Dole

1. The music is memorable. When you hear those strumming guitar chords, you think of the movie. Geisha's a little more comlex of a score. Not saying Brokeback was a great score but it's like that terrible zither theme in The Third Man that keeps repeating over and over and over again. Anyone who hears that zither music has to think Third Man. Anyone who hears the Brokeback score has to think of the film as well I think. 2. Best score seems to be category that's often used as a consolation prize for films that are not going to win one of the major awards that they have been predicted to win. Since the voters chose Crash over Brokeback for pic. and Hoffman over Ledger for actor they probably voted for the score to make up for it.

I did not like it. I love Wilder in everything, but I just didn't find it all that funny. Of course, I've never seen a Frankenstein movie, so that might have something to do with it. :roll: Yeah, that might have something to do with it. That's like seeing Spaceballs without ever having seen the Star Wars movies. There are so many great homages to Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein. The score and the sets are absolutely perfect as well. I think it's the second-finest spoof ever (after Airplane).

The 90's is my second favorite decade for music after the 60's. Nirvana, Oasis, and the emergence of hip hop/rap into the mainstream with Vanilla Ice, 2pac, BIG, Eminem, Snoop, and others. Still can't beat the 60's though.

This is one of those threads that makes me pray to God that Williams never got that invitation to check out this message board!

The Producers is the best Mel Brooks movie ever (the original one with Gene Wilder, not the musical version with Nathan Lane). Classic comedy.

Bad films!? The Ewoks movies aren't that bad. They're meant for kids. They're at least better than the prequels.

Battle of the Heroes all the way

One of my favorite composer stories is when someone confronted Bernard Herrmann about some similar sounding music in a couple of his scores and he responded something along the lines of "Of course the music sounds similar. It was written by the same person you f*&%ing idiot!" Oh and I think the worst example for JW is The Unfinished Journey which is just Williams completely plaigarizing himself from start to finish (Amistad, The Last Crusade, Far and Away, Empire of the Sun, etc.) Dole

I thought in one of the music featurettes on the AOTC website that Williams specifically addressed using the Federation march in that scene saying that is was meant to be a red herring to lead the audience to think it was the Federation/Separatists behind the army. Does anyone else remember this interview or featurette? Maybe it's on the DVD or something. Dole

I was just browsing through some ROTS score stuff today and read that Ken Wannberg came out of retirement to do the score for Episode III (one last round with Ben Burtt no doubt). I didn't realize that he had retired. Is this true? Is this why he has been listed as "supervising music editor" on so many of the last few score albums with another person being credited as "music editor" or are they two different positions? Thanks. Dole

I'd bet money that if he did write a theme for us, we'd end up criticizing it! Dole

Agreed. But you're in good company. Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, and Howard Hawks never won for directing either. And Kim Basinger has won more competitive Oscars than Peter O'Toole, Ian McKellan, Cary Grant, Glenn Close, Kirk Douglas, and Angela Lansbury combined. Go figure. Stupid Academy! Dole

It depends. Some read the script (JW never does). and start to think of appropriate music. If the film requires source music (music that's being played or sung onscreen or if music is an essential part of the story like in Close Encounters) the composer might be brought in before filming begins. Usually composers see a close to final edit of the film a few months before its release and talk to the director about what kind of music they want where. They then get a copy of the film and compose the music for it. JW says that if he can do 2 minutes of music a day, it's a good day. Some composers do the entire score, while others compose the main melodies etc. and then hand it over to orchestrators who do the orchestra arrangements. They then record the score (usually about 20 minutes a day with a union orchestra because that's all the rules allow for). Some directors like Steven Spielberg like to be very involved in the process and ask composers to get themes and such approved before they put them into the score. Other directors take a hands off approach and don't see the composer at all between the spotting session and the recording sessions. Then it's up to the sound mixer and the music editor to put the music in the film. Anyway...I think that's kind of a very general idea of what happens. If you're asking about the creative process, I have no idea or else I'd be composing film scores myself. Dole

He probably visited once but mistook this for a Jerry Goldsmith fan club website. Honestly, I think it's actually gotten better. Remember back around 1999-2003 when a monthly topic used to be something like "Who would you want to replace JW on the Star Wars movies if he slipped in the shower, cracked open his head on the faucet, and slowly bled to death tonght?" I was always worried he might see those kind of topics. Dole

Yes. "Que Sera Sera" won an Oscar...and Hitchcock never did. I think that pretty well sums up the value of the Academy Awards. Dole

Dole: Throwing as many rocks as he can find! BTW, Dr. No is a god awful terrible score for a good film.

The Jungle Book The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes Spellbound Julius Caesar Lust for Life Ivanhoe (not sure how many of those are available anymore) Dole

These are what I would classify as must see 30's films (aside from the ones that have already been mentioned): Bringing Up Baby (the mother of screwball comedies) Bride of Frankenstein (both the film and Waxman's great score) It Happened One Night 3 Hitchcock classics: The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, & The Man Who Knew Too Much (much better than 50's version with Doris Day & that damn song!) M Top Hat (Great Irving Berlin songs) The Good Earth Grand Illusion Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs A Night at the Opera Dole

You MUST buy Vertigo and North by Northwest. I prefer the McNeely/Scottish Orchestra re-recording of Vertigo personally but either way both scores are absolutely brilliant. Herrmann was a genius. Too bad the academy never recognized that. I think he received five oscar nominations his whole life, and two of those came after he was dead! The best Herrmann reference by Williams is the three note Taxi Driver/Psycho motif that Williams quotes when Han and company emerge from the Falcon compartments on the Death Star in Star Wars. Too bad some of the best parts of the North by Northwest score (Overture, The Wild Ride, On the Rocks) are of extremely poor quality on the TCM release. I can't believe such great film music was treated like *&$# by the studios when they archived it. I heard that the sheet music to Doctor Zhivago was actually thrown away after the recording sessions were over. Unforgivable... Dole

The over-the-top cue where James Bond kills a spider in Dr. No. That is hilariously awful and a great example of why I'm glad Barry was hired to compose the next several Bond scores instead of Monty Norman. Dole

You're welcome. Bob Dole thanks you for your kind comments. St. Olaf's is a beautiful place. Bob Dole remembers when he voted to make Minnesota a state. Ahhh...the good ol' Senate days! Dole

My apologies if this has already been discussed here, but I just wanted to voice my utter digust with the Julliard review in the NY Times concerning JW. Apparently, Williams (the second-most nominated person in Oscar history and a Kennedy Center Honoree) is some sort of hack who Julliard should be embarrassed to call an alum. I hope that I live to see the day when film music garners the respect it deserves. I can't understand why classical music lovers continue to see film music as inferior. Film music is like the opera music of our time. Things change. Get over it! It's a different medium for a different time. Strange that Leonard Bernstein, Copland, and Prokofiev among others all scored films! I hope that these reviewers will one day wake up and realize that the kind of disrespect they show for Williams, Herrmann, Goldsmith and others smells of the same kind of disrespect given to classical composers who went largely unappreciated during their lifetimes. Williams is more telegenic than he is musically talented? Give me a break... :roll: Dole

I read that part of the Pinocchio score was lost and later found in the Disney vaults, but I'm not sure if that's true. Dole

"You and I are just passing through history. This...this is improved history!" Dole- who loves that South Park episode

I heard several instrumental quotes of the Emperor's theme throughout the film. I'd like to have those as well. Dole