Josh500

Earth without John Williams's music would just be "eh"...

I watched the movie Lincoln only once on DVD. It was a decent movie (like 95% of Spielberg movies), but honestly it didn't leave much of an impression on me, not even Lewis's much-lauded performance. I think that may have negatively influenced my opinion of the score. Here we probably have another case where the score just takes a vibrant life of its own--it becomes much more than a part of a movie, it begins to overshadow the movie itself, for which it was written in the first place.... Actually not a rare occurrence, when it comes to John Williams!

You're contradicting yourself in this single pararaph. You're telling us that you have always associated "masterpiece" with status, something prestigious, etc. - but that's your personal opinion. That's not the official definition of the word "masterpiece." Anyway, I might consider The Phantom Menace to be a masterpiece (I actually do), while you might not. Does that make it a masterpiece, then? For me, yes, for others, no. In the end, what it boils down to is that it's all about personal taste and opinion. Oh, and the word "masterpiece" here can be considered a synonym for "what I consider to be outstandingly great, superb, and magnificent"! The Cowboys and The Witches of Eastwick? I wonder why these 2 were included. What makes this one of all John Williams scores so special for you? I like it, but I haven't delved very deeply into it yet, I'm afraid. I like the opening (the fluttering piano piece), a few incidental cues in between ("Max Lives"!), and the touching, emotional piano piece that plays toward the end... But that's pretty much it.

That's why I intentionally included the word "personally" in my original question. Everybody has their own definition of "masterpiece." Whatever you consider it to be, it is - for you personally! I couldn't disagree with you more when you say most of Williams's scores are flawed in some major way, but you have an interesting view on Nixon. It's not my all-time favourite score, but it sure is an interesting, eccentric, somewhat disturbingly haunting one! In that way, I guess it can be considered special.

I like Nixon, don't get me wrong. But I wouldn't exactly consider it to be outstanding among all of John Williams's works in any way. What makes it so special for you? Well, you don't have to think of all the JW scores (we all know E.T., Jaws, Star Wars, and Raiders of the Lost Ark are masterpieces!), but only his most recent works. Think back, so to speak. And name the 2 scores that you personally consider masterpieces.... Indeed! The only year even more magical was arguably 1993....

Yes! I'd like to think so. Hope dies last.

Always the same!

Maybe you didn't understand the question? Yes. That's actually what came to my mind first... but then I relented and included Memoirs in my list of masterpieces too. I mean this score is just so underrated (unlike the movie, which wasn't bad at all but nothing outstanding)!

Tough choice, but I'd say... 2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2005: Memoirs of a Geisha There are some real highlights that came thereafter (War Horse, The Adventures of Tintin, The Force Awakens), but I wouldn't exactly call them masterpieces.

It happened only once, didnt it? I didn't mind that... It wasn't necessary, but then who cares. If we ever got a 9-CD Complete Star Wars Prequel John Williams boxset I'd be willing to spend 200 bucks on it!!

Nah, it was either 100 or 200. I forgot which, but I feel like it was the latter... Over the years I spent 100 each on the OS albums of Jaws 2 and Dracula, too.

At this point it's only a question of whether we'll be getting the Complete Star Wars Prequel Scores during our lifetimes or not....

This actually made me want to go back to AotC. Dear Lord, what a magnificent, masterful score... This score gets better as the years go by, it seems, unlike the movie. Next year is its 20th anniversary. One can only hope.

Well, the decision makers behind the labels are people too. Maybe while discussing which project to tackle next and throwing around ideas, one of them could have suggested, "What about Born on the Fourth of July? I mean, we've been getting all these Tom Cruise scores as of late... Why not?" Well, it was just an idea.

A couple of years ago I spent like a hundred bucks (or was it 200?) for the original MCA soundtrack of TES... Oh well.

@Jay What's funny about this?

This would actually make sense. Recently, we got expanded releases of Minority Report, War of the Worlds, and Far and Away! At this point there's only one Tom Cruise / John Williams movie still missing...

I'd actually be pretty excited about an expanded edition of Sabrina. One of the more underrated JW scores...

Well, some releases are more spectacular than others...

He used the word "spectacular"... That makes me think of the Star Wars prequels, Indiana Jones original trilogy, or a Oliver Stone boxset (or at least one of the Oliver Stone scores)! Or it'll be one of the brilliant scores Patrick Williams wrote for Columbo! Actually he was one of the worst. The best was and will always be Dick DeBenedictis.

Wow, that's a gorgeous album...

No, I still have that. Locked up along with all my other JW albums.

This is one of the very few JW sets that I bought 3 times! One I gave my girlfriend, one was for myself, and I forgot what I did with the 3rd... I probably still have it somewhere, still sealed. And no, I'm not gonna by this edition now, just because it says 20th Anniversary on the front.

And I never said that. Same!

So to sum it up, most people will buy it, although most people don't know the score or haven't listened to it for a long time....