alfredo

Reminds me of the Superman 2 situation, just adapting previous material. They had that 7 minute clip which I regretingly watched, most of the underscore was a direct copy of previous Elfman material, however the fight scene they showed sounded like original Young with some... interesting... renditions of the green goblin theme.

Im amazed someone would challenge Ennio Morricone recieving an honorary oscar. The man has written some of the most recognizable and innovative music in all of film score. He is well known and extremely underappreciated and he deserved some recognition. Its not that I am saying he is a better film composer than John Williams, but his life and his work are worthy of recognition. His contribution to the craft, and the respect he commands in his field deserve attention. We are lucky as film score fans to have one of the most prominent composers be recognized at all, and we are even more lucky that a man as great as Ennio Morricone recieved that honor. And furthermore, just because Morricone got it this year doesnt mean Williams will never get it.

I think Spielberg and the scripts he goes with are hit and miss on this area. Always, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, AI and Catch Me if You Can I would consider "more mature films" with good to amazing scripts and which Spielberg did a fantastic job directing. They are all films I like a lot. However, Empire of the Sun, Amistad and Munich I would say had poor to good scripts and Spielberg did an ok job with them. They are films which I did not enjoy. So when projects like Lincoln come around, I am hesitant to get excited about them, but optimitic as to their final results. And certainly the promise of a new John Williams score is enough for me to want the project to see the light of day. In addition to the discussion about Spielberg and Zimmer working together, there is a really interesting interview with Hans Zimmer on that very topic. I am quite the critic of Zimmer's work, but I must say he has an enjoyable and interesting personality. Here is the link:

then why even bother to reply, this is afterall a discussion board. Get off the fence and develop an opinion, stay out of the gray. I voted no if thats what your asking. Essentially I agree with your argument, Joe, that Williams is human and it is impossible for everything of his to be a masterpeice. I also dont think I was standing in any gray area, my post was filled with opinion. My opinion, which apparently wasnt clear, was that where I think John Williams has written a masterpeice, others think he has written a non-masterpeice(like our respective opinions on Memoirs of a Geisha). Individually, as the poll tends to show, people generally think Williams has some non-masterpeices. However, I think if you were to list all of JW's music and have people rate it "Masterpeice" or "Not a Masterpeice", all of his work would recieve a few Masterpeice votes. Although this may not tell you "why you are wrong" as you asked in your post, but it does explain why you may have thought that here on this John Williams Fan board everyone thought that everything Williams writes is a masterpeice. Its all relative and not you nor I are at all capable of truely decerning whether or not a peice of music is a masterpeice or not.

Just reading through this thread points out how futile it is to discuss this. One person feels a score is a masterpeice, one person feels that same score is a poor effort by Williams. The important thing here is that somewhere at some time Williams wrote some music that we formed a connection with. Which peice of music is different for everybody and we can debate till the end of time which of Williams' scores are masterpeices and which ones are not, but it will get us no where. His music, all of it, is what brings us together as a community, and that is what is so special about John Williams.

Well said MrScratch. Geisha was a better album than Chronicles of Narnia, Da Vinci, even Munich and definitely Pirates 2 and the same goes for "Prayer for Peace" over its competitors. This forum has discussed at length how Williams had his gold rush in the late 70's and early 80's, but I personally think that with Williams, even his lesser works tower above other composers triumphs, though I find Memoirs to be no lesser work, it may very well be in his top 5 best.

This is very exciting. Hollywood Bowl last year was probably the highlight of my whole year and this time I wont have to miss any classes to go! I strongly recommend this event to anyone in the area, it is a real treat.

Call of the Champions I believe also has latin lyrics. Something like 'Citius, Altius, Fortius' which if my almost completely forgotten knowledge of latin serves me well means something like Faster, Higher, Stronger.

GoodMusician and a few others I know have spoken on how they enjoyed the score to Brokeback Mountain. People like it, it won an oscar, ok, I disagree with it, but ok. But Babel... Babel is so freakin bad. It is just so freakin bad. I might go so far as to say it is the worst score ever written, and it is a disgrace to the institution of music. Brokeback might have deserved a nomination, maybe it even deserved a win. But the mere fact that almost every awards show that honors film score has nominated the atrocity that is Babel... I have lost faith in all of humanity to judge what quality music is. If Babel wins the oscar, I will be ashamed to be a fan of film score.

Horror: Bernard Herrmann Drama: John Williams Action/Adventure: Jerry Goldsmith Sci-Fi: James Newton Howard Comedy: Howard Shore Mystery: Danny Elfman Romance: Patrick Doyle Fantasy: Randy Edelman

So, did anyone like the score to Babel? I, too, share King Mark's blatent disliking of anything Gustavo, but I mean, Babel, do people honestly like that score? I mean... seriously anyone? Do you listen to it in your car? Hum it as you walk about? Or am I right in thinking that it is possibly the worst score ever written?

I would say my five are Superman II - and while we are in what if world, Richard Donner directs the movie and actualizes the vision we saw in his cut of the film Harry Potter 4 The Lion King - A JW animated film would just be interesting, and this is my favorite one Batman Begins - Just to hear williams' take on the dark knight Any Zombie Film - I love zombie films, I love John Williams scores, I want to put them together!

A friend of mine has come to me twice asking me about the music to a specific film. The first time was Brokeback Mountain, the second time was Babel. He asked me who the composer was. Before I told him I asked him what he thought of the score. Both times he said he was asking because he is a person who never notices music in a film, except for these two times. And dont worry, its not because he liked them, it is because everytime the music started playing he literally just could not stand it. He found both scores absolutely wretched. Is there something special about Gustavo's music? Like, is it a technical masterpeice or something. I listened to Babel, and I seriously just dont get why it is getting all of these nominations. It is really quite bad. I can understand someone enjoying Brokeback Mountain, its got a tune to it, its listenable, but Babel, if anyone can listen to that mess and enjoy it I would be very suprised. I hope Desplat wins. Yay 100th post!

Jerry Goldsmith score: Dennis the Menace Jerry Goldsmith theme: Star Trek Jerry Goldsmith cue/track: The Trees from Medicine Man Jerry Goldsmith album: The Omen Film scored by Jerry Goldsmith: LA Confidential

1960's: Checkmate and The Reivers 1970's: Star Wars and Superman 1980's: E.T. and The Empire Strikes Back 1990's: Jurassic Park and Hook 2000's: Prisoner of Azkaban and Memoirs of a Geisha