publicist
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Posts posted by publicist
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16 minutes ago, JTW said:
I also said that SCHINDLER'S LIST is my favorite Spielberg film and in my opinion it's flawless. I respect your or anybody else's opinion, but no one can convince me otherwise because I choose to believe that and that's it.
Nobody did, what i pointed out is that this scene and the intention behind it is a very typical example of Oscar-baiting.
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The only mistake is to introduce it so upfront in the main title, long before Link's appearance. The tone is irritating and hard to place before we get to know that Link is an old circus ape.
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36 minutes ago, JTW said:
I agree, EMPIRE OF THR SUN is a great movie, although I feel that it was Spielberg’s vehicle for winning an Oscar. And in a way I think SCHINDLER was, too. But these two movies, and especially the latter are so good that if there was indeed a deliberate intention on Spielberg’s part to get awards for them, it doesn’t matter. I love EMPIRE, but I see its flaws. But SCHINDLER’SLIST is something truly special. It’s almost like it wasn’t directed by Spielberg. He never since even tried to become that director again, I guess because it would be so hard on him as a human being. So SL remains his single greatest achievement that will live on as one of the most important pieces of cinema. While EMPIRE OF THE SUN, imho was the direct step towards becoming the great director who made SCHINDLER’SLIST.
I will counter that on several points: first of all, i think you overestimate the importance of awards. Sure, he needed and wanted establishment approval, but to claim these projects were done in the spirit of getting these is massively overstating their importance. It's a commercial industry, after all. On EOTS he was hunting David Lean (by whom this project was courted) and his 'adult epics', the same goes for 'Color Purple', but his had also a built-in attraction factor for the jew in Spielberg, who understood and sympathized with the plight of suppressed minorities. Both movies have their problematic areas and either shy away from edgy things (Color) or lose themselves in blurry metaphors that seem more weighty than they actually are (EOTS), but these never come by way of scoring brownie points etc. They feel like works outside of Spielberg's comfort zone where he handles singular scenes marvelously, but is too timid to go all the way or doesn't trust his instincts and falls back on certain conventional safeguards (sometimes Williams' music).
To claim 'SL' easily surpasses these is an easily-made mistake because of its subject matter. It's actually on 'SL' where Spielberg uses a patronizing speech in 'I could have done more' and like in the other two visually pretties up scenes like i. e. the train arriving in Auschwitz. There's a lot more that was taken out like the 'Cincinatti Kid'-like card duel because Spielberg rightly felt he would be accused of falling back on old movie tricks. SL is a masterpiece within certain parameters, but it sure isn't without fault.
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9 hours ago, mrbellamy said:
Also Leo wouldn't have been "Oscar bait" at that time so much as "box office bait"
Leo was always Oscar bait after his much noticed start in 'Gilbert Grape' etc.
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7 hours ago, JTW said:
I don’t remember NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER, neither the film nor the score tbh, but it can’t be worse than a film called Rent-A-Cop.
It is, actually. The phase after 'Legend' (which must have struck him hard) until 'Basic Instinct' or even 'First Knight' was the weakest in his career with some borderline offensive offerings, but he was always the film music Tesla, with failure being at least a 50% option when he tried new stuff like the Fairlight.
'Link' is much better than many others of that time, but it's also unafraid being goofy, something especially hardcore Williams fans are understandably are wary about.
- JTW and Naïve Old Fart
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'Munich' is still better than the others mentioned above. But for me 'Amistad' remains the biggest regret: rarely in a Spielberg movie have darkness and light been so close to each other (unctuous, never-ending civil duty speeches dutifully aided by Williams' editorializing americana schmaltz vs. brutal and uncompromising scenes of human cruelty as well as some remarkable scenes about communication between people of different cultures/languages).
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8 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:
It has to be said that JW is a lot more nuanced in his classical references and really only uses them as a starting point, definitely nothing like the level of similarity that James Horner used to indulge in. I mean, I still love his music, but he was definitely in a different league in the homage/plagiarism stakes. Then again, I'm always amazed that James Horner still pretty much always seems to sound like James Horner, despite this (although that could just be me!).
No question, but i'd counter that Williams reliance on Prokoviev's 5th for so many of his lighter scores (starting with 'Fitzwilly') or moments in big adventure score like the Basket Chase in 'Raiders' has a similar quality of 'appropriation'.
Williams on the other hand wouldn't be caught dead passing off a secondary theme from Prokoviev's Ivan The Terrible as big inspirational Oscar main theme for a civil war epic 'composed by John Williams'.
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In the Hollywood sphere it's an apt description of not only just the movie, but all the elaborate marketing schemes often more expensive than the movie itself. GoNY certainly isn't the first one to qualify, but there was a time from the mid 80's to late 2000's where you exactly knew what that term meant (and Miramax was of course a frontrunner, if anyone still remembers the infamous Oscar battle between SPR and Shakespeare in Love).
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8 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:
Absolutely that! As I said in one of my original comments, he spends so much time and energy in the show saying "this sounds like this" for fragments of themes or melodies that often only slightly resemblance the source material, but ignoring the vast majority of the score which is comprised of wholly original material and/or JW does entirely his own thing with it. Whatever the allusions, it still sounds like JW and he pretty much does his own thing with all of them, they are just fragments of an idea on which he builds something new. Sure, some are closer than others (it's undeniable that, say, the Love Theme from Superman follows the shape and, perhaps more importantly, the harmonic shift of Death and Transfiguration) but most are just a couple of notes of similarity before JW goes off and does entirely his own thing.
Ain't that the truth for many fans. People hear a succession of a few notes and cry 'wolf!' when in 90% of the cases it's a completely different key and harmony and has its accentuation on a different phrase (and so on). In other word: completely knee-jerk reaction.
But in the bigger scheme of things it's laudable to make people aware that there are classical film music origins, and especially with more eclectic composers as Williams and - brace yourself - James Horner, who time and time again tried to get away with wholesale theft of complete themes from all over Europe's and Asia's musical heritage. With education being what it is you can bet that the number of people who recognize the heavy Prokoviev influence in both composer's work is dwindling.
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5 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:
On the contrary the film is total pure unadulterated oscar bait, everything the academy likes. It got 10 oscar nominations.
Part of that credit must go to Harvey Scissorhands, though. He was behind a more flashy editing approach and the whole hipster U2 stuff came courtesy of Miramax, too (which of course set in motion Elmer's unceremonial firing so typical of that era).
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14 minutes ago, LSH said:
I have the bootleg too but I'm a completist. I think the entire work is wonderful (action music inclusive) and more than worthy for an expansion.
It's probably not, but given what passes for expansion-worthy these days, sure. The problem with all these overlong Horner scores from that era ist that he mercilessly repeats the core material to the point of nausea and also uses very simple ostinati as action base. It's not a big thing for me anymore, as i mostly listen to playlists anyway, but 78 minutes already was a chore.
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1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:
I'm sure if the Mulan suite were by someone else he'd have credited them somewhere. I do agree that it's strange he picked this suite to play in concerts though as it contains barely a minute (approx) of his own material. I mean, the song arrangements are superb but it's not exactly highlighting his contributions. Then again, I'm not entirely sure what track I'd have picked instead...
I think it also incorporates his own 'cute girl' theme, which sounds a bit like 'First Contact'. Apart from that, sure he features the songs, it's the thing people remember from Disney movies.
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9 hours ago, LSH said:
The Perfect Storm especially... if this isn't the next Horner expansion, I'll be annoyed. There is so much action music missing from the OST. And don't go to the film to listen because you can't fucking hear it!
Have this on a bootleg since many years, but the action music is rather same-y and monotonous. The romantic stuff, on the other hand...
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Barry's female Bond score. Repetitive as it is, the tune is simply aces.
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And it's still a 2022 Top 3 score. I may wish a true intellectual like i. e. Wintory or Greenwood would get a chance to develop a truly 'alien' score, which does not confuse complexity with elaborate layering and sound wizardry, but as it is, Zimmer delivered.
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Good, old-fashioned melos á la Delerue by Philippe Rombi, orchestra with string/piano waltzes and full of woodwind flourishes rarely head in today's film music.
- JNHFan2000 and Will
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Whatever rating it has, there's entirely too much of it.
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My musical bête noire. Never-ending bombast of dubious entertainment value.
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Hook
in JOHN WILLIAMS
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? He talks about the last two hours of the movie, not the finale.