charlesk

This topic makes me so sad, that I just had to come back just to reply to it. You are right: United States of America ('America' alone is not a country, but a whole continent) doesn't have the best education system in the world. If fact, it is pretty bad, considering the resources and the power it has as a country. For that SAME REASON, people like yourself "can't think of any unbelievable talented person who is not american", since you haven't seen them on TV, or study them at school. If you truly admire talent, you'll have to compensate the subpar education you have received with a lot of reading and researching. You will be impressed to find that your list of unbelievable talented americans, which include, amazingly, people such as Mr. Copperfield, is quickly replaced by a lot of far more talented people from all around the world. It is also a bit worrisome to hear that some people think most talented people are from USA, because this type of ignorance could easily degenerate into nationalistic fanatism that will make it easy for people's conscience to discard the importance of other countries and make it easier to invade them for USA's profit (since they are just lame and untalented) Also, I would like to bring to your attention that the people in your list are only people from the entertaintment industry and since USA is undoubtely the first country in terms of this particular industry, it is just natural that this list is dominated by residents of this country, but you'll have to agree with me that entertaintment alone is not the only legacy to mankind. Since you are one of the few privileged ones that can understand complex orchestral music such as Williams' I have hopes that in a few years you'll think about this topic in a way totally different from today. -Charles

Well, I told you before, and is a great piece... next time, invite me to the recording sessions

I was wondering how long it would take until a thread with this topic name will start having political connotations. Without discussing about politics, have any of you guys seen then republican party opening earlier this year when they used Goldsmith's end credits for "Rudy" when George and brother Jebb made a choreographed entrance? George shaked hands in fake slow motion when the emotive Rudy theme played and Jebb stood at the podium in synch with the final chord. Hilariously manipulative . I assume they had to pay Goldsmith to play it on National TV or he donated the royalties. Or is it the studio who owns this music?

Actually I just made the same suggestion to a person in chat: to restore Yared's rejected Troy and use it in Alexander. Of course is not possible. What intrigues me is that Oliver Stone should know better about good sounding sountracks... and Williams turning down an epic by Oliver Stone??? I think if he would have asked, Williams would have squeezed it somewhere in his schedule, unless he had had a bad experience with this director, which I'm not aware of. For musicians, this Vangelis track is a big dissappointing because is basic harmony 101, no orchestration, just what it would have come out by improvising at the synths. Vangelis has done much better in the past.

Is crap... sounds like Horner for Dummies

yeah, it is kind of a rude title... people usually don't use the word 'dead' when someone passes away. Anyway, there is the sticky thread for good old Goldsmith...

Damien Omen, Final Conflict, Star Trek TMP, Theme for The Edge.... I would rather vote favorite cues, since there are interesting things all over his works. The Omen trilogy really blow my mind, it's so energetic and organic and he does so many interesting things in strings and choir. I love the unique 'noises' and weird sounds and instruments he incorporates as signature for each score. It's a nice touch. In the documentary Morlock mentions they say it was an insiders joke among Goldsmiths musicians that if during rehearsals some worker made a noise outside the studio, Goldsmith would call him in and make the noise part of the score

I didn't know he was battling with cancer either. It's a sad day in filmmusic. I also find it sad that the actual news title is "Oscar-Winning composer dies", reminding us how unfair the Academy was with this talented man. Rise, Maestro, to the theme of The Edge. Charles

Wow! 57% classical? BTW... I AM offended by stereotypes when I say I like classical and people think of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons violin concerts, Handel's Messiah and Beethoven's Fifth. That's only a diminute part of what classical music is. I burned those when I was 13 years old. I still enjoy them, but what I hear of classical nowadays is much closer to Williams than Vivaldi's. Some of the more recent composers from the 20th century have amazing works of thrilling action and emotion that could be easily be confused with some of Williams best scores. Just check out some Shostakovich's symphonies, Prokofiev, Stravinsky... I just wish more contemporary composers did works for full orchestra, some amazing stuff is coming out with the introduction of computer-assisted composition techniques. And finally, the main reason I admire Williams so much is that the fact he's 'only' scoring a film doesn't stop him from composing authentic works of musical art, and explore and reinvent himself.

I saw Spider Man 2 as well. It was better acted than the first one, Elfman score with choir was better developed, but still no unforgettable theme. It dealt in its mayority with internal and relationships conflicts, a coming out story, you could substitute the word "Spiderman" in "We can't be together ever, because I am Spiderman", with other coming out words, like for instance "gay" and it will make the same effect. It has some plot flaws, like *spoiler Why Doc Octopus needs to go capture Spiderman to get what he wants, he could have forced the guy to give it to him much easier endspoiler* but overall I thought it was better than the first one, although it won't make the same effect in small kids, since is less action driven and addresses more mature issues. Charles

Although "Troy" was more like "The Horner's hacked repeated generic vaguely ethnic wail" :roll:

So preview audiences found Yared unfinished monitor mix score outdated. Could it be just the sound of the low quality monitor mix? Here's a clean copy of Yared's statement http://www.dertrojanischekrieg.de/statement.html Score rejections because of preview audiences first impressions are idiotic anyway. So, what's the solution? Hire a last minute composer that will do a job in like two weeks, put the new score in and send it out to theaters without another preview? Was Horner subject to the same preview audience judgement? Were both scores judged side by side before deciding which one works better? Could it be that the same audience that didn't like Yared's score would have said that Horner's actually sucked, and they preferred Yared's version instead? I haven't found anything as beautiful as Yared's End credits song in Horner, nor the gloriousness of Yared's action and triumphant themes. Horner's score is average, Yared's is exceptional.

I was watching Alien yesterday, and realized that it has to be the greatest monster ever. It sums up so many phobias and fears: 1- It looks like a big insect 2- It looks repugnant 3- It jumps from its egg directly to your face 4- It grows inside you and breaks its way out your stomach 5- It's intelligent and fast and works in flocks and can hide anywhere 6- It you destroy it you'll be burned by its acid blood. In comparison, King Kong is a sweet oversized monkey and a pretty easy target to destroy. Size does not matter. If fact, we feel more scared of little creatures like rats. That poll is ridiculous.

I'm not Hermoine's Crush composer, but I did the rendering of the version you heard. It was made with my newly adquired Garritan's Personal Orchestra libraries. That was one of my first tries in using the library, I could have done it better (the libraries sound especially great when you play the notes, instead of using a notation software). They are a great value and one of my favorite toys. I hope to use them in my own stuff soon

Yeah, where is old Basil? 8O I was watching Les Miserables and he wasn't even nominated for that one.

Yeah, I love the Titles with the full rendition of Terence Blanchard hymn. Very effective.

HEHE, yeah, if Brat Pitt is Achilles, then Colin Farrell must be... err.... Alexander The Great It is also ironic that at the end of the trailer Pitt asks "is there no one else??" Yeah, is there no one else for that character? The battle scenes in the trailer look more convincing and real than LOTR, though, it might be worth watching.

Last Films I watched: Ben-Hur (with adult eyes): Man, what an ambitious movie. It has the construction of an opera. In the manner of those times, it began with a purely musical overture (while people find a seat in the theater). Great for movie composers to show off. Then it has an preface of about 15 minutes of backstory, THEN the movie actually begins with full credits and the theme again... The story builds to a clear climax of the first act, has an intermission musical section while people smoke outside the theater, then begins are clear second act with a hero's new goal, as the Hollywood recipe dictates. Then the Chariot Race... hehe, Lucas, what a hack you are by copying this in the pod race of Episode 1. Ben-Hur's chariot race is with those live stunts more thrilling than pod race's CGI. When the horses jumped over a fallen chariot and Ben-Hur (double) was catapulted to the front I had to say "WOW", because that was a real person who did it, and real horses. Overall a great cinematic experience that I missed when I was a child due to repetitive TV re-runs during Christmas and pass-over and bad print quality; instead, the restoration of this DVD version is impecable. Spartacus (with adult eyes): The mere existence of this restored Spartacus make totally unjustified the lousy copycat "Gladiator". It features the battle in its full, with shots of men being dismembered, and the polemic bisexual scene in which Laurence Olivier attempts to seduce Tony Curtis. At one point Geoffrey Shurlock, representing the censors, suggested it would help if the reference in the scene to a preference for oysters or snails was changed to truffles and artichokes. The soundtrack was lost, and Tony Curtis and Anthony Hopkins dubbed the dialogue, since Olivier had died. What a riot. High and Low (a Kurosawa movie with no samurais?? ): I had to see this film by Peio's recommendation, and it was great, in the style of Hitchock, made Gibson's remake in Ransom a pale excuse for a movie. Family Plot: Last Alfred Hitchcock film, featuring music by our very own John Williams. It was ... enjoyable... the story had potential, but hitch preferred to use cheap soap-operish actors and you can't help to be sugested that you are watching a sitcom. Hitchcock makes his usual cameo this time showing only his shadow, and that's what this film is exactly, a shadow of old Hitch's glory, but at least he had good eye for stories. As for the bad movies I've seen lately: City by the Sea, Lara Croft: The Cradle of Life, SWAT and Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow deserves a mention on its own, was this an attempt of horror or comedy. Because it wasn't scary at all and even less comedic. I've never seen a movie so bad acted, Johnny Depp should try to remove this movie from his resume if he wants to ever be regarded as good actor.

That's a hauntingly big scoresheet. It seems to catapult up to infinitum. It is even scarier when you realize that you have to fill many of these pages completely only to represent a few seconds of music each (some of which the director will cut with lousy edits). I play piano and for small things like notes I can write with my left hand. I was playing a romantic piano piece the other day and a person pointed out that my left hand, which plays accompaniment, had much more work to do than my right hand, which plays melody. And I realized that piano playing is like that most of the times, your left hand is being trained a lot and trained to work without looking at it and demanded to be more agile than the right hand. However, I just thing Williams was asked to pose like that in that photo

Amazing post, Jeshopk. I enjoyed it very much and I hate those stupid self-appointed musical scholars that can't compose and still bash the likes of John Williams.

But...but.....the Ninth? That's my favorite. The first movement is considered one of the finest compositions ever. The last adagio is amazing. My second choice is Mahler's own favorite, the Fifth. Then the 2nd, then the sixth with its incredible Andante. It's always a joy to follow then with the score.

HEHEHE, maybe in a future DVD release we will see in Williams' filmography his numerous works playing classical guitar and stuff LOL

Charles, your statment has 2 problems. Robert DeNiro is a good actor. and Robert DeNiro is a good actor. I know this is actually one reason but it was such a huge gaping reason that I thought I should mention it twice. Justin - I 'thought' De Niro was a good actor until several days ago when looking among the few movies I haven't seen I rented City by the Sea "because is a De Niro movie!" and as I was bored looking at it, I suddenly realized that he was playing the same tough frustrated cop character he always plays... and when he ever played something else, i could never take off my mind the tough frustrated sexually repressed image from his interpretations, so, can he act? Maybe he's just like that and he's type-casted.

For me the lousiest movie would be a romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Keanu Reeves. Tom Cruise could be the cocky brother of Julia that disagrees with her boyfriend. Robert De Niro would be her father, of course playing as usual the tough frustrated ex-cop of some sorts. Tobey Maguire will be Julia's ex-boyfriend and Angelina Jolie will try to steal Julia's boyfriend. Brendan Fraser could play Keanu's co-worker and best friend. Arnold Scharzenegger will be Keanu's boss and will coach Keanu in how to treat women and be romantic. Richard Gere would be Keanu's caring father and Mark Wahlberg will be Keanu's brother. Sandra Bullock will be Julia's sister. I discard bad acting in the Star Wars movies, because they were directed by Lucas, whose directing style almost made Sir Alec Guiness and Liam Neeson look stiff. Will Smith is a bad actor, Six Degrees of Separation is an exception and I attribute all merits to director Fred Schepisi, who can make normal actors act real well, like Sam Neil in A Cry in the Dark. I purposely ignored Pamela Anderson (is she an actress at all?). I left Kevin Costner out just for pity of his dying career. Also I didn't mention Sharon Stone because at least she's sexy, and Cameron Diaz because she can do comedy.

Reasons why I don't consider the Academy an authoritative judge on fine music: 1960: Exodus-Ernest Gold won over Alex North's Spartacus 1969: Bacharach's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid won over Williams' The Reivers 1970: Love Story by some Francis Lai won over Goldsmith's Patton 1978: Giorgio Moroder's Midnigh Express won over Williams' Superman :? 1979: Georges Delerue's A Little Romance won over Goldsmith's Star Trek TMP :roll: 1980: Michael Gore's Fame won over Williams Empire Strikes Back banghead 1981: Vangelis' Chariots of Fire won over Raiders of the Lost Ark censored 1987: The Last Emperor won over Empire of the Sun, Morricone's The Untouchables, and Witches of Eastwick 1989: Menken's The Little Mermaid won over Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Little Mermaid is a musical for God's sakes, don't the have another category?) 1991 and 1992: Menken won for Beauty and the Best and Aladdin, two musicals. 1996: The English Patient ( ) won over Sleepers 8O (yeah, the irony) 1997: Titanic won over Amistad and others.... need more proof? 2001: LoRT won over A.I. 8O So, it seems that in many cases, the Academy has a great eye (or ear) for the most forgettable scores ever written. If anybody remembers A Little Romance over Star Trek, Midnight Express over Superman I'll cut one of my testicles and cook it for dinner. The Oscars are not always representative of quality moviemaking. They are not to be trusted.