure'

She plays Indy's mutter.

This just in: ASM has replaced PWB as Helena in the final cut. Revised Super Bowl spot dropping ASAP.

Part 3 out now! We continue our highly ambitious journey through John Williams‘ television music jungle. In this episode, we cover medical dramas Ben Casey, The Eleventh Hour and Breaking Point, as well as an episode-by-episode walkthrough of Williams’ work for the cornerstone series Kraft Suspense Theatre. http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-78-the-complete-john-williams-television-music-walkthrough-part-3-27th-international-edition/

1. Jerry Goldsmith - there is no alternative. Basic Instinct to Under Fire. His batting average with home runs is second to none. And unlike others, I consider the 90s to be his strongest time. 2. Hans Zimmer - from Black Rain to Interstellar. What a range of approaches and musical styles. From Thin Red Line back to Rain Man. An amazing composer sadly taken down recently by a corporate instinct and a sense that he needs to 'innovate' with every project. 3. Patrick Doyle - a genius with orchestral dynamics. His early 1990s scores - Dead Again, Indochine, etc. are works of art. He lost his way in the 2000s but the strength of those early works will inevitably put him on this list. 4. Elliot Goldenthal - there is no stronger run than EG's 1992-1998 set of blockbusters. And one doesn't often reinvent the language of film scoring. 5. John Williams - I tend to take his amazingness for granted as he is such an ever present beautiful artist. No words are required. 6. James Horner - innovative, visceral, sensitive, plagiaristic, experimental. He is all these. A real titan of scoring. 7. Alan Silvestri - again, someone who made their mark in the 80s and 90s but Silvestri's work on Van Helsing and Tomb Raider 2 are cool. A bit of a rut recently, and understandable. 8. JNH - another one easy to take for granted. From Outbreak to Snow White, from Fugitive to Maleficient, JNH is a professional. I do sometimes he wish he was less professional. 9. Trevor Jones - a magnificent, chameleonic composer. Starting out with dark orchestral works for Excalibur and Dark Crystal, graduating into very impactful synth compositions (Missisippi Burning, Sea of Love) to orchestral/pop mega hits (Mohicans) to the largest orchestra compositions known to man (Dark City) 10. Christopher Young - a brilliant composer, so tender with lyricism, so hard with abject horrors - orchestrational talent and skills to spare Honourable mentions to Morricone, Carpenter, McNeely, Broughton etc.

Hey @Jay, finally got some more of the missing ones for The Last Crusade! From JKMS Music on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CZxgMu7PvaD/?utm_medium=share_sheet 1M2 The Cross of Coronado [1M3] Indiana Jones on the Train 1M4/2M1 Young Indy 7M3 The Motorcycle Chase