Sandor

That's why I hate it. It's TOO simple and in a movie like WOTW it becomes almost comical.

Oh Ok! That makes it alright then. He could have used the theme from Home Alone then too, I mean; it's also Williams. In all honesty; the music becomes too much: "Yeah let's get 'um boys! Yeah!". Totally inappropriate and the worst scored moment in Williams' career. The film certainly didn't need THAT music.

I guess I started collecting at the right time: back in 1992 (when I officially became a John Williams geek) all the CD's you mention (Dracula, The Eiger Sanction,... EVEN The Witches of Eatwick or The Accidental Tourist) could be found at any Cd-store. I remember going one time to Amsterdam (the Fame record store) and coming back with 14 (!) John Williams Cd's! And they were not even that expensive. If I would be collecting right now; sure I'd pay $50 for an original Cd. But somehow I have the feeling a new medium for music will come up in the next 10 years and all those 'hard to find' copies will be re-released again. And better. I remember looking for some extremely rare VHS tapes back in the late '80s and early '90's. Then DVD came out and literally ALL the titles I had been searching for came out again.

It bothered me. A lot. Very uninspiring and a major let-down.

WILLY!!!! Your designs are AWESOME!!! Great!!!

The fact of the matter is that The Color Purple had already started development BEFORE Spielberg was approached. This was more Quincy Jones' project initially before they started looking for a director. It was Jones' dream that the film would reflect the history of American black music. He was always assigned to do the music. Since Spielberg was "merely" hired to direct Purple he didn't have anything to say about the musical direction. Still; Spielberg's liner notes make it clear (despite other reports) that he was very fond of the Color Purple score. He even whistled on the album! He was very involved with the music. What is true however is that the score itself was written fairly late in the process. The songs and all were done first since they were mostly used as source music. The score is very sweet and sentimental, even overdone as some have said. Still I like it very much!

Thanks for all the help dudes! It made me listen again to stuff like Treesong and the Five Sacred Trees. Maybe I'll make a compilation album with some of the better movements.

I totally disagree with you on that. For example the original Close Encounters Of The Third Kind album is one of my favorite soundtrack albums (despite the awful sound quality). I enjoy the (almost) complete score re-release, but I find myself spinning the original disc a lot more. Also the original E.T. album. Ok, he had some help from Bruce Botnik on that one, but it's arguably my favorite soundtrack album of all time. Some mistakes: the original Raiders of the Lost Ark album, the Phantom Menace and Revenge of the Sith (so much excellent music from those films was left out on the initial albums), but stuff like Empire of the Sun, Far and Away, A.I., Jurassic Park and Schindler's List are definately winners in my book (from a production angle). Ofcourse the quality of the music stands above critisism.

There may be some misunderstanding about which ending I was refering to in the topic-starter. To make it clear: I have absolutley NO problem with the family reunion scene at the end. I for one was hoping that Robbie had survived and that he would embrace Cruise as a father. I have major problems with the scene where Cruise and Fenning return to Boston and realize that the aliens had become sick. Not the concept of aliens dying because of bacteria and all. I think that idea is GREAT and certainly very realistic (as opposed to the ID4 ending). It's just that it is so sudden and when the military dudes shoot down the malfunctioning tri-pod (even the music becomes a bit ID4/patriotic there!); those scenes just didn't work for me. Just before they return to Boston I was still on the edge of my seat and although I already knew how it would end I was still extremely excited about how Spielberg would present it all visually. And then it all just seemed to go so quickly and unsatisfying. Even people in the theatre reacted kinda: "huh???"

Of course I'm referring to the Shire and Saruman scenes that end the book.

Hey; I'm not a sreenwriter nor a director. Leave it up to those guys! And Jackson changed the ending to ROTK and it worked great.

The Lost World; fantastic score!!! I forgot to include that one!!!

5 Euro??? 1.99 Euro you mean!

An ID4 ending would have been terrible for WOTW. But the ending we have now is not much better.

Uh...you lost me there mr. psycho-analyst... Exactly WHAT does it say about me?

He was quite active in the 80's and early '90's I think arranging all kind of film music including John Williams. Ofcourse he made his own syntheziser albums, but instead of just directly copying the original orchestral score (which is done nowadays so much) he actually arranged themes in a unique way. His arrangment of the E.T. theme is fantastic. It brings out the melody even better then on the original soundtrack. Not saying I prefer his synths to Williams orchestra of course. Any opinions?

Why not post your own list Stefancos? And Revenge Of The Sith is in my opinion one of the very best Williams scores since Schindler's List.

Recently I've been listening a lot to Quincy Jones' The Color Purple score. I don't really want to like it (for obvious reasons), but to be honest I think it's a great score. I actually think it's one of the better scores for a Spielberg film. It has a truly amazing theme (although lifted a little from Georges Delerues' Our Mother's House). What do you guys think?

Someone once said: "A movie is only as good as it's ending" Agree or disagree I'm sure we all have seen a movie once where the first hour just seemed to drag on an on or you just didn't understand what the &*$@ was going on until the last half of the film just blew you away. I had that recently with a truly fantastic British horror film called The Descent. Don't let the first hour turn you off; the last hour is fantastic. Or even that the whole film seemed just fine to you, until the last minute(s) of the film made you realize that the film you've been watching wasn't merely fine, but it was actually GREAT. I had this with The Usual Suspects, Primal Fear and 12 Monkeys. Those films are truly elevated by their endings. I had a similar experience with ROTS. Although I found the first hour decent and enjoyable, it didn't truly shine. But the last hour was so good (and especially the final 20 minutes or so) that I will always regard ROTS as a powerful, great film. Not everything worked, there were still some moments where I cringed, but at least the finale brings the film home; it makes it a winner in my book. WOTW had the opposite affect on me. There the first half of the movie had me on the edge of my seat. I mean, that scene where the first tri-pod comes out of the ground and goes all gung-ho.... Man; that was one of the best things I have EVER seen! And there was more goodness to come; the ferry scene, the scenes with Ogilvy... Great!!! I remember thinking just before Cruise and Fenning return to Boston: "This is one of the greatest films ever made!" I LOVED it! But then the ending came... We all know what I'm talking about right? It totally ruined a fabulous movie for me. It had no satisfaction and all the goodness that came before just didn't seem that good anymore. ROTS is like having average to good sex, but at least with a Peter North-like volcano erupting orgasm that puts a smile on your face for a month! WOTW is like having the greatest sex of your life for almost two hours long, but then, when you really, really want to shoot your stuff unto the ceiling, your erection is suddenly gone. What a bummer!! WOTW had the Magnolia affect on me. A film which I also found GREAT, until the final frog-rain scene. It didn't work for me. What I regarded a great film was destroyed by the ending... Still I consider WOTW a good film; just not the classic it COULD have been.

A friend of mine is really into classical music. Of course every time I see him I end up raving about John Williams. Although he is not into film music he was quite interested to learn about Williams' concertos. I lended him the violin concerto, but he found it just so-so. He admits he doesn't really enjoy 20/21th century orchestral music with the exception of Arvo Part or Rutter. I was just wondering: what do YOU consider the most accesible concerto written has written so far? The above example shows that I would choose the violin concerto. Any other opinions?

THE MASTERPIECES Jaws Star Wars Close Encounters Of The Third Kind Superman The Movie The Empire Strikes Back Raiders Of The Lost Ark E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Born On The Fourth Of July Hook Jurassic Park Schindler's List OTHER 5 STAR SCORES (but not quite in the same league as the 'masterpieces') Return Of The Jedi Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom Empire Of The Sun Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade Far And Away Saving Private Ryan A.I. Artificial Intelligence Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban Star Wars Episode III Revenge Of The Sith OTHER GREAT, 4 STAR SCORES The Fury Home Alone JFK Seven Years In Tibet Amistad Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace Star Wars Episode II Attack Of The Clones Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets The Terminal

from http://michelleyeoh.info/Movie/memoirsofageisha.html Anyone know more?

Try THE MIAMI CONVENTION from the Nixon score.

Hahaha! There are SOME similarities, but you make it sound like the pieces are almost identical and quite frankly; they're NOT.

Check out www.memoirsofageisha.com The official site. Nothing there except a beautiful promo-poster, but expect a lot more in the coming months. Spielberg's upcoming film finally has an official title (no longer Vengeance). It's called Munich. Simple, but fitting.