WampaRat

Along with the treasure that is the biography, we now have fantastic supplemental material to go along with it. “The extended edition appendices” for John Williams fans about the making of the book and other musings. Thanks for all your work on this @Maestro👌

Yeah we may never know. I think he backed out because there were too many cooks in the kitchen with it being over at Disney. Too many delays. The dynamics had shifted so much since it was just a Lucas/Spielberg joint. There was “The Mouse” to contend with … Story-wise there were rumors that his story would have been more Indy/Marion centric, similar to the dynamic in the Connery flick “Robin and Marian” (which I would have LOVED). So it goes… https://screenrant.com/indiana-jones-5-movie-spielberg-original-story-indy-marion/

The original art was shared on the concept artists Instagram. I’m trying to see if I can track it down again. But he might have gotten asked to take it down. There is some fake/fan stuff out there (Indy fighting with Short Round etc). But I believe most of these were from that guys Instapost.

Right? Tantalizing. I love imagining what the story was

Not that I’ve ever read. But he does seem pretty mum on it since his initial release despite it being one of the highest grossing movies that year. Spielberg seems hyper aware of how his films are received/embraced by the audience. I’m sure he’s aware that Crystal Skull’s reputation is not…the best. So it must hurt him that his last foray directing Indy wasn’t Last Crusade as he originally intended. Even if his original idea for Indy V “wasn't about anything”(according to James Mangold), I would have still enjoyed Spielberg taking another crack at Indy before he eventually bowed out. Some of the concept for it leaked online. Perhaps it could have been fun fluff ala TinTin - Spielberg’s unofficial Indy V.

Dial of Destiny I will watch before Crystal Skull any day. Somber and overly serious? Some pretty bad de-aging at times? Yep and yep. But Harrison brought his all in that one. And I liked the artifact and concept of that one quite a bit. I just wish it was Spielberg who directed that story (and had directed in, like, 2010) It would have been a great “apology” movie.

Man. Was it really just a time factor that kept these animals from looking better? Has there been zero VFX development since Narnia in 2005?

I’ve accepted Crystal Skull, like a member of the family that really hurt you. Buuut…they’re still family. I can’t excuse the wrongs they committed. But I won’t cut them out of my life completely. Crystal Skull is welcome to come over for Thanksgiving, as long as it behaves itself and does its monkey business outside.

For the sheer disappointment alone, I’m voting for Crystal Skull. I was soooo pumped for a new Indy adventure. And…that’s what they gave us? Never mind the “aliens work well in the time it’s set” argument. It was executed so poorly. You can take a corny idea and make things dire and terrifying for our heroes (Dinos in Jurassic Park ). The “interdimensional beings” at the end should have at least felt like the Barry Kid-napping scene from CO3K, or the creatures from War of the Worlds. Elevate the pulp, ya know? But instead you can feel how reluctant Spielberg and Ford were with the whole concept. But BFG is pretty dang bad too.

That’s beautiful. Haven’t heard of that before. True. I should have clarified. Scores for action films/blockbusters these days seem to lack a prominent woodwind section. Desplat doesn’t hold back on them which I appreciate.

Less…robust, shall we say? Haha. But in complete honesty, his JW:Rebirth score has become a kind of Rosetta Stone for me in appreciating some of his other works. I don’t care for all his stuff. They can get a little too twinkly and light when I feel they should go heavier at times (Looking at you Frankenstein). But in this day and age, it’s refreshing to hear so much woodwinds featured in a film score.

I’m sure it’s been mentioned already, but it just dawned on me the similarities of the “listen” theme and the opening oboe solo of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Absolutely not intentional, Im sure. But kind of a fun full circle moment as “Jaws” certainly had a lot of Rite of Spring influence in it. I’m really coming around on the Disclosure Day score. I was quite underwhelmed on first listen. I wasn’t expecting something grandiose that harkened back to the Williams of the 80s. But I was anticipating a bit more meat to the score. The album arrangement doesn’t do it much favors I fear. I still don’t care for “Negotiations” and find it pretty dull. But starting with “signs” and then listening chronologically through the album, I begin to pickup on the impressionistic story Johnny is telling. (It might also help that I’ve been listening to a lot of Desplat lately and have come to appreciate his delicate writing style quite a bit. 😄)

This chronological order really helps my appreciation of the score. It builds to something now. Thanks so much! I know a lot of comparisons are being made to his other SciFi works with Spielberg (A.I. Minority Report, War of the Worlds, CE3K) But in cues like unseen… I’m reminded quite a bit of Williams Nazi material for Dial of Destiny. And memory…reminds me a lot of his Archimedes(?) theme as well.

I shared my thoughts on the film in the general discussion thread. I have mixed feelings on it. I appreciate the restraint in the lack of score and understand why due to Williams age. But I think this movie would have benefited from more extroverted music at times. It doesn’t need to be wall-to-wall scoring. But Spielberg’s slick camera movements and humor beats really said “isn’t this a fun thriller with heart?” (Not in the broad ‘Marvel’ way btw). Why be so restrained with the music then? Perhaps that all too cited fear of “manipulating the audience”? But I felt it was in desperate need of some more Williams magic to smooth over the dull portions and bumpy story ideas. Ya know? He is Spielberg’s final “rewrite guy” after all. There was some plumb musical real estate coming into and out of scenes that just begged for a bit more musical punches. At least…I was begging from more. But I appreciate what we have.

Saw the film last night with my wife. I wasn’t expecting a classic. But my expectations were around “War of the Worlds” level, a decent popcorn disaster thriller also penned by Koepp that benefits from Spielberg’s slick camera. But Disclosure Day…I’d rank below that film. It has a lot of “ideas” that don’t seem to gel together in the end. Like many have said already, there’s some great Spielbergian moments.I loved the Train scene, Blunt’s performance, and the dream/dive sequence. The “disclosure moment” at the end benefited heavily from the other actress playing the news anchor at the end as she’s trying to relate to the audience what she’s seeing. Any emotion I felt was from her (and William’s score) in that moment. But ultimately it all felt like a patchwork of ideas Spielberg generated during his story meetings with Koepp, who dutifully put them all in, but didn’t find a compelling through line to tie them all together (WWIII, Would our concept of God be destroyed, empathy cures all, today’s media influence etc). “What if there were aliens?” Shrug. We’ve seen so many since Close Encounters and ET. This didn’t have a unique enough spin to really engage me. I’m willing to give it another go at some point though. PS - I feel like Villneuve’s “Arrival” stole this movie’s lunch. For me, that one said everything this movie was trying to say.