Percival

Not sure if this has been covered yet: JW being interviewed about War Horse. Apologies if it's old news ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vj6tIVxfao&feature=relmfu

Oh he didn't win the Washington DC WAFCA awards. Boo.

John Williams nominated for Best Score in Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association, winners to be announced 8am tomorrow morning: http://en.wikipedia....and_nominations http://www.wafca.com/awards/

New US television spot for War Horse

The most important bit though is that his Q&A session is going to be streamed live on MSN on the web so we can all watch it. Yay! http://www.facebook....322528461097972 "Tune in to MSN.com on Sunday, November 27th at 4:30pm EST for a live, world-wide Q&A event with Steven Spielberg! Watch Steven Spielberg interact with fans around the world and submit your own question for Spielberg during the event via a live chat function or tweet your questions using the hashtag #WarHorsemovie. Stay tuned for event details."

Some nice obsevrations in it: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118045838/

If any of you are Veterans in Canada, there are seven special screenings next Wednesday (16 November). Details here: http://www.brandonsun.com/entertainment/breaking-news/veterans-invited-to-advance-screening-of-steven-spielbergs-war-horse-133611338.html?thx=y

If any of you are Veterans in Canada, there are seven special screenings next Wednesday (16 November). Details here: http://www.brandonsun.com/entertainment/breaking-news/veterans-invited-to-advance-screening-of-steven-spielbergs-war-horse-133611338.html?thx=y

Great review, Incanus. It really helps my understanding of the music. I'm one of the detrators of the Celtic stylings ("And then there are the somewhat maligned Celtic music influences, the detractors indignant that such musical ideas should be present in music that should depict Englishness, since Celtic music apparently shares very few commonalities with English music but in the score, to the layman’s ears, this Celtic sound enhances the time and place quite strongly, lending the music further lyricism and warmth.") and I still hold that his use of it was a HUGE mis-step. It doesn't help set time and place in my opinion. Sense of place is such an important thing, and it just jars, really, REALLY badly, to hear the twiddly-diddly-di-doh themes which immediately bring to mind heather mountains in Scotland or peat bogs in Ireland, not the rough moors of Devon. It's like using mariachi music for action set in Washington DC - just doesn't fit. It's lazy. I didn't mention before because I didn't want to seem too much of a nay-sayer, but I found the obvious Americana of some of the themse odd too - bringing to mind sudden images of Monument Valley and wide open cowboy country. I realise it's hard judging the score alone when it has been composed specifically to fit to the film images, and that I will probably have a different reaction when seeing the film and hearing the music together. However, when he gets it right he soars (I adore the Vaughan Williams-ness of some parts, just divine and bang on for setting time and place); that's what makes the mis-steps so hard to take.

Ouch! Missed that one ....

Another review here: http://www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/war-horse-music-by-john-williams-review

According to Awards Daily, AMPAS have announced the long list of 18 animated films up for the Oscar nominations - and Tintin is there, no surprise. http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/11/18-animated-films-to-compete-for-oscar/

Another review here: http://theflickcast....y-john-williams 4.5/5 Again, beware of spoilers in the review (as it discusses spoilers...)

Thanks Ted. I'm very envious - we don't get to see it til January, so I'm looking forward to your longer review (the one above seemed pretty long to me, as it was!)

Detailed review here, but beware, it has spoilers: http://movievu.info/?p=699 and some reviews in the comments section here: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/11/lotta_horse_lov.php

Screening preview reactions gathered here: http://www.movieparliament.com/campaign-articles.html and http://www.awardscircuit.com/2011/11/02/whats-the-first-word-on-steven-spielbergs-war-horse/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whats-the-first-word-on-steven-spielbergs-war-horse

Another site with a round-up of reactions to the ealy screenings: http://www.awardscircuit.com/2011/11/02/whats-the-first-word-on-steven-spielbergs-war-horse/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whats-the-first-word-on-steven-spielbergs-war-horse

Thanks so much for putting up the YouTube review Merkel - the reviewer did a great job in not spoilering it, plus I love it that the film has a sense of humour - wasn't expecting that somehow. I'm even more excited because he says that the trailer doesn't really give away anything about the film, that there's much more to it. And of course, it's good to hear the 'magnificent' Maestro has come up trumps again.

How was it, Ted tpigeon? Dying to know. Meanwhile, first reactions on Twitter to the preview screenings have been compiled on this site: http://www.movieparl...n-articles.html "However there are some contrasting opinions regarding the score of John Williams. aaroncthomas Aaron Thomas- BORED by John Williams' score for War Horse. Oddly enough, I think his work on Tinitin is interesting. Do we predict dual Oscar noms? Ugh. Matthew_Lucas Matthew Lucas- New John Williams music. I'm in heaven. WAR HORSE is a gorgeous, classic Williams score. I've missed this."

Jason "It's not Tin space Tin. It's not TinTin, with a capital T in the middle of his name. It's one word. Capital T, small i, small n, small t, small i, small n. Thank you" LeBlanc is so going to be on your ass, Melange.

Whooo, waiting for the whole OST is going to be HARD! In Empire magazine, just out, there's an article on War Horse and an interview with Speilberg. It quotes him as saying in August: "He's [JW] got three themes in the movie, each one tops the one before." That's a little at odds with what he says in the OST booklet: "When I first heard John’s sketches of the four central themes for War Horse, I didn’t need my memories of the film to underscore the feelings I was having."

I've got the cd of Adrian Sutton's music for the stageplay and it's fantastic, (I put some YouTube links up to some of the music here: http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18813&st=400) so I was wondering how John Williams could top it, as people would be bound to draw comparisons. Based on what I've heard of JW's samples and the radio show tracks, he's pulled it off (not that I doubted he would for a minute). He's just so incredible. Once the excitement of having the JW soundtrack in my sweaty paws has died down a little, I think it will be fun to compare the two soundtracks theme by theme - I see Sutton's track 6 is 'Learning to Plough' and JW's track 6 's 'Plowing', for example ...

As John Tams was there for filming at Castle Combe (the Wiltshire village location standing in for Albert's Devon village), and Richard Curtis asked him "Do you want to see your f------ song in the film or not?" (http://theglamourcav...elberg-and.html), and as Tams plays a part in the tv series 'Sharpe' so is a seasoned actor, I wonder whether they got him to play a small part in the film and sing one of the songs from the stage show? That way you wouldn't expect it to be on the soundtrack as it would have nothing to do with JW. By the way - has anyone seen this? Interesting that in the comments, Adrian Sutton's score is likened to RVW as well.

Don't agree with you at all there, Incanus, about the folk music. He's got Ralph Vaugham Willams pastoral vibe down to a tee, but the folky music is Celtic in style. Just so wrong for a film set in Devon. What jars is that JW has been so brilliant at setting the English pastoral scene, and then he blows it by chucking in a load of Celtic (Scottish and Irish diddly di-doh) themes into The Homecoming. The first notes on the flute are a case in point. I know Americans can be geographically challenged, but the English folk tradition bears very little relation to the fiddle/flute heavy 'Celtic' music of Scotland and Ireland. So I was surprised and a little disappointed to see JW had used it. It just jars when the film's homecoming is set in Devon: it doesn't fit, at all. It's like using flamenco music in a film set in Italy. JW knows his music, so I am at a loss to know why he did this.

Here's the Wikipedia page views for The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse so far in October 2011: http://stats.grok.se/en/201110/The_Adventures_of_Tintin http://stats.grok.se/en/201110/War_Horse_%28film%29 September 2011: http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/The_Adventures_of_Tintin http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/War_Horse_%28film%29 and as far back as you can be bothered to look ... So far, it looks like pretty equal interest in the two.