SteveMc

Well, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit has the accents and the clay. Has rabbits, a dog, and excitable townsfolk instead of the chickens, though.

The Rocketeer is a fun movie. It draws you in, has a relatable hero and sidekick, a very pretty, yet not unsubstantial girl, makes you root for the home team, without loathing the villains all that much. It puts ordinary protagonists in extraordinary circumstances, a winning combination. It works because it isn't pretentious. It is a movie comfortable in its own skin. And it has a fantastic score.

Greetings and welcome Harlock. A pretty decent list. The Wrath of Khan and Glory are definitely two very good works in my book.

Wow! How come I've never heard this before? It sounds a bit like The Patriot, only bigger. Like Mel Gibson taking on the entire British Army alone, and tearing them to shreds. I've found my official pre-exam fanfare.

Not merely long tracks. Symphonic movements, really, all working together in an overall dramatic arc. Quite brilliant.

The Land Before Time. As symphonic as Horner ever got, really. The melodies and structures are absolutely sublime. Blows me away every time I hear it, especially The Great Migration and that rather Sibelius-esque melody in the brass a couple of minutes in.

Beethoven called it the divine fire. In terms of pure spirituality in film music, no one comes close to Rozsa, save perhaps Morricone in The Mission. Goldsmith has his moments, but Williams comes close from time to time. Remembrances from Schindler's List is one of these times. When Williams is spiritual, he is at his most human. Rozsa, like Bach and late Mozart, seems to be in touch with something beyond that.

Loose order: The Land Before Time. An American Tail. The Rocketeer. Braveheart. The Spitfire Grill.

TESB was one of the scores that really established Williams's reputation as a consummate composer. As Nick says above, Williams was really creating something deep back then. He was forging a new path.

ESB is Williams's greatest Star Wars score, one of his top scores period, and on the short list for best film score, if not ever then certainly of the past 50 years. It is a classic, an actual great piece of music in the tone poem vein. TLJ is a decent film score. It does not transcend.

If they're inclined to do so.

Simply exquisite.

Sinfonietta, really. The Meet the Press theme is excellent, really deserves to be expanded. I maintain, though, that the March of the Resistance owes a lot to it.

The Oscars lately have been putting hype above art. TLJ is, for all its weaknesses, superior to most if not all of what was written this year. The Shape of Water has the hype, and Desplat is not a hack.

I just listened to the piece again. I must say I fell in love with it from the beginning, was one of the things that made me come back to this forum. On one hand it is thrilling that Williams is still able to compose/arrange at this high level. Structurally, the piece is just about perfect. It feels new, and the harmonies are striking and worth analysis at length. On the other hand, I feel it makes TLJ a bit more disappointing as a score. Instead of fresh variations and applications of existing themes, the score, with the exception of the action cues, feels a bit like pastiche. Perhaps this is largely because the film is Star Wars pastiche/ pandering and Williams, consummate professional that he is, delivered the score that he felt the film needed.

Perhaps you're right, given the choppy quality of the Last Jedi's end credits suite.

Hey, I liked the March from the beginning. The score is different, but it is also distinctive. And the soundtrack album meshes together remarkably well. I hope John's "renewed vitality and energy" will be felt in upcoming scores and concert works.

Empire is the best, no doubt, followed by the original. But, I'd put a good word in for AOTC. Across the Stars is a great piece.

Corrected.

Who is this Roy character? Is he Ray's brother? And why does he have Anakin's lightsaber? I meant Rey. Autocorrect went rogue.

I would hope Hamill and Isaac have more screentime in Episode VIII. Did Poe go with them to Luke? He didn't right? So that's annoying as he wont be at the temple in Ep.8. I'm more worried about what the hell is going to be a threat to the resistance anymore? They've destroyed 3 death stars, with no problem at all, so how will they write another big threat to make us worried for the good guys? A galaxy sized death star? The galaxy killer? Nothing can be scary to Leia anymore. She must just be thinking "Ah screw it, bring on the 4th deathstar." I think someone at the evil headquarters needs to stop building deathstars. 3 built and 3 destroyed is not a good success rate.Obviously the First Order is going to build a whole fleet of Death Stars, thousands of them, which Roy will easily destroy with one swing of Anakin's lightsaber.

It is really an extensive reworking of his Meet the Press theme. Like I said, best part of the soundtrack.

Too powerful, too soon!

Can a whole trilogy of scores be accurately compared to just one? Anyway, the only really good Hobbit score was The Desolation of Smaug. That one may be better than TFA.

Don't be so optimistic.