Quintus

Hmm, I've just realised that that movie has almost entirely vacated my train of thought. It's fading fast.
It's obviously nowhere near as good as LotR (and possibly just not that good a movie anyway) .

Nah, you just didnt read the thread and thought it safe to assume people would be going ballistic, when they're really not.
Everyone knows how the Oscars work by now not to invest more than a passing, quietly optimistic interested in the outcome where Williams is concerned.

Thank you, Sandor.
Going back through the thread a little (I missed a buncha pages), I couldn't resist responding to this:

That was exactly the trouble. Everything was too beautiful, too clean, too well-angled and precise and elegant. That was one of the biggest changes between the OT and the PT. Following an era of films that made the future and alternate universes look like antiseptic HAZMAT facilities, Star Wars was truck stop science fiction. The ships were dirty. The people were dirty. Everything had a tarnished, lived-in feel about it. It may seem like a small aesthetic detail, but it's one of the key reasons the milieu connected so readily with audiences everywhere.
Naboo, on the other hand, felt as artificial as you consider the dinosaurs from JP to be. It may have looked real, but it didn't feel authentic, y'know? Not to mention the fact that its decadent appearance played a major role in undermining the "story" Lucas was trying to tell. Amidala prattles on and on about how her people (whom we never see, incidentally, because Lucas always takes the "tell, don't show" approach) are "suffering" and "dying" . . . on a world where suffering apparently means not getting a second helping of caviar. The lush and expensive-looking backgrounds completely destroyed the Les Miserables portrait they were trying to paint.
Same goes for the Naboo starfighter. Is it nifty looking? I suppose. But I'll take Luke's scuffed-up X-wing any day of the week.
- Uni

Browsing on pc for once in my life here, the full fat JWFan experience is nice to see every now and then. But hey Blume, what's your sig all about? I mean, could you be any more full of yourself and downright narcissistic on this message board? Who do you honestly think is supposed to give a shit whether you love them or not? Give the endless and overestimated promligations a rest for a while, will ya? What will you bring next, a bugle? It's phony nonsense.

WOW! John is open and wanting to compose the new Star Wars films?! What great news! A few things:

- Star Wars would be dead to me without Williams. Sure, I'd watch them eventually... but... they'd be dead. Williams' music is the lifeblood of the series. The heart and soul. Without Williams, then what we know to be Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and the prequels would not have existed. Star Wars would have come and gone, forgotten outside of a few small pockets of avid sci-fi cult classic followers (aka virginal nerds in their forties playing dress-up). Without Williams' music, the first two prequels would have been almost completely horrid trash outside of a good lightsaber fight in I and seeing Padme in a tight suit in II, and the relentless latter half of Revenge of the Sith would have been far less impactful and moving. I am one who enjoyed the prequel scores as much as the original Trilogy scores. All six are masterpieces to me. To consider another composer with Williams alive and willing to do them would be blasphemous. I never was a big Harry Potter fan, but I stopped watching the Potter movies after Williams stopped composing for them. I may get around to them some day, but I lost a great deal of interest. Sure, some other composer could come in and do an adequate job - but Star wars would eventually become as meaningless as any other multi-film franchise that has multiple writers, directors, composers and stars. Just another movie series.
- Uni?! Is that you? I haven't seen that name in ages! How great to see!
- Wait... wha?! Since when did rude-@$$, ignorant-@$$ anti-Williams posters take over this board? They can't be trolls, because they aren't very funny or clever. Or is it just being an ignorant dick attempting to be "postmodern" funny? Hmm. Oh well... my interest has come and gone with that.

Well, while Mr. Buck's analysis of Blume's comments about JW' comments seem a tad bit too tolerant, it certainly does bring to light the fact,
what can we say about the people we do not actually know. I think that was very bad form by Blume.
This is a JW FAN site, so there is naturally some adoration involved, I think the opposite is cooler nowdays here. Phew.

Okay if my participation means I'm considered to be 3.2% less miserable I shall play along.

You'll probably only find this type of military brass band scoring nowadays in an ironic context. Pastiche.

I love John Williams, the man. Deal with it.

Yeah. I gotta admit it . . . you're probably right. It's fun to hope, dammit, but we all need to face a little reality here: JW's only been in the business for what, half a century? That's hardly enough time to build up a reputation. Word is the man's barely hanging on by his fingernails. After all, he came within a hair of having his score for Indy 4 rejected (I hear Desplat had the inside track to replace him). His representatives are out there as we speak trying to land him a decent job, but he just can't seem to get his foot in the door. There's just no getting around it: you've gotta be a shark if you want to keep working in the business after fifty years, even if you are the most popular, best-selling, and widely-sought-after composer in that business. John's just not the type.
You're right about the other part, too. We all know there can be multiple producers on a film, and there can even be multiple directors (especially if they're brothers!). But when it comes to composers, it's like Highlander: there can be only one! Unless, of course, you count Cloud Atlas, or The Changeling, or half the scores with Hans Zimmer's name on them, or many of the animated musicals produced by Disney—say, isn't Disney the one doing the new Star Wars movies. . . ?
Forget it. Everyone would be better off saving themselves the disappointment by just accepting the realities of the industry. Hell, if I know those Disney bastards, they've probably already offered the scoring job to one of the light grips. . . .
- Uni

I love sharing in these deep exchanges.

Nick66, take no notice of Koray. He's famously one of the board's most deluded members. You should see some of his old posts! But what's so bad about his signature? I'm using mobile view so didn't see anything but changing to desktop view I still see nothing??? As for Blume; he isn't even top ten material, although for some reason he's convinced himself that he is, as you can see. I was going to add "imo" at the end of that statement, but I happen to know for a fact I'm not the only who is turned off by his endlessly grandiloquent style. He actually quit for a while last year and nobody really noticed tbh.
Let me tell you Nick, you're off to a fairly good start here. You'll come out of the other end (of the JWFan baptism of fire) just fine if you stick around long enough. One tip though: it's probably best not to insult older posters here, as a newbie, when they have their bros waiting to jump to their defence.

I think it's very good score actually, but no it's not list material.

Sorry, but regarding an opinion other than your own as a "personal attack" is not natural, and responding as if you've been "personally attacked" is also not natural. And it's not a good way to go through life. If someone attacks you while stating their opinion, that's one thing...but an opinion different from your is not in and of itself a "personal attack."
Uni is of course correct in what he says above, and blustery demands that people defend or explain their opinions on art are absurd. If someone wants to explain why they feel a certain way about a piece of music, fair enough, but attempting to browbeat them into justifying why they feel how they feel, and why you're right and they're wrong, is as pointless as arguing why your favourite colour is better than theirs.
Disagreeing about music is of course normal, and sites like this would be boring if everyone agreed. But taking a disagreement on matters of art as a personal attack, and responding like it's a personal attack (or initiating one), is a big part of why message boards about film and music are often as vitriolic as they are.

He's probably feeling the same way I do.
And I apologize if he's not.

Happy Birthday to a legend! Your music was the soundtrack to my adolescence and no other artist (including Steven Spielberg) has been the cause of so many spinal shivers and goosebumps on my arms. Thank you.
This should be in GD as well.

This idea will at least make it easier for me to skip even more rambling sermon threads.

Ten years ago I post the official John Williams top 10 as voted by members 10 years ago. It was a fun endeavor and I thought in honor of John's 81st birthday tomorrow that we again determine this boards collective top 10 John Williams scores. Since last fall I've been asking members to post their lists and I was fortunate to get 82 lists this time around.
Since then the Maestro has composed 10 more film scores. I wanted to see how many of those scores would be included and how the list would change from a decade ago. I'm happy to say that all 10 of the news scores did receive votes, and while none made the top 10 one score from the last year did come close. It stood taller than all the other scores in the last decade.
So before I give the list let me once again explain how I drew my conclusions. I took each list of 10 scores and weighted the lists. The #1 score on each list received 10 points, #2 9 points, etc until the tenth score which received a single point. Some of you provided the list as you would say in no particular order but I took them in the order you provided.
Here is the Official John Williams Top 10 scores as voted by the members here.
1. The Empire Strikes Back, 485 points, 22 first place votes, 62 out of 82 votes.
2. E.T. The Extraterrestrial, 368 points, 10 first place votes, 58 out of 82 votes.
3. Star Wars, 330 points, 4 first place votes, 46 out of 82 votes
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 273 points, 1 first place vote, 52 out of 82 votes
5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 230 points, 4 first place votes, 37 out of 82 votes
6. Jurassic Park, 223 points, 4 first place votes, 41 out of 82 votes
7. Hook, 211 points, 4 first place votes, 38 out of 82 votes
8. Superman, 211 points, 4 first place votes, 37 out of 82 votes
9. Jaws, 211 points, 2 first place votes, 36 out of 82 votes
10. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, 195 points, 4 first place votes, 34 out of 82 votes.
Here is the next 10.
11. Return of the Jedi, 167 points,
12. Schindler's List, 144 points,
13. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 142 points
14. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 110 points
15. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone, 99 points
16. A.I., 69 points,
17. Home Alone, 68 points (17 out of 82)
18, Memoirs of a Geisha, 68 points (15 out of 82)
19. The Phantom Menace, 66 points,
20. War Horse, 55 points.
Of the 82 lists there were 22 films that received first place votes, and 67 films received votes overall. It's amazing that Munich received one vote, but it was for the #1 spot.
Of the 67 films to receive votes 8 films received votes in all 10 spots.
Those films were Jaws, Close Encounters, Superman, Raiders, E.T. Hook, Jurassic Park, and Prisoner of Azkaban.
If you notice every major score from the Golden Era from 1975 to 1984 made the top 11 scores.
The original trilogy and the original Indiana Jones trilogy all made the top 15 scores.
Only one prequel film made the top 20, The Phantom Menace. Revenge of the Sith would be #25.
I'm most pleased that of the 82 lists not one contained Attack of the Clones. It did not receive a single vote. While I don't hold that film score in high regard it's clear that even the board doesn't when it comes to making these lists.
Probably my biggest disappointment was that The Adventures of Tintin received only 6 votes over all and barely registered. It's a fine score in any John Williams era.
Now who got the most scores right on their list.
No one actually got the order right but there is one who did get all ten films correctly on his list.
All bow, yield, kneel before
WOJO
The next closest was our dear fozmo with 9.
Now whose list had the least, well Alan, Alice and Romao had just two,
then Koray, and Miguel each had one correct score but again
All bow, yield, kneel before
Scissorhand.
You are as unique as the come, huzza, huzza.
You two are our Regents for the moment. Bask in the aura of our great and powerful John Williams.
And for reference here is the list from a decade ago for comparison.
1. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, 1980, 917PTS, 109 VOTES OUT OF 129
2. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, 1982, 754PTS, 108 VOTES
3. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, 1981, 520PTS, 85 VOTES
4. STAR WARS, 472PTS, 1977, 75 VOTES
5. SUPERMAN THE MOVIE, 458PTS, 1978 81 VOTES
6. SCHINDLERS LIST, 1993, 423PTS, 75 VOTES
7. JURASSIC PARK, 1993, 348PTS, 68 VOTES
8. HOOK, 1991, 339PTS, 66 VOTES
9. JAWS, 1975, 283PTS, 61 VOTES
10. RETURN OF THE JEDI, 1983, 281PTS, 46 VOTES
Thanks to all who participated and all those who love John's music.

a very happy birthday to you, johnny!

Happy Birthday to a legend! Your music was the soundtrack to my adolescence and no other artist (including Steven Spielberg) has been the cause of so many spinal shivers and goosebumps on my arms. Thank you.
This should be in GD as well.

It is a very subdued score Lee although it has some fine highlights: Among the Clouds has one of the most beautiful horn solos by James Thatcher, the whole track a great impressionistic tone poem unto itself. Pete and Dorinda contains the charming romantic piano solo heard also on the Spielberg/Williams album suite. The Rescue Operation contains ethereal slow burn drama and Dorinda Solo Flight is a poignant finale.
The score is quite sparse and less thematic than most JW/Spielberg collaborations and it contains quite a few atmospheric tracks. I would not absolutely recommend it if you are not a die hard JW fan.

This idea will at least make it easier for me to skip even more rambling sermon threads.

This idea will at least make it easier for me to skip even more rambling sermon threads.

This is what I see in Boal's posts:
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I enjoyed this thread because Nick kept saying don't feed the troll and proceeded to feed the troll. All Augie did was reveal how butt hurt people get when someone trashes JW in the most obvious fashion.
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