The Prick vs The DD

No, no, no, not Gardiner...believe me, Richter (depending somewhat on the performance of course), he's the guy you want....for the more musical interpretation. It's either people like Richter (basically the only one for me) for the more musical, romantic interpretation or the more accurate, authentic, chamberroom interpretation like Herreweghe or Hanoncourt...when it comes to Bach. Both have drawbacks and strengths, but doesn't Gardiner sound a bit too flat? Just got that collector's edition of Richter's Bach by Archiv....beautiful, they're older recordings, but still great.

Whatever people suggest, you should at the very least listen to the opening of Bach's Mass in B Minor, preferably by Karl Richter. That music was built for the funerals of popes.

IMO, I think there are better arguments, but I'm not sure. It seems to me that once a company start building changers, they surely must spend time and money on it. In other words, research costs come into picture. Anytime any part that is being created not specifically for the sound and quality of the player and its music production, will make the machine more expensive, or make the music quality cheaper to push down the cost for the consumer. Therefore the same price you pay for a regular player with no 'fancy' stuff is more likely to have better engineering than one of with all kinds of 'gadgets'. Changers are not vital parts for the player, and so effort is being 'wasted' that should have gone into the beauty of the sound. It's like my stone-old argument about the choice between 2-stereo or 5-surround speakers. For the same price less speaker equals more sound. This of course is just an assumption. Maybe there are other things at work. But right now this seem to make much sense to me. BTW, about these speaker cable issues. I think the importance of cable quality could be inherent to the kind of speakers you have. If you have electrostatic speakers than the cables could perhaps be of lesser importance. Once again a quick assumption. PS: I have the E.T. and Yo Yo Ma SACD's. Hmm, just noticed this was an old thread. Anyway, SACD could be winding down to a complete halt. Too little is being made, too little promotion, and not enough interest in general. Sony I believe has already pulled back. It would be a shame, but once again the mundane majority could kill off something better.

Thanks Roald, Stefan. Looks like I have to buy it online somewhere....ridiculous.

Am I crazy or has Holland skipped on this soundtrack? No matter where I look, I can't seem to find it. They all point to the obvious Jeff Wayne set. Mediamarkt in Utrecht actually had ordered dozens of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, it's all layed out there on the shelves, but no John Williams to be seen. Any of you Dutchies know where to get it? Cause I sure don't.

I usually agree with UK viewers. I usually agree with Alex Cremers. This is a bloated movie, in more than one way. I couldn't believe people actually went to see this SFX parade, this crap, beg ya pardon. Lots of mumbo jumbo about lots of mumbo jumbo. A lot of 'bigger is better' approach. This movie lacks in nutricion. The story of Titanic however is quite interesting. Of course, that's the one thing that hadn't sprung from these 'creative minds'. In other words, it was easy to create sympathy for this movie. In a few years time, you won't hear people talk about it so much not even as a 'cult', in comparison to other classics. At least, I hope so. There I said my piece.

With a name like mine, you should know better than to 'head' in this direction!

Mine's a dual, they're twice as big but just as hard.

With a face like Maul's, you would prefer to look at his lightsaber wouldn't you. Hmm, I wonder if his *BEEP* has tatoes and spikes on it as well. "Not tonight Maul, I've got a headache!" "Hey look at my head, you think this is comfortable?"

Hehe. Is that why they have those cloaks?

BTW, at first I thought you asked 'Why Revenge of the Sith'? Which would have been a fair question.

You sure it wasn't Darth Diahhreous?

Hahaha. He was called Darth Obvious, no Darth Callous, no wait I'll remember uhm...Darth Tedious. Yeah, that was his name. Or was it Darth Funghius? Why did the Sith Lord destroy the universe? Because he was a Funghi.

The plot thickens. LOL Yet its holes widen.

No I don't agree most of the story is solid enough, the important storylines anyway. It's only when you start digging deper and deeper the holes will reveal themselves (ironically this is usually where it gets interesting isn't it). But then again, it is only one man against a million nitpickers. You will never be smart enough. A bit of slack is deserved I think.

You COULD argue it was compassion for Padme that destroyed AND saved Anakin. The main thing about Star Wars were the more central pylosophies and ideas anyway. Not how anything connects to anything else. So philosophical you can always be, but I agree that the many aspects to Star Wars don't always sound consistent.

Even with the closing shot? A perfect and fitting way to end the saga I thought. I loved the idea. But even that drew a "meh". The idea sounded beautiful, poetic, and I loved that it closed with that iconic moment, really the spot that Luke picks up the fight from, with the force theme. But it should have been a beautiful, sweeping shot. It was not. It showed us two suns with 3 people standing in the foreground. So you thought 'meh' because a camera was not sweeping? Is this the sort of thing you base a good or bad movie on? A perfect shot would have been nice sure, but if you base your conclusions around your own (preconceived) psychological ideas, your feelings will always win hands down no matter how good or bad a movie is. Are you sure you haven't set yourself up to dislike more then you should?

I didn't check with them, so perhaps that was the reason. Hmmm, someone at the shop could also have considered keeping the promo for him/herself and only made the excuse they happen to have one lying around. HMMMM.

Check your sound system, or, go visit a doctor. First you should compare for yourself James Earl Jones voice in ESB and then how he says "Yes master". It sounds old. I don't know if someone already commented on this but you're both right. In the first trailer or so you'll hear Vader in an odd voice, he ends in a high key as if asking the question "Yes Master?" This has changed in the latter trailers, and is the one also used in the movie. In there Jones end in a low key as a statement "Yes, Master!" I noticed it too, and the change.

No, you're right. I noticed that too.

I'll mainly talk about the negatives first before hitting the positives. But I'm still not sure of any of them, since I've only seen the movie once and need to think about it a bit more perhaps. Spoilers for the ones still to see. And I mostly just ramble on, pay it no mind. I'm one of those people that has condemned this pretrilogy...and indeed after the failures in TPM and AOTC, nothing can restore that. The prequels counted as a whole will remain a burden to the original. There are simply too many errors made in the last two, and nothing could save that, not even a great finale. No true character formations are to be seen in the previous two, the actors act flat, with bad dialoque and there's really not much conflict between the members of the group. But I've also stated before that this had more to do with Lucas than the actors. He gave them their dialoque and told them how to 'act' (and certainly edited them). Why am I bringing this up? Well, because if the chemistry was there in the previous two, in Revenge the Sith it would have paid of tremendously! Because it's now only one of the few weaknesses in this new movie left. Oh, yes, theres much more chemistry than in the previous two, but it has come a little too late so far in the storyline. I'm one of those nitpickers. Not because I want to, but because it's almost inevitable in movies. Directors and writers are bound to make mistakes in there, accept the smaller, ridicule the bigger. And that's what attracted me to Star Wars in the first place. Sure, little technical mistakes here and there and what not more, but nothing that could really push you out of the fantasy. Star Wars had it all, drama, war, comedy, dialoque, atmosphere, characters, conflict, action, plot, reality, escapisme for some. But let me tell you, there's not much to ridicule in this movie. THIS MOVIE WAS GREAT! I don't care what anyone else says. There are always people that want to maintain their emotions about these films. If the didn't like the previous ones, they will do their utmost best to ridicule this one completely. It they loved the previous ones, they will do their utmost best to love them. Well, I'm not like that thank god. I wanted to love the entire pretrilogy but I simply couldn't. Until this one. This is the Star Wars we cared for. Once again we find drama in there, love, hate, plot, multiple storylines, et cetera et cetera. And to my surprise, there was more?! There's much more philosophy in here: ex. Anakin's struggly to save one by all means necessary causes the lives of everyone including the one he tried to save, AND including himself. There's planning and character storylines and formations intertwine: The emperor again and again and again tries to stirr up emotions in Anakin so he'll do something in a hurry, and when one acts impulsively...well bad things can happen. Finally we've got a new Star Wars that works on more than one level, it's multifacited, it has hidden messages, it tries to tell you something. Also, it feels a bit more mysterious, which to me is a plus as well. These things when they work usually only happens in the better movies. There are huge battlefields, but there are also personal duels. There are big storylines, but there are also smaller ones. Everything is better, the dialoque, even the love scenes were'nt all that bad. I was actually surprised by this film. I truely enjoyed this movie. But one of the most important things that could influence the classic trilogy in a very good way....is Anakin's sorrow and loss, his drama, his emotional torment, which he will bring along in episodes 4, 5 and 6. Suddenly, Darth Vader in this film and in the next chapters, is something much more than merely evil, he's now also become a sad figure, carrying a heavy burden of pain and loss. He tries to save all, but instead he feels he has failed and killed them all. He is insecure. It always had the potential to do so, but I think it has succeeded in this. If you watch the next chapters" Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and ESPECIALLY Return of the Jedi where Luke's screaming to Anakin for his help, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and actually do feel sorry for Darth Vader and feel more for him in general, in stead of a mere 'wow what a cool guy'. That to me is the biggest plus this movie brings.

BTW, thanks Frank for letting us know about the promo deal. I'm enjoying mine right now. Always keep the info rolling people.

Well, like I noted before, I think it's basically to lure consumers to buy from them via the internet quickly before you buy anywhere else. But it could be they (deliberately) had a tiny stock of these and consequently are quickly sold out. Many consumers could potentially fall into that trap and then they start selling them the regular releases with perhaps a note 'explaining' the promos are all gone. It was a 'get-it-while-it-lasts' promotion. Apparantly, I didn't 'get it'. Get it? I'm not sure about this, but my expectations about the morale of the market aren't exactly high. Weird that they didn't notify me though, which would strengthen the argument this was more of a marketing trick than anything else. Oh well, I'll guess we'll never be sure. Anyway, after I explained that the promo was the reason I ordered it from them even though it was already readily available and at reduced prices anyway, I luckily convinced them to give one that was lying around in the shop where I collected my order. Though the lady behind the counter was nice about it though. I didn't want this internet-order to ship these CD's to my home adress for exactly this reason...now I could argue with them in case they hadn't send the promo along. Guess I was clairvoyent about that decision, which would have been more difficult to get the promo after already dealing with them. Now at least, I could refuse the order. Phew...satisfied with this answer?

The music is absolutely terrific and it's getting closer and closer to the level of The Empire Strikes Back for me. Just fantastic stuff in there! I'm REALLY hoping for a full release of this score...THE WAY WILLIAMS MEANT IT. Not the way some editor, Lucas or another nitwit 'meant' it to be. People that don't understand or fully appreciate the masterfull creativity of music. But I'm still somewhat disappointed by some of the decisionmaking. Some of it sounds quite amateuristic, when going from one section to the other. The transitions sometimes sound like edits to me. Very weird, especially since the music is so incredibly good. It sometimes sounds as if it were a work-in-progress. That this isn't the finalized product. That either Williams still was in the midst of finishing this, or that it was rushed for lack of time, or that someone screwed up by releasing the wrong cues, or something. Were it not for those seemlike 'errors' it perhaps would've already shared its first place with TESB score. But I have to say I'm less bothered by it then I was before. Now I just listen to the godlike material that's in there.

I voted for the 'savouring' option, but this is what I usually do, as do most I reckon, when I go to the movies anyway. It's a bad movie or disturbing things in it which pushes me out of the fantasy. Not the other way around.