Dole

I like the Hitchcock classics The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. The French classic The Grand Illusion is also one of the best films ever made in my opinion. Dole- who loves TCM too.

I laughed too hard at that moment. That was the campiest thing I've seen in a movie in a long, long time. I agree with elvisjones2005 though. I thought the humor associated with R2 was great. Reminded me of the old trilogy too. Loved the part where he zaps the super battle droid and is kicked over in return. Dole

Best Score of 2004: The Terminal Best Cue of 2004: Jazz Autographs Best Action Cue of 2004: Quidditch, Third Year Best Theme of 2004: The Tale of Viktor Navorski Best Album Release of 2004: The Terminal Best Re-Release of 2004: Mary Poppins (not JW I know, but better than any JW re-release) Best Non-JW Score of 2004: The Incredibles (Giacchino) Best Non-JW Composer of 2004: Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles) Dole

Does anyone know how to stop Microsoft Media Player from putting those extra two seconds at the beginning of every track when burning CD's? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Dole

Close Encounters I think. From their facial expressions, I'd say that President and Mrs. Bush had no idea what movie the Superman theme was from! I agree that they it must have been somewhat depressing for JW that the most recent piece in the medley came from 1982 but what a night for him. It was so nice of Spielberg to say that JW was the best thing to happen to him professionally and I think he really meant it. Whoever it was who was saying Williams won't score War of the Worlds has to be out of his mind, regardless of what the teasers do or do not say! It was nice to see JW with hair, and I loved his expression when Spielberg doubted his ability concerning something during the Jaws sessions! Congrats Mr. Williams. What an honor! Dole

Just to clear a couple of things up: First, Alfred Newman won nine Oscars for scoring (I think) starting in 1938 with Alexander's Ragtime Band. That was the first year the Academy started giving the award to the composer rather than the studio's music dept. head. Newman never won as the head of Fox's music dept. because no Fox film score won the Oscar between 1934 and 1937. Newman won so many Oscars because they had two scoring categories for most of his life and he won in the musical category often for adapting scores for films like The King and I and Camelot. However, I think that Williams, with a couple more nominations, will surpass Newman to become the #2 most nominated person in history and the #1 most nominated person for individual creative acheivement since Walt Disney (who's the most nominated with 60-some nods) got most of his for producing animated shorts. I think that will be a MAJOR accomplishment and Whoopi Goldberg or Billy Crystal or whoever it is damn well better mention it at the Awards telecast the night it happens. Second, the Thalberg award is given to producers for excellence in producing. So technically Spielberg and Lucas were being recognized for their producing credits not their directing etc. Finally, let's keep this whole thing in perspective shall we... It may be a travesty that Williams only has five Oscars and Goldsmith only ever won 1, but Bernard Herrmann only was ever even nominated 4 times in his life and two of those nominations were posthumous. I think that says more about the genius and righteousness of the Academy's music branch than anything else. People will remember the losing "Raider's March" and not-even-nominated shower music from Psycho long after they've forgotten that winning films like Il Postino and 'Round Midnight even exist. The Oscars are wothless in the long run. That's just my 2 cents. Dole

This is awesome. Thanks for posting the info. The only complaint I have about the soundtrack (and it's a minor one) is that the full expanded version of "Let's Go Fly a Kite/Finale" is not going to be included. Other than that it looks practically perfect in every way. Can't wait. Now I only wish they'd do the same for Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Dole

Ahhh. Good old Monty Python. "Aw wight. We will give you one wast chance. This time I want to hear no Wuebans, no Weginalds, no Wudolph the Wed-Nosed Weindeers...No Thpencer Twacys...or we shall wewease no one!" "Round up the usual suspects!" "Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue." Something along the lines of "We will be swept into the White House with powers that will make marshall law look like anarchy!" "I'm a man!" "Well, nobody's perfect." Dole

Oh well then...I'm sure Episode III will be right up his alley. At least the editing will be better. The end of the Meadow Picnic scene in AOTC should be used in film schools as a prime example of how not to edit film. By the way, I believe Burtt's is listed on some sights as a film editor on ROTS because he is the one editing all of the animatic sequences that are being used during production just as he did on AOTC's action animatic sequences. Dole

Neil, your sig. picture is hilarious. Dole

Oh dear God...I'm going to defend Ben Burtt...here I go... 1. I am HUGE JW fan and I appreciate every note he wrote for the SW trilogy, but the omission of some of those notes in the final films is, in my opinion, a good thing. The early Hoth sequences work better without the music Williams wrote (the lack of music reinforces the isolation of Han and Luke in a hazardous envirnoment). I think the Dianoga scene is better without music as well. In the original trilogy, only the duel from ROTJ was scored (and left intact in the final film). Again, personally I think the duel from ESB works better without the music JW composed for that scene. My point is this...I don't want Williams scoring every scene in the film. I want him to score the scenes he thinks need music. So...if the final duel sequence in Ep. III needs music, Lucas and Williams should insist on music. If it doesn't need music, JW shouldn't record music for the sequence just for the sake of a great album track or whatever. 2. Many key sequences in the original trilogy are not scored. The speeder bike chase was not scored at all and I suspect that Burtt might have suggested that it be a sequence to showcase his sound design not Williams's music, and I for one think it works just fine without music regardless of how kick-ass an action cue JW might have composed for it. Burtt may be competitive with Williams and I hate the man for what he did to Williams's music for the AOTC Arena sequence and for his film editing on that film, but that doesn't mean that every opinion he has about the sound design for Ep. 3 is a Salieri-like plot to destroy John Williams. Burtt is a horrible film editor and he should leave Williams's music alonw once it is recorded, but he is a genius at sound design and I trust that he does have some valid creative ideas and opinions about the way sound and music should interact in a particular scene. Just my $0.02 Dole

A couple of months ago, someone on this mb posted that Disney would be releasing a new 2-CD soundtrack for Mary Poppins to celebrate the films 40th anniversary this year. Does anyone have any more info about the CD's and their release date? Thanks. Dole

Oh come on everybody. Lighten up! It's perfectly obvious why this has been done. Lucas always intended to reverse the audio channels and dial some of the more distracting music down to complete inaudibility, but as the May 1977 release date grew closer, Lucas simply ran out of the time and money he needed to realize this particular aspect of his vision for the film. Now, 27 years and billions of dollars later, he has been able to finally go back and correct some of these blatant errors in the sound mix (gaffes which have always been noticeable to me and have diminished my enoyment of this classic film). Now, finally we can hear (or rather not hear) the soundtrack as the film's creator/director/writer/executive producer originally intended it to sound. So please everyone, stop complaining, because quite frankly none of you has a clue as to what you're talking about. If Lucas had had the money and the time back in 1977, the mix on the DVD of Star Wars is exactly the mix everyone would have heard back in 1977. This is not a deviation from the original version of the film people, this is getting back to what the original version of the film was supposed to be. Dole- who firmly believes that a film's sound mix is never finished, only abandoned.

The Ten Commandments was the second score I really fell in love with (Star Wars being the first). I remember when I was very young, I waited an entire year for the Passover season to roll around again so that I could record the opening titles music. I cranked the TV volume way up and placed my cassette recorder in front of the speakers so I could listen to his music all year round. In the past few years I really came to admire and respect him as someone who seemed to care quite a bit about helping aspiring composers. He did the Turner Classic Movie Young Composer contest and was a frequent guest at film schools, film museums, and special events. For The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Far From Heaven, To Kill a Mockingbird and so many other great scores, thank you Mr. Bernstein. Rest in peace. Dole- who guesses it's not very prudent to yell at God but..."c'mon...Raskin, Goldsmith, and Bernstein are enough for a while."

The person on that site raises an interesting question: Why is it that Williams stopped working with Eric Tomlinson after Return of the Jedi following such a string of superbly recorded scores such as Raiders, Fiddler on the Roof, Superman, and the SW Trilogy? Anybody know? Dole

Thanks for the info about the Poppins soundtrack. I was just listening to the song soundtrack the other day and wondering if Disney would ever release the full soundtrack. Can't wait. By the way, does anyone know if there's a similar soundtrack for the Sherman Brothers' Bedknobs and Broomsticks? Dole

Can anyone identify a piece of music for me? It's the music (played on strings) that underscores the scene where Schindler goes to the restaurant to meet Nazi bigwigs for the first time a few minutes into Schindler's List. The music is also used in the film Bad Santa when Billy Bob Thorton is going through the house of the person whose car he's stolen from the valet parking in Florida and I believe it's also used during the tango scene in Scent of a Woman with Pacino. Thanks to anyone who can help. Dole

Yes, Bob Dole saw you winding the composer's clock, but he also saw you miss the bus in N by NW and...well...whatever it was you did in Vertigo. And speaking of composers, North by Northwest and Vertigo both have something going for them that Rear Window doesn't: great scores by Bernard Herrmann. No. Bob Dole auditioned for that part but was told he was too old. Thanks for bringing up bad memories. Bob Dole had the last laugh though. You don't see the Viagra people knocking down Erich von Stroheim's door asking him to do commercials do you? Dole- who thinks Rear Window is a good film, but thinks North by Northwest, Vertigo, The Lady Vanishes, and The 39 Steps are even better!

Here's my top ten: 1. The Manchurian Candidate: One of the greatest thrillers ever made with one of the worst villianesses in cinematic history. See it before the remake comes out next month. 2. The Grand Illusion: Beautiful WWI French anti-war film. 3. Rashomon: Japanese film about a murder told from the perspective of several different witnesses. One of Kurosawa's best. 4. The Grapes of Wrath: Moving performances by Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell in this Ford/Steinbeck film about a poor family's tragic struggles to survive during the Dust Bowl and Depression. 5. Arsenic and Old Lace: One of the funniest over-the-top comedies ever made. 6. Sunset Boulevard: Tragically funny story about a washed-up silent screen star trying to make a comeback in the age of sound. 7. Vertigo or North by Northwest: Greatest Hitchcock films. (With all respect to master Hitch, I think both are better then Rear Window) 8. Bringing up Baby: Great screwball comedy with K. Hepburn, Cary Grant, a brontosaurus skeleton, and a couple of leopards. 9. The Color Purple: Powerful, often-overlooked Spielberg film. 10. City Lights: Excellent mix of comedy and tear-jerking romance. One of Charlie Chaplin's finest films. Run, don't walk, to Blockbuster, rent this film, and watch it all the way through. Dole

1. Schindler's List **** 2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade **** 3. Raiders of the Lost Ark **** 4. Jaws **** 5. E.T. **** 6. Minority Report **** 7. The Color Purple *** 1/2 8. Close Encounters *** 1/2 9. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom *** 1/2 10. Jurassic Park *** 1/2 11. 1941 *** 12. Amistad *** 13. Catch Me if You Can *** 14. The Sugarland Express ** 1/2 15. Hook ** 1/2 16. A.I. ** 1/2 17. Always ** 1/2 18. Saving Private Ryan ** 1/2 19. Empire of the Sun ** 20. The Lost World * Dole- who HATES The Lost World 17.

If I remember correctly, Williams cancelled an appearance at a concert in Boston at the last minute in Nov. 2001 because he was too busy with Attack of the Clones. Maybe someone here can back me up on this. I don't remember all the details. Dole

My favorites: 1. John Williams (duh!) 2. Bernard Herrmann 3. Miklos Rosza 4. Danny Elfman 5. Jerry Goldsmith 6. Alfred Newman 7. Max Steiner 8. Trevor Jones 9. Howard Shore 10. James Horner (if only for his truly inspired scores such as Star Trek II and Braveheart) Dole

Daylight Savings Time in the U.S. doesn't end until 2 AM local time Sunday morning. I'm not sure if other countries use daylight savings time. So, if you don't fall back an hour, you should listen according to the summer schedule because California will still not have fallen back an hour at the time of the concert. However, if you do fall back an hour tongiht in Belgium, there'd actually only be five hours difference in time between you and California until 2 AM Pacific time. Hope that helps. By the way, do other countries use daylight savings time or is it just a US/North America thing? Dole

He did... based on the research that Milius did... Actually, John Milius dictated the monologue to Spielberg over the telephone. Spielberg jotted it down and I'm not sure whether Shaw touched it. I read in an interview with Milius that Shaw was having an affair with his assistant or something while Jaws was filming and when it came time to do the scene, he had just finished...well...you know... with her and he was dead drunk. By the time the cameras were rolling he was a bit remorseful about the whole thing and was sort of feeling a lot of self-pity concerning the state of his private life and that's why the scene is so emotionally played by Shaw. But I don't think he changed too much of what Milius wrote. The interview was over at ignforce or something like that. They also have an extremely insightful interview with SW/ESB producer Gary Kurtz. Dole

Maybe not if he's recording the score in January again. He first saw TPM in October of 1998 and recorded the score in Feb. and March of 1999. He recorded the AOTC score in January and February and was so time-pressed by the project (plus the Olympics) that he had to cancel an appearance at a concert with the Boston Pops if I recall correctly. Dole