publicist

Is that your way of saying it's total BS? Because if it, I agree with you. Worse than 'The Last Castle'? For 2 weeks, the only film i was able to watch was a Preston Sturges film called 'Sullivan's Travels', which was ok. Veronica Lake still seems somewhat kinky.

Apart from the fact that the 'Poltergeist' trashing was done by the other guy writing the comments and 'Deep Rising' still rocks, i hope this isn't one of those ill-fated attempts to invalidate one's opinion because it isn't corresponding with your own? No, you wouldn't sink as low as that. And i eagerly await your thorough condemnation when i tell you that i don't even hold 'Superman' in high regard. This PLUS my disdain for cozy rehashs like the first two Potters should give u enough ammunition to shred my credibility to tears, wouldn't it?

I'll bet on that. Doesn't make the music better. But in fairness i have to say that i should expect that on a Williams-fan-board. What kind of orgasmic joy people like King Mark may feel when the world finally finds out that Williams was responsible for writing things like the Malfoy music may stay their secret.

But why bother, anyway, with a film score which is quite mediocre, regardless of who-wrote-what?? When i had to review the DVD, i really couldn't find much of merit, the music sounded perfunctory and Hollywood-standardish for kiddie fantasy fare. The concert suites are really the only halfway worthwile thing to own. AND the best of them, this 'Dracula' type theme for the chamber, doesn't even occur at key points of the film, if i remember right.

FAN BOY SIZE MEASURING ALERT! Who's got the longest? It's my pet composer!!

Well, it's 'two-hand-Randy'-made-fit-for-100-musicians-by-10-orchestrators' music, then, which still is miles behind any trained composer's effort. Hopefully, it will have at least a catchy tune arabian style...oh, and i can't wait for 'The Mummy 4 - Attack of the Ants-in-your-pants-Creatures'

I've seen all these movies one time, except 'Schindler', which i've seen like 3 times over the years. Most of these films are rather turgid, in this very american 'YOU'RE NOW WATCHING DRAMA'-type of way...Especially 'Angela's Ashes', which is a story domiciled in poverty, but not really about it, since McCourt writes about the mysterious joys of childhood his alter ego experiences, a point which the film almost completely ignores. As sublime Williams' score is, it further destroys the childhood-notion with it's gloomy heaviness. What bothers me when people reviewing films, there never seems to be a middle ground, it's as if a movie is only 'boring', 'great' and so on. I cannot understand how one can see i. e. 'Private Ryan' as a complete masterpiece. Everyone with at least some cinema-going experience should be able to see at least some of it's faults, despite of it's virtues. There is almost no film which is 'perfect as it is', most filmmakers will heartily agree with me there.

Yes, it's certainly no big shakes, but as casual pleasure it get's the job done. And 'Chronicles of Narnia' IS bad...i only saw fragments of the film, and the badness of both seemed to complement each other really well....

Maybe Shore realized halfway through the trilogy, that the theme was more useful than he thought at first. I distinctly remember him referring to that theme (which is certainly one of the better thematic inventions of LotR) as 'Proclamation of nature' theme or something like that, so he eventually may have decided that it would fit other needs as well, instantly finding a far-fetched interpretation for it's use

Let's hope not. Another 13 minutes wasted on a new album....

Maybe he's just trying to bring some spark to the shopworn threads of the 'Name the 3 best renditions of Boba Fett's Theme' variety which crowd this board? Maybe i can fuel the debate by saying that digging out the most tired warhorses for 'Harry Potter I' is at best enough to get in the category of 'gets the job done so-so'? (while Williams passed with flying colors for 'Azkaban', which shows you that this Columbus git was responsible the first time around)

But wasn't that the point? Spielberg did alot of rather crappy movies (the last i remember vividly is 'WotW'), but this ain't one of 'em.

If one is on a steady diet of film music from L. A., that might very well be the case (although i doubt it), but it's really a slap in the face of film composers all around the world. Musicians like Debbie Wiseman, Roque Banquos and Frederic Talgorn (who did the splendid 'Moliere' recently...friends of 'Restoration', listen up!) should rightfully be appalled by such narrow-mindedness.

Has anyone an idea how much unreleased stuff is in 'Monsignor'? I've once seen it, like 15 years before, and only remember that i was shocked how trite it was so i didn't see it from start to finish. The album sounds like a perfect summary, though.

It's called 'There's a Star beyond Time'. It IS cheesy, but kind of fun, starting with 'There's a star beyond time, floating in space, waiting for u and me'

It is not. And i'm not that mad. It is capable and very loud, but it lacks the spark of unique-ness. It often seems to just go through the motions without fine-tuning them

@Marian: Don't fear the german dub of Jack Lemmon; his famous dubbing voice (Georg Thomalla) is long gone, sadly.

Dear God, is that really so hard to grasp? Williams isn't fit to write 'American Beauty' or 'Black Hawk Dawn' - at least not in the way they were succesfully scored. And now don't you come me with 'War of the Worlds' and stuff like that. That's still orchestral music very much rooted in Strawinsky. I just wanted to stress the fact that todays' cinema, whatever you think of it, and Williams' sensibilities are not in exact synch, although there are exceptions, of course. No wonder, in an industry built on exploiting short-living trends. That is no good/bad thing, Goldsmith, in his lifetime, also was deemed old-fashioned by Jerry Bruckheimer, of all people. Make of that what you want.

Is that so? Well, i'm rather anxious to hear his takes on the Bourne films, 'Crash' or 'Black Hawk Dawn'. Thus, he is, at best, the epitome of the ideal composer of the archetypical films soundtrack-geeks like best (fantasy/epic with heavy orchestral backing, maybe an Award-winning drama for the elevation of the own hobby, seldom things which really move too far away from the well-worn formulas). Apart form that, Williams is at his age (understandably) neither able nor willing to dabble in postmodern musical language as represented by the most popular 'modern' musicians (say experimental Thomas Newman, Remote Control, Powell and whatnot).

If you read all the hosannas here, you could believe it's a genuine masterpiece, which it is not. I'll grant you that pieces like 'Jewish Town' or the Auschwitz-cue are (rare) standouts, but the basic ingredient is minor strings with gusto, which i find just too much with such a subject. It's just too cliché.

It's neo-romantic mush in a jewish idiom. Williams would've better followed a more intimate concept (á la the jewish song before 'Nacht Aktion') instead of the string heavy syrup he poured i. e. over the 'I could have done more' sequence - unfortunately, the Academy Award proved his instincts (or Spielbergs) right. It's a rather mundane drama® score, the kind of which Delerue already came up with for the WWII-concentration camp drama 'Escape from Sobibor'. Sadly, nobody ever mentions that.

The really interesting question is then if Marcus' LOTR would rock the world the same way as Shores version did. I'm certain it won't be hard to top the complexity of the writing, but else? I said it and i say it again, f...ck them all and bring the long cut of the films in a Delorean to Jerry Goldsmith in 1980. Give him 3 years, and you've got the best score trilogy ever made.

Well, I have never seen evidence of this and i'm from Germany, where all things cultural certainly are held in high esteem. I think you simply want to give empiric proof to an obvious false notion. What you brush aside as quirkiness on Hermann's part speaks volumes about your real agenda: lauding rather conservative western music as music that YOU would like to see accepted as the epitome of absolute music, since you obviously hate the modernist school. Williams is simply not what you want him to be...the fact that popular mediums like film today have a zillion more weight than some concerto only adds to the fact that he will be remembered mostly for his prolificness as film composer of polished orchestral scores with a certain range, but far from being the end of all things, even in film music.

I hope he laughed you off. Williams never will be more than part of the 'one of the successful film composers of the dawning blockbuster era, John Williams, as Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, John Barry...... Listen here to samples of 'STAR WARS THEME/SUPERMAN THEME/HARRY POTTER THEME' enumerations. His concert works have not nearly the stature to overpower his more opportunistic film works (most of the time they are not that noteworthy in the concert repertoire, either). The big difference between a Bernard Herrmann (who is considered a musical genius now) and John Williams is, that Herrmann inspires musicians, Williams inspires film music and film buffs.

Well, DOES the japanese pressing of DRACULA sound better?