Quintus

Yes Michael Ironside is a great suggestion, minus the american accent of course. But a little tution could solve that. Liam Neeson's voice on the otherhand didn't carry enough heft as Aslan the lion. But perhaps with a little digital manipulation it could work. Whoever does the voice will probably have it tweaked anyway, as with Treebeard.

Smart ass. You knew what I was getting at. LOTR is fantasy grounded in reality.

Yes, he speaks at length actually. Its works very well in the book, but it may prove difficult to keep a sense of realism in the film. Mind you, I thought that they would struggle with Treebeards voice, but they figured that out just fine, so perhaps my caution is unfounded.

Anthony Hopkins with some vocal alteration could be interesting as Smaug. Hmm, who's to say that PJ would actually allow Smaug to speak at all? Smaug in a speaking role is not a given.

Check out Silvestri's The Abyss. The scene were Ed Harris is rescued by the jelly fish broke the record for depth I believe.

I think its fair to say that the score to Terminator 2 is quite superb. Yes it sounds bloody awful as a stand alone work, but within the movie not only does it serve its purpose - it succeeds on every level, in movie scoring terms.

The original Evil Dead wouldn't be half as good as it is without its horrible score. In a weird kind of way it's predominately synth score actually adds to the terror on screen, in a profoundly morbid sense. Its just as crude as the onscreen violence and hence its just as effective. If they re-released that movie with a full orchestral score I would not pay to see it. For some reason I think its fair to say that an orchestra would lessen the overall impact of the movie. The music of Evil Dead is a perfect example of bad, but good movie music. You wouldn't listen to it on headphones, but you would miss it if it wasn't as it is in the movie. Another film with great but quite awful music is Romero's Dawn Of The Dead. In fact in this instance I'd actually say that the music is brilliant - within the movie. But again, I wouldn't go out and buy the cd or anything. Hmm, great horror films of a certain era seem to excel in crude but effective scores. Is there a pattern? Is this particular brand of scoring exclusive to the Evil Dead era of low budget movie making, or does it live on still?

If its not the danger motif it'll be the clanging metal. Sometimes he even manages to squeeze both in 8O In the case of the clanging metal I can only assume that directors since Cameron and Aliens have wanted something that sounded like Aliens or industrial England.

Does anyone here no where I can get hold of the End Credits to The Ring? Its a beautiful and haunting piece with Samara's Theme leading the proceedings. Its starts on piano, before the strings take over. I've looked all over the net for this particular cue, but every search I make only finds "The Ring/Ring 2" cd compilation and according to the feedback this track is strangely omitted from that release. So is it available somewhere, or do I have to rip it from the dvd? Thanks in advance

When it was announced that PJ was bringing LOTR to the big screen one of the first things I thought was: JW is the only man capable of scoring this. JW was born to score a story like this. When I found out that HS had been signed to score the trilogy, I reeled with shock and was actually quite gutted. But that was then. As it turned out, Howard Shore actually exceeded my expectations for LOTR - I love his score more than any other film music. Even the Star Wars trilogy. Having said that, a little part of me would still like to hear what JW would have done with the material. It would be very interesting indeed and probably quite sublime. But I truly doubt that it would better HS's effort. He and PJ knew when to show restraint, like when Gandalf and the Rohirrim charge Helms Deep and when the Rohirrim charges Minas Tirith. Would Williams have displayed insight when scoring moments like these? Somehow I doubt it. I imagine Gandalf to chase off the flying Nazgul with Williams' typical heroic bombast and complex orchestration. HS scored moments like this exactly how the audience didn't expect and it worked. But I'd still love to hear what JW might have done.

Being a film music fan and being moved by it often, I too have thought about this. At one point I actually thought that Qui Gon's Funeral Pyre would be the piece! These days though I'd probably go for something a little more uplifting like The Emperor's Theme or The Revelation Of The Ringwraiths.

From what I remember he performs the ENTIRE score throughout the movie. You can't see him or the orchestra of course, because the film is playing, but its pretty interesting to hear him score it "live" as it were. The orchestra keeps its timings pretty sharp for the most part, but they slightly stuggle during the bicycle chase. If I remember rightly they are a tiny bit late with the flying theme as the kids take flight. But its definately worth a listen

30 votes and its neck to neck

I agree. "Motives" or did you mean motifs ? He/She could've meant both. Either way, its a difficult choice. I'll go with Superman, just for sheer thematic sweep.

Like I said, probably been done before, but I wasn't here to witness it. So lets do it again Which is preferred?

Continuing on with my Ennio Morricone related thread (I've just recieved the Munich Concert dvd in the post today), I wish to point out that I believe the main theme to this threads stated film to be the most beautiful of all romantic style movie themes. The strings are soooo lovely and the melody itself is sheer heaven, yet not immediately obvious. Forget Basil Poledouris's gorgeous love theme for Conan and John Barry's Out Of Africa for soothing strings, Ennio's Main Theme to OUATITW is still the most beautiful theme from a movie - were strings are concernend. Ironic really, because John Williams has NEVER written anything so stunning. Schindlers and Tibet get close, but not close enough. This from a massive Williams fan btw. The music of which I speak can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L63_BCV9irs Bare in mind its only an excerpt of a much more satisfying full concert arrangement. So I challenge you to show me a movie piece which beats Ennio's effort. I of course realise that beauty is in the ear of the beholder

Fellowship Of The Ring.

Indeed, although technically, it sounds like the original poster was looking for orchestral takes on Disney songs and themes, whereas Zimmer's score for TLK is completely unrelated from Elton John's music. Exactly right

Some Disney films have great themes, but the words get in the way of good music for the most part Are there any good orchestra only albums available?

Inspired by my Ennio Morricone thread - a film composer who has had TWO worthy career releases made available as far as I know. So why are there no Williams concert videos on general release? Surely some of his concerts are filmed, so why can't we see them? Or at least one of them? A DVD which features his greatest hits, which I won't even presume to mention on this board. It seems Italy has no problems at all with DVD celebrations of one of its most popular composers, so why hasn't the States followed suit with one of its own most liked modern day composers, albeit in film? Is it (like the UK) still convinced that film music is of a lesser (less commercial) stature than its natural predecessor - classical orchestral music? I want "John Williams: Live In Concert" on DVD NOW!!!

Dennis Steals The Embryos. Which I like actually.

Agreed. That piece was NEVER designed for full orchestra, though more could've been made of it in that performance.

Good effort, but you may as well have called it a tribute to John Williams! Oh and Generations seemed well out of place. Nice little video tho

Indeed, in fact I may be at risk of actually prefering it to the original recording. The superior sound quality helps.

The english horn solo in the beginning was great. The rest of the stuff was nice 30 years ago.I can't take it anymore. Bah! Hope you don't think that about the score to Jaws too.