MrScratch

I noticed ever since I bought the SWT Anthology box back in 1993. (Ah, what a marvelous day that was! I'll never forget it.) Once I was able to listen to the Final Duel/Dark Side Beckons music on its own it didn't take me long to notice. If the SEs didn't have the following changes/additions in them I would love them: 1. Greedo firing first (ANH) 2. Lukes scream when falling into the air shaft in Bespin (ESB) 3. Vaders new line and his trip to the Star Destroyer (ESB) 4. Jedi Rocks (ROTJ) Honestly, I like all of the other changes. I love "Victory Celebration"; I love seeing the Banthas in ROTJ; I love the dogfight in ANH, I love the more scenic Cloud City in ESB; I love the bustling Mos Eisley. And some changes I could take or leave, like the beak on the sarlacc and the extra Wampa footage.

I own the Star Wars Trilogy DVDs. They are superb! I also have the LDs from which they were taken and I really can't tell the difference in quality. For $30 its worth it to have them on DVD for the next 3 or 4 years until lazy Lucas decides to put them out on legit DVDs. I held back on the Indy DVDs because I assumed that they would be released well before the SW trilogy and if the rumours are true, then I was wise with that decision. But if you are on the fence about the SW discs, I say go for it. My only complaint is that each movie is divided into only (if I remember correctly) 12 chapters. Not ideal for accessing your favorite scenes, but this is a minor complaint. Its great to be able to watch the trilogy on DVD.

Are you guys crazy? He won't win. Look at all of his Oscar wins (besides Fiddler On The Roof which was for Adapted Score)... Jaws, Star Wars, E.T., Schindlers List. These movies are HUGE. Jaws, E.T., and Star Wars were the biggest movies of all time when Williams was awarded. And Schindlers List was (and still is) considered to be the masterpiece of one of the cinemas greatest directors. I'm not saying that they won because of this, but lets face it, it helped. The Academy recognizes him year after year with nominations. Williams best shot at the Academy Award since Schindlers List, was in 1999 for Saving Private Ryan. Hymn to the Fallen was a wonderfully solemn and patriotic piece, the movie was huge and a real contender for the top awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor). Although I love Williams and always root for him, I really really doubt that he will get it this year. CMIYC is just his "annual nomination" to recognize him for his astonishing career. I would love to see Elmer take it home this year. Especially after the Gangs of New York fiasco.

This is one of the greatest posts I have ever read on any board. I want a copy of Johnnyopoly!!

I noticed Williams doesn't seem to have any films on his plate right now. Does anyone know if he'll be doing any film scores in 2003? I hope this isn't another dry year for Williams. The last one was 1994, I remember having to wait TWO YEARS between scores, Schindlers List in December of 93 and Sabrina & Nixon in December of 95. Its so funny, before the days of the internet... the kind of crude forms of information gathering one had to rely on. I remember, back in November or December of 95, reading an issue of Entertainment Weekly and seeing a page ad for "Sabrina" and casually looking at the bottom of the page just to see who did the music. I shot straight up out of the chair and cheered that Williams finally had another score coming out. Perhaps if he's not doing any films this year we'll be treated to some recordings with the BPO or LSO again!

"Hedwigs Theme" should win for Best Composition, hands down. But its a tossup between Potter and Rings for the best score Grammy. I tend not to worry over the Grammies though. I love when Williams is nominated or wins, but the Grammies have justly recognized Williams' genius. The Oscars haven't. If the Academy had rewarded Williams for at least two of the following scores: Superman, Empire Strikes Back, and Raiders in addition to his other Oscar wins, then I would say the Academy had justly recognized him. But they haven't and Williams needs a couple more Oscars on his shelf in my opinion.

I agree, everyone does have an opinion. But, I feel that if you have an opinion you should be able to back it up intelligently. She said something to the effect of "all williams' music sounds the same" and we all know that is clearly a false statement. Whether she reads it or not, I want to voice my opinion. This website probably has a lot of readers who don't know much about Williams or film music. So, I want to get the facts straight to either the author of that article or to those reading it or both. Williams has written like 80 or 90 film scores and not all of them sound like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, contrary to what she was implying.

johnwilliams.org reports that "On February 18, Criterion will release a 2-DVD set featuring both versions of The Killers, which will include isolated music and effects tracks." You can never own too many Ronald Raegan movies in your collection.

Personally I think this is very stupid decision on the part of GL or JW, whomever made the final decision. As stated above, the LSO probably knows the SW Main Title by heart, it IS only a minute and twenty seconds, and all prior Star Wars films had different recordings of the Opening. Now Episodes 1, 2 and most likely 3 are going to have the same recording and then all of a sudden Episodes 4, 5, and 6 have different (and better) Main Titles. Oh well, Star Wars has already gone down the toilet. Oops, sorry, Beowulf, force of habit for me to knock Star Wars. :-)

Here was my response to her... It doesn't seem fair to base an opinion of Williams solely on two or three of his blockbuster movie scores. When a composer is hired he must write music for the film according to the directors wishes. If a director says, "I want something exciting like 'The Planets'" or maybe even, "I want something that sounds like 'Star Wars'" the composer either abides or looks for another film to work on. The Spielberg/Williams association includes many films, and not all of them action blockbusters. Schindlers List, for example doesn't use a single horn or trumpet in the ensemble. Its very delicate music with a Jewish influence. More recently, 'Minority Report' and 'A.I.' weren't very heroic scores and both have an individual sound. Lets not forget that Williams is also a composer of classical music. Having heard some of it I can honestly say that, had I not known, I would never have guessed that they were written by the same guy who wrote Star Wars. Writing music is not easy, especially when composing for a large orchestra and only having a matter or weeks or months to turn out a 90 or 120 minute musical score. Lets be fair to Williams, in 2002 he did FOUR big film scores: Harry Potter 2, Star Wars 2, Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can. Harry Potter and Star Wars do have the same musical approach (big and brassy), but they don't sound like the dark and atonal Minority Report nor do they sound like the light and jazzy Catch Me If You Can. If you are going to judge an artist, lets judge ALL of his works. One final note, regarding "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"... yes, the film features plenty of Williams' trademark brass but there is also plenty of original ethnic music to depict the Indians and also a terrifying choral chant for the underground cult that I'm sure Williams had a blast writing.

Neither of these scores find their way into my CD player very often, but I do love the Prologue and 'Massapequa' from BOTFOJ immensely. So, that got my vote! I do agree with whoever said that the opener from Nixon is incredible. JFK has never been a favorite of mine.

I like the Beatles, David Bowie, R.E.M., Depeche Mode as far as rock/pop music... Bernard Herrmann and JW are my two favorite film composers. I also like Erich W Korngold, Franz Waxman and Jerry Goldsmith... Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Shostakovich are my top Classical composers... There are of course, many others, but these are the main ones.

I don't think you're heard enough of their music... specifically Sgt Pepper. "She's Leaving Home" is a fantastic song but I would hardly call it 'Rock' same with songs such as "Blue Jay Way" "Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite" "Fool On The Hill" These songs are fantastic album tracks that you will never hear on the radio. Although Classical/Film Score is my favorite type of music, I enjoy rock a great deal. The Beatles are simply the greatest band of all time. While they have so many great "Rock" hits, their more 'obscure' songs are really cutting edge and experimental. The White album is a tribute to their range as songwriters and musicians.

yipee I chose Imperial Attack because it is a terrific action cue and basically was the very first music heard after the main title text crawl of any Star Wars film (for those of us who have been watching Star Wars for the past quarter of a decade). My second would probably be "Ambush at Coruscant" from AOTC.

If it were my film festival I would have different movies every year. Each year would have a theme... Heroic movies (Superman, Indiana Jones...) Science fiction (Star Wars, E.T.) or Oscar winning film scores or one of his many director collaborations (Colombus, Oliver Stone, or Mark Rydell).

I first started seriously getting into Williams/film scores in the early 90s (when I was in high school) and I started off with Williams' blockbusters (Star Wars, ET< Jaws, Indiana Jones etc.). My next step in collecting was through Kunzel... since I didn't know too much about film scores in general I started buying a lot of Kunzel CDs, because he would always have a Williams piece or two on his recordings. So I could hear different versions of Williams and also get into other composers. I love the Kunzel sound, the CPO has an energy unlike any other orchestra aside maybe from the LSO and BPO. The Kunzel-conducted "Theme from CE3K" is my favorite version of that, and Kunzel and the CPO are the only ones I know of to rerecorded the Bicycle Chase and Finale from E.T. as it was heard in the movie. I don't like Williams' concert version of "Adventures on Earth" Why did he change it?? It was perfect as it was in the movie. He has performed so many other suites and themes that aren't available elsewhere. Kunzel is a great promoter of film scores. Have any of you ever seen Kunzel perform? He has come to Baltimore on occasion and I have seen him twice. One was a big band concert and another was a film score concert.

Ever so briefly... The first time I met him was at a Boston Pops concert and I was the only one there to see him. I told him I had flown in from Baltimore just to see him conduct... to which he said, "I hope it was worth it." I was trying not to "gush." I just said that I really enjoyed his music and wanted to see him perform in person. The second time was right after Episode 1 came out and there were a lot of people there to get his autograph. Pretty much all I said to him this time was "Here... Thank you" and moved along. He asked where I wanted his signature. I got my TPM CD autographed (black ink signed along the dark blue Tatooine skyline underneath where the CD goes) and he commented that it would look really nice there. He was pretty nice to everyone.

Hello I'm new to this board so forgive me if this topic has already been covered... But how many of you guys have met the big JW? I was fortunate to have met him on two different occasions and I have three CDs autographed by him. Here is a link to a picture of me with Williams... http://userpages.umbc.edu/~jthoma4/williams/ Notice the date it was 'last updated' LOL, its been a while.

I'm the only true JW fan that I know of in my circle. Although a friend of mine is a huge Star Wars fan and has all of the Star Wars soundtracks plus a few other of Williams' blockbusters like Harry Potter and Jurassic Park. But I wouldn't call him a JW fan. He only owns a total of about 10 or 12 score CDs.

I just registered here at this site... the first time I tried to post my top ten, it posted my message as a 'guest' so hopefully it will work this time... 1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. Star Wars (A New Hope) 3. Superman 4. Schindlers List 5. Jane Eyre 6. Raiders of the Lost Ark 7. Jaws 8. E.T. 9. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 10. The Eiger Sanction

1. The Empire Strikes Back 2. Star Wars (A New Hope) 3. Superman 4. Schindlers List 5. Jane Eyre 6. Raiders of the Lost Ark 7. Jaws 8. E.T. 9. Close Encounters of the Third Kind 10. The Eiger Sanction