Steven Awalt

Watching Neeson in Schindler's List makes TPM that much more ridiculous. What a drop down from such a powerful role to a silly quasi-mystical cypher in a bad beard and hairpiece. He was one of my favorite elements of TPM just because I like him as an actor so much, but boy that film is miles below his talents. BTW, Ain't It Cool News is reporting that they have some scoop that the title of Ep III is "The Creeping Fear." Knowles seems somewhat skeptical, but he says his source is really solid. God help us all. I hope AICN is very wrong.

In comparison to the full-fledged iPod, the Mini is not much more than a marketing ploy. Pretty colors, slimmer. So what. Get yourself a real man's iPod You won't regret it. I have a 30 GB and I'm nearly running out of space! Get the biggest you can afford for future expansion.

He was also a riot as the overly giddy military man in "Mars Attacks."

Sorry I didn't see your question until you'd already answered it, Morlock Yeah, it hadn't come off my card yet last time I checked either, so I assumed they were going to do that. I wouldn't mind if they'd taken it off for safe-keeping though. This 1,500 CDs thing has me freaked out that something will go cosmically wrong for me...This is why I pray UPS won't be delivering it. Morons screw up delivering my packages constantly.

Yeah, I felt my posts asking Joe to give us his views in detail were completely ignored! What gives Joe? Scared to step up to the plate? And who was heckling that poor A.I. fan in another thread about giving his views of why A.I. is great?

They're not shipping tomorrow now Varese's website pushed the ship date back to March 22 as of yesterday.

Parts of Christus Apollo's chorus sounds like it's in "Omen" teritory, at least it brings it to mind for me.

No beer ads, of course. That's what the " 8O " was for We'll know the Apocalypse is near when film composers starting shilling brew. My guess is the Media Ventures boys would be Schiltz spokesmen (quality endorsing quality) 8O

That ad's awesome! It's almost as cool as the Löwenbräu ad he did back in the late '70s. Seriously though, what a find this is. Thanks for posting it for us, Cypher. As far as perception of Williams at the time of his ad, he was already a god amongst gods. If E.T. or Schindler's List had never happened, his legacy would have already been sealed. If I had come across this ad (and I wish I had, since we had a shedload of Nat. Geos in our house) I would have had this framed next to my bed when I was a young punk.

I know we've talked about it before Joe. I was just hoping to prod you with a stick a bit to see you get your angry old man thing going "I walked through 20 straight miles of snow drifts and battled a Yeti to see Duel on opening night when you weren't even a stain in your father's pants!" - Joe. As always, I have great respect for your opinion, no matter how much it differs, but I'd have to say Alex is seeing the film for what most do (certainly myself included). The film stands head and shoulders above the majority of nearly every TV movie ever committed to film, just from its purely brilliant construction (storytelling and visually). To say Duel is a lesser work than Spielberg's The Mission is debatable, but its highly debatable since The Mission, while fun, is a flawed work that doesn't even enter the same league as Duel. You seem to have a preconceived prejudice for Duel, stemming mostly from its lineage I would guess. If it was released theatrically instead of for TV first in the States, do you think it would've changed your opinion? The film came very close to being made for the theatre, but the big sticking point was a lack of a marquee name to make Universal back it as such. And you can bet, despite having to compose his images for the Academy ratio (which ain't no shame?many of cinema's masters spent their entire careers within that squarish frame) that Spielberg shot that film like a theatrical film (its more than evident, as it is in every TV work he did) and not the run of the mill quick TV filler. So give us some detail?what exactly doesn't work for you that keeps you from valuing the film like so many others?

Surely you're kidding, Joe!

The mistake is certainly embarrassing and disrespectful, but anyone who would not buy the DVD because of a stupid "filmography" really might want to examine their priorities or be a bit more honest. I would be willing to venture that the majority of people here and in the DVD buying public don't even bother with looking through the filmographies. The film, on this disc especially, is the important thing. What Universal did is totally unprofessional and inexcusable, but I can't believe how up in arms people are getting compared to other stupidity they've pulled on Spielberg releases.

In response to Ender's post from the first page: Why don't you post at spielbergfilms, Ross? We'd love to have you there (and your list was great, passionate and full of well thought).

Ah, you speak of "Mr. Jaws!" I loved that as a kid!

The score is great, like Rogue said easily one of Horner's best. It's exciting as heck, has a cool comic-book villain theme and a couple of (non-Horner) nice 30's torch singer songs that keep the old-fashioned mood of the score in tact. The film is fun too, from what I remember. Haven't seen it since it came out. I remember it being a good time at the movies, not great, but try a rental first, you may like it.

I also felt that York has one of the oddest, garbly sounding voices in film. Now Peter Ustinov (also in Logan's Run), that's a voice!

A sadly underrated score since the electronics date it a bit now...(but nowhere near as much as the film's pajama-clad characters) LOL

Found the Horner info I couldn't remember (from a reputable source, Music from the Movies): http://www.musicfromthemovies.com/article.asp?ID=238 The thriller's name that I forgot is fittingly called "The Forgotten" . Horner is also going to score a golf movie "Bobby Jones, Stroke Of Genius." If this article (and their sources) are accurate though, Cinderella Man won't just be minimal Horner like I posted above, but no Horner! Guess Howard may go with all pop songs from the period. Hope "The Forgotten" is good. I could go for another Horner thriller score!

They just put up a Peter Gunn album on iTunes if anyone's interested.

Here's my long list: The Omen, Poltergeist, Damien: Omen II, Star Trek: TMP, Alien, Planet of the Apes, Outland, Mephisto Waltz, Coma, Great Train Robbery, Capricorn One, Chinatown, parts of Twilight Zone: The Movie. These are hands-down his best, for me (although I haven't heard every single thing he's done yet). I prefer his 1970s work the best

I'm looking foward first and foremost to Williams new HP film and The Terminal, of course. I also hope Elfman does some fresh things with Spider-Man 2, and its not too similar to the first. Doc Ock has potential to have a really cool busy theme. I'm not familiar with any of the projects Goldsmith is on but I look forward to the three of them since I'm a recent convert (thanks to Neil!) For most of my soundtrack collecting days since the '77, I have limited myself largely to Williams, Elfman, Horner, some Silvestri and Kamen (when I was in high school), and the James Bond scores. I had a small smattering of Goldsmith (always Poltergeist!), but boy my eyes are open to his work now, and do I feel like a late comer to the party (almost 30 years after I started collecting). I swear I read Horner had another project besides Cinderella Man (which is supposedly not going to have a lot of score, but most songs) some thriller (not DaVinici Code, but another).

Gizmo2k4, Is that the girl from "Scrubs" on your avatar? Back on topic, I'd have to add my serious omission of the 20th Century Fox fanfare too, and I'd actually say its the best of the bunch. Only problem with it now though, is that everytime I hear it, I think a Star Wars score is going to start. My daughter even gets confused when I'm playing Planet of the Apes or Mephisto Waltz and she thinks Star Wars is coming on Thanks, Eplicon for pointing out where to find Horner's Universal theme. I can't believe I forgot it! It sounds pretty bad on the BTTF III DVD, but its a great little fanfare. Classy.

I was nosing around iTunes and found something that may be of interest to everybody: they have a theme for the TV series "The Virginians" up. I know Williams wrote music for this show, but since its unreleased, I've never heard it. Here's a link (you have to have iTunes installed to get it): http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore...edItemId=918568 Can anyone verify if this was written by Williams? If so, is this a rerecording or an original (obviously conducted by someone else).

I love Goldsmith's Universal theme. Powerful with those two brass punches (especially on DVD). And Williams' Amblin Entertainment theme is a little bit of magic. Does anyone know if there are any Universal DVDs that have Horner's Universal theme on it (or better yet does any one have a copy of it?) I'm sure I've heard it a million times but I can't think of it for the life of me. Same with William's Universal theme...

I've got the DVD-A of A.I. too. It certainly sounds fuller (being surround sound). I prefer it to the CD for that fullness of sound. You may want to ask Neil about it?I think I recall he actually doesn't care for it, and being a true audiophile, he could probably give you detailed reasons why he doesn't (beyond my layman's appreciate for it).