Hlao-roo

COUNT DOOKU The Force is with us, my Master. DARTH SIDIOUS Welcome home, Lord Tyranus. You have done well. COUNT DOOKU I bring you good news, my Lord. The war has begun. DARTH SIDIOUS Excellent. (smiling) Everything is going as planned.

That's not true. It's Tyranus, even though tyranny has two n's.

Although John Williams invariably delivers excellent music, I think it'd be smug even for him to say he knows precisely what the film needs. That really shouldn't be his decision: it should be the director's. (Of course, that doesn't mean the director is the music expert, or anything. It doesn't mean he should be able take the composer's finished product and hack it to pieces in post-production. AHEM)

You bet that's just you! The last thing I want Williams doing is rehashing the most embarrassing part of an otherwise excellent score.

...just what I don't want him doing.

John Williams's increasingly extensive utilization of ideas from his The Lost World: Jurassic Park music is proving how remarkably underrated that score is... My fear is that much of Minority Report might simply be The Lost World + heavy synthesized effects. That bothers me because a) I wish he'd come up with somewhat more original soundscape for Minority Report's futuristic world; and b) Williams isn't particularly savvy with electronics when it comes to making them prominent (not referring to his tasteful use of it in, say, AOTC, the eletronic guitar aside).

It may sound "cool" to your ears, but it sounds pretty vapid to mine.

Well, I agree that Sony Classical has indeed proved itself most unreliable and most unprofessional, but I feel that Lucasfilm, George Lucas, Ken Wannberg, and even John Williams himself are all more responsible for the controversial production of the Star Wars prequel soundtrack releases.

I was under the impression, thanks to Scott Bettencourt (sp?), that Dreamworks Records would be responsible for the Minority Report album release. Especially considering it's a Dreamworks SKG picture, distributed by Twentieth Century Fox. Something tells me it's definitely not a Warner release.

Morn - Confused The groundbreaking visual effects aside, I thought this movie was pretty weak. Williams's reverent theme can't save Spielberg's decision to film Michael Chrichton's far more interesting novel as a heartless popcorn flick. Wow, look at that character development! Gradually, he learns to appreciate the children! How much more heavy-handed can you get?

They may not be world-renowned, but Steve Erdody (cello), John Ellis (oboe), JoAnn Turovsky (harp), and Randy Kerber (piano) each made his/her presence deeply felt in JW's 1999 classic Angela's Ashes.

I didn't think this movie was that great, actually. I cared more about the characters in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, for example, than I did about the mathematician, Dr. Grant, the children, etc. Especially in this case, the movie music doesn't make the movie.

"The Days Between." Christopher Parkening plays John Williams. Magical.

Well, personally, I watch ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, although I sometimes tune into NBC just to catch the classic JW fanfare...

We've seen the likes of this thread many times before, but you're absolutely right. These films are classics only because of the excellence of their various individual components, not the least of which were John Williams's musical scores.

1. The Patriot 2. A.I. Artificial Intelligence 3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 4. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones It may seem as though I'm simply listing the scores chronologically, but that wasn't the intention. Until recently, I'd've switched #2 and #3, but Harry Potter is gradually sounding less and less impressive to me. Like Episode II - Attack of the Clones, it features a slew of themes, most of which, unfortunately, are mediocre. It's as though Williams is employing the leitmotif out of obligation instead out of inspiration. Grade on orchestrational complexity all you want; it's not really a priority in film scoring. I don't really find A.I. that "innovative." Williams explores a bit of fairly new territory (for him) with the minimalism, the post-modern dabbling, and the vocalise. Much of the score is simply Always rehashed. What makes this score stand out for me are the stunningly lyrical themes. When I first heard "Where Dreams Are Born," I was floored. Some call it "schmaltzy"; I call it classic. Then there's the theme for the Blue Fairy, David's theme, and the "Abandoned in the Woods" theme... Still, all that beauty doesn't pack the emotional punch of The Patriot, which, taken as a whole, beggars Williams's comparable work for Born of the Fourth of July. ("Susan Speaks." Need I say more? ) The only nagging aspect is the unarguable derivation of the main theme from "Dry Your Tears, Afrika" or from "American Journey."

Again, some felt that the See-Threepio "decapitation sub-plot" sucked the tension out of the battle scenes. Others felt the humor simply sucked. I need to see the film again, but I believe the first time I quite liked the humor. I don't think it was "detrimental" to the movie or to the character of Threepio. But others did think so...so, as you said, it's just a matter of opinion.

We're making a surprisingly big deal about this. Let's face it: Williams and Lucas, of all people, each simply had a memory slip. They messed up. Need we say more?