Trumpeteer

The theme isn't as pronounced in the film version, so it would have been difficult to spot, but since "Victory Celebration" was composed for the ROTJ Special Edition I had heard something similar was being done for TPM. So I listened extra close, and found the Emperor's Theme. I clearly remember gasping out loud. My friends didn't care. They didn't even notice the theme elsewhere in the movie.

:censored: :censored: And the answer is not always.

Musically, it's a great setup to "Anderton's Great Escape." I do wish the music had a flourish to go along with the camera move as the car goes from horizontal to vertical. It's not my favorite cue, but great use of strings.

I'm surprised the thread starter and others didn't immediately mention "Binary Sunset." I mean, honestly, people. Must you rely on your moderator for EVERYTHING?

I second KM's

Three moments I could listen to over and over and over. I think if I had to pick three musical moments to explain John Williams, these would be it: The bridge in the opening titles of "The Empire Strikes Back" between the string section and the second rendition of the main theme. Great orchestration. The moment after "I'll be right here" in "ET." The moment in "AI" when Monica abandons David in the woods, starting when she says "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the world." On CD, it's best represented in "Rogue City." That piano still astounds me.

What, you became a paleontologist with too much time on his hands? It cemented my love for film and started my love for film music. Schindler's List and The Firm did it for me, both later that year. It's odd how a lot of us were turned on to film music in 1993. Maybe that's the seminal year in film music.

I convinced my husband to let me go to Los Angeles all by myself (he thinks LA is overrun by gangs and rapists -- I told him I wasn't planning to go to Hollywood). Sadly, he's working that day, so he won't be able to officially experience the joy of being in a JW concert. I'm there on Saturday, July 14. I think where I'm sitting is good: Super seats section J1. Should we organize a mob effort to get autographs after the show? I'm still mad he refused us in Boston in 2004.

Great work by all involved. Can we get a color photo of JW, though?

I hope they use the music from "Chasm Crossfire."

It seems like this is the only movie in history that will be commemorated for all-time. I doubt anyone will celebrate the 70th birthday of "The Wizard of Oz" in 2009. Or the 50th birthday of "Psycho" in 2010.

I don't think they gave anything away before Kate and Jack met at the airport that would have suggested this was the future. Jack kept talking about his father as if he were alive. Maybe Jack was a frequent flier of Oceanic well before the crash. Heck, I thought the turbulence on the plane was showing us how much trouble that airline has on its flights. And we never really saw what happened to Jack after the divorce. I thought this was showing us his breakdown from his failed marriage and his rocky relationship with his father. We don't know how much time passed between his divorce and the crash. Why couldn't he have grown a beard and had some "resurrection," then shaved it off and became a better doctor? Not being the most technologically savvy person in the world, I didn't think anything abot the cell phone.

I knew about "Spacecamp," but it came and went so fast in 1986 that it was registered as a blip until it came out on video. Given the little time John Williams had to score "Munich" (about six weeks, I read), he did some pretty amazing things. And I'd pick "Munich" over "Home Alone 2" even with a gun to my head.

... would be similar to the dry spell we face now. I wonder what all of you would have been like if you realized that after the fun and brilliance and boldness of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," you were stuck with two calendar years without a Williams score. But then, the next two scores would turn out to be "Empire of the Sun" and "The Witches of Eastwick" in 1987. The first is good, not great. The second knocks my socks off every time. So, after the brilliance and boldness of "Munich" and "Memoirs of a Geisha," we are, after 20 years, in another dry spell. We made it through 2006 OK, save the stupidness that is Santaolalla's repeat Oscar thievery. We're almost at the halfway point of 2007, and all we're going to get is "Hedwig's Theme." Will we make it to summer 2008? Or will we revolt, as I'm sure JW fans of 1985 and 1986 certainly did?

I think I might as well! Watch out! Oh no! I can feel it! ------------------------ Seriously, I love this movie. I'm a sucker for long takes, and this film is chock full of them. And who can say no to Kate Winset as Ophelia? I'm sooo glad I can toss my VHS. Jeff -- who hasn't bought a DVD in 2007

Keep in mind that the period after 1975 was a dramatic change in moviemaking that was also decried as much as the current state. There used to be lush three-hour movies made with intermissions, grand adaptations of Broadway musicals made to reach to a wider audience, double features for B-movie fans (which is not popular today, as "Grindhouse" showed) and a more formal atmosphere at the movie theater. People loved it. They kept coming back to "Lawrence of Arabia" and "West Side Story." Then "Jaws" came and people thought the "old days" of movies were gone. They weren't; they just became known as "independent movies." With every new incarnation of the movie industry there is bound to be resistance and criticism. In time, another wave will come along and we'll wish we lived in a time when DVDs came out four months after the movie's theatrical run. There's a lot more I could say, but it's Friday and my brain is on a low-power state.

Take a look at the really good trailer for the next Harry Potter movie. Now, I only heard the main theme once, at the end, hummed and not complete. Are they going to completely do away with the JW themes? Even if the film's score wasn't complete for the trailer, does the omission of the main theme say something about a new direction for the series' music? Did the director say "F--- John Williams for backing out. We don't need his music. This unknown composer will make John Williams look like a kid banging on a toy piano."

"Lady in the Water" promised to be something special after "Signs" and especially after "The Village." It didn't turn out that way. And I'm just talking about the score. So forgive me if I say "whatever" to JNH's upcoming score. If I do happen to see the film, and the music turns out to be great, I still won't regret what I said. Given that the best score of 2006 -- "Pan's Labyrinth" -- came out of nowhere, I'm expecting the same this year.

Like what? Jeff -- who doesn't see anything in the horizon, and frankly doesn't look forward to any score other than Williams' before it's heard in the film

Leave this instant.

Try it now.

The blog at Entertainment Weekly asked people to write in about their weird soundtrack obsessions. Some interesting ones there, but I thought you'd all like to read about the winner. I made a comment in the post, so I hope I represent jwfan.com well.

If John Williams had done LOTR, he would have seven Oscars. Maybe eight if he had to write that song.

Only "Escape/Chase/Saying Goodbye" moves me more than "Auschwitz/Birkenau." Like the "ET" cue, it moves me more when blended with the visuals. The violin as the women get their hair cut, sure of their fate. The violin shudder as the camera zooms in on the gas room. The percussion/cymbal as the lights go out. The lonely violin at the shot of the smoke coming from the chimney. Watching the movie is a trying experience. Listening to the score isn't that bad, given the way it's sequenced.

I laughed when "John Williams" snorted coke. I stoped laughing when I heard this: "This is the theme song to Raiders of the Lost Ark." Obviously not made by music fans.