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  1. Such a great film, with such a great score. Okay, the film may have untypical pacing, but that's part of its charm and uniqueness. When it fires, it fires on all cylinders. From the fantastic opening escape to the mine car chase and resolution on the bridge, it's pure fun. I was thinking about perhaps the most implausible sequence - the falling raft - after reading some negative takes on it. And I have to say it's never bothered me. It's an exhilarating escape and I have no problem accepting the implausability of it, unlike the nuked fridge of Crystal Skull.
  2. An anonymous tipster has sent JWFan some information that I can share with you now! The information is a list of cues that appeared in a cut of the film dated November 11th, 2019. Remember, the final day of recording sessions didn't happen until November 21st, and even by this cut some of the cues JW had written had already been dropped or replaced, so consider this a PARTIAL cue list: 1M01 Main Title 1M022 The Ninth Beginning 1M05 Rey Trains 1M06 Ren's Entrance 1M08 Approaching The Nursery 1M09 Rey Wakes Up 1M13 Tell Me What They Are 1M15 Vader's Castle 1M20 Rey Training 1M24 Meditation 1M26 Spy's Message 1M26 Lightspeed Skipping 2M01 Cockpit Dialog 2M02 Fixing The Helmet 2M03 The Wisdom of Maz 2M04 The Emperor Lives 2M06 The Medal 2M07 Ship Trip 2M20 The Forge 2M30 Rey's Mission 2M32 Quicksand 0M01 Children's School 3M00 Lando 3M01 Before The Chase 3M03 No Title 3M06 Knights of Ren 3M07 Ochi and the Dagger 4M01 Rey Senses Ren's Approach 4M02 Rey's Incredible Hand 4M04 Zucini? 4M05 To The End 4M05B Good Ship, Bad Ship 4M06 He Won't Remember 4M07 Rey's Grief 4M10 Red Eyes 4M11 Poe and Girlfriend 4M12 Ship Walk and Talk 5M01 Meddling and Poe's Crush 5M03 Hallway Shooting 5M05 Rey Sees Mother 5M06 Hard To Get Rid Of 5M07 I'm The Spy 5M08 Geneology 5M10 Landing At ? 5M12 Off The Waterfront 5M30 Under a Blanket 6M02 Rey Climbs Pipes 6M02A Climbing 6M04 Daisy In A Veil 6M05 Leia Lies Down 6M07 Stop and Start 6M08 Healing Wounds 6M12 Six Twelve 6M13 Rey's Trip To P 6M20 Sabre Toss 7M01 Seven One 7M02 Rey Meets Luke 7M03 Luke's Advice 7M04 The Meeting 7M05 March Of The Resistance 7M08 Father Knows Best 7M10 Leia's Sabre 7M12 Seven Twelve 7M12A Horses #2 7M20 Approaching The Throne 7M21 Parents 7M30 More Action 7M32 Make The Sacrifice 7M36 Dunkirk 7M38 I Am All The Sith 8M04 Psalm of the Sith 8M05 Jumping The Chain 8M07 Big Ship Blows Up 8M08 On Their Knees 8M10 Success and Sliding 8M11A Dropping The Sabre 8M14 Ben to Rey 8M15 Horn Solo 8M16 End Credits 9M03 Bows 9M05ALT Return to Tattooine The list also contains the two source pieces not composed by Williams: 2S35 JJ Festival Music 3S35 JJ Bar Source As well as the cue names from prior scores that were tracked into this cut: 13M2 from Ep.6 Vader's Death 7M03 from Ep.3 The Birth of the Twins 7M05 from Ep.3 Plans for the Twins 3M26R from Ep.7 You're Han Solo? 4M36R from Ep.7 I Ran Into You 5M46R from Ep.7 Kylo Stalks Rey 6M50R from Ep.7 Han and Leia Reunion 6M55R from Ep.7 Council Meeting 6M56E from Ep.7 Ren In Cockpit 8M77 from Ep.7 March Of The Resistance 4M36 from Ep.8 Luke and Rey UPDATE: Additional cue titles found in GEMA Repertoire: Chewie's Interrogation Emperor's Attack Emperor's Theme V3 Falcon's Last Trip Filial Fencing Hero Fight It Fits! Kylo's Theme Lido Hey [JJ Abrams/Lin-Manuel Miranda] More Maz Name That Tune Poe's Theme Ready to Be a Jedi Rey and Ren Rey's Training The Crowd Joins In The Dunkirk Shot The Feeling The Last Fight The Millennium Falcon Theme The Resistance Theme Through the Jungle Tunnel Monster Uncharted Territory Wayfinder Insert
  3. IMAGES Music by JOHN WILLIAMS PRICE: 16,95€ IN STOCK Limited edition of 2000 units Quartet Records, in collaboration with Handmade Films, is proud to present a remastered CD reissue of an early masterpiece from legendary composer John Williams (THE TOWERING INFERNO, THE COWBOYS, JAWS, E.T., THE RIVER) for Robert Altman’s 1972 psychological thriller-drama starring Susannah York. The film inspired one of Williams’ most fascinating and avant-garde scores. The composer based his ideas on two different musical styles: one more classical, almost childlike, the other experimental, aggressive, with an essential contribution from famous Japanese percussionist and experimental musician Stomu Yamash´ta. This musical duality allows Williams to reflect how sanity gradually and irretrievably loses ground to madness in York’s character. The composer was Oscar-nominated in 1972 for both IMAGES and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE; this was the first time he received a double nomination in the same category of Original Score, something that became usual in the following four decades. This new 2021 edition, the first official release of IMAGES approved by the composer, has been expertly produced, restored and mastered by Mike Matessino utilizing a recently discovered stereo element, the only available source that could be located. The CD comes with a 20-page booklet featuring an authoritative and exclusive in-depth essay by Jon Burlingame, never-seen-before photos of the C.T.S. recording session with Williams, Yamash’ta and Altman, as well as the recently discovered liner notes written by Williams for an album (carefully assembled by the composer himself) that was ultimately released only as promotional edition for members of the Academy. NEW VINYL RELEASE IMAGES (LP) Music by JOHN WILLIAMS Pressed on 180 GM Black Vinyl Specially Mastered for Vinyl by Mike Matessino Limited edition of 500 units PRICE: 21,95€ PRE-ORDER (availability date 6/28/2021) Quartet Records, in collaboration with Handmade Films, is proud to present the first commercial vinyl release of an early masterpiece from legendary composer John Williams (THE TOWERING INFERNO, THE COWBOYS, JAWS, E.T., THE RIVER) for Robert Altman’s 1972 psychological thriller-drama starring Susannah York. The film inspired one of Williams’ most fascinating and avant-garde scores. The composer based his ideas on two different musical styles: one more classical, almost childlike, the other experimental, aggressive, with an essential contribution from famous Japanese percussionist and experimental musician Stomu Yamash´ta. This musical duality allows Williams to reflect how sanity gradually and irretrievably loses ground to madness in York’s character. The composer was Oscar-nominated in 1972 for both IMAGES and THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE; this was the first time he received a double nomination in the same category of Original Score, something that became usual in the following four decades. This new 2021 edition, the first official release of IMAGES approved by the composer, has been expertly produced, restored and mastered by Mike Matessino utilizing a recently discovered stereo element, the only available source that could be located. The LP, pressed on 180 GM black vinyl, comes with the recently discovered liner notes written by Williams for an album (carefully assembled by the composer himself) that was ultimately released only as promotional edition for members of the Academy. In Search of Unicorns (4:06) The House (2:40) Dogs, Ponies and Old Ruins (2:15) Visitations (2:53) Reflections (3:16) The Killing of Marcel (3:13) The Love Montage (4:48) Blood Moon (3:17) Land of the Ums (1:47) The Night Witch Ride (2:55) The Waterfall and The Final Chapter (4:19) https://quartetrecords.com/product/images/ https://quartetrecords.com/product/images-lp/
  4. Found this on instagram, looks like Across the Stars was arranged for her. This is especially interesting since the Yo-Yo Schindler's list one was more of a transcription probably.
  5. I am creating a second HOOK ULTIMATE EDITION thread, so that people can discuss the music without the conversation being mixed in with shipping updates and general anticipation posts. Here is the original thread where shipping updates, etc should still be shared in Now on to the music! I'm looking forward to hearing more thoughts from you three, as well as anybody else that has received their copy already!
  6. http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8454 http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.12150/.f
  7. So by my calculations, there's almost 45 minutes of unreleased music heard in the final film, though it's still unclear how much of that is old recordings tracked in... (Apologies to mobile phone users, this chart only looks right on a desktop or tablet.... if you are on mobile, turning your phone sideways helps somewhat) # Title Length On FYC? Length On OST? Length Unreleased 1 Main Title 1:26 01A [0:00-1:26] Fanfare and Prologue 1:26 2 Prologue 1 0:12 tracked in from TFA's "Starry Night" 0:38 01A [0:00-0:36] Prologue 0:36 02B [1:02-1:40] Journey to Exegol 0:38 0:20 01A [0:36-0:56] Prologue 0:20 02D [2:13-2:33] Journey to Exegol 0:20 0:32 01B [0:56-1:28] Prologue 0:32 0:10 01C [1:28-1:37] Prologue 0:09 01C [1:45-1:52] Fanfare and Prologue 0:07 0:08 01D [1:37-end] Prologue 0:08 3 Prologue 2 0:13 0:13 0:06 01E [2:52-2:58] Fanfare and Prologue 0:06 0:34 0:34 4 Prologue 3 0:06 0:06 0:17 02C [1:56-2:13] Journey to Exegol 0:17 0:53 0:53 5 Falcon Flight 2:22 02 Falcon Flight 2:22 6 The Training Course 2:10 2:10 7 Rey and Leia 0:49 0:49 8 Intel 1:58 1:58 9 We Go Together 2:33 03 We Go Together 2:10 09A [0:00-2:33] We Go Together 2:33 10 Helmet 1:17 1:17 11 Scavenger Hunt 0:09 0:09 12 Arrival on Pasaana 0:44 09B [2:33-end] We Go Together 0:44 SOURCE MUSIC 1:05 13 Rey and Nyambee 1:01 1:01 14 It's Ren 1:39 1:39 15 Wayfinder 0:56 0:56 16 The Speeder Chase 2:39 OST 05 The Speeder Chase is unused 2:39 17 Underground 0:32 0:32 18 Sith Dagger 1:16 1:16 19 Snake 0:19 0:19 20 Healing The Snake 1:19 1:19 21 The Knights of Ren 0:21 0:21 22 In The Desert 2:26 04 In the Desert 2:26 23 Transporter 1:04 1:04 24 We Gotta Go 0:24 0:24 25 A Prisoner 1:23 05 A Prisoner 1:23 26 To Kijimi 1:37 06 To Kimiji 1:37 27 Zorii Bliss 0:48 0:48 28 I Care 1:04 1:04 SOURCE MUSIC 0:49 29 My Friends 0:49 0:49 30 Report 0:18 0:18 31 Nobody Came 1:01 1:01 32 Incoming Destroyer 1:36 1:36 33 Fleeing from Kijimi 1:53 07 Fleeing from Kimiji 1:53 08A [0:00-1:33] Fleeing from Kijimi 1:33 34 Hallway Shooting 2:11 08 Hallway Shooting 2:11 35 Ren's Quarters 0:44 0:44 36 Hard to Get Rid Of 2:19 09 Hard to Get Rid Of 2:19 37 Lock Down The Ship 0:06 0:06 38 I'm The Spy 1:27 08C [1:33-end] Fleeing from Kijimi 1:18 0:20 39 Join Me 3:42 10 Join Me 2:21 10 Join Me 3:42 40 We Found Our Spy 0:21 0:21 41 I Know You 1:02 1:02 42 The Old Death Star 2:14 11 The Old Death Star 2:14 04A [0:00-1:22] The Old Death Star 1:22 43 Finn and Jannah 0:49 Could be partially "Finn's Confession" from TFA tracked in 0:49 44 Off The Waterfront 1:03 12 Off the Waterfront 1:03 04C [2:21-end] The Old Death Star 0:55 45 Another Skimmer 0:31 0:31 46 Rey Explores 1:11 "Darth Vader's Death" from ROTJ partially tracked in 1:11 47 Light Saber Duel 0:30 0:30 48 Saber Duel Continues 1:18 1:18 49 Final Saber Duel 1:38 13 Final Saber Duel 1:38 12A [0:00-1:05] The Final Saber Duel 1:05 50 Healing Wounds 2:54 14 Healing Wounds 2:49 12C [1:42-end] The Final Saber Duel 2:15 51 Advice 1:54 15 Advice 1:54 52 The Destruction of Kijimi 1:23 1:23 53 Poe and Leia 2:07 2:07 54 Destiny of a Jedi 5:12 06 Destiny of a Jedi 5:12 55 Luke's X-WIng 1:18 1:18 56 They Will Come 1:29 11B [0:57-end] They Will Come 1:54 57 Arrival at Exegol 1:18 This seems to actually be the intended placement of Journey To Exegol ??? 1:18 58 Rey To Throne Room 0:40 0:40 59 Battle of the Resistance 1:54 16 Battle of the Resistance 1:54 13B [1:12-end] Battle of the Resistance 1:39 60 Approaching The Throne 4:16 17 Approaching the Throne 4:16 14 Approaching the Throne 4:16 61 Parents 1:57 18 Parents 1:57 62 Coming Together 1:44 19 Coming Together 1:44 63 Rey & Ren Team Up 1:00 1:00 64 The One True Emperor 0:19 0:19 65 Too Many of Them 0:30 0:30 66 Lando Arrives 1:24 1:24 67 The Return of the Sith 0:58 0:58 68 Seeing Sights 3:17 20 Seeing Sights 3:17 15A [0:00-3:02] The Force Is with You 3:02 69 Destruction 0:49 At least partially "Peace and Purpose" from TLJ tracked in 0:28 70 Rescue 1:10 21 Rescue 1:10 15B [3:02-end] The Force Is with You 0:57 71 Rey's Death 0:48 16A [0:00-0:48] Farewell 0:48 72 Farewell 4:27 22 Farewell 4:27 16B [0:48-end] Farewell 4:26 73 Reunion 4:04 17 Reunion 4:04 74 A New Home 1:47 23 A New Home 1:42 18 A New Home 1:47 75 Finale 10:51 19 Finale 10:51 Total Unreleased Music: 0:43:32 There's a ton of music on the OST not heard in the film at all... besides little portions snipped out of cues that did make the film, we have: 01B [1:26-1:45] Fanfare and Prologue 0:00:26 replaced by Starry Night from TFA 01D [1:52-2:52] Fanfare and Prologue 0:01:00 01F [2:58-end] Fanfare and Prologue 1:16:00 02A [0:00-1:02] Journey to Exegol 0:01:02 I think this is actually partially heard as Rey arrives later in the film, hard to hear under sound effects 02C [2:33-end] Journey to Exegol 0:00:16 05 The Speeder Chase 0:03:21 replaced in final cut with new, much less interesting cue 04B [1:19-2:21] The Old Death Star 0:01:01 could be an early version of the trio meeting Jannah's crew? Or some of that and some of an early version of Finn talking to Jannah? 12B [1:05-1:42] The Final Saber Duel 0:00:37 could be an early version of the opening to Healing Wounds? 11A [0:00-0:57] They Will Come 0:00:57 could be an early version of the resistance discovering Rey's message coming from Luke's X-Wing? 13A [0:00-1:12] Battle of the Resistance 0:01:12 could be deleted final space battle footage? Or a special album-only opening? ~ Original main post: In this thread you can discuss the entire score, as heard in the film itself, the OST, the FYC, or anywhere else, without using spoiler tags. Of course, in the early days here, you can certain put very spoiler-y things in tags for the time being. The point of this thread is so those people who want to discuss the OST album without reading anything about the film can stay in that thread, and only come in here after they've seen the film. @Thor, feel free to copy and paste the paragraph you just posted about the score in the film thread into this thread too
  8. What is the earliest FYC/Oscar promo CD released for a John Williams score? I believe it's Angela's Ashes (1999) but I'm looking for some sort of confirmation. I'm referring only to CDs, not promotional LPs or cassettes that might have been released earlier on. Were there FYC CDs released for any of the following films (from 1999 or later): Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) The Patriot (2000) Minority Report (2002) Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Thanks in advance!
  9. After the announcement, MV said: We tried, but WEA gave it to Perserverance then apologized to us (forgot we asked for it when the license was with Collector's Choice). Sorry guys. Maybe in a few years time a complete release will happen. In the mean time pick this up. It's only $13 and will sound better than previous releases. MV & No, buy this version first so it will sell out fast. Then, we can do ours. MV Source: http://filmscoremont...mID=1&archive=0
  10. The little bits I shared of my insights into this seemed to sit well with the community, so I decided why not make an article of this? This article will deal primarily with the antecedents and sources of the Star Wars series. Of course, if one so wished, one could read absolutely anything and everything into it, look no further than Vincent Canby's review of the original film: "Quo Vadis?, Buck Rogers, Ivanhoe, Superman, The Wizard of Oz, The Gospel According to St Matthew, the legends of King Arthur." Likewise, one could look into the sources of Lucas' sources, and through Burroughs link Lucas up with Arabian Nights and, through Kurosawa, to Minamoto Yoshitsune. But what are the actual, direct and concrete inspirations of Star Wars? George Lucas, himself, of course, had since March 1980 pointed increasingly towars high-brow sources like Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Sir James Fraser's The Golden Bough.1 But what are the influences we can actually observe through the movie and its evolving drafts (and Williams' score)? And how do they stack up against each other? My own research suggests Lucas' sources (roughly by descending order of significance) are EE Smith's novella Galactic Patrol, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom book series (and at least one recent comic adaptation of it); The Flash Gordon serials; Donald Richie's The Films of Akira Kurosawa. Ontop of those is a series of secondary sources, in no particular order, including Frank Herbert's Dune, JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, illustrations on issues of Analog Science Fiction and Harry Harrison novellas; films from Dam Busters and The Searchers to A Space Odyssey and Casablanca. A book on the psychiatric importance of fairytales by Bruno Bettelheim, and a review on Psychology Today of Star Wars itself from 1978. Galactic Patrol (1937) The most major source for the Star Wars series is not Flash Gordon and certainly not Kurosawa or Joseph Campbell: its a 1937 pulp novella by "Doc" EE Smith called "Galactic Patrol", part of his Lensmen series, which Lucas' biography Skywalking credits him with reading. Indeed, Lucas owns a paperback of the popular Panther edition, which was out in 1972, just in time to be referenced in his very earliest notes for the films.2 Around 28 January 1973, Lucas started sketching (and soon abandoned) a synopsis for "The Journal of the Whills", and concomitant lists of character and planet names. Most of his reading of pulps seems to have been concentrated at the time leading right up to the writing of this document, while editing American Graffiti. Already in this early document, the interstellar setting and the names Aldeeran (Aldebaran in Smith) and Skywalker (Skylark in Smith) are appearant as influences.3 Before Lucas got to the finished shooting script, his intermediate drafts also feature a food called Thanta (in Smith, a drug called Thionite); a space academy with cadets; a planet named "Tantive four" (Rigel IV in Smith). More importantly, a character is introduced who's more machine than man: first, it was the Jedi Kane, then Ben Kenobi, then (in post-production) Vader, and briefly even Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kane laments that "There is nothing left but my head and right arm" while in Smith, the space commandant's ""right leg and left arm, although practically normal to all outward seeming, were in reality largely products of science."4 Even more importantly, the republic gradually emerges as a clear port of Smith's "Civilization" and its "Galactic Senate." Lucas' draft describes that “As the Republic spread throughout the galaxy, encompassing over a million worlds, the GREAT SENATE grew to such overwhelming proportions that it no longer responded to the needs of its citizens” and that the senators “slowed down the system of justice, which caused the crime rate to rise.” Compare with Smith: “with the invention of the inertialess drive and the consequent traffic between the worlds of hundreds of thousands of solar systems, crime became so rampant, so utterly uncontrollable, that it threatened the very foundations of civilization.”5 Most importantly, the Jedi gradually emerge as interstellar policemen (like Smith's Lensmen) who harnass the power of the Kiber Crystal (Smith's Arisian lenses) to use The Cosmic Force (Smith's "Cosmic All") and fight the space pirates who wield the "Bogan" force (Boskone pirates in Smith). Even the new title “Adventures of the Starkiller (Episode One)”, while it has a Burroughs flavour, is closest to Smith’s: “A Lensman adventure: Third in the great series.” This concept was rejected in later drafts - neither Luke nor the Jedi are depicted as superheroes in the finished film - but it starts creeping back into the sequels and prequels (including a discarded sequel plot released as the novel Splinter of the Mind's Eye, which features the crystal, now renamed Kaibur to denote Excalibur), along with more of Smith's nomenclature: Smith's eighth chapter is called "The Quarry Strikes Back." The Force was still called "The Cosmic Force" in the shooting script, and Lucas kept referring to it as such as late as 2019, and the microscopic lenses are also the antecedents of the later idea of the Midichlorians. The Lensmen being the product of a breeding program (much of its eon-spanning history is described in prequels of Smith's) feels like the germ of the idea of the "Clone Wars" and perhaps even Anakin's immaculate birth.6 Beyond that, what mostly remained is a tremendous amount of Smith's plot: Smith's hero, Kimbal Kinnison, flies the fastest ship in the fleet, The Britannia, which the hero uses the blast off into the fourth dimension to evade his pursuers. When they finally do catch him in a tractor beam, he passes the ship for scrap (also used in The Empire Strikes Back). Early on, he infilitrates the enemy's ranks and steals data spools about "The Grand Base", escapes the premises in a space lifeboat with just another Lensman to keep him company before landing on a desolate planet. Spending his free time sensing a remote while his blast shield is down (a plot point recycled in early drafts of The Empire Strikes Back, in the training of the Younglings in Episode II, and in concept art drawn for Lucas for Episode VII, as well), he at one point is wounded and his limbs replaced by artificial ones. While hospitalised, he bickers with his love interest, whom he later has to rescue from her pirate kidnappers.7 Barsoom (1917-) The second source is still not Flash Gordon: its Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series. While Lucas was shooting American Graffiti, DC (a childhood favourite of Lucas) started adapting John Carter's adventures. This strip was continued along with several other Burroughs stories, including his ever-popular Tarzan, in DC's Weird Worlds, just after Lucas wrapped-up principal photography. Lucas could scarcely have missed that Buster Crabbe who played Flash and Buck also played Tarzan, and at some later time he discovered that both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers were inspired by these stories. Already a fan of the illustrations of Burroughs illustrators Harold "Hal" Foster and Frank Frazetta - Lucas soon began collecting Frazetta originals, which remain in his possession to this day - he seems to have acquired the Frazetta-illustrated reissues of A Fighting Man of Mars (1973), The Moon Maid (1974, seen in the picture above) and possibly the omnibus of The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars (1971). In the 1980s, Lucas had Frazetta illustration of Burroughs' "The Rider" hanging in his office.8 Beginning in 1977, Lucas repeatedly said his film is in the genre of "Burroughs and Heinlein", that he wanted to "make a space fantasy that was more in the genre of Edgar Rice Burroughs,” that Alex Raymond "took his character from Edgar Rice Burroughs", that he wanted to perpetuate genre trappings that were laid down “primarily by Edgar Rice Burroughs.” Even more damingly, when he was first developing the film, he told Joseph Gelmis that he was working on a low budget space opera "in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs." His earliest interviews speak of his film as a "Western set in outer space" and a film where "the space aliens are the heroes, and the homo sapiens naturally the villains", which sounds an awful lot like Barsoom. In fact, his third draft synopsis - the first true version of the film as we know it - is actually prefaced as being "in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, and Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon."9 Lucas at least parsed through these books, because he clearly wrote "The Journal of the Whills" with Burroughs on his table, being that it basically amounts to a paraphrase on the opening of Burroughs' A Fighting Man of Mars: 10 George Lucas, The Journal of the Whills, February 1973 Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Fighting Man of Mars, May 1931. This is the story of Mace Windy, a revered Jedi-bendu of Ophuchi, as related to us by C.J. Thorpe, padawaan learner to the famed Jedi. I am Chuiee Two Thorpe of Kissel. My father is Han Dardell Thorpe, chief pilot of the renown galactic cruiser Tarnack. As a family we were not rich, except in honor, and valuing this above all mundane possessions, I chose the profession of my father, rather than a more profitable career. I was 16 I believe, and pilot of the trawler Balmung, when my ambitions demanded that I enter the exalted Intersystems Academy to train as a potential Jedi-Templer. It is here that I became padawaan learner to the great Mace Windy, highest of all the Jedi-bendu masters, and at that time, Warlord to the Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Systems. Never shall I forget the occasion upon which I first set eyes upon Mace Windy. It was at the great feast of the Pleabs. There were gathered under one roof, the most powerful warriors in the Galaxy, and although I realize my adoration of the Master might easily influence my memory, when he entered the hall, these great and noble Warlords fell silent. It was said he was the most gifted and powerful man in the Independent Systems. Some felt he was even more powerful than the Imperial leader of the Galactic Empire. This IS the story of Hadron of Hastor, Fighting Man of Mars, as narrated by him to Ulysses Paxton: I am Tan Hadron of Hastor, my father is Had Urtur, Odwar of the 1st Umak of the Troops of Hastor. He commands the largest ship of war that Hastor has ever contributed to the navy of Helium, accommodating as it does the entire ten thousand men of the 1st Umak, together with five hundred lesser fighting ships and all the paraphernalia of war. My mother is a princess of Gathol. As a family we are not rich except in honor, and, valuing this above all mundane possessions, I chose the profession of my father rather than a more profitable career. The better to further my ambition I came to the capital of the empire of Helium and took service in the troops of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, that I might be nearer the great John Carter, Warlord of Mars. [...] It was thus that I met Sanoma Tora, daughter of Tor Hatan, Odwar of the 91st Umak. [...] because here in the capital of Helium riches count for more than they do in Hastor, Tor Hatan is a powerful man, whose influence reaches even to the throne of the Jeddak. Never shall I forget the occasion upon which I first laid eyes upon Sanoma Tora. It was upon the occasion of a great feast at the marble palace of The Warlord. There were gathered under one roof the most beautiful women of Barsoom, where, notwithstanding the gorgeous and radiant beauty of Dejah Thoris, Tara of Helium and Thuvia of Ptarth, the pulchritude of Sanoma Tora was such as to arrest attention. I shall not say that it was greater than that of those acknowledged queens of Barsoomian loveliness, for I know that my adoration of Sanoma Tora might easily influence my judgment, but there were others there who remarked her gorgeous beauty which differs from that of Dejah Thoris as the chaste beauty of a polar landscape differs from the beauty of the tropics, as the beauty of a white palace in the moonlight differs from the beauty of its garden at midday. This draft is incomplete, but based on later drafts and the effort Lucas put into certain names on his lists of character and planet names, there's reason to belive the story was to revolve around rescuing a princess (a stock Burroughs plot) on the desert planet Aquilae (i.e. Barsoom), inhabited by the "Hubble" people led by Han Solo (i.e. the Green Martians led by Tars Tarkas) and the Bebers (i.e. red martians) led by "Lord" Annikin (i.e. "Jeddak" Tardos Mors) and Luke Skywalker (his son, Mors Kajak) and culminating in a Flash Gordon-esque space battle. Even the device of the "Journal of the Whills" through which the story is supposedly relayed to us, is a paraphrase on "The Girdley Wave" of Burroughs. Furthermore, whereas John Carter (like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and Smith's Kimbal Kinnison) is from earth, Tar Hadron, the hero of Fighting Man of Mars, is a native of the red planet. Its therefore from here that Lucas decided not to set his space adventure on earth to begin with. A lot of the nomenclature derives from Burroughs: "padawaan" here (and, later, Condawan and Obi-Wan) from "Padwar", and "Jedi" from "Jed" and "Jeddak." Wookiees first appear here, clearly based both on the White Apes and Frazetta's "The savage apes of Mars," covering the dust jacket of the 1971 omnibus. Indeed, Lucas' first full-length story treatment was attached with several illustrations, one of which was the cover to a 1970 English paperback of John Carter of Mars: While writing his first proper draft, Lucas seems to have read Burroughs' original, A Princess of Mars. The resulting rough draft/first draft is the closest to Barsoom, with princess Leia clearly based on Dejah Thoris (the heroes even have to rescue her from implicit rape by alien "trappers" like Carter does Thoris countless times) and the "green" Han Solo on Tars Tarkas. Even Chewbacca could be said to be like Woola, a Barsoomian hound. More importantly, Tatooine itself is a straight port of Barsoom: a desert planet with run-down earthen cities, the origin of Tatooine's "lived in" aesthetic. The twin suns, especially, are a play on Barsoom's twin moons. The Second Draft starts with an epigraph lifted from Weird Worlds, from right after they wrapped the John Carter story: "And in the time of greatest despair there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as: THE SON OF THE SUNS" compared to “And in time of greatest danger there shall come a hero.” Likewise, the draft ends with a text crawl for a sequel about finding a princess: Lucas' concept of, at that point, an episodic series of adventures, is also close to the adventures of John Carter and Kimbal Kinnison.11 The Thoats, Burroughs' beasts of burden, are clearly the forebearers of the Dewbacks and the Banthas: in fact, as Lucas' biography openly admits, Banth is a term from A Warlord of Mars describing a many-legged alien feline, which ultimately was pretty much lifted for Episode II's arena battle. In a conference with Lucasfilm's Carol Titelman in 1977, Lucas imagined many-legged girafees, also clearly based on Burroughs' knack for giving his alien bestiary multiple limbs. Sith, too, is a term from Burroughs', referring to giant insects. Lucas had wanted to feature flying steeds, like Burroughs' Malagor, in every entry beginning with The Empire Strikes Back before finally appearing on Kamino in Episode II and on Utapau (alongside Ornathopters from Dune) in Episode III, and they probably influenced the flying creatures glimpsed on Dagobah and Naboo, as well as the Mynocks and perhaps even Watto.12 This first draft was the basis for the screenplay to The Phantom Menace, and so the situation between the Naboo and Gungans is clearly based on the dichotomy that Lucas' took from Burroughs between the Red and Green martians, with the Gungans and especially Jar Jar and Boss Nass based on Tars Tarkas. Furthermore, an entire episode of the rough draft calls for Kane to defeat a Wookie chieftan in combat, earn the tribe's allegiance and lead them to an offensive against the Empire, is obviously the progenitor of both the Ewok storyline in Return of the Jedi and the Gungan storyline in The Phantom Menace, and its lifted directly from Burroughs, where Carter earns the allegiance of the Tharks and leads them to an attack against Helium.13 While Jar Jar's role was clearly cut short due to scathing fan reaction, Burroughs' influence persists, with Geonosis based even more closely on Barsoom that Tatooine was, replete with an arena battle and an attack of insect creatures (also used in an early draft of Willow). The entire Jabba "short" in Return of the Jedi is in the style of Frazetta, Lucas' favourite Burroughs illustrator, with Slave Leia the spitting image of his illustrations of Thoris, and Jabba's sail barge a dead ringer for a Barsoomian light ship.14 Flash Gordon (1936-1940) Lucas was influenced by the Flash Gordon comics: The design for the Landspeeder, for example, was from a contemporary strip. He could have seen the 1955 Flash Gordon TV series, later edited into a film, which took place in the 33rd century, the setting of Lucas' first story treatment for the film. But he was mostly influenced by the serials, which were still globally popular with kids on local TV programming going into the 1980s. Lucas remembers first seeing them circa 1956 on "Adventure Theater" airing at 6 on KRON, but that programme didn't air on KRON until 1960, and played at 2:30. Rather, its more likely he saw it, retitled as "Space Soldiers", on “Super Serial”, reportedly the top-rated show for that time slot in the central valley area, which aired at 6 on KTVU.15 Although Lucas later denied to Charlie Rose that he wanted to make Flash Gordon at all, insisting that Star Wars emerged as an original concept dating back to his days in community college, in 1977 he was empathic that he wanted "to make Flash Gordon, with all the trimmings." After the failure of THX-1138, he had inquired Universal only to find out the rights reverted back to King Features. When he visited Coppola's Godfather shoot en route to Cannes, he clearly intended to visit King Features ahead of a meeting with United Artists, so he could pitch them Flash Gordon as a two-picture deal with American Graffiti, in which they showed interest. However, with producer Dino Di Laurentiis attached to the rights (and eying bigger fish to direct), and Universal retaining the rights to the serials themselves, the financial and creative conditions were too stringent, and when he was turned down, he decided to make an original space opera instead.16 In terms of influence, however, there's little in Star Wars that's concretely Flash Gordon-like (and even less, if anything at all, like Buck Rogers). The wipe transitions are out of Flash Gordon, and the ramshackled visuals, created from shooting on sets and with props and music (more on this later) from other films shooting on the studio backlot with mostly unknown actors, are a precedent to Star Wars "Kitbashed" approach. Even the fact that Universal produced a trilogy of Flash Gordon serials had obviously helped make Lucas fond of the trilogy format, and for a while he considered making Star Wars a twelve-parter, like the individual serials. Perhaps the clearest influence is in some of the environments - Cloud City, Hoth and the underwater Gungan city (replete with a manta-ray submarine and a fight with a water monster) - most of which don't appear in the saga for very long. Mongo also had a woodland environment in the guise of Arboria, but then so did Barsoom.17 Likewise, the main characters have little in common with their serial counterparts. Luke is far too much of an underdog to be equated to the muscular, superhero of Flash, and Leia is not reconisably like Dale Arden. Guinness' wizard-like Ben is not at all like Zarkov. However, the Rebel Alliance has some antecedents in Flash's attempts to rouse the inhabitants of Mongo against the tyrannical Ming, who in turn is a little bit akin to both Tarkin and the Emperor. Of the three Flash serials, the most influential seems to have been Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, which featured Queen Fria (who had buns in her hair) and was the only Flash Gordon serial (notwithstanding a previous Buck Rogers serial) with a text crawl in the style of Lucas' film.18 The Films of Akira Kurosawa (1966) Beginning March 1980, Lucas started pointing towards more high-brow sources for his film, and donwplay its sources in pulps: I quoted many instances from 1977 when Lucas cited John Carter, and one can make a similar list of him referring to Flash Gordon, and his biography also mentions Lensmen, Dune and films like Forbidden Planet. However, after 1980, many of these sources are scarcely mentioned again. Instead, Lucas turned rhetorically towards high-brow scholarly sources (see below) and towards sources that hold some catchet with cineastes, like the films of Akira Kurosawa.19 The title I chose for this fourth influence is a the title of Donald Richie's The Films of Akira Kurosawa. The Kurosawa film that Star Wars has most in common with is, of course, The Hidden Fortress. But that movie is actually not one of Lucas' favourites and was not a popular succes in the US at the time, in which it was presented with heavy cuts. To recall the plot in sufficient detail, Lucas had written his synopsis with Richie's book, reissued in 1970, open on his desk. Also taken from Richie's book are a few beats from Yojimbo and Sanjuro. The recurring imagery of severed hands has its genesis in Kurosawa's Yojimbo.20 Donald Richie, The Films of Akira Kurosawa, 1965 George Lucas, The Star Wars: Synopsis It is the sixteenth century, a period of civil wars. A princess, with her family, her retainers, and the clan treasure is being pursued. If they can cross enemy territory and reach a friendly province they will be saved. The enemy knows this and posts a reward for the capture of the princess. She is being guarded by one of her generals and it is he who leads her on the long and dangerous journey that follows. They take along with them the sixteen hundred pounds of gold and also two farmers whom the general has captured. The farmers' accidentally discovering the gold (accompanied by percussive and Noh-like sounds on the sound-track) is the first indication, and Mifune's splendid entrance is another. They are rummaging around the rocks, pushing and pulling each other, each trying to find the next piece. [...] The princess, just like Yoshitsune, is disguised as a porter [...] ... and the farmers would have been comic relief, inserted among the general seriousness. [...] The setting is a narrow road in the forest. [...] Mifune cannot curb his horse in time; we have hardly time to see what has happened when the momentum both of horse and of camera movement, carries him directly into the enemies' hands. [...] At the end—as at the end of the Noh play— she is revealed as her goddess-like self. The farmers, like the porter in They Who Step on the Tiger's Tail come to realize that they have been adventuring with demigods. [...in Sanjuro] The young men laugh with relief, anticipation. Laughter continues and they look around in consternation for none of them are laughing. Out of the inner sanctuary ambles Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune), yawning, scratching himself, thumping his shoulders, stiff with sleep. The youngsters reach for their swords. He barely glances at them. The contrast between the spick-and-span boy-samurai with their terse nods, their meaningful glances, and Sanjuro, a real samurai, a real man, could not be greater. [...in Yojimo] Snick-snack—the sword is out, an arm lies on the ground, one of the men lies doubled, cleft from chin to groin, and Mifune is with quiet dignity replacing his sword in its sheath. It is the thirty-third century, a period of civil wars in the galaxy. A rebel princess, with her family, her retainers, and the clan treasure, is being pursued. If they can cross territory controlled by the Empire and reach a friendly planet, they will be saved. The Sovereign knows this, and posts a reward for the capture of the princess. She is being guarded by one of her generals, (Luke Skywalker) and it is he who leads her on the long and dangerous journey that follows. They take along with them two hundred pounds of the greatly treasured "aura spice", and also two Imperial bureaucrats, whom the general has captured. The two terrified, bickering bureaucrats crash land on Aquilae while trying to flee the battle of the space fortress. They accidently discover a small container of the priceless "aura spice" and are rummaging around the rocks pushing and pulling each other trying to find more... [...] The princess and the general are disguised as farmers [...] The two bureaucrats are essentially comic relief inserted among the general seriousness of the adventure. [...] Skywalker and his party race along a narrow pathway [...] Skywalker cannot curb his "jet-stick" in time and the momentum carries him directly into the enemies' hands. [...] The princess’ uncle, ruler of Ophuchi, rewards the bureaucrats, who for the first time see the princess revealed as her true goddess-like self... After the ceremony is over, and the festivities have ended, the drunken bureaucrats stagger down an empty street arm in arm realizing that they have been adventuring with demigods. [...]The boys laugh in anticipation of the blow they will strike the Empire in the name of the princess. They all stop laughing, but the laughing continues and they look around in consternation. Into the sanctuary ambles Skywalker, scratching himself, amused at the idealism of the youths. He barely glances at them. The contrast between the boy rebels with their terse nods, their meaningful glances, and Skywalker, a real general, a real man could not be greater. [...] With a flash of light, his lazer sword is out. An arm lies on the ground, one of the bullies lies double, slashed from chin to groin and Skywalker, with quiet dignity, replaces his sword in its sheath. However, this all happened during the writing of the initial treatment: this influence would dissolve over the various drafts. The empire uses the symbol of the Yamana from the film, but far more prominent in their depiction are allusions to Nazi and especially Wilhelminian imagery. The archetypes for the general, the villian and the princess appear in Kurosawa's film, but were primarily shaped by pulp sources. Even though Lucas did consider casting Toshiro Mifune as Old Ben, his notes show that he was thinking more of Mifune's turns in Seven Samurai and Yojimbo than in Hidden Fortress, where Mifune bears little resemble to Guinness' Old Ben. There's something of the headstrong princess Yuki in Leia and especially later in Amidala, but not much beyond Amidala's age and wardrobe.21 Lucas says the main influence are the two Droids, which is about right, but the similarity is mostly contained in a fifteen minute stretch at the beginning of the original film: afterwards, the story is no longer told from the Droids' perspective but Luke's, and even during their sojourn in the desert they're never crass and quite so cowardly as their Japanese counterparts. In the sequels, in particular, they would become a more conventional comic duo in the style of Laurel and Hardy. Beyond this, the influence is mostly in the Japanese flair of both the Tatooine robes (later retconned as Jedi robes) and Vader's helmet: McQuarrie remembers Lucas giving him a book on "Medieval Japan" but he's probably referring to Richie's book, whose title is scrolled on one of his sheets.22 Some plot points for The Empire Strikes Back come from Kurosawa's 1975 film Dersu Uzala: The Hunter, which takes place in the Russian tundra (including a beat where the hero hides in the hide of a dead animal for warmth) and features a diminutive, eccentric wise-man. Since Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace pull on the first draft, they owe something to Hidden Fortress: the speeder chase is analogous to a horse-chase in Kurosawa's film, and even Vader's turning on the Emperor has a little in common with Takodoro breaking ranks with the Yamana. Willow also strongly resembles Hidden Fortress, and early drafts even had gold concealed in the tree branches on Razel's island, like in the Kurosawa movie. However, Episode I is actually by far the most Kurosawa-like of all of Lucas' films: the imagery of that film owes something to Ran and Seven Samurai, favourites of Lucas and films which were more in-line with the "epic" imagery he sought for the prequel trilogy. But even that film owes more to Burroughs, Smith and Flash Gordon, and Lucas overall visual style is closer to John Ford: even those few films of Lucas' that use telephoto lenses likeTHX-1138 and 1:42.08 seem to be imitating Jean-Claude Labrecque rather than Kurosawa.23 This would also be a good place to point out that we can tie ourselves in knotes by looking for the sources of Kurosawa or of Burroughs and Smith as though they were, by proxy, sources for Star Wars: Richie explains that Hidden Fortress was effectivelly a remake of Kurosawa's earlier The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, which was based on the Kabuki play Kanjinchō, in turn based on the Noh play Ataka, adapted from The Book of Heike, which was adapted from the real-life events of Minamoto no Yoshitune. Likewise, Burroughs based his books on Arabian Nights, Lowell's Mars and Its Canals, Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, and frontier stories from his younger days. But these sources are much far too removed from Star Wars for it to be useful to explore them in relation to Lucas' film. Secondary Sources: Printed JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937) In 1977, in an excerpt later reprinted in the film's souvenir programme, Lucas asserts that Burroughs was "sparked" by "Gulliver on Mars, written by Edwin Arnold and published in 1905." That (spurious, as it happens) suggestion first appeared in Richard A. Lupoff's Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure (third edition 1975, illustrated by Frazetta). Lucas must have read it before he put "in the grand tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs" on his third draft outline. Lupoff's essay did little to affect Lucas' film, except that Lupoff quotes from a correspondence he had with JRR Tolkien, and Lucas was thus inspired to seek out Tolkien's ever-popular The Hobbit.24 In the third draft, Luke turns into an everyman who's father had died offscreen, like Bilbo, while Old Ben is clearly based on Gandalf, a characterization later transferred to Yoda and Qui Gon Jinn. In fact, Luke's father is said to have died in "The Battle of Condawan", a little bit like Thorin's grandfather was said to have died in the battle of Moria. McQuarrie's concomitant designs for the character started shifting from a Toshiro Mifune-like Samurai (after Mifune declined the part) to a wizened old wizard, with Lucas approaching who would surely be on anyone's shortlist to play Gandalf at the time, Sir Alec Guinness. Guinness, who was given the third draft to read, noted for its "suggestions from Tolkien" and "touch of Tolkien's." It may have played a part in his decision to take the role, telling Mark Hamil that he always wanted to play a wizard. In fact, the draft contains a clear paraphrase on Bilbo's and Gandalf's first meeting: JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937 George Lucas, The Star Wars: Third Draft "Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat. "What do you mean?" be said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is morning to be good on?" "All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. BEN: Good morning! LUKE: What do you mean, ‘good morning’? Do you mean that it is a good morning for you, or do you wish me a good morning, although it is obvious I’m not having one, or do you find that mornings in general are good? BEN: All of them altogether. Later in the draft, Luke presents himself to Ben with a "At your service!" At the same time, the third draft had a rather quirky take on Gandalf, but at the advice of Guinness this was filed-back in the Fourth draft, and then brought back for Yoda. But this is hardly the only influence of The Hobbit on the film: After this draft, Lucas started scouting north Africa for desert locations, finally choosing Tunisia, and renaming his desert planet afte the local place-name Tatooine. John Barry remembers Lucas picking Tunisia because he "liked Matmata, where people live in these holes in the ground", which Lucas fondly recalls as reminding him of a "Hobbit village." His choice of location (including grain stores that would later appear as Shmi's hovel in Episode I) surely owes something to Tolkien: in the third draft, Luke's homestead was still a set of buildings, not the Smial-like place it would become: In fact, Lucas explains that deciding to shoot the homestead in one of those underground hotels made the shoot costlier. Lucas even had renowned Tolkien illustrators, the Brothers Hildebrandt, illustate an alternate poster for the film.25 This choice is echoed later in the series in Yoda's hut. It was drawn by Ralph McQuarrie shortly after he bailed on Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, and its not stretching anyone's imagination then that his concept of the wizard's hut and of a Hobbit hole would become mingled, or that Lucas, already fired up by The Hobbit, would warm to such a design. Although Lucas already fond of having short-statured creatures in his story like R2D2 and the Jawas, he now considered casting a short person in the role of Luke. Maybe even the fact that the sabers glow blue (in artwork, they're plain white) and even the round interiors of the Falcon owe to Tolkien. Later, Jabba and his minions, though ostensibly based on Burroughs' Warhoon, have a touch of the Great Goblin and his minions to them: When he was first developing Willow, General Kael was a Jabba-like character, very reminiscent of the Great Goblin. Indeed, Lucas' first project AFTER Return of the Jedi was his most Tolkienian yet: The Ewok Adventure, where a boy (Hobbit) and group of Ewoks (Dwarves), including a wizard Ewok (Gandalf) set on a quest to the lonely mountain to slay the Gorax (Smaug) and encounter wolves and a giant spider! In the sequel, Battle for Endor, Willford Brimley plays yet another variation on Gandalf, replete with a pointy hat and staff! These two films were a dry-run for Willow, also heavily indebted to The Hobbit.26 Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) Lucas' biography suggest he read Frank Herbert's Dune, which was reissued in 1969 and 1972. Inasmuch as his original "Journal of the Whills" is a paraphrase on A Fighting Man of Mars, some of the nomenclature in it derives from Herbert, which Lucas seems to have read very gradually across the writing period: Ophuchi is a star in Dune, and Lucas' tentative name for the Emperor, Alexander Xerxes XIX of Decarte, is a clear paraphrase on Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV. Even his role as essentially an insipid puppet of sinister forces is not too far off Shadam. The Jedi are given here as Jedi-Bendu, recalling the Bindu technique from Dune. Even the city planet, first mentioned here, has more in common with Geidi Prime than with Isimov's Trantor. Even as late as Revenge of the Sith, the Wookies would pilot ships similar to Herbert's Ornithopters. Drafts and notes of Lucas also talk about a thumpers, "Dictums", as well as "mind control" and "human-computers", i.e. Mentats from Dune. 27 While Tatooine derives from Barsoom, some of what populates it - crawlers, bedouin-like sand people, moisture farms, spice, worm-like creatures - derive from Herbert. Guilds, which are first namedropped in The Empire Strikes Back and then feature prominently in the first two prequels, come from Dune (although they're also in Smith and Burroughs). Likewise, the siege on Utapau in the First draft (and subsequently in The Phantom Menace, in whose first drafts Naboo was still Utapau) might recall the Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen. In fact, in the First Draft the ruler of Utapau is assasinated by the Empire, much like Leto is by the Harkonnen.28 The increasingly-messianic tones of Star Wars beginning 1980, with Luke and then Anakin being turned into "chosen ones", derive from Herbert and Smith: In the second draft, Luke is the "Chosen One", who in the film's epigraph (itself designed on quotes from Irulan's diary in Dune) is called "The Son of Suns", which sounds a little like Smith's "Children of the Lens." This would be replaced by a Tolkien-esque "everyman" angle in the third draft, and subsequently in the movie, but gradually return to the series in 1980.29 Its hard, however, to pin specific beats in the story on Herbert's influence: By way of specific scenes, the original film has one small scene, in which Ben uses the Force to compel the Stormtroopers to let them go, which smacks of how Jessica and Paul use "The Voice" on the Harkonnen henchmen. By The Empire Strikes Back, the Force gives Luke the ability to glimpse the future, like Paul. Another specific influence doesn't come from Lucas but from the design team: back in 1981, the Emperor's decrepit appearance was not yet the result of blunt trauma (and wouldn't be until 2003: cf. Palpatine's sickly makeup in Attack of the Clones) and his makeup artists gave him a cranium split, thinking of Herbert's space navigators.30 Analog and Harry Harrison (1969-1975) The lightsabers themselves, however, predate this and seem to derive from a Frank Kelly Freas artwork (above) that appeared opposite from a story of Harry Harrison, a favourite pulp author of Lucas', in a March 1969 issue of Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact. At the point in which Lucas introduced them into the story, a story of Harrison's had just been adapted into Soylent Green, which may have prompted Lucas into seeking out Harrison's works. Indeed, many of Lucas' other pulp sources are visual: the final design for Chewbacca, replete with the bowcaster, comes from a July 1975 cover of Analog: neither design of Chewbacca, nor any of his descriptions in the drafts of by Lucas indicate a similarity to dogs, casting doubt over the autobiographical spin that he is based on Lucas (actually, Marcia's) dog Indiana.30 Meanwhile, Lucas' notes explicitly cite the cover to another Harrison novela from 1973, The Stainless Steel Rat, as the source for the TIE fighter and, subsequently, Darth Maul's ship. The semi-parodistic tone of Harrison's books is a little closer to the spirit of the original Star Wars film (less so the sequels) than Flash Gordon, Burroughs and Smith. Harrison also wrote archetypes similar to Lucas': on the back cover of The Stainless Steel Rat you can see a description of the main character, Jim DiGriz, very much along the lines of Han Solo (who first emerges as a human after this point), while his Bill, the Galactic Hero stars a farmboy.31 Others (1975-1976) In 1979, Lucas cited his love of the work of Moebius, whose illustrations feature similarly "used" sci-fi worlds to Lucas'. However, Moebius' work on Metal Hurlant wasn't published in America until early 1977: Lucas could have learned about it during the prep period in England, or even before that via his friend Edward Summer who did business with comics enthusiasts in Europe, but its not a noted influence on the original film: even the "used look" is not appearant on the early work of McQuarrie and Cantwell: if its inspired by anything at all, its by the ruinous cityscapes of John Carter. Indeed, the only parts of Star Wars that do look overtly "used" are those that take place on Tatooine or in the Falcon, a ship we first see on Tatooine.32 Lucas only contacted Moebius in 1977 to work on promotional material for the film's European debut, and his art influenced the animated segment of The Holiday Special, as well as The Empire Strikes Back. While it was mostly confined to the art-deco Cloud City, it also inspired the design of the Rebel freighter. While the Imperial Walkers were inspired by War of the Worlds and particularly by industrial artwork by Syd Mead, Moebius' art was used as a reference when Lucas asked to bulk the Walkers up. By the time of Episode I, Lucas had turned from Moebius (who worked on Willow) to the recent sci-fi novel Dinotpoia, which ILM had worked towards adapting: it influenced the city of Theed and the procession at the end of the film.33 Jack Kirby's Fourth World comics are sometimes cited as an influence: Lucas was actually accused of this in a 1975 dinner with an associate of Kirby's, although Edward Summer who was present assigns no significance to this. Vader resembles any number of pulp villains, especially The Lightning from The Fighting Devil Dogs serial (who shoots lightning, like Vader does in Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and has henchmen dressed in white). However, the similarities may be incidental: Vader's design started as an Imperial officer with a breathing mask (being that he has to move between spaceships), then added robes to seem like Sharif Ali in his introduction in Lawrence of Arabia (being that Vader is introduced in a similar fashion to Ali, especially back in the rough draft) and a Samurai-like helmet based on Richie's book, and the combination created the look.34 Secondary Sources: Cinematic World War II movies (1943-1970) Other movies, which Lucas usually caught on TV, mostly influenced only specific segments in Lucas' film. Some fifty World War II movies, especially The Dam Busters (1955), influenced the trech run, and along with Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens, contributed to the Nazi trappings of the Empire (although they ultimately appear mostly as Brits in Willhelminian garb) and the WWII trappings of some of the spaceships. Casablanca left its mark on the Cantina (Lucas notes say he's making Han "like Bogart") and perhaps set Lucas on the road to develop what would become Raiders of the Lost Ark around the same time. That film, however, whose premise Lucas developed significantly for Splinter of the Mind's Eye, owes more to the Zorro serials (which Lucas was shown by a friend in film school) and Secrets of the Inca (1954). Jabba, who was originally designed and cast as a human, was a kind of cross of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Sydney Greenstreet's Signor Ferrari from Casablanca (1942). By November 1979, however, Lucas transformed him into a more Burroughs' like design. While working on his look, Lucas rejected designs that looked too much like a sand-worm from Dune, the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland (replete with a Hatter-like Bib Fortuna) or the Great Goblin from The Hobbit.35 The Searchers (1955) Turning Owen's home into a remote ranch has the touch of John Ford's The Searchers about it: its an idea that first crops up in the second draft, which ends with a tease for a sequel clearly inspired by The Searchers. In the third draft Owen is a blunt and cruel character like John Wayne's Ethan. Two sequences, of the attacked Jawa crawler (a bull in the Ford film) and the burnt Homestead; and then in Attack of the Clones, Anakin's finding of his dying mother in Tusken captivity, are taken directly from The Searchers, and overall Lucas' shooting style is closer to John Ford's than to that of Kurosawa's or of the Flash Gordon serials. There are flourishes from other Westerns like High Noon (Han flipping a coin to the bartender). Before shooting started, Lucas rewatched Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West, hoping to get some ideas for the staging of the medal ceremony, before reverting to Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph Des Willens, which he had previously watched for an Imperial scene in the Rough Draft. Instead, Leone's influence mostly comes down to giving Luke and then Boba Fett a poncho.36 1960s widescreen spectacles While Lucas enjoyed many of the epic films, especially those produced in the 1950s and 1960s, they weren't a noted influence on his films. Lucas referenced Gone With the Wind, which was reissued in the early 1970s, is a noted influence on the love story in The Empire Strikes Back, and had the poster designed in homage of the one used in the rerelease. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) influenced the mechanical, NASA-like look of some of the spaceships, but its cinematic style couldn't be further removed from Lucas' and homages to it, while present, are few and far in between. Perhaps the most overt is in the medical facility in Revenge of the Sith: by the time of the prequel trilogy, Lucas had spent years talking about "reading the epics" (see later) and even tried to make a large-scale historical film (later realised as Red Tails). Nevertheless, the influence of such films on his prequel trilogy are quite superificial: the aforementioned odes to Kurosawa in Episode I, a podrace vaguely like the chariot race in Ben Hur; a brief homage to Lawrence of Arabia in Episode II; and a procession out of Cleopatra and Fall of the Roman Empire. There was a touch of Doctor Zhivago - a film Lucas referenced for the love story in The Empire Strikes Back - to the forbidden, doomed love story between Anakin and Padme Gradually, too, the influence of contemporary epics starts coming to the fore: the arena battle is as indebted to Gladiator as to anything in Spartacus, an influence also borne out of the soundtrack for Revenge of the Sith (see later). The latter film also incorporates "flyover" shots straight out of The Lord of the Rings, which Lucas enjoyed.37 By and large, however, its unsurprising to find correspondences between Lucas' film and 1950s science fiction: C3PO is designed after the Metropolis robot, and while R2D2 is based on Dewy from the recent Silent Running, only round (McQuarrie's touch). The description of Han or his ship as "Corellian" (which Lucas said in 1977 means its "Krell make") seems to derive from the Krell of Forbidden Planet, a childhood favourite of Lucas which recently reissued and which Lucas later screened for his crew: a noted influence on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.38 Coppola and Apocalypse Now Its no stretch to say that Lucas doubling down on the Vietnam war subtext in Return of the Jedi owes something to the success of Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), which Lucas almost directed. When Lucas started writing his first draft of the original film, he intended to present it to some extent as a Vietnam War parable, but that was downplayed in the writing process, and is all but wholly absent from The Empire Strikes Back. In Return of the Jedi, however, even the suggestion that in striking the Emperor down in anger, Luke would succumb to evil recalls the dynamic between Kurtz and Willard. In Episode I, the Gungan sacred place recalls Kurtz' compound, and when he was involved in development for Episode VII, Lucas described the hermit Luke as a "Colonel Kurtz type." Also while working on Return of the Jedi, Lucas concieved of Leia killing Jabba "like Luca Brazzi." Indeed, a rough outline of Anakin's story shows a striking similarity to Vito in The Godfather: Part II: a destitute nine-year old, orphaned and whisked away to another country, grows up, falls in-love but falls into a life of crime that weighs on his own children years later.39 A considerable aspect of Lucas' cinematic sources were sources that showed what he didn't want to do: in keeping with the "high brow" angle, Star Wars is often presented as an answer to the 70s "American New Wave" movies, but commercially its rivals were rather the big-budgeted disaster films of its day. However, for his part, Lucas conceived of it as a response to what he saw ON TELEVISION, mentioning Kojak and The Six Million Dollar Man, as well as his disappointment with the static spaceship imagery of Star Trek.40 The Canadian Avant-garde? The name "The Force" resembles a conversation captured in an experimental short film by Arthur Lipsett that Lucas watched in film-school and had wanted to homage in THX-1138. Lucas suggests his early filmography in and immediately after film-school comprised of experimental, non-narrative "tone poems" a-la Lipsett, and that he longs to return to making such films once he's done with the saga. As it is, Lucas failed to make good on this promise, and of his nine non-feature-length projects, only two (Herbie and 6-18-67) can be described as "tone poems:" In fact, it seems Lucas didn't see Lipsett's film until near the end of his term in USC, and his early interest in montage work was rather sparked by the work of the faculty's former dean, Slavko Vorkapich.41 Lucas other shorts, excluding "LOOK at LIFE", are either narratives, obscure though they may be, like Freiheit, Anyone lived in a pretty [how] town, and THX-1138-4EB. But mostly he made documentaries like 1:42.08, The Emperor and Filmmaker, not to mention the abandoned mockumentary Five, Four, Three. Lucas even suggests he shot Star Wars like a Juthra documentary, saying he deliberately "didn't stop" to show-off his fantasy world, like a documentary wouldn't linger on The Empire State Building, shooting establishing shots that are only "twelve frames, thirty-two frames at the most." A close examination of Lucas' film shows this is scarcely the case: the establishing shot of the Death Star is well over 160 frames long, and sequences like the cutaway to the Tusken Raiders or the entrance to the Cantina, where the camera cuts away multiple times to lingering shots of the many patrons, are totally not in keeping with this notion. In fact, the most documentary-like flourishes in the series are a handful of digital zooms in Attack of the Clones.42 Secondary Sources: Scholarly Castaneda's Tales of Power (1972-1974) Gary Jenkins' biography of Lucas says he "read Grimms’ fairytales and CS Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles, JRR Tolkien, Frazer’s Golden Bough. He also read Greek, Islamic and Indian Mythology and the works of modern mythologists like Campbell and Castaneda.” Many of these claims are dubious at best. While sketching Episode I, Lucas had on his shelf several books loosely on the subject of Folklore: The Gnostic Gospels (1981 edition), Peasant Customs and Save Myths (1968), Landscape and Memory, Bullfinch's Mythology, The Study of Folklore (1965), Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1958, last volume), but they're not a discernable influence on his film. However, ahead of the third draft, Gary Kurtz showed Lucas Carlos Castaneda's recent Journey to Ixtlan and The Tales of Power. The draft's synopsis specifically compared Old Ben to Castaneda's Don Juan, and when Lucas finally decided to have Ben die, he had him transform to a higher state of being: its ostensibly a ploy to keep the film kid-friendly, but its also ike Don Juan tells Castaneda he would enter if he has the confidence to leap off the cliff (like Luke in The Empire Strikes Back?) at the end of Tales of Power. Yoda, who in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi was envisioned as a native of Dagobah, clearly has something of Don Juan in him. In fact, Lucas' notes while writing The Empire Strikes Back quote from Journey to Ixtlan: "The mood of a warrior calls for control over himself and at the same time it calls for abandoning himself." Yoda himself quotes Don Juan verbatim (except with his trademark "backwards' dialogue): "We are luminous beings." Even in the prequel trilogy, where he's ever more Gandalf-like, Yoda's sermons against "fear", while ostensibly paraphrasing the litany from Dune, recall Don Juan's sermons. Even the concept of "Life Day" from the Holiday Special has a Castaneda-like ring to it, but otherwise its an alltogether minor influence: even the term "Force" appears in Lucas' drafts before it does in Castaneda's books.43 Conrad Kottak's "Social Science Fiction" (1978)? Possibly, a more significant influence came in March 1978, via a review of Star Wars by Conrad Kottak for Psychology Today. Kottak's was not the first "psychological" analysis of Star Wars, and so one assumes Lucas was primed for it. Kottak suggests Darth Vader is the image of Luke's "Dark Father": Lucas earlier notes suggest the correct etymology was, unsurprisingly, "Dark Invader", but now he adopted Kottak's post-hoc etymology in notes from circa 1980, as well as identifying Ben with the image of Luke's good, idealized father. Kottak suggested the boy must slay the evil father, and shortly after this Lucas named the third film "Revenge of the Jedi." Kottak briefly but pointedly cites the work of another "psychiatrist", Bruno Bettelheim (see below), and it seems Lucas was drawn back into Bettelheim's work immediately after reading Kottak's review. All the same, it beares to point out that making the villain the hero's father was a common space opera plot ploy.44 Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment (1975-1978) When he began writing the fourth draft, Lucas revised the film's epigraph to "A long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away, an extraordinary adventure took place", which he later said was inspired by a book of Bruno Bettelheim, who analysed ten Grimms' fairytales. "I had been reading other doctors", he later said, "Freudians." The book wasn't published until late 1976, but Lucas did read a long excerpt published in the New Yorker in December 1975.If anything, Lucas previous draft was even more fairytale-like thanks to The Hobbit, with Owen in the role of the cruel fairly godparent and Luke performing chores on the farm Cinderella-like. It could even be argued that, even after he got into Bettelheim in earnest (much, much later) his concept of what constitues a fairytale had already been shaped by Disney films and old swashbucklers, and only filtered through Bettleheim: in fact, much of what Lucas would suggest consistutes a fairytale - a parable with an ostensible moral, a story absent any major character deaths - in fact goes against some of the statements made in Bettelheim's book. Its true that only at this point Lucas added the shot of the princess genuflecting to R2D2, but similarly "dreamy" shots of the princess had already appeared in earlier storyboards. Likewise, the designs were mostly locked and Lucas had long before decided on diffused, ethereal visuals, and even those didn't stay the distance: Disliked by DP Gilbert Taylor and by Fox, the diffused look was only used in the Tatooine scenes, and even that was removed by sharpening tools in later releases to conform with Episode II).45 A possible influence beyond the epigraph may have been to tone down the violence (and change Luke's name back to the less fearsome Skywalker), although a fair bit of violence remained in the first two films (and returned with a vengenance in Revenge of the Sith) and what was removed (a beheading in the original film, and the intricacies of Han's torture in the sequel) was seemingly done more out of commercial practicalities than anything else. But Lucas did remove even more (but by no means all) violence from the Special Edition at the influence of Bettelheim, removing two shots of Imperial officers being hit with laser blasts, and making Greedo shoot at Han first.46 Presumably after reading Kottak's essay, Lucas got back into Bettelheim while he was rewriting The Empire Strikes Back. His notes quote from Bettlehim: "A repulsive, threatening figure can magically turn into a most helpful friend." For a short period during the design of Empire, Yoda was turned into a fairytale-like blue gnome. However, the ostensible moral of Yoda's design - "don't judge a book by its cover" - is something that appeared in Lucas' drafts, first with the dimuntive but resourceful R2D2 in the rough draft, and then (inspired by The Hobbit) especially with the unassuming Luke and decrepit, "old fossil" of Ben in the third draft. But Lucas only really got into Bettelheim in earnest after The Empire Strikes Back. By the time he was developing Return of the Jedi, he started talking publically about Bettelheim's influence (who would return the favour in 1981 by reviewing the first two films positively), and spoke incessently of his film being a fairytale. Nevertheless, his influence remained largely rhetorical. Most of the "fairytale" motifs present in Return of the Jedi are retreads of motifs from the earlier films, and which originate principally from The Hobbit: the Ewoks simply embody the same "don't judge a book by its cover" parable as Yoda and R2D2 before them. Lucas did make the Ewoks far more cloying in their design, citing his "fairytale" concept (again, more Disney-filtered-via-Bettelheim, than genuinely Bettelheim), and opted to make the unmasked Vader a kindly old man rather than the "grotesque" figure glimpsed in the previous film. Lucas also cited the "fairytale" concept in his refusal to let Lawrence Kasdan kill of Lando. In fact, in Lucas' first treatment for Return of the Jedi, even the deceased Ben and Anakin return at the end in the flesh, but this wasn't carried into the finished film.47 Likewise, Vader's redemption, while it has some antecedents in Bettelheim, also has precedents in Kurosawa and in some of Lucas' descriptions of Vader to Leigh Brackett in November 1977: while not talking explicitly about redeeming the masked villain, Lucas told Brackett he wanted Vader's death to be pitiable: "He wants to be human." While working on the script, Lucas said (see below) that fairytale heroes face trials in sets of three, which doesn't really manifest in the series except for this: the attempt to release Han fails first via the Droids, then via Leia, and finally via Luke himself, before he triumphs over the Sarlaac pit: they don't exactly fit as "trials" (certainly not for Luke) but it seems the ternary form appealed to Lucas here due to Bettelheim's writings. Actually, by far the most Bettelheim-tinged films in Lucas ouevre are not Star Wars (in spite of it being the most actually like a fairytale) nor Return of the Jedi, but rather the two Ewok films, and even those owe more to The Hobbit and to Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves than to Bettelheim per se.48 The choice to explore Anakin's childhood in Episode I might also derive from Bettelheim, although Lucas had persued casting a young princess Leia, auditioning 14-year old Jodie Foster and Terri Nunn, long before he heard of Bettelheim. In general, there's little of Bettelheim in the more-grandiose prequels, except that its through Bettelheim that Lucas became better-acquainted with Oedipus Rex, first naming the Jedi Librarian Jocusta, and then giving Anakin's fall an ironic, Oedipus-like touch. Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment (1977, excerpt published 1975) George Lucas' notes, circa late 1980 The fairy tale presented in a simple, homely way; no demands are made on the listener. This prevents even the smallest child from feeling compelled to act in specific ways, and he is never made to feel inferior. Far from making demands, the fairy tale reassures, gives hope for the future, and holds out the promise of a happy ending. [...] Fairy tales, unlike any other form of literature, direct the child to discover his identity and calling, and they also suggest what experiences are needed to develop his character further. Fairy tales intimate that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reach despite adversity—but only if one does not shy away from the hazardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity. [...] children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy. [...] It seems particularly appropriate to a child that exactly what the evildoer wishes to inflict on the hero should be the bad person’s fate [...] At this age, from four until puberty, what the child needs most is to be presented with symbolic images which reassure him that there is a happy solution to his oedipal problems [...] The good fairy godmother watches over the child’s fate, ready to assert her power when critically needed [... little Red Riding Hood] tells him, the wolf is a passing manifestation—Grandma will return triumphant. [...the sister in Seven Ravens] travels to the end of the world and makes a great sacrifice to undo the spell put on them." Present [story] in a simple, homely way … This prevents even the smallest child from feeling compelled to act in specific ways and he is never made to feel inferior … Reassures, gives hope for the future, and holds out the promise of a happy ending … Discover identity and calling … Intimate that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reach despite adversity—but only if one does not shy away from the hazardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity. Children are innocent and love justice. While most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy … Need symbolic images which reassure them that there is a happy ending, solution to the Oedipal problems … What the evildoer wishes to inflict on the hero should be the bad person’s fate.” [...] Somewhere the good father (Ben) watches over the child's fate, ready to assert his power when critically needed. Father changes into Darth Vader, who is a passing manifestation, and will return triumphant. Luke travels to the end of the world and makes sacrifice to undo the spell on his father. [... later, in story conferences with Kasdan and Marquand:] The whole concept of the original film is that Luke redeems his father, which is the classic fairytale: a good father/bad father who the good son will turn back into the good father. [...Lucas spoke in 1988] of his ''Star Wars'' trilogy as the struggle between the good and the bad father and said he also intended to make a movie about the war between the good and the bad mother.49 Joseph Campbell? While working on the third draft, Lucas made a passing remark to Edward Summer about his interest in Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces, a far denser read than Castaneda and Bettelheim. Lucas also suggests to Rinzler that only at this point did he "move from Kurosawa to Joe," and suggests he read Frazer's even denser The Golden Bough and Campbell's Masks of God and Flight of the Wild Gander. Michael Heileman suggests that while Lucas was certainly "aware of Campbell’s work on some level" he was scarcely "a book worm" and puts question that "Lucas plowed through Campbell’s 400 page tightly packed academic tome, let alone gleaned from it the formula for binding together the disparate elements of Star Wars." His awareness to Campbell may derive from the diaries of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, released in 1972, where he mentions Kubrick giving him Campbell's book to read while making 2001: A Space Odyssey. Likewise, Frazer's book had appeared onscreen in Coppola's Apocalypse Now.50 There are many objections to Campbell's influence that could be added to Heilemann's, but ultimately it comes down to a simple observation: There is no detectable Campbell influence on Lucas' film. In Myths to Live By (1972) Campbell does speak against machines, but that was a theme Lucas already explored in THX-1138. His films don't follow Campbell's "Monomyth" formula very well at all: Luke never meets a "temptress" along the lines described by Campbell and, even across the entire trilogy, never crosses "the return threshold" and comes back home. Luke leaves the "Normal world" before meeting his "guide", and gets his "talisman" before he refuses the call. In fact, Luke's outright reluctance to take the quest, a new addition in the revised fourth draft, seems to derive from The Hobbit: Campbell's rather inane descriptions of "Refusal of the Call" show that he's, in fact, referring to something completely different: Anakin's journey is even less Campbell-like than Luke's. What's more, Lucas' notes never quote from Campbell as they do from Bettelheim or Castaneda, and no names from Campbell - with the possible exception of "Dannen" in Willow - crop up in any of his films. Lucas' does mention Masassi and Brunhuld, but in drafts long predating the third, the latter supposedly derived from a book of baby-names. Virtually all of Lucas' waxing philosophical about life and fairytales - most of it utterly banal - derives not from Campbell but from Bettelheim and, even more to the point, from The Hobbit. The only piece of advise Lucas can cite from Campbell is his banal slogan "Follow your bliss."52 George Lucas, various interviews Bruno Bettelheim, Uses of Enchantment [...in 1977] One of the criteria of the mythical fairy-tale situation is an exotic, faraway land, but we've lost all the fairy-tale lands on this planet. Every one has disappeared. We longer have the mysterious east or treasure islands or going on strange adventures. [... in 1981] If I ever consciously used anything that I read, it was to make the story more consistent with traditional fairytales. For example, if there was a part in which Luke had two trials, I would try to make it three, because three is more consistent with hero myths. But if adding a third trial jeopardised the story, I wouldn't do it. [...later, on the set of Return of the Jedi] “in a fairytale, its always being nice to the little bunny rabbit on the side of the road that [results in it having to] give you the magic.” [...in 1999] Children love power because children are the powerless. And so their fantasies all center on having power. [...in 2006] “The Han Solo journey is a continuation of the motif of death and rebirth, which is the overall theme of this whole series in relationship to Darth Vader, who comes out of his evil hibernation and is reborn as Anakin Skywalker. Han has been put to sleep, which is a common device, especially in fairytales and mythological tales; it’s like going into a state of suspended animation and then, usually, you come out rejuvenated. Sometimes it’s the equivalent of going down to the netherworld and coming back enlightened.” [...in 2015] I think I can have things to say that I can actually influence kids, you know, adolescents, 12-year olds and, you know, that are trying to make their way into the bigger world and that's basically what mythology was, was to say - - of saying this is what we believe in; these are our rules; these are -- this is what we are as a society. And we don't do that. [...in 2015] a majority of people -- boys -- have a certain psychological relationship with their fathers. And that's been going on through history. And trying to explain that, to say we know your darkest secret and, therefore, you're part of us because we all know the same things. We know what you're thinking about your mother. [...] these stories do not take place in the here and now, but in a faraway never-never-land. [...] ‘once upon a time’, ‘in a certain country’, ‘a thousand years ago or longer’, ‘at a time when animals still talked’ [...] the number three in fairy tales often seems to refer to what in psychoanalysis is as the three aspects of the mind [...] Goldilocks encounters the three dishes, beds, chairs – for three separate efforts mark her entrance into the Bears’ dwelling. [...] three encounters with the man, three exchanges of a cow for a magic object, three nights with the princess. [...] A repulsive, threatening figure can magically into a most helpful friend. [...]The same tales assure that the ferocious giant can always be outwitted by the clever little man—somebody seemingly as powerless as the child feels himself to be. [...]Snow White’s deathlike sleep in the coffin is a period of gestation which is her final period of preparing for Maturity [...] Many fairytale heroes, at a crucial point in their development, fall into deep sleep or are reborn. Each reawakening or rebirth symbolizes the reaching of a higher stage of maturity and understanding. [...] Going down into the darkness of the earth is a descent into the netherworld. [...] Some fairy and folk stories evolved out of myths; others were incorporated into them. Both forms embodied the cumulative experience of a society as men wished to recall past wisdom for themselves and transmit it to future generations. These tales are the purveyors of deep insights that have sustained mankind through the long vicissitudes of its existence, a heritage that is not revealed in any other form as simply and directly, or as accessibly, to children. [...Freud suggests that ] the myth of Oedipus had become the image by which we understand the ever new but age-old problems posed to us by our complex and ambivalent feelings about our parents. 53 Ironically, while citing these scholars was seemingly done to give Lucas' film an air of intellectual legitimacy, all three authors would later prove to be hacks to some extent: Castaneda's works, though immensly popular, were already believed in his time to be works of fiction, and all but disproven by the time of Return of the Jedi. After his suicide in 1990, it was shown that Bettelheim had outright forged his academic credentials, and his book is a pastiche of Heuscher's Psychiatric Study of Fairy Tales, itself scarcely a piece that commanded great admiration in the scientific community of the time. After these two were discredited, Lucas only had Campbell left to cite. But then Campbell, like Bettelheim, was also a graduate of Literature, not anthropology, but didn't even complete a PhD. He has drawn heavy criticism from later folklorists for cherry-picking his examples, and for dubious authority: while citing a lot of examples from Indian mythology, he was not proficient in Sanskrit and didn't even visit India until after he completed The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Lucas himself, who admitted he never met Campbell or heard any of him talk until AFTER Return of the Jedi, gives him the backhanded compliment of being better lecturer than writer (he was neither), and later in life said he moved on from Campbell's Jungian views to "neuro-psychology."54 Arthurian legend? Surprisingly, neither Bettelheim nor Campbell use a lot of examples from the legends of king Arthur, but they surely led Lucas in the direction of those kinds of stories. Its hard not to think of Arthurian legend when, in the fourth draft, Luke no longer knows his father's story, and is handed his sword as heirloom, being that he "became of age." Whether its actually an Arthurian motif (a very small and layman one, at that) is hard to tell. Lucas, who would years later be the one to suggest the Holy Grail as a McGuffin for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - did have at least a colloquial knowledge of Arthurian legend - early notes of his say that Luke proverbially "draws the sword from the stone." Populist versions of the tale - by Disney and Mary Stewart - were very popular at the time. Of course, around this time, Lucas' fairytale rhetoric rubbed on Mark Hamil and Sir Alec Guinness (the clearly got an earfull of it from Lucas on set) who both drew paralles in 1977 interviews between Ben and Merlin, and shortly afterwards Splinter of the Mind's Eye was released with the Kiber crystal renamed Kaiburr to denote Excalibur. However, had Lucas wanted to sustain a parallel to Excalibur, he would surely have saved it for Luke to wield in his final confrontation with the Emperor, and plot his prequels such that it would be an heirloom running through the entire saga: from Qui Gon to Obi Wan to Anakin to Luke. Instead, Obi Wan and Anakin go through sabres like tissue papers in the prequel trilogy, and Luke unceremoniously loses his sword in The Empire Strikes Back, after having done little of note with it. Secondary Sources: Autobiographical Star Wars is, not, ultimately, a very autobiographical film. Chris Taylor notes that Modesto is not a good model for Tatooine, being "verdant" and about a meagre hour's drive from both San Francisco and Hollywood. Even the ranch Lucas spent most of his teens growing in was ultimately five miles down the road from downtown, a far-cry from Owen's remote moisture farm. Its clear Lucas named Luke after himself, but he's ultimately best seen as a projection of Lucas, not as a self-portrayal. Lucas' stern father perhaps resembles Uncle Owen moreso than Anakin, and even at that Owen probably owes far more to Ethan from The Searchers. The name "Vader" may or may not relate to an older jock from Lucas' junior high, named Gary Rex Vader. The most autobiographical scenes, of Luke hanging with his friends in Ancorhead, were only added at the insistence of Lucas' friend Hal Barwood and summarily cut from the film.55 In the intermediate drafts, Han Solo does strongly resemble Francis Ford Coppola. This would get filed-down in the final draft and in Harrison Ford's performance, but there's reason to assume Coppola's influence on Lucas' entire filmography is rather enormous: It was Coppola who first planted in Lucas' head the idea of making a filmmaking hub in the countryside, finally realised in Skywalker Ranch. It was Coppola who first turned to make films with the big studios, when he decided to direct The Godfather, paving the road for Lucas and American Graffiti. Lucas likes to take credit for convincing Coppola to take The Godfather to recoup debts from a screening of THX-1138, but that screening occured in November, while Coppola accepted the gig in September.56 Coppola also made a sequel, and even presented it as an integral "Part two" rather than a patched-on sequel, long before Lucas did so, and even the flashback sequences in Coppola's film can be seen an antecedent of sorts to Lucas' pursuit of prequels, especially since both go right through the characters' childhood. Even the turn to gloomy, soap-opera-like melodrama in The Empire Strikes Back, as well as the talk of high-brow inspiration, is perhaps a reaction to The Godfather and the way Coppola's posse derided Star Wars as "twerp cinema", not to mention to the pomposity of Coppola himself. Small wonder that Jabba is described as a gangster ("Like Marlon Brando in The Godfather") or that Lucas considered stunt-casting Pacino as Han Solo.57 A strong argument could be made that Lucas rhetorical turn to high-brow sources, as well as his insistence that the series was planned in advance, do impact the series. In the story conferences to Return of the Jedi, Lucas earnestly defends his story choices as being "the original story," which seems to have convinced Lawrence Kasdan. This turn, along with stories that make the film more of a "little engine that could" that it had been, and many affectations regarding what Lucas tried to do with the shooting style of the film, could be argued to affect Lucas' subsequent entries. We've already noted the (fairly superficial) turn to the visuals of 1950s and 1960s epics in the prequel trilogy, but just as importantly, we must ask the question: can a filmmaker who thinks so little of his audience's intelligence as to believe they'll fall for his tendetious stories of how he concieved Star Wars, make films that don't talk down to the audience as a film like Attack of the Clones indeed does?58 Secondary Sources: Musical Lucas claims to have written the script envisioning the music. This is a little dubious, since the only mention of music in the script is for the crawl, which merely calls for "war drums." Although Lucas later denied this, when he first met John Williams in 1975, he intended for Williams to only score the Cantina band (which he temped with a Glenn Miller piece). The score was to be comprised of the same pieces of music the Flash Gordon serials used like Liszt's Les Preludes. Williams, however, convinced him to write an original score with recurring themes, approximately like the leitmotive or "leading motive" technique of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (1876).59 In the event, the cut film was temporarily scored with Rosza's Ivanhoe; "Mars" from Holst's The Planets (1917), no doubt a nod to Burroughs; Dvořák's 9th Symphony (1893); Stravinski's The Rites of Spring (1913), Franz Waxman's score to The Bride of Frankstein (1935) previously pilfered by the Flash Gordon serials; a piece from Masaru Sato's score to Hidden Fortress, and (although Williams' denied this in 2003) Bernard Hermann's Veritgo (1958).60 In spite of that, and the fact that the film coincided with the revolutionary centenary production of The Ring, neither Williams nor Lucas cite it as an influence: Any story resemblence, especially to The Ring but also to Lohengrin, is coincidental. Williams had heard a Ring (probably heavily cut) in Hamburg in 1967 while scoring Heidi, and not knowing German, found it inaccessible. His technique is only Wagnerian insofar as it derives from a generation of Wagnerian film composers (notably Korngold) that were themselves more influenced by Wagner's Lohengrin than by The Ring, and subsequently Williams' own use of the leitmotif is halfway between the mature leitmotif technique of The Ring and the reminiscence themes of Lohengrin and Der Freischutz.61 While Williams' themes are pervasive through the underscore, like those in The Ring, they're not as suspectible to transformation as those in the Ring: in the classic trilogy, Luke and Yoda's music sometimes take to the minor, and Vader's music, once shorn of its minor harmony, is allowed to expiate in the major. The Emperor's music is presented in a major mode in the closing chorus of The Phantom Menace, but not outright transformation occurs until the end-credits, where young Anakin's music morphs into Darth Vader's, and in the way the Imperial March chords "poison" the theme associated with the Force during Anakin and Obi Wan's duel. The way the music of the Sith and the Separatists/Empire is contrasted with those of the Jedi and the Republic/Rebels, again brings to mind the kind of juxtapositions one finds in Lohengrin (where the music of the Grail is contrasted with Ortrud's) and Tristan. In 1977, Lucas suggested that in a few places, he and Williams saw fit to reference the original temporary track consciously in the score: so those places where Williams score (very seldom) steers very close to the temporary track are probably intentional. It has been suggested Williams' main titles owe to Korngold's King's Row, but Doug Adams concludes that its "may be stretching the point to dub Korngold’s theme the model", Williams' theme seemingly based on the Rosza piece, instead. Adams also questions whether Williams' intentionally referenced the Dies Irae plainchant in his score. Williams only quotes (albeit repeatedly) a four-note cell consisting of a halfstep down and up and then a fullstep down: a simple shape that anyone could intuitivelly hit upon.62 The scores of later entries seem to have mostly been tracked with pre-existing Williams pieces, although Williams seems to have grasped the homage to Ben Hur in The Phantom Menace and channelled something of Rosza there. Only Revenge of the Sith shows the touch of other contemporary scores, which were obviously put into the temporary track: The wailing soprano vocals in Padme's Ruminations is clearly temped with Lisa Gerard from Gladiator, while Anakin's Dark Deeds were clearly modelled on "The Treason of Isengard" from The Fellowship of the Ring original album.63 Footnotes Vicent Canby, "'Star Wars:' A Trip to a Far Galaxy That's Fun and Funny," New York Times, May 26, 1977. (All links last retrieved 16 October 2023). Jonathan W. Rinzler, The Making of Star Wars (New York: Random House, 2007. Enhanced Edition), p. 117. Chris Taylor, How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise (New York: Perseus Books Group, 2017), p. 208, 217, 236, 267, 514. Gary Jenkins, Empire-building: The Remarkable, real-life story of Star Wars (New York: Carol Publishing, 1999), p. 37. "George Lucas on the impact of Star Wars with Christopher Nolan", Director's Guild of America, 19 February 2011. Dale Pollock, Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas (New York: Harmony Books, 1983), p. 141 ff. "All I need is an Idea", 20th Century Fox, Star Wars: The Complete Saga (2011). Edward Elmer Smith, Galactic Patrol (Reading: Fantasy Press, 1950). Andrew G., "Everything Known About the 'Journal of the Whills' Outline," Medium, 30 October 2020. George Lucas, The Star Wars (Rough Draft), May 1974. George Lucas, Adventures of the Starkiller (episode one) "The Star Wars" (Second Draft), 28 January 1975. James Whitebrook, "George Lucas’ Plans for His Star Wars Sequels Were More Familiar Than You’d Think," Gizmodo, 12 November 2020. Stephen Hart, "Galactic Gasbag", Salon, 10 April 2002. Rinzler's book makes it seem Lucas had Midichlorians in mind in August 1977, but in his blog he admits this was added by Lucas to the manuscript after the fact. Jonathan W. Rinzler, "So What the Heck Are Midi-Chlorians?" StarWars.com, June 24, 2013. Michael Kaminski, The Secret History of Star Wars: The Art of Storytelling and the Making of a Modern Myth (Ontario: Legacy Books Press, 2008), p. 49, 61, 77ff, 85ff, citing Kristen Brennan, "EE 'Doc' Smith", Star Wars Origins, 1999. Staff. "A young, enthusiastic crew employs far-out technology to put a rollicking intergalactic fantasy onto the screen". American Cinematographer (American Society of Cinematographers: 1977), p. 1. Jonathan Rinzler, The Making of Return of the Jedi (New York: Random House, 2013. Enhanced Edition), p. 1566. Paul Rosenfield, "Lucas: Film-Maker With the Force," Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1977. Paul Scanlon, "George Lucas: The Wizard of Star Wars," Rolling Stones, 25 August 1977. Stephen Zito, "George Lucas goes far out," American Film, April 1977, pp. 8-13. John Baxter, Mythmaker: The Life and Work of George Lucas (London: Harper Collins, 1999), p. 33. Rinzler, p. 117, 257. Kaminski, p. 17, 63. "Everything Known About the 'Journal of the Whills' Outline"; ""A young, enthusiastic crew employs far-out technology to put a rollicking intergalactic fantasy onto the screen." Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Fighting Man of Mars (New York: Metropolitan Books, 1930). Fighting Man of Mars was recently reissued with a Frank Frazetta cover. Shortly thereafter, Lucas started collecting Frazetta, Raymond and Foster originals. Ibid. John Coleman Burroughs, John Carter of Mars (New York: Fantasy Books, 1970). Rinzler, The Making of Star Wars, p. 1669. Pollock, p. 141 ff. Kaminski, p. 315. Staff, "Early Drafts of George Lucas’ Willow Are a Very Different Adventure," Consequence, 14 August 2018. Lucas owns several Frazetta originals, a couple of which will be displayed in his museum of arts. Bob Strauss, "The Force was strong in LA as 'Star Wars' creator George Lucas launched his Narrative Art museum". Los Angeles Daily News, March 14, 2018. Pollock, 141 ff. Brian Jay Jones, George Lucas: A Life (New York: Little Brown and Company, 2019), pp. 42-45, NB 878-880. Jones' excellent biography also peels the histronics around Lucas' car-crash at 18 ("Lucas was actually in better shape than he looked", pp. 68 ff) and his community college education, noting he has an Associate of Arts degreee, not a Social Sciences one, having only took some classes in Sociology, getting a B for his pains. p. 72. Kaminski, p. 45 ff. Michael Heilemann, "Edward Summer interview May 19th (Part 1)," Kitbashed. Charlie Rose, "George Lucas", Charlie Rose.com, 25 December 2015. Michael Heilemann, "Flash Gordon", Kitbashed. Kaminski, p. 63. Rohan Williams, "The Origins of the Crawl," Force Material, 2016. Michael Heilemann, "Princess Hair", Kitbashed. Kamainski, p. 67 ff. u/RunDNA, "A compendium of places where George Lucas copied passages from 'The Films of Akira Kurosawa' to write his Star Wars Synopsis in 1973", Reddit, 21 May 2020. Rinzler, p. 82. "The Wizard of Star Wars." Michael Heilemann, "Kurosawa," Kitbashed. Kaminski, p. 161 ff. Michael Kaminski, "The Influence and Imagery of Akira Kurosawa," The Secret History of Star Wars, 2008. "Interview from 2001 with filmmaker George Lucas about Kurosaw," Akira Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress, Criterion Channel, 2001. "George Lucas on the impact of Star Wars with Christopher Nolan." JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit (London: Harper Collins, 1937), p. 2 ff. Philip Kosloski, "Obi-Wan Kenobi was originally created to be a Star Wars version of Gandalf," Voyage, 16 November 2019. Rinzler, p. 366. Kevin Burns, "Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy", 20th Century Fox, Star Wars: The Complete Saga, 2011. Rinzler, p. 452 ff. "The Wizard of Star Wars." Alec Guinness interview, Parkinson Talk Show, 1977. The Making of Star Wars, p. 523. Jonathan W. Rinzler, The Making of the Empire Strikes Back (New York: Random Books, 2010. Enhanced Edition), p. 94. Pollock, p. 141 ff. "George Lucas Goes Far Out." Adventures of the Starkiller, p. 48. The Making of Return of the Jedi, p. 93, 859. Michael Heilemann, "Chewbacca," Kitbashed. Michael Heilemann, "The Complete History of the Milennium Falcon," Kitbashed. "Star Wars Archives: Episode IV-VI," 20th Century Fox, Star Wars: The Complete Saga, 2011. Michael Heilemann, "The Moebius Probe," Kitbashed. Kaminski, p. 21, 212, 426. Michael Heilemann, "Giant Walking Machines," Kitbashed, 2015. Heileman's Edward Summer interview. Cathie Fenner, Arnie Fenner, Testament: The Life and Art of Frank Frazetta (Nevada City: Underwood Books, 2001). "George Lucas Goes Far Out." Michael Kaminski, "The Visual Development of Darth Vader," The Secret History of Star Wars, 2007. Kaminski suggests here that Vader was concieved as a burn victim before shooting started, based on a Mark Hamil interview from 1980, but in his book (p. 126) he admits Hamil's memory may be "foggy." My own feeling is the idea of Vader as a burn victim dates from post-production: the fact Lucas made no mention of it in his discussions with Carol Titelman shows it was a fresh idea on his mind when he told it to Rolling Stones that same month. This would make the similarity to Doctor Doom null. Michael Heilemann, "Casablanca." Jabba, who was originally designed and cast as a human, was a kind of cross of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and Sydney Greenstreet's Signor Ferrari from Casablanca (1942). By November 1979, however, Lucas transformed him into a more Burroughs' like design. While working on his look, Lucas rejected designs that looked too much like a sand-worm from Dune, the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland (replete with a Hatter-like Bib Fortuna) or the Great Goblin from The Hobbit. Michael Heilemann, "The Searchers" and "Its a period of civil war," Kitbashed. Kaminski, pp. 90-92, 141, 161, 430. "The Influence and Imagery of Akira Kurosawa." Michael Heilemann, "The Birth of R2-D2" and "Amazing! Nothing Like it Ever!", Kitbashed. Michael Kaminski, "Jabba the Hutt: 'Wonderful Human Being'", The Secret History of Star Wars, 2008. Kaminski suggests Jabba was reconceptualised as an alien before the comic adaptation of the film was released in June 1977, but actually it released in March. My own feeling, since the release of Rinzler's Making of Return of the Jedi, is that the idea was only arrived at in September 1979. Andrew G. "Why Did George Lucas Say His Ideas for Episode VII Were Abandoned?" Medium, 19 October 2021. Andrew shows that Lucas' plan for Episode VII were far closer to "The Force Awakens" than Lucas himself will admit. While Lucas had envisioned Luke dying in Episode VIII, the fact that virtually all the documentation we have of his vision for the sequel trilogy is of Episode VII would suggest he didn't plan the subsequent two films in any depth. In fact, it could be that the idea of the sequel trilogy was done to “to satisfy fan and media demand” (Kaminski, p. 505) rather than telling the world he was halving the size of the film series (which he shortly prior said would be twelve-film long, like a Flash Gordon serial). The seeming absence of any notes for such sequels would reinforce such a reading. Taylor, p. 488. Taylor, pp. 172 ff. Gilbert Cruz, "George Lucas Wants to Retire and Make Art Films. Sure He Does", Times, 18 January 2012. A survey of Lucas' filmography is given by Michael Heilemann, "The Early filmography of George Lucas," Kitbashed, but seems to have jumbled the order of the films and overstated Lipsett's influence. Jones (pp. 131-134) gives a more rigorous order of Lucas' student films, and puts Lucas' viewing of Lipsett's film around his tenure at graduate school. Heilemann does, however, show that Lucas' first film, "LOOK at LIFE," didn't start out as a film at all but as a "Kinestasic project", and was only inserted into Lucas' oevure after the fact, presumably when Lucas' The Emperor and THX-1138-4EB were touring student film festivals. "George Lucas on the impact of Star Wars with Christopher Nolan." Steven Silberman, "Life After Darth", Wired, 1 May 2005. Jenkins, p. 37. The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, p. 146 ff. Carlos Castaneda, Road to Ixtlan and Tales of Power (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972 and 1975). Kaminski, pp. 78-80. "Wizard of Star Wars." Michael Heilemann, "Like Father Like Son," Kitbashed. The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, p. 76 ff, 98. George Lucas, National Arts Club speech, 1985, recorded in Phil Cousineau (editor), The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work (San Francisco: New World Library, 1990), p. 186. Michael Kaminski, "Saving Star Wars: The Special Edition Restoration Process and its Changing Physicality," The Secret History of Star Wars, 2009. Rinzler, p. 291, 944-946. David E. Williams, "Gilbert Taylor, BSC is given the spotlight with the ASC's International Achievement Award". American Society of Cinematographers (February 2006). p. 4. "Lucas: Film-Maker With the Force." "The Wizard of Star Wars", Pollock, p. 200. The Making of Return of the Jedi, pp. 105. The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, p. 159. Aljean Harmetz, A Pained Lucas Ponders Attacks on 'Willow', New York Times, 9 June 1988. The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, pp. 77, 105 ff. The Making of Return of the Jedi, p. 377-379, 725. Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces (Princeton: University Press, 1949). Michael Heilemann, "Fairytales and the Hero's Journey," Kitbashed. Arthur C. Clarke, Lost Worlds of 2001 (New York: New American Library, 1972), p. 34. Campbell, p. 54. Taylor, p. 197. Lucas had used various dictionaries and name-books to come up with peculiar names, including Thesaurus, Webster’s, Penguin’s Dictionary of Surnames, Harper's Bible Dictionary and Asimov's Guide to the Bible. Kaminski, pp. 71, 526. "All I need is an idea." Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1977). The Making of Return of the Jedi, p. 1160. Richard Schickel (writer), "From Star Wars to Return of the Jedi" 20th Century Fox, Star Wars: The Complete Saga, 2011. "The Wizard of Star Wars." Staff, "The Mythology of Star Wars," BillMoyers.com, 18 June 1999. Charlie Rose interview. A Pained Lucas Ponders Attacks on 'Willow'. Alan Dundes, "Folkloristics in the Twenty-First Century," Lee Haring (editor) Grand Theory in Folkloristics (Indiana University Press: Bloomington, 2016), pp. 16–18. Richard Pollak, The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997). Taylor, pp. 55 ff, 74. Kaminski, p. 105. Jones, pp. 51. Ibid, p. 902. Kaminski, p. 298. Michael Appler, "Al Pacino Recalls Turning Down ‘Star Wars’ Despite ‘So Much Money,’ Jokes: ‘I Gave Harrison Ford a Career’," Variety, 20 April 2023. The role of Han - not Ben - was a prime candidate for star casting. Also considered was Burt Reynolds. Jason Guerrasio, "Burt Reynolds was such a screen icon that even the list of roles he turned down is legendary, from James Bond to Han Solo," Business Insider, 6 September 2018, Lucas has been suggesting Star Wars as a shoestring budget, little-engine-that-could since 1977, but in fact even at his bleakest, he admits he thought it could make a thrifty $16 to $25 million domestically. Fox' contract specifically states the film has "substantial domestic and international appeal." Even the rejection letters from United Artists and Universal say its a potential hit, albeit a risky one, and Chris Taylor suggests that "the fact that the lawyers kwould keep fighting over the precise details" of the merchandising deal, "shows that Fox was not as asleep at the switch we've been led to believe." (.p. 207). While the nearly $12 million budget seems modest, adjusted to inflation of USD as against British and Tunisian currency, Lucas will have gotten the equivalent of an $80 million movie in 2023 dollars out of it. Lynda Miles and Michael Pye, "The Man Who Made Star Wars", The Atlantic, March 1979. Kaminski, p. 63. "Empire of Dreams." Alex Ross, "The Force is Still Strong with John Williams," The New Yorker, 21 July 2020. Michael Heilemann, "The Origins and Inspirations of John Williams' Star Wars score," Kitbashed. Lucas and Hirsch remember using Liszt's Les Preludes and Bruckner's Ninth, but seem to be conflating them with Bride of Frankenstein (no doubt inspired by Liszt) and Dvorak's Ninth. James Buhler, “Star Wars, Music, and Myth,” James Buhler et al, Music and Cinema (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2000), p. 53 Doug Adams, "Sounds of the Empire: Analysing the themes of the Star Wars Trilogy," Lukas Kendall (Editor), Film Score Monthly, Volume 4: Number 5 (Culver: Vineyard Haven: June 1999), pp. 22-47. Jon and Al Caplan, "Sithburger?", Lukas Kendall (Editor), Film Score Monthly, 10: 3 (May/June 2005), p. 32. Conclusions Lucas main influences are Galactic Patrol (via the 1972 Panther reissue); Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars; Space Soldiers Conquer The Universe (via reruns on Super Serial), and The Hidden Fortress (largely as summarized in Richie's The Films of Akira Kurosawa). From these he took the following: From Galactic Patrol: the interplanetary setting, the concepts of the Jedi and the Force as they appear in the larger series, and much of the plot of the original film. From John Carter: Tatooine, Geonosis and Jakku. Bestiary including Banthas, Aiwhas, Wookies and especially the Ewoks and the Gungans, both of which are led by the heroes to fight against a technologically superior foe (like the Tharks against Zodanga). The premise of rescuing the princess in the original film. Removing earth from the setting. From Flash Gordon: the original impetus to make a film on this topic, some designs, stylistic elements like the wipes, the idea of a rebellion against a tyrannical overlord. From Kurosawa: Much of the plot of Episode I, and isolated plot points for Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The Japanese trappings of queen Amidala, the Tatooine robes (later Jedi robes) and Vader's helmet. From secondary sources: the urban planet, the emphasis on spacing guilds in Episodes I and II, Luke and Anakin as "Chosen Ones" (from Dune), the lightsabres, the TIE-fighters and some broad archetypes (from Harry Harrison), Luke as an "everyman" in the original film; Ben, Yoda and Qui Gon as wizard mentors, the designs of Luke's homestead, Anakin's hovel and Yoda's hut (from The Hobbit), the cloying tone of Return of the Jedi, some "Special Edition" revisions to reduce the violence in the original film, the "Long Time Ago" epigraph (from "Uses of Enchantment"), the main twist in "The Empire Strikes Back" (from Conrad Kottak's review of Star Wars), the trench run, the Germanic trappings of the Imperials and some of the spaceships (from The Dam Busters), Luke finding his dead aunt and uncle and Anakin his mother (from The Searchers). While owing a substantial debt to these sources, it would be unfair to accuse Lucas of pastiche: For as heavy a debt as he owes to Galactic Patrol, Lucas' film is quite distinct from it: Smith's book plays more like very soft science fiction, lacking the kind of fantasy trappings of Lucas' film. Likewise, one cannot watch a Flash Gordon serial, and much less a Kurosawa film and "see" Star Wars. Lucas uses from these sources in ways that benefit his film, recontextualising the elements he takes within the framework of his own story. What's more, its not clear Lucas was interested in hiding his sources entirely: many of these stories were still quite popular at the time, and anyone at all familiar with the genre would have recognised the allusions from practically the moment they sat down to watch the movie. In fact, Lucas' sources were overwhelmingly recent: either new issues of space opera periodicals, or recent reissues of genre classics, all entirely between 1969 and 1977. Even the films Lucas referenced were mostly cinema rereleases or television reruns. Also significant, I think, is the fact that much of the filmic influence of Lucas, both in terms of positive influence and in terms of showing him what he wanted to divorce himself from, comes from television: It is poetic, then, that this franchise should have now become ostensibly a television franchise. Was the film intended as a "post modern", "meta" mash-up of homages? It was certainly concieved of as knowingly retro. Lucas was 1950s kid growing up on a lot of 1940s films and comics, and he wanted to throw back to those. His early, more derivative drafts may have been intended merely to jog his imagination, and as could be expected of any filmmaker making a genre film, he did his research into the genre, not necessarily intending to make a "homage" even if he invariably ended up making one. His cinematic style, that of a 1950s Western, complements the 1940s Flash Gordon and Lensmen and 1920s (that is to, say pre-World War II) Burroughs material, and is well-helped by the 1910s-styled musical score. He certainly didn't want to be self-aware as such, and any such trends - overstated by 1977 critics - had been snuffed out of the sequels and prequels alltogether. Lucas' films are not congruent with the "high brow" spin: already in 1975, Lucas insisted to Edward Summer that there was no comic-book influence on Star Wars, and instead pointed to his interest in Campbell, and this rhetoric would intensify, particulary after 1980. The study of Lucas' sources, however, shows that this is an affectation: Even with regards to Kurosawa, while A Hidden Fortress is an excellent, well-regarded film, it is far from Kurosawa's finest or even Lucas own favourites of the Japanese filmmaker's output. Flash Gordon, Galactic Patrol and John Carter all fall on the pulpy side of things, and are more significant influences than Kurosawa and certainly then Bettelheim. Its therefore rather poetic that Star Wars had been sold to Disney of all studios, and that, after having based itself on these quixotic and comic-book-like sources, should have finally pivoted from the novelistic style that Lucas aspired to between 1980 and 2005, to a more comic-book-like picaresque style, ostensibly becoming the third major cinematic comic-book franchise alongside Marvel and DC.
  11. The trilogy that forever shattered a fanbase in two. The trilogy that, arguably, scarred the reputation of one of Hollywood's greatest storytellers. The trilogy that, whatever its shortcomings may be, features some of the most badass music John Williams has ever composed. Which film and score do you prefer from the divisive Star Wars prequel trilogy?
  12. Uh...what the heck?!? Just saw this on the Entertainment Weekly site!! https://ew.com/movies/2018/11/17/john-williams-new-music-disney-star-wars-theme-parks/
  13. There it is. The Original Trilogy plus The Force Awakens, live to projection! http://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/explore/1718/star-wars
  14. I have long been thinking about this. Where does being a "fan" end and where does "being obsessed" start? At what point does one stop being a normal, healthy fan who enjoys listening to the music of his favorite composer and when does one become obsessed, that is unhealthy, when the obsession takes over one's life and it becomes a toxic fixation over another person whose work one admires? I'm really curious to hear everyone's opinion on this, in my humble opinion, very serious and important subject matter, because there are certain people who are borderline obsessed with certain composers and they may not be aware of it. When does being a "fan" become being "obsessed" with someone? How much "love" for someone's work and his persona is still healthy and normal, and when does it become unhealthy, toxic and dangerous? Is there a firm line between a "fan" and an "obsessed person" and if so, where does it lie? What are the boundaries no one should ever cross?
  15. The Force Awakens by John Williams Complete Score Breakdown & Other Info by Jason LeBlanc I have no clue what any of Williams' original cue names are, so I made up my own names for all of them, usually just using a description of the scene or some dialogue from it rather than trying to imitate Williams' naming style. I'm sure I missed some things here and there so I welcome any at all questions and updates and corrections. Without further ado here we go! May 2020 update: We now know all of Williams' original cue titles. I will continue to edit this post with corrected info as I have time, and will put old, outdated info in spoiler-blocks until I have time to replace it with updated info. CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF OST: 01 Main Title And The Attack On The Jakku Village (6:25) 02 The Scavenger (3:39) 03 I Can Fly Anything (3:11) 08B "That Lady With The Stick" (0:35-1:05) 05 Follow Me (2:54) 07 The Falcon (3:32) 08A "What's Your Name?" (0:00-0:35) 08C "Kylo and His Sword" (1:11-end) 09 The Rathtars (4:05) 10B "Green Planet" (0:52-1:17) 10C "You Got A Name?" (1:17-end) 11A "Maz on the Table" (0:00-1:21) 10A "I Ran Into You" (0:00-0:52) 04B "I've Found The Droid" (1:10-end) 11B "I Have To Go Back" (1:21-end) 12 The Starkiller (1:51) 13 Kylo Ren Arrives At The Battle (2:01) 14 The Abduction (2:25) 15 Han And Leia (4:41) 17 Snoke (2:03) 18 On The Inside (2:05) 19 Torn Apart (4:19) 20 The Ways Of The Force (3:14) 22A "Light In The Snow and Flying Home" (0:00-2:05) 04A "Finding The Map" (0:00-1:10) 22B "The Complete Map (2:05-end) 23 The Jedi Steps And Finale (8:51) Concert Arrangements 06 Rey's Theme (3:11) 16 March Of The Resistance (2:35) 21 Scherzo For X-Wings (2:32) DETAILED OST BREAKDOWN: 1 Main Title And The Attack On The Jakku Village (6:25) 0:00-1:26 = 1M1 Main Title 1:26-1:44 = 1M1Av3 Starry Night 1:44-2:16 = 1M2A Fix 2:16-2:29 = 1M1Av3 Starry Night {continued} 2:29-2:59 = 1M2B 2:59-3:07 = 1M1Av3 Starry Night {continued} 3:07-3:27 = 1M3C I've Seen Too Much 3:27-4:07 = 1M3D The Attack on the Village 4:07-4:52 = 1M3BR The Attack on the Village 4:52-6:03 = 1M4R The Arrival of Kylo Ren 6:03-end = 1M4B Landing 2 The Scavenger (3:39) 0:00-0:54 = 1M5 Alt 2R The Scavenger 0:54-1:02 = 1M5 Alt 2 The Scavenger 1:02-2:21 = 1M5 Alt 2R The Scavenger {continued} 2:21-2:40 = 1M6 Alt R One Quarter Portion 2:40-end = 1M7 Lunchtime With Rey (Flute Version) 3 I Can Fly Anything (3:11) 0.00-0.57 = 2M14R I Can Fly Anything 0.57-end = 2M15R The First Escape 4 Rey Meets BB-8 (1:31) 0:00-1:10 = 8M72 Finding The Map 1:10-end = 4M37 I've Found The Droid 5 Follow Me (2:54) 0.00-1:07 = 2M18B Who's Luke Skywalker? 1:07-2:24 = 2M18CR Follow Me 2:24-2:36 = 2M18C Insert II 2:36-end = 2M18CR Follow Me {Continued} 6 Rey's Theme (3:11) 8M79 Rey's Theme 7 The Falcon (3:32) 3M20R The Falcon Still Flies! 8 That Girl With The Staff (1:58) 0:00-0:35 = 3M21R What's Your Name? 0:35-1:05 = 2M18A That Lady with the Stick 1:05-end = 3M22R Kylo And His Sword 9 The Rathtars (4:05) 0:00-1:01 = 3M24R Hiding Under the Grate 1:01-1:22 = 3M27 Rathtars Appear 1:22-2:47 = 3M28 The Rathtar Attack 2:47-end = 3M28AR Old Falcon To The Rescue 10 Finn's Confession (2:08) 0:00-0:52 = 4M36R I Ran Into You 0:52-1:17 = 4M32R Green Planet 1:17-end = 4M33R You Got A Name? 11 Maz's Counsel (3:07) 0:00-1:21 = 4M35R Maz on the Table 1:21-end = 4M39R I Have To Get Back 12 The Starkiller (1:51) 8M81 Sunbeam Strings 13 Kylo Ren Arrives At The Battle (2:01) 0:00-0:15 = 5M43R (Fix) Find Rey! 0:15-0:43 = 5M43A (Fix) Maz’s Treasure Chest 0:43-end = 5M44 Kylo Arrives at Battle 14 The Abduction (2:25) 0:00-0:56 = 5M46R Kylo Stalks Rey 0:56-1:18 = 5M48 We’ve Got What We Need 1:20-end = 5M49R The Abduction of Rey 15 Han And Leia (4:41) 0:00-1:12 = 6M50R Han & Leia Reunion 1:12-2:52 = 6M51R Finn and Poe, United 2:51-3:23 = 6M52 R2 In Hibernation 3:23-end = 6M53R Parental Discussion 16 March Of The Resistance (2:35) 8M77 The Resistance Theme 17 Snoke (2:03) 0:00-1:02 = 8M78 Snoke 1:02-end = 6M54AR Bring Her To Me 18 On The Inside (2:05) 0:00-0:45 = 7M62A On The Inside 0:45-0:54 = 7M62A Insert 0:54-end = 7M62A On The Inside {Continued} 19 Torn Apart (4:19) 0:00-2:26 = 7M65B Father and Son 2:26-2:32 = 7M65C Leia Fix 2.32-3.40 = 7M65 Father And Son 3.40-end = 7M66 The Control Room And Ren In The Forest 20 The Ways Of The Force (3:14) 0:00-0:12 = 7M67R It Is You 0:12-0:47 = 7M67BF Rey Catches Sword 0:47-end = 7M67A Rey vs. Ren 21 Scherzo For X-Wings (2:32) 8M80 Scherzo For X-Wings 22 Farewell And The Trip (4:55) 0:00-1:16 = 7M68A Light In The Snow and Flying Home 1:16-2:05 = 7M68 Flying Home 2:05-end = 8M73 The Complete Map 23 The Jedi Steps And Finale (8:51) 0:00-2:12 = 8M74 Climbing the Mountain 2:12-end = 8M75 Finale (11/11/15) QUICK FYC BREAKDOWN: Simple FYC/OST Combo Playlist, no Editing Required Longer Chronological Edit of OST + FYC, In-Track Editing Required: THE RAW NUMBERS: All comments welcome!
  16. Now here is a long post! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if there are any correction suggestions fire away, especially on the nuts and bolts of music theory of which I profess very little knowledge. And many thanks to all the people from this messageboard without whose excellent discussion and insights this analysis would not have been possible. You know who you are. UPDATE December 2016: The analysis now includes information and revisions based on the Lala-Land Records The John Williams Jurassic Park Collection which features the complete The Lost World: Jurassic Park score. The Lost World: Jurassic Park John Williams on a symphonic rampage A Complete Score Analysis by Mikko Ojala In 1997 four years after the original box office monster Jurassic Park had stomped onto the big screen and brought the dinosaurs so vividly to life through the magic of special effects wizardry, Steven Spielberg released the much clamored sequel to his hit film. The Lost World: Jurassic Park was loosely based on the novel by Michael Chrichton, whose own initial reluctance for writing a sequel (he had never done so before) was finally assuaged by Spielberg himself, who requested it after the success of the first film. The second Jurassic Park novel was released in 1995 and after the period of adaptation of the book into a script (by David Koepp), the production of the new movie began in 1996. Koepp’s script retains only some major outlines of the novel, mainly the locale of Isla Nublar’s sister island Isla Sorna, forsakes nearly all the characters and uses some broad ideas of the action that took place in the book but replaces the ending with a dinosaur rampage through San Diego. This was actually a suggestion from Spielberg during the late stages of the production and the original ending prepared and storyboarded before the last minute change was much more in line with the novel with an exciting chase involving Velociraptors and Pteranodons. Interestingly some elements of the script migrated right out from the original Jurassic Park novel, in particular the scenes with the small Compsognathi dinosaurs from various points in that story. The only retuning character from the previous film and novel is the nervous and edgy chaos theorist and a mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) with a whole new supporting cast of Malcolm’s love interest paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), Malcolm’s teenage daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), a big game hunter Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite), John Hammond’s greedy corporate businessman nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), a documentarian and environmental activist Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and Roland’s second-in-command Dieter Stark (Peter Stormare). In addition the film features a cameo apprearance of three main characters from the original film, Richard Attenborough reprising his role as John Hammond the capitalist entrepreneur now turned naturalist and Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards as his grandchildren Tim and Lex Murphy. The film takes place several years after the horrifying events of Jurassic Park. Dr. Ian Malcolm, a survivor of the Isla Nublar incident is drawn much against his will back to the world of dinosaurs by John Hammond who invites him to lead a scientific expedition to another island full of dinosaurs. Hammond has kept the knowledge of Isla Nublar’s sister island Isla Sorna secret from the world and reveals that it was originally the site of the creation of the dinosaurs and that they were bred and raised there and then moved to the larger Isla Nublar and the park itself. These beasts are by some miracle still alive and well even though they were supposed to die without human provided nutrients. Malcolm refuses flatly to go but is forced to accept Hammond’s offer as he hears that the millionaire has hired his girl friend paleontologist Sarah Harding to document the dinosaurs in their natural habitat. She jumped at the chance and is already on the island. With no alternative Malcolm wants to mount a rescue operation immeadiately. Thus begins the journey to the island that conincides with the plans of the ruthless head of the InGen Bioengineering Peter Ludlow of salvaging dinosaurs from the island to reap profit from them, the operation going awry, dinosaurs on a rampage, a desperate escape from the island and finally a T-Rex on the loose in the streets of San Diego. The stuff of wildest dinosaur dreams for monster hungry movie crowds. The Lost World proved to be another box office smash even though its world wide gross was considerably less than its predecessor's. It still held the record for the best opening weekend for 4 and half years until another Williams scored film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone (2001) dethroned it and the highest single day box office take for a couple of years until Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace claimed the honor, again scored by Mr. Williams. Despite the huge box office success the film got mixed reviews that commented both positively and negatively on the plot, the characters and the action and the movie garnered a plethora of mainly special effects plaudits, award nominations and wins. It was even nominated for Razzies in three categories but lost in all of them (Williams was nominated for an Academy Award for Amistad that year but lost to James Horner's enormously successful and popular Titanic). Whatever the merits or failings of the film itself, its score stands proudly as one of the most unique, daring and energetic of John Williams’ career. Here in his 14th collaboration with Steven Spielberg the composer has once again renewed himself and indeed created in chameleon style a new voice. The music is as much a departure as it is a return to the sound of Jurassic Park, the composer treading different ground in the sequel that contains only hints of the familiar themes and atmosphere that was so effective and made dinosaurs so magical only four years prior. New sound for the sequel Steven Spielberg’s initial impulse was to create something very different for this film, as he well knew that it would certainly not so much about the wonder of the dinosaurs anymore since the audience knew what to expect and more about darker sense of adventure, and so he asked from Williams a different stylistic approach for the score than for its predecessor. He wanted it to be exotic and tropical, percussive and driving, addressing as much the action as it did the location. Williams when interviewed for the The Lost World :Jurassic Park DVD documentary commented on the starting point for the new score: Steven’s idea was that this was all taking place on an island in some Carribean area and that the music might have, might be driven by some drums if you like. Or some sort of ethnic or jungle kind of texture or flavour that might drive the music and might give it a kind of unique flavour. And so much of what in the action sequences I did, to begin with at least, was driven by this drum thing, which I enjoyed and we had some wonderful percussionists come onto the stage and it contributed in a nice flavour, I think, to the film.[1] Themes for a Lost World With the new locale, characters and situations it seems like Williams started his writing almost from scratch and in this respect the score resembles his gripping and thrilling sequel score for Jaws 2, where he created a whole new extension for the franchise’s world to complement the famous Jaws theme with all new musical motifs and ideas. Similarly in this film the familiar and famous main themes from Jurassic Park return but are complemented by prominent all-new thematic material. Returning Themes The Island Fanfare that previously addressed the heroic and adventurous side of the action in Jurassic Park, most notably underscoring the magnificent helicopter approach to Isla Nublar, is used mostly in subtle references, rising only a few times to heroic proportions in the new score. This theme is also heavily referenced for a sense of nostalgia, the subdued variations giving it an air of worn and by-gone glory and often commenting on the broken dream of the Jurassic Park. The actual hymn-like Theme from Jurassic Park (titled Dinosaurs in the original score) appears only in the last scene of the film to signal a happy ending to Ian Malcolm’s adventure. The haunting and ominous 4-note Carnivore motif, that in the first film heralded the appearance of the most dangerous dinosaurs, T-Rex and the Velociraptors in particular, makes fleeting appearances in the sequel e.g. when the dreaded raptors are mentioned for the first time. The Lost World The new primary musical idea of the Lost World is the theme of the same name. This heroic, energetic and questing melody is usually carried by the horns, trombones and strings, augmented by a varied battery of rolling percussion, creating at once the sense of travel, the exotic jungle location of the story and adventure with a hint of danger to it. It begins with a minor key scale ascension that almost builds up through the scale and gives a feeling of progress and movement towards a goal. Williams further elaborated on this theme in his traditional concert version which he wrote for the end credits (this piece can be heard as the opening of the original soundtrack album). Pounding drums announce the theme, playing a forceful rhythm that carries through the whole piece and becomes a sort of musical motif in itself. The swaying melody, almost a Spanish or South American flavoured waltz or sarabande surges forward with dazzling brass and percussion interjections, woodwind runs and subtle synth accompaniment, becoming more and more agitated, hinting danger and sudden dire turn of events in its bridge melody but finally overcoming the obstacles it returns to the main theme, bursting victoriously to a rapturous and rhythmic finale augmented by the whole percussion section with tambourine adding an almost festive colour to the proceedings. Here Williams has created a perfect theme for a jungle adventure that in its contours captures both the excitement of exploration and awe and the danger of an island full of dinosaurs and contains the right amount of exoticism to illustrate locale of the story. Noteworthy is that despite being the main new theme of the score, this musical idea is used sparingly in the context of the film, where its grander readings are reserved for exploration sequences on Isla Sorna and most adventurous moments early in the movie. The theme actually seems to neatly bookend the whole Isla Sorna experience as it is first heard on the voyage there and then again when the protagonists are leaving the island after their adventure. The Island’s Voice The other central musical theme in the score is subtler but ever pervasive, in essence a replacement for the original 4-note Carnivore motif from the first film. This new rising 4-note motif, which from now on is called The Island’s Voice in this analysis, is at least initially more mysterious and ominous than the cruelly rising and direct Carnivore motif from the previous film yet remains a close cousin to it. Williams uses these ascending 4 notes to maximum effect in his music, injecting the score with this signal throughout the film, often cleverly interpolating it to nearly any situation, a grim reminder of the dangers inherent in the encounters between dinosaurs and men. This music often appears to warn the listener of the carnivorous dinosaurs, Velociraptors and the T-Rexes and to create a sense of foreboding that is so clearly and well captured in these 4 simple ascending notes that seem to be telling us that in Jurassic Park the dinosaurs were dangerous but confined to the park but this time on Isla Sorna they are the ones in complete dominance and roaming free. This material is often woven into the frenetic and percussive action sequences with such skill that it is hard to notice this musical backbone of the entire score from its environment. And as the story progresses so does the insistence and weight of this musical signal, assuming highly dramatic, ponderous and exclamatory form in the final scenes of the Tyrannosaurus loose in San Diego. It could be said that over the course of the film this motif becomes the musical glue that binds much of the score together. The Percussion and Jungle Sounds As mentioned above in Williams’ quote, the percussion plays a large part in the orchestrations of this score and lends a very specific texture and feel to the music. This collection of instruments includes e.g. congas, bongos, "jungle drums", taiko drums, gourds, guiro, log drums and tabla alongside the more traditional orchestral percussion of timpani and bass drum providing a pulse and rhythm that drives the events constantly forward. The brooding, tropical jungle atmosphere is further enhanced by other instruments, such as shakuhachi and "animal sounds" effects played by a synthesizer.[2] Williams has several different percussion instruments or sections playing layered rhythms over and under the orchestral textures and motifs and offering them even some solo moments where the pure percussion rhythm independently churns underneath the action before the next burst of thematic ideas from the orchestra. Aleatoric Procompsognathi and Other Musical Terrors Another common stylistic element in this score is aleatoric writing. To create a sense of chaos and terror, Williams provides a series of pitches to a group of instruments and instructs them to play them quickly ad lib for a given number of measures. Although this technique has been used in many scores by Williams and other composers, The Lost World employs this effect with unusual frequency.[3] In fact this chirping, whirling, wild and agitated aleatoric writing becomes in itself a musical signature for the small carnivorous Compsognathi dinosaurs and is heard whenever they appear. This style of writing is also attached to the most frenzied of the action music and underscores the dinosaur attacks throughout the movie but it is especially noticeable in the Raptor sequence towards the end of the film. This bed of sizzling effects adds another layer of raw terror to the proceedings, lending animalistic furore to the music. *** As a whole the sequel score is much darker than its predecessor as the film does not offer us so much moments of awe and marvel as mounting anticipation of the coming terrifying encounters with the dinosaurs. There is less a sense of mystery than there is of foreboding and Williams’ music enhances this feel considerably from the start. At appropriate moments the music will also sound heroic, positive and luminous often quoting the old themes with almost a sense of nostalgia but as a whole Williams roots the score in darker textures and motifs with lots of low woodwind, string and brass writing, earthy tones, complex rhythms and driving beats. The rhythm seems to define this music so much that many pieces seem to revolve solely around them, forgoing themes for pure percussive effect and each track seems to have a nearly unique percussion rhythm and feel to it, with each instrument echoing the percussion at varying points. Williams offers a small personal analysis on the differences of the two Jurassic Park scores in the DVD interview: I have not made an experiment of comparing the two scores but I think we’d find that Lost World is probably more frightening, maybe more dissonant, maybe a little bit more... with little harder edge to it and maybe scarier than Jurassic Park would be, of necessity because of the different styles and look and texture of each film. [4] The new score is as Williams puts it more aggressive and harsher, the action music more propulsive than thematic or balletic like in many previous Spielberg/Williams collaborations perhaps taking its cue from its predecessor Jurassic Park where Williams already constructed his action set pieces around small musical cells like the aforementioned Carnivore motif and built independent yet stylistically connected action sequences for that film. This new sound fits the movie to perfection complementing and enhancing its atmosphere and world considerably. It could be said that The Lost World is to an extent a watershed between the old Williams sound of the early 90’s and the modern Williams of the 2000’s. It contains elements from both worlds and perhaps is reflection of change in the film making as well, the movies demanding more and more rhythmic propulsion and pulse over operatic and balletic thematic development that the composer is so known for, especially in Spielberg films. And surely Williams as an artist is ever self-improving and these shifts in his style could be seen as development of his compositional voice and thinking throughout this period. The Lost World Pillaged in Post Production It is a well-known fact that film music is nearly always presented in some way edited form in the film as the medium often requires adjustments to the one hundreth of a second, fast changes for new edits of scenes or the whole film, the music facilitating special effects work etc. and The Lost World is no different. Steven Spielberg usually affords Williams’ music with enormous respect and has even in some instances done the opposite of the norm and edited his film to music (the finale of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is the classic example), but in The Lost World music went through a bit more rigorous editing process. It might have been the last minute special effects work as the movie did have longer scenes with CGI dinosaurs and ILM did a lot of late post production work on the material or Spielberg's absence from the recording sessions since he was in the final stages of shooting his next film Amistad but whatever the reason was, the score was tinkered with quite heavily in places in the post production. Tracking, editing and placing music written for a specific scene into a different one, took place most likely because so late in the post production there was no time for Williams to write replacement material nor prepare additional pick-up scoring sessions before the release of the film and his other film commitments that year (Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet and Spielberg’s second film Amistad) would not allow it. Most notable case of tracking, made evident by its frequent use, is the inserting of the concert/end credits version of the Lost World theme into many scenes where Williams had either written different music or that were not scored at all. The reason for this is that Steven Spielberg after hearing the main theme fell in love with it and wanted to make wider use of it in the film although the original concept had been that the theme only underscores the arrival and departure from Isla Sorna and the end credits. The comparison of these replacements with the original musical ideas would indicate that Williams’ original vision of the music is a good deal darker than what Spielberg wanted in the end as the most prominent placements of the tracked main theme suggests a need to add positive, heroic or triumphant feel to the sequences and keep the main theme in the music throughout the score, whereas Williams most often uses it sparingly as was the original plan. As there was no time to revise the music after the director's input late in the post production, tracking was the method chosen to accommodate the director's wishes. Editing and tracking of the music in the film itself present a slightly fragmentary picture of the score as a whole, especially when the finished product is compared to the music as it was originally conceived. It is not the worse case of a film score being edited to pieces (like e.g. Horner's Aliens) in the post production but this is the first so prominent a case in a Spielberg/Williams collaboration even though done here with certain amount of respect to his original ideas. *** The score was recorded at Sony Pictures Scoring Stage in Los Angeles in two chunks in the spring of 1997 (March 18-21 and April 18th, 20-22 1997) with Spielberg away finishing the principal photography of his next film Amistad, much as he had been away in Poland filming Schindler's List when Williams was recording the score for Jurassic Park. The music was orchestrated by Williams' frequent collaborators Conrad Pope and John Neufeld and it was performed by the Hollywood studio musicians. The original soundtrack album released at the time the film came out offered 68 minutes of music from the film, presenting many of the major hightlights from the score and Williams as is his habit, edited together and truncated some musical sequences for listening experience purposes. The complete score runs for almost 2 hours, so well over 40 minutes of music have remained unreleased and also in part unused until LaLa-Land Records' The John Williams Jurassic Park Collection which came out on 29th of November 2016 and included the complete score presentations of both Jurassic Park and the Lost World. TRACK-BY-TRACK ANALYSIS All tracks are named by their original Williams given cue titles. This is followed in parentheses by the disc and track number on the John Williams Jurassic Park Collection and the original soundtrack album if the music can be found on it and the time stamps of where in the track the music can be found. After this comes the the orchestrator information for each cue and the length of the sheet music (in bars). 1. The Island’s Voice (1m1) 3:38 (LLL set D 3 Track 2, OST track 2 The Island Prologue, 0:00-3:32) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 68 bars Rumbling contra clarinets, tam tams and ominously murmuring low strings open the score as we see a tropical coastline, hear the crashing of the waves and a title card announces the location: Isla Sorna 87 Miles Southwest of Isla Nublar. As the main titles appear Williams introduces the 4-note Island’s Voice motif on eerie synthesizers (the sound named in the written score as Animal Call) which is repeated twice over a bed of low woodwinds and subtle percussion (0:15-0:32). A solitary flute and brass voices slowly rise, supported by growing orchestral swells and percussion, piano adding sudden icy notes to the building atmosphere. With this musical portent the film introduces us to a luxurious yacht anchored off the coast of the island with the ship’s bustling crew and a rich British Bowman family coming into view. The music is eerie, uncomfortable, full of muted colours from brass, sizzling cold synthesizer sounds, yawning strings, cascades from the harp, a complete opposite of what we are seeing, a well-to-do family on a cruise having a picnic on the shore on a sunny day, but Williams’ music is most expressively hinting that something is not right. It is suppertime on the beach and the family’s little girl Cathy (Camilla Belle) goes off to explore the beach with a sandwich in hand. At 2:04 a curious small melodic snippet on clarinet with synthesizer doubling is introduced as the girl arrives at the tropical forest edge and sees a little green lizard in the underbrush. She approaches it and wonders aloud what it is, even feeding some of her sandwich to the more than eager animal. At this point the music becomes increasingly uncomfortable, with all the different orchestral sections (especially the woodwinds and stopped horns) producing nervous and uneasy sounds until at 2:37 a climbing flute figures announce the arrival of a whole pack of these small green creatures from the jungle, the orchestra mimicing their movement and sounds and creating a slightly dangerous but curious feel as the Compsognathi surround the now frightened girl, jumping for the sandwich. Williams presents here furious aleatoric writing for the Compsognathi that chirps and whirls, pace quickening, percussion pounding more and more agitated, sharp brass, rhythmic jabs from strings, shrill woodwind runs all careening into a rage. As the ship’s crew and the parents hear the little girl’s screams and rush to see what is wrong the Island’s Voice motif sounds again in trombones towards the frenzied finale (at 3:09-3:15) buried underneath the chaos, the final percussion supported woodwind howl underscoring the horrified scream of the mother rushing to the scene. The sudden end of the cue leads to the next scene where we see tired Ian Malcolm yawning in a New York subway, the image mirroring the screaming mother right down to the screeching of the stopping subway train. Spielberg quite cleverly allowed Williams to score the action and letting the music tell us what has happened, the raging orchestra perfectly depicting a furious carnage happening off-screen and the sudden building panic at the end of the scene. *** Ian Malcolm, a chaos theorist and a mathematician, one of the survivors of the original Jurassic Park incident, is on his way to meet John Hammond, the owner of the disastrous dinosaur theme park, who has invited him to his palatial residence for some mysterious reason. He is ushered into the house to the refined sound of Ludvig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, op. 13 "Pathetique" (Performed here by Jeno Jando) playing softly in the background and he meets in the hall Hammond’s grand children Lex and Tim with whom he shares a warm moment. But before Malcolm has a chance to see their grandfather he runs into Hammond's nephew and the current CEO of InGen corporation, Peter Ludlow, with whom he obviously is at odds. The two exchange icy insults, Malcolm finding out that Ludlow has wrested the control of InGen from his uncle due to the recent incident with the little girl and that he has plans of his own for it. We cut to Hammond’s bedroom to hear the old venture capitalist tycoon... 2. Revealing the Plans (2m2) 2:18 (LLL set D 3 Track 3, OST track 8 Hammond’s Plan 0:00-2:13) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 37 bars With Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A Minor, K.310 playing softly somewhere in the background John Hammond reveals to Malcolm the tale of the second island, Isla Sorna, and proposes that Ian should lead a four member scientific team to document the dinosaurs living there. Malcolm flatly refuses, remembering all too well the incidents on Isla Nublar four years ago and vows that he will stop the rest of the team from going. The cue starts as Hammond reveals that Sarah Harding is on the team, a smoky alto flute solo opening the piece with an air of mystery and apprehension, the melody seeming to subtly suggest perhaps the Island fanfare or the main theme from Jurassic Park in its contours drifting ominously over low strings. Harp ghosted by a subtle but sharp synthesizer effect (marked “zither” in the manuscript), flute and the string section lend a tentative and enigmatic air to Hammond’s revelation that Sarah is already on the island as Malcolm tries to call her. Here Williams adds a hint of additional foreboding to the moment by cleverly reintroducing very subtly at 1:11-1:15 the Carnivore motif from the first film on the high strings almost as a reawakened horror from Malcom's memories. He is now both furious and worried. Music is waiting, almost holding its breath as Hammond tries to convince Malcolm of the safety of the expedition and Sarah’s situation on the island when a small melodic snippet on oboe with harp and horn support finally seems to finish a quick deliberation and as Ian Malcolm announces that he is going and this will be a rescue mission, the score opens into a heroic full orchestra statement of the Island Fanfare, the orchestration here distinctly recalling the cue Jurassic Park Gate from the original film. And just as Malcolm is leaving Hammond smiles satisfied having just gathered up his team. *** Ian meets up with the other members of his team, a video documentarian Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn) and a field equipment expert Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff) at Carr’s busy workshop full of all kinds of travel and survival gear the latest technology only can provide. Not only does he meet the technician and the photographer but also his teenage daughter Kelly, who he had invited to meet at the workshop and who he should be looking after since her mother went off to Paris on short notice. Malcolm is trying to send her off to stay with a friend called Karen for the weekend as he is obviously busy but Kelly refuses. They argue (another Spielberg trope, poor parent/child relationships), the father being outmatched by the daughter and as Malcolm turns his attention elsewhere for a moment in preparation of the coming trip, Kelly goes wandering about in the workshop. 3. To the Island (3m1) 3:40 (LLL set D 3 Track 4, OST track 3 Malcolm’s Journey 0:00-3:37) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 123 bars The music starts as Kelly walks through the busy workshop and steps into a large trailer van full of blinking lights and high tech equipment. Strings, celeste, harp and woodwinds, most notably airy flutes and a distant call of a solo horn create a curious, luminous and almost spellbinding feel as she explores the vehicle. Expectant build-up begins, bubbling woodwinds, synthesizer and upward stirring strings joining rest of the orchestral forces and a percussive “jungle drum” rhythm in triple meter, a first hint of the Lost World theme, emerges as the camera shows a close-up of the map of the sea and coast of Costa Rica and the islands marked Las Cinco Muertes, The Five Deaths. We cut to a barge at sea, the vessel ploughing through the blue waves, the deck full of vehicles. Lower strings and woodwinds repeat a rhythmic pattern, borrowing the triple meter from the percussion that continue to pound their motif underneath the orchestra, the high strings presenting here for the first time in a nearly formal fashion the Lost World theme, the brass joining them in a robust declaration, harp decorating the upper ranges with dazzling slightly rhythmic glissandos. Music implies the sense of movement and travelling with its constant rhythm, the swaying theme itself here suggesting perhaps a sea voyage, brass intoning the main theme with assured spirit of adventure. This rendition forms a thematic bookend for the whole Isla Sorna adventure which Williams and Spielberg chose only to open and close with the theme (the closing statement following in 12m2 Heading North). When the audience sees a wider shot of the mountainous island that is their destination Williams provides a deeper and a hint more ominous rendition of the Lost World theme and continues to develop the material further, adding new instruments, woodwinds passing phrases of the theme around the orchestra accentuated by synthesizers. Ian Malcolm has been discussing with Eddie Carr, their field equipment expert, but now turns to listen to Nick Van Owen who translates the reluctant barge captain’s horror stories about the islands. The Lost World theme continues underneath the dialogue and finally builds into a triumphant crescendo ushered by timpani and colored by tambourine and cymbal crash when the film cuts to the trailer and two cars bursting into view on their way through the jungles of Isla Sorna. Malcolm follows the coordinates provided by Sarah’s satellite phone and tracks her signal in the jungle. He nears a riverbed and to his horror sees her broken and ripped backpack on the ground. Music changes pace accordingly to underscore this tension, the brass and strings sawing furiously, presenting an urgent variation on the Lost World theme, the ever present percussion propelling the men forward. And then the music suddenly comes to a dead stop as Malcolm searches Sarah’s backpack and discovers that her satellite phone is still inside. The trio shouts Sarah’s name trying to locate her but they soon find something else. 4. The Stegosaurus (3m2) 2:13 (LLL set D 3 Track 5 0:00-2:14, OST track 11 The Stegosaurus 0:00-2:12) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 44 bars The men watch in silent awe as gargantuan beasts emerge from the jungle to the rustling of leaves and branches and rumble of the earth under their feet. These creatures are Stegosauri whose massive size and gentle presence and awe they evoke are all reflected in Williams’ luminous score, orchestrationally and stylistically reminiscent of his music for the Brachiosauri and Triceratops in the first film. Slow low string harmonies swell accompanied by bubbling contraclarinets and flutes and a warm horn line, soon joined by the violins and violas and harp, creating an atmosphere of awe and wonder, the melody blooming into a gentle crescendo. Horns present an inquisitive searching melody with the celli and basses plucking a gentle pizzicato underneath to enhance the feel of these gentle giants as more Stegosauri appear from the forest. A clear solo flute and high strings offer a excited and curious melody as Nick Van Owen climbs closer to photograph the animals, the music rising to a sweet string swell as the frame reveals Sarah Harding in the same activity just few feet away. Same awed atmosphere continues as woodwinds, high strings, horns and synthesizers present snatches of the previously heard melodic idea when Sarah notices both Malcolm and Eddie in the background and offers excited report of her findings only to be cut short by Ian holding her torn backpack, the warm music turning slightly ominous as alto flutes and double basses flutter to express Malcolm’s concern. 5. Finding the Baby (3m3) 3:13 (LLL set D 3 Track 5 2:15-end, OST track 11 The Stegosaurus 2:13-end) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 91 bars Without a pause Sarah is off to follow the family of Stegosauri, Malcolm and the two other men trailing after her. She continues to explain her findings, Ian protesting and complaining continually. The paleontologist leaves the men behind and creeps closer to get a better shot with her camera, crawling slowly through the underbrush. Tense strings open the piece, sawing away a little urgent motif as Sarah is approaching the Stegosauri, music remaining rhythmic and suspenseful for a brief moment until the dreamy awe-filled musical atmosphere of the previous cue returns when Sarah discovers a baby Stegosaurus behind the bushes. This short opening passage (0:00-0:26) was cut from the film, most likely because it enhanced the tension and suspense of the moment too much and undermined the surprise coming shortly after. The score turns curious and probing as excited Sarah and the animal observe each other with mutual wonder. Same playful and gentle mood that filled My Friend the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park is very much apparent here even though this piece is less openly melodic. It is here that Williams presents a subtle and probing atmospheric motivic idea for the Baby Dinosaurs (2:40-4:00) on strings with flute, woodwinds, orchestral chimes and harp all creating a luminous innocent quality around it, the motif repeating in dreamy wandering variations throughout but an unsettling undercurrent takes hold as brass plays threatening bursts underneath and a cold high string line offers gradually growing unease as if to tell us that something is about to happen. And quickly it does. When Sarah starts taking pictures of the baby her camera runs out of film and begins to rewind loudly. The dinosaur baby is alarmed by this new sound and lets out a fearful cry. The orchestra begins an almost march-like repeating rhythmic phrase that is joined by the percussion, the strings, brass and flutes becoming more and more insistent in their reading of the motif as the Stegosauri attack, protecting their baby, tense brass and shrill woodwind runs underscoring the tension and panic as Sarah, who is caught in the middle of the angry lumbering beasts, dives into a hollow log for safety to get away from the deadly spiked tails of the dinosaurs. As one of them rams its tail through the log, nearly impaling her, Williams underscores the impact with a cry from the horn section (at 2:22), low pounding piano notes and percussion (log drums, tablas and timbales) commenting the aftermath, orchestra and percussion slowly winding down as the beasts wander off, strings still playing the rhythmic action motif and fading into silence as the danger recedes into the jungle. 6. Fire at the Camp (4m1) 0:54 (LLL set D 3 Track 6 0:00-0:54) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 25 bars The group is returning to the camp and Nick boasts of the footage he caught of the dinosaurs, dreaming of a Pulitzer prize. Sarah and Malcolm on the other hand are heatedly arguing about the dangers of coming to Isla Sorna. Williams provides a bit of travel music with percussion and jaunty lower strings and horns offering somewhat exotic and eerie jungle atmosphere for their discussion. All of a sudden rhythmic celli and deep horns announce that something is wrong as Eddie spots smoke in their camp. Music continues urgent with the orchestra rumbling to signal danger when all rush to the trailer only to see Kelly, Malcolm’s daughter, coming out with a smoking frying pan, the girl proclaiming her innocent intention of making dinner, the high strings releasing the tension and winding to a stunned finish in the low register, underscoring Malcolm’s reaction. What follows is an argument between Ian, Sarah and Kelly but their familial discussion is soon interrupted by the appearance of 7. Corporate Choppers (4m2) 2:24 (LLL set D 3 Track 6, 0:55-end. Unused in the film 0:40-0:58) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 76 bars InGen transport choppers rumble into view carrying heavy machinery while log drums, jungle drums, marracas and tremoloing strings and horns announce their arrival. Music is marked primitif in the score, the nervous high strings, alto flutes and low horns and trombones creating an ominous feel amidst the constant jungle percussion pulse. A queasy clarinet solo further enhances the sense of something being wrong and the brass finally building to a statement of the Island’s Voice motif at 1 minute mark, repeating several times as we cut to Peter Ludlow and his associate, big game hunter and leader of the expedition, Roland Tembo in their jeep. Music is here with very little subtlety announcing who the bad guys of this story are, tying the Island’s Voice theme as much to the dinosaur hunters as to the most ferocious of the beasts living on the island. As Roland countermands Ludlow’s ill-advised orders to his crew and gives a severe lecture on who is running the show, percussion continues its beat, woodwinds and brass veering into uncomfortable clusters and nervous rhythmic strings and synthetic voices announcing eerily the Island’s Voice again as the InGen team prepares to start 8. The Round Up (5m1) 3:30 (LLL set D 3 Track 7, OST track 4 The Hunt, unused in the film) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 144 bars This is the first actual action set piece of the score. Pounding low piano and percussion, sizzling tambourine notably adding its unique colour into the mix, repeat a rhythm that reveals itself to be the one associated with the Lost World theme, brass galloping to the fore, enhancing momentum and sense of panic and ferocity of the chaotic scene where the dinosaur flee from the pursuing humans. Williams uses variations of the triplet ideas inherent in the Lost World theme to underscore this wild chase, changing the heroic and questing nature of the composition to that of a terror and oppression, the insistent motivic fragments repeating continually in the brass, becoming almost tortured, percussion making heavy bursts, the music building steadily in orchestral power, like some monster rolling forward with unstoppable momentum. Cymbal crashes, flurries of panicked woodwinds, hooting horns, merciless timpani and the ever present snippets of the Lost World theme rhythm propel the cue along and finally to a slowly fading finish on percussion and low piano as the hunters have captured their prey, the music stopping as Dieter’s jeep closes in on the InGen team trying to capture the Parasaurolophus. In the Making Sadly this brilliant aggressive and propulsive music (performance direction to the players marked bestial in the score) was not used in the film due to the fact that the scene was extended and restructured and thus would have created problems in trying to conform the composition to the new picture. Still the original cue captures so vividly the ferocity and sheer terror of the wild chase on-screen that is it hard to believe that it was just discarded. It also cleverly hints that the only monsters in the scene are human, not the dinosaurs, who pursue them relentlessly with high tech equipment and round them up like cattle to be carted away off to an amusement park. Perhaps Spielberg felt that the composition was too powerful for the scene or that it might have dominated it or that it was too difficult to treat properly by editing and decided to use some tracked music in its stead, most notably ending with the heroic Lost World theme, which seems tonally an odd choice for a sequence which is in essence a chase and a panicked stampede. Williams' original idea also strongly emphasizes the brutality of the sequence whereas the tracking would seem to indicate a need for a slightly more adventurous tone. The changes made to the film were in the final stages of the post production and thus denied the composer a chance to re-score the scene properly. Williams was reportedly dismayed to hear that the music was discarded and the pride he took for this particular cue is easy to understand. 9. Big Feet (5m2) 1:40 (LLL set D 3 Track 8; Unused in the film 0:42-1:02) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 21 bars This cue begins as Malcolm’s team is surveying the end of the disheartening round-up, powerful timpani roll, rising strings and horns performing a 2 chord motif (performance marked tortured in the score), chimes in particular adding a fateful feel to the scene. We then shift to Roland Tembo and his companion Ajay at the jungle’s edge, bent over a huge T-Rex footprint. The Island’s Voice motif appears first subtly in basses under a sheen of eerie synthesizer effects when Roland’s and Ajay’s faces are reflected from the puddle formed into the gigantic footprint. When the accompanying dinosaur expert Dr. Burke confirms to him that it is indeed a T-Rex print we hear the Island’s Voice repeated with stronger orchestral backing, horn soloing darkly in the background and woodwinds presenting a high register bird-call style answering motif to enhance the forest atmosphere. English horn over low piano rumble and cold queasy strings and subtle comments from marimba are introduced as Tembo readies his gun, Ludlow arriving to congratulate him and then wondering where he is going. As Tembo walks off “to collect his fee” Ludlow follows a few steps behind but lands his foot into the puddle earning a sudden downward surge from the strings as the camera tilts to show the footprint again ending the piece in a low bass drum thump full of meaning. 10. Spilling Petrol (5m3/6m1) 3:45 (LLL set D 3 Track 9) Orchestrator: John Neufeld & Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 85 bars This piece begins a two part musical sequence. The cue title refers to an unused part of this particular scene where Sarah and Nick sneak into the InGen camp to release the dinosaurs from their cages while the “hunters” are occupied by Ludlow’s presentation to the InGen board of directors via satellite uplink. In the original cut there was a short segment where the duo sabotaged the vehicles by emptying the petrol from the gas tanks, hence the cue name. The percussion section first presents a rhythmic base (marked driving jungle groove) for suspense and night time jungle atmosphere while synthetic animal sound adds a primal feel to the proceedings as Ludlow is giving his speech and the two “gatherers” creep around in the camp, sinister synth sounds accompanying them, celli, basses and high strings all maintaining tension. Around 1 minute mark ghostly shakuhachi with synth doubling lets out a haunting sigh, violins and brass following a foreboding melodic line, music building around the percussion section, the synthetic animal sound wailing in the background. The orchestral writing comes suddenly to fore when Sarah and Nick open the heavy bolted doors of the dinosaur cages (2:20->), high end orchestral sounds, harp, strings and synths commenting this turn in the events, the music resembling the textures of the Baby Dinosaurs motif as we see a caged baby Stegosaurus among the captured animals. The drums return to focus again when the camera shows us Ludlow’s tent where he continues his sales pitch to the InGen board of directors, recounting the original Jurassic Park’s folly and the existence of park facilities in San Diego and his plan of recouping the company's losses with the captured dinosaurs transported to the main land. At the mention of the Jurassic Park amphitheater in San Diego the percussion give way to a nostalgic, nearly wistful, ghostly reading of the Island Fanfare which passes through the woodwind and horn sections in remembrance of Hammond's dream. Then the music without warning bursts into a Triceratops... 11. Horning In (5m3/6m1 Part II) 1:26 (LLL set D 3 Track 9 3:46-end) Orchestrator: John Neufeld & Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 45 bars Alarmed ascending hooting horn cries and energetic rhytmically charged strings underscore the Triceratops suddenly crashing into Ludlow’s tent and other dinosaurs escaping from their cages, wreaking bloody havoc around the camp, tearing through the panicking InGen crew and scattering their equipment all around. With merciless percussion and crushing staccato exclamations from the brass section an exploding jeep flies through the air and almost hits Roland and Ajay in their hideout tree where they are stalking the T-Rex, the pair just barely surviving the flaming projectile. Rhythmic strings continue to drive the action from 0:38 onwards backed by sharp snapping percussion beat as Nick finds and rescues the Tyrannosaurus baby (to another briefest hint of the ghostly Baby Dinosaurs music) that is tied to the ground and used as bait by Roland Tembo to capture an adult T-Rex. This is followed by an almost militaristic reading of the previous string idea when Roland returns to the camp, surveying the damage, reprimanding his second-in-command Dieter Stark, deep brass and cold strings underscoring Dieter’s sullen look which promises retribution to whoever did this. The percussion suddenly subsides and the music shifts to an apprehensive orchestral passage as Sarah sees Nick bringing the injured T-Rex baby to their jeep. In the Making The beginning of this cue seems to consist of music re-purposed from a later scene (see cue Truck Stop) with Williams re-orchestrating it for the dinosaur rampage in the InGen camp. This music becomes semi-thematic in the score as roughly the same energetic rhythmically insistent staccato brass and percussion section of the piece is later reprised in another cue (Rialto Ripples) as well. *** In the van Malcolm and Kelly try in vain to contact their ferry when Sarah and Nick burst in with the baby T-Rex, Malcolm horrified and nervous, Sarah going straight for an operating table to find the damage done to the dinosaur by Tembo. Kelly panics and wants to go somewhere safe. Malcolm leads her to Eddie and... 12. Up in a Basket (6m2/7m1 Part I) 3:27 (LLL set D 3 Track 10) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 66 bars Deep drums and alla marcia rhythmic horns begin a taut militaristic and almost funereal procession as we see Eddie Carr asking Malcolm what is happening and the mathematician taking Kelly to the high-hide, a metallic cage that can be hoisted up to the trees with a winch to give an observation platform and safe vantage point for the team. There is a sense of anticipation and preparation in the music, Sarah and Nick trying help the T-Rex baby. Ghostly fluttering flutes, apprehensive strings and brass underscore the high-hide reaching above the tree tops, Kelly fretting about the dinosaurs and Malcolm is trying in vain to comfort her. As he says they are now in a completely different situation than when he was in the Jurassic Park a loud roar of a Tyrannosaurus echoes through the jungle. The following passage of music, that should have started around 1 minute mark, was cut from the finished film. Under the T-Rex roar we hear a constant uncomfortable synthesized sizzling sound and the orchestra begins an urgent churning motif full of foreboding, the music raising the tension when Malcolm attempts in vain to call the trailer, trying to reach Sarah and Nick to warn them. Nick is about to answer the ringing phone but the paleontologist calls him for immeadiate assistance, the ensemble repeating the motif ever insistent. Malcolm decides to descend and get to the trailer to warn the two, Kelly begging him not to go, music changing pace to another rhythmic motif with a low piano groove, percussion and strings forming the basis as Malcolm says he is coming back and dropping out of sight down a rope. Interjections to the nervous orchestral rhythm from lowest brass become more noticeable, underscoring Eddie and Kelly witnessing the T-Rex approaching through the jungle, made visible only by the trees swaying back and forth, Williams’ repeated deep brass motif for trombones underpinned by bass drum here suggesting an almost subliminal connection to Jaws, a beast lumbering almost unseen towards our heroes, personified just by the music. These heavy brass blasts drive Ian Malcolm onward through the rainy jungle and just as he reaches the trailer door and bursts inside to warn Sarah and Nick of the coming threat the orchestra reaches an ominous shuddering crescendo. In the Making This cue plays from 0:00-0:59 in the film as composed but the rest is dialed out, letting the sound effects and silence carry the tension of the scene. The music as written would have immediately continued with 13. Up in a Basket II (6m2/7m1 Part II) 2:21 (LLL set D 3 Track 11) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 75 bars Nick, Sarah and Malcolm do not have much time to prepare before the sharp snapping percussion reminiscent of the cue Horning In and brass section making constant nervous blasts inform them and the audience that something is coming, namely the parents of the infant T-Rex they have in their care. As the beasts peer through the windows on both sides, composer introduces first the animal howl-like synthesizer voice echoing menacingly which then flows into cold shimmering orchestral and synthetic writing, the percussion sounds slowly giving away to a high register ghostly melody in the strings that resembles the benevolent musical idea Baby dinosaurs originally used for the Stegosaurus baby from the earlier scene as the T-Rexes view their whimpering offspring inside the trailer, the little motif underscoring an eerie moment of parental concern from these gigantic carnivores (0:42-1:51). The initial rhythm creeps slowly back into the music when the trio lifts the baby and carefully presents it to the parents through the trailer door, the percussion groove and subliminal shimmer synthesizer effects coming to an abrupt silence as Eddie Carr informs via the phone from the high hide that the apparent threat is over and the beasts have decided to return to the jungle with their infant. In the Making The whole cue was cut from the film, perhaps thought too energetic, aggressive and prominent for the scene, adding too much tension and drive where the silence and the eerie noises of rain and dinosaurs was all that was needed to convey the menace of these massive beasts. *** But the safety is only momentary as suddenly the dinosaurs are back and the team has only a few seconds to prepare themselves. With determined rage T-Rexes push the trailer off the cliff face, half of it dangling over the edge, our heroes in the falling half holding on for dear life as everything topples down, the van turned into a corridor to death. *** 14. Pain of Glass (7m2/8m1) 4:05 (LLL set D 3 Track 12) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 67 bars With a sharp blast from timpani and trombones Sarah falls to the bottom of the trailer’s up-ended section landing on a rear window pane (hence the pun in the cue title). The celli and basses weave an urgent chaotic motif as she is momentarily knocked out but as she comes to the pane begins to crack, small cobweb of fractures spreading under her weight. The music here has a hint of familiarity, the string idea slightly reminiscent of the Dies Irae-like danger motif from Jurassic Park (found in the cues like The Falling Car (OST CD the latter half of Incident on Isla Nublar) and Highwire Stunts) as Malcolm tries to lower himself to rescue her, the music enhancing the urgency and danger of the scene considerably. He reaches for Sarah’s hand, but the satellite phone left hanging from a tablelamp by the fall slides off and topples down, the suspense peaking fast, high strings racing and brass keening in panic, Sarah reaching for Malcolm’s hand with all her desperation. The glass shatters to the sounds of tortured aleatoric brass and furiously sawing string section but the paleontologist makes a grab for life, Ian catching her with the lucky backpack. Here an extended queasy string glissando facilitates a scene transition to Eddie Carr. Outside Eddie Carr arrives to the site of the half destroyed trailer and frantically searches for survivors as tropical storm starts to spew torrents of rain on the island. The trapped trio hollers to him for help, Williams providing suspenseful jungle beat from the percussion and the brass, piano pouding its own jazzy suspense grooves with rhythmically tugging string accompaniment that add their weight to the field equipment expert's toil and determination as he hurries to safe the team, trying to tow the trailer back up with his jeep cable as a steady rhythm from the percussion section and strings continues to underscore his efforts. 15. Truck Stop (8m2) 5:10 (LLL set D 3 Track 13, OST track 7 Rescuing Sarah [0:00-2:12] (2:12) / Unreleased (1:04) / 7 [2:12-end] (1:48) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 156 bars Eddie’s actions come in the nick of time for the trailer is starting to slide on the muddy cliff in the pouring rain, pulled towards the cliff edge by the weight of the fallen section. The music bursts to life as Eddie notices how the vehicle is slowly beginning to move towards the edge and he runs to his jeep and tries to use it to pull the van back, percussion of all kinds among them bongos, congas, logs, bass drum and gourd beating wild rhythms (performance marked brutally) to emphasize the tension and fight against time. The timpani and the rest of the orchestra then join in this seemingly chaotic and driving barrage, which propels as much Eddie’s efforts as they comment the team’s dire predicament. Woodwind trills and runs, panicked and tortured brass exclamations hinting at the Island’s Voice motif, sharp and furious string figures and above all the percussion assault the poor protagonists, filling the air with dire expectation, underscoring the efforts of the trio in the van to escape the death trap, holding on to a rope, making desperately their way up and out of the slowly falling car. Williams keys everything into the rhythmic drive in this orchestral tour-de-force of percussive invention, relentless and primal. Eddie’s valiant rescue efforts and momentary success receive near victorious brass fanfares as he fights to keep the trailer on safe ground, his determination seeming to win them the much needed time to escape. But the score announces more trouble for the team with shrill woodwind runs, queasy muted horns and kinetic string writing. Only to make matters worse, calamity piling atop of another, the two T-Rexes like harbingers of doom return, stomping out of the dark rainy jungle, orchestral chimes, fateful exclamations from the whole brass section and swirling pained and panicked string figures underscoring their footfalls at 2:52, ringing a death knell for poor Eddie as the dinosaurs attack his jeep with fury, the percussion instruments beating an ever present barrage under the orchestra. The furious brass piles on top of the strings in staccato jabs accompanied by wild riffs from the drums and sharp cymbal accents as the monsters tear the car to pieces and Eddie in half, the orchestra and percussion reaching violently racuous heights, sounding like the full ensemble is nearly toppling on itself. The trailer finally falls to its destruction but the team makes a miraculous escape, underscored by fateful deep descending chords from the trombones, orchestra winding slowly down with percussion, brass and woodwinds flailing as in the death throes of the vehicle while the Tyrannosauri return to the jungle and the trio hangs on the rope against the cliff face. When the heroes finally climb up, receiving unexpected helping hand from Roland Tembo waiting at the top of the cliff, the percussion quiets down and a horn led strained but heroic fanfare sounds out, nearly quoting the Island Fanfare but taking a different turn, the music blossoming to a tragic and noble melody of operatic proportions joined by the entire orchesta, wearily celebrating their survival but also mourning the loss of Eddie Carr. 16. Reading the Map (8m3) 3:11 (LLL set D 3 Track 14) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 90 bars Percussion returns with the rhythmic low strings to signify preparations as the two teams, hunters and gatherers, decide to join forces despite their differences of opinion in order to trek across Isla Sorna. Williams adds another rhythmic element into the mix, a subtle interpolation of a deep bass synthesizer (marked "Fender Bass" in the score) playing its own jazzy figures underneath the basses and celli to beef up the atmosphere. Roland, Ludlow and Malcolm's group inspect a map of the island and discuss their route to the old InGen facilities and communications center where they want to radio for help, mentioning to Malcolm that the buildings are at the center of island, where unfortunately the carnivores and more specifically Velociraptors live. As these cunning and deadly dinosaurs are mentioned Williams reprises the 4-note Carnivore motif on ghostly shakuhachi flute (doubled on synthesizers) much in the same style as he did in the Opening Titles of Jurassic Park, the theme calling out several times over the dominating rhythms of the percussion section. High strings, horn and woodwind colours creep into the texture of the rhythm, adding deep sonorities to the pace of the music and lending it grim determination. In the Making The first 0:00-1:42 were not used in the film and the music begins when we first hear Ludlow mentioning the Raptors and hear the first rendition of the Carnivore motif. 17. The Trek (8m4-9m1) 5:25 (LLL set D 3 Track 15, OST track 5 The Trek) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 138 bars And so the group is on its way in the rain through the jungle towards their destination. Deep resonant exotic drums play a steady softly pounding figure for the jungle trek, the horns rising ominously in series of dark melodic phrases, a Trek motif, strings making nervous jittery interjections, lower woodwinds bubbling subtly underneath and growing into a percussion accompanied horn statement of the Island Fanfare while Ian Malcolm talks to Ludlow and mentions John Hammond and his doomed dream of Jurassic Park. The rising Trek melody from the beginning of the track is repeated more grandly in the brass with woodwinds squirming underneath as we see the long line of people walking through the jungle scenery, cloud capped mountains looming ominously in the background and Roland giving a dark nervous glance as they hear the distant roar of a Tyrannosaurus. When the group arrives to a red wood forest the travelling music gives away to a collection of dark orchestral and percussive sounds that underscore Roland Tembo spotting blood on Sarah’s coat and asking is she hurt, the eerie music enhancing the dangerous situation and environs these people are in. Dieter Stark hears the nature’s call and wanders off to satisfy its demands, hollering to one of the men, Carter, to keep at a shouting distance in case he gets lost. Carter, with a walkman blaring Mexican music ("Tres Dias" by Tomas Mendez), is completely oblivious to this which is announced with foreboding by queasy strings. After stopping for a suitable spot, followed by the unnerving snapping of the orchestra and percussion, Dieter is interrupted by rustling in the underbrush and he grabs his gun, ready for anything, backing away, searching for the assailant. As he sweeps the bushes with his gun he is startled by a single Compsognathus sticking its head out of the undergrowth accented by a shakuhachi wail at 3:48. Dieter is annoyed and tries to tazer the little lizard as he has done once before but it escapes in a sizzle of a rubbed tam-tam and bubbling of woodwinds and strings. But now the mercenary is truly and hopelessly lost and Carter (who still enjoys the fine performance of the Mariachi Los Camperos De Nati Cano) can’t hear his screams from the jungle. Strings pull nervous twittering sounds, shakuhachi howls again and pizzicato violins and the sizzling of suspended cymbals all cry out his panic as he wanders through the woods frantic, woodwinds, choice brass and low strings joining an insistent rhythm as he trips on a tree root and falls down a steep slop. Suspended cymbal swell and synthesized metallic zither notes underscore him hitting the bottom with a thump. In the Making This cue was dialled almost in its entirety out of the film, the Lost World theme tracked from To the Island in its stead, replacing the rising Trek motif for the travelling sequences, the film makers favouring silence and the adventurous feel in the music over Williams’ darker and more tense and grimly determined take on their journey across the island. The eerie underscore of the red wood forest was also removed and Dieter’s predicament left mostly unscored (although the music from 3:20-3:59 for compy's appearance from the underbrush is heard in the film), very likely because Williams’ music added too much tension and foreboding to the preceding dialogue between Roland, Nick and Sarah and could have dampened the horror of the Compsognathi in the following scene. 18. The Compys! (9m2) 1:34 (LLL set D 3 Track 16 0:00-1:34, OST track 1 Island Prologue 3:27-end) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 67 bars This music should have continued without a pause from the previous cue. Dieter has no time to gather his wits after the fall when he is attacked by a swirling pack of Compsognathi, biting and clawing and climbing all over him. Piccolos chirp furiously, sul ponticello strings bow queasily, horns hoot and growl full of menace (performance for the whole ensemble is marked sinistro in the score) and is soon joined by the rest of the orchestra, the percussion pounding mercilessly, many sections of the ensemble playing aleatorically, achieving an organized chaos that describes the little dinosaurs perfectly as they swarm upon the mercenary with blood thirsty glee. The music is very similar to that heard in the first cue of the score, the little dinosaurs characterized by the same orchestral effects but even more frenzied this time around. Dieter repels the attack of the swarm and drives them away, swaying wearily along the river bed, the sinister strings, synthesized breath effects and woodwinds promising him no respite while at the temporary camp Roland calls everybody to continue their march. 19. The Compys Dine (9m3/10mA) 2:54 (LLL set D 3 Track 16 1:35-end, OST track 10 The Compys Dine 0:00-2:47) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 76 bars Carter rises from his place to leave and the camera lowers and catches Dieter’s backpack on the ground forgotten, celli and double basses and a subtle timpani rumble commenting this with quiet and tense notes. Tabla drum and maraca take us back to the river bed where the mercenary is fleeing, still shouting for help. Horns and muted trombones rise menacingly, the woodwinds slowly return to the aleatoric style of the previous cue, all orchestral sections joining in a cacophonic carnage as Compys attack in force, appearing all around, Williams scoring both their action and the sheer terror they evoke with equal precision, the musical texture and performance style becoming a theme of its own for these little carnivores. Dieter stumbles over a large fallen tree and out of sight but the dinosaurs follow in a merciless swarm, music rising to a fever pitch with raging clarinets and piccolos, timpani accenting their menace and the brass announcing the end of the man at 1:10 as we see the water turning blood red, fluttering flutes and unsympathetic strings sighing as if for his last breath. Later Roland Tembo questions Carter about Dieter Stark and atmospheric percussion and rhythmic tugging of double basses underscore his decision to go find his second-in-command. Flutter-tongued shakuhachi carries the danger inherent in the decision and the troop gets moving again, leaderless, to the sound of low ominous brass and woodwinds repeating a subtle quote of the Trek motif from cue The Trek. A light cascade of notes from the harp and percussion transition to the night camp where the dark mood is further enhanced by the cold string lines and drum rumbles as the camera moves past the sleeping men. 20. Rialto Ripples (10m1) 5:53 (LLL set D 4 Track 1, OST track 12 Ludlow's Demise 0:00-1:35) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 183 bars As Roland returns from his search double basses start a subtle menacing figure, bass drum beating a ghostly rumble in the background, the big game hunter noting flatly that Dieter is dead. Flutes, rubbed aluminum rod, triangle and vibraphone strike a cold clear sound when Tembo lights his flashlight and Malcolm and Ajay read the map with him and make plans for their next move. Strings continue dark and mysterioso, the woodwinds and brass joining them, a few slow deep bass drum cadences giving the listener a small hint of what is to come as we see Kelly and Sarah sleeping in a tent, Malcolm walking towards them. Then Sarah is suddenly awake and feels a low rumble, alarmed by it. At 1:02 the percussion section starts pounding a steady, simple and menacing march rhythm as trombones and horns flutter and growl full of dark danger, woodwinds joining soon in a repeated figure, the suspense climbing continually, timpani spiking the tension along with the continuous sizzling sounds of a suspended cymbal. Outside Malcolm sees the ripples in a muddy pool, realizing the coming threat (Williams’ cue title refers to this and nods humorously at an old rag time standard by George Gershwin called Rialto Ripples). Inside the tent the paleontologist notices the bloody coat left hanging out to dry inside, realizing that the smell of blood of the baby dinosaur must be attracting the T-Rexes but before she can do anything about it, a huge shadow is cast over the tent. The violins and violas add their cold colours to the mass of sound, suspended cymbal hissing over the bed of repeating churning orchestral effects and timpani attacking violently as the beast approaches. Here the brass becomes more pronounced, the blasts oppressive and demanding underpinned by the rolling overpowering percussion as the T-Rex pushes its head inside the tent, searching, sniffing. Kelly wakes up, and Sarah who is in a state of terror herself tries to keep the girl silent and still. The presence of the dinosaur hammers at them in Williams' music, the coiled, violent bursts of the orchestra threatening to crush them. The strings, first the high and then low register, spin uncomfortable cyclical figures backed up by synthesizers, further ratcheting up the suspense to unbearable levels. But suddenly the bottled up tension is released at 3:24 as Carter wakes up and sees the beast, screams and fires at it with his gun. Strings whip into frenzied action as they flail in rhythmic anger and the whole camp wakes up in panic, the T-Rex turning to face the sudden attackers, the lowest brass ascending ominously in the fashion of monster music of old as we get a wide shot of the dinosaur. To add to the constant sense of energy Williams keeps the pounding march from the opening half of the cue constantly going underneath the action, creating a relentless steady drive to the scene. From 3:35 until 4:06 the music again reprises a furious staccato brass and percussion passage from the cue Truck Stop underscoring here the panicked flight of the people and Tembo’s failed attempt to shoot the T-Rex as Nick Van Owen had emptied the shells from his rifle while Roland wasn’t looking. Panicked, forward hurtling rapid fire brass phrases (with virtuoso playing from the session musicians) and sharply chirping woodwind runs underscore the wild flight of the team through the jungle with the T-Rex on their tail, characterized by the low brass sounds. As the scene shifts rapidly the percussion strike up an agitated jungle rhythm underpinned by aggressive brass blast again when Roland Tembo tries to capture the other T-Rex with a tranquilizer gun, rattling clanging metallic percussive sounds further instilling momentum and tension and the low brass again rising to a monster music style deep exclamation as Tembo hits his quarry. The rhythms from the furious sawing strings, pealing synthetic chime effects and percussion become increasingly frantic as we cut to the T-Rex chase, the score surging to keep up until the ingeniously driving and wildly chaotic orchestral and percussive melange comes to a dead halt when the fleeing protagonists jump through a waterfall for safety. In the Making In the film this piece underwent editorial tinkering and as a result it was re-edited, layered with material taken probably from the unused portion of the Up in a Basket I and mixed very differently resulting in the opening part prior to 3:24 to sound wildly different in the film compared to Williams' original intentions. 21. Steiner in the Grass (10m2) 2:28 (LLL set D 4 Track 2, OST track 8 Hammond's Plan 2:05-end) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 60 bars The survivors of the T-Rex attack (Carter and Dr. Burke didn't make it) continue towards the InGen facilities and cross a meadow of high grass, the line of people filing through high stalks, forming dark furrow as they go while Ajay is in vain trying to stop them. The title of the cue is a wink to the grandfather of film music Max Steiner, whose score for 1933 film King Kong was almost certainly a partial inspiration for this score and contained exotic music for the jungle travel and locale of the Skull Island, Williams is tipping the hat to the old master in styling his piece in somewhat the same vein. Another new jungle rhythm on the percussion and jazzy low piano open the cue and slowly rising ominous brass and string lines continue in the style of the previous Trek motif but spinning unique melodic variations for the scene. Soon colder tones from the tense brass, strings and woodwind stings creep into the texture of the music as we see new dark furrows forming in the grass all around the group. Velociraptors approach and stealthily start picking off people one by one, soon creating another panicked flight. The brass continue to develop the trek material, ever ominous as Raptors go about their bloody business and the protagonists behind the main group appear just at the edge of the meadow. Nick finds Ajay’s bag in the dark, the rhythmic basses and marimba beating almost a countdown and as Malcolm hears the horribly familiar snarling in the darkness and the cries of the dying men, he breaks into a hurried flight, the orchestra following suit and with a swirl at 1:55 mark, releasing the tension, picking up speed, all orchestral sections urging them on with furious flurries as the heroes race towards the forest edge and safety, only to tumble down a slippery slope, a downward string and woodwind surge and a percussion hit signifying the end of their fall. The music continues without a pause with 22. After the Fall (10m3-11m1) 3:05 (LLL set D 4 Track 3, OST track 6 Finding Camp Jurassic) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 58 bars Under a brooding contrabassoon drone, deep trombone sonorities and celli’s and basses’ menacing murmurs the heroes find themselves in what seems like a dinosaur graveyard with huge rib cages surrounding their path. Nick says he is going to find the communications center and radio for help, not staying to wait for Malcolm who has hurt his leg in the fall, piano and harp playing probing notes as the photographer runs through the broken gates of the facility towards the main building with strings rising full of mystery. As he enters through the main entrance of the Camp Jurassic center a percussion rhythm starts over nervous strings and bubbling woodwinds. At 1:11 when Nick first jumps at seeing a T-Rex’s snout in a poster and then looks at a faded advertisement banner of Jurassic Park on the wall, we hear an equally faded and ghostly setting of the Island Fanfare, a reminder of lost dreams and faded glory, Williams again tying the old theme firmly to the earlier park rather than Isla Sorna's situation. As Nick continues to explore the vines and jungle infested main building, part shadowy part enigmatic orchestral and percussive elements take over, heightening the suspense of the exploration until another subtle variation of the Island Fanfare on brass supported by woodwinds at 2:30 announces his success of turning on the power and finding the radio, the percussion slowly fading into silence as he makes contact with the main land. 23. The Raptors Appear (11m2) 3:44 (LLL set D 4 Track 4, OST track 9 The Raptors Appear) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 104 bars Malcolm, Sarah and Kelly have finally caught up with Nick, walking past dinosaur bones and huge geothermal pipes. A ghostly wail of the Island’s Voice motif sounds repeatedly on synthesizer accompanied by almost breath like shakuhachi synth effects, tabla drum echoing alone in the distance. The group reaches the gate and the courtyard of the InGen center with strings and subtle percussion keeping up the suspense, when out of nowhere a Velociraptor appears and attacks Sarah, eliciting a rising scream from the horn section and a new action rhythm from the percussion. Luckily the raptor decides to maul Sarah’s backpack instead and so she escapes with her life. Malcolm heroically attracts the attention of the beast as Kelly and Sarah run for safety into an old shed but two more Raptors appear and immediately go after them and try to dig their way in, all the while the women try to dig their way out from the the other side of the building and Malcolm fights for his life in the courtyard. Much as in the cue Truck Stop, the percussion rhythm established at the beginning dominates while brass makes snarling and hooting interjections and drives the music forward by presenting snatches of their own action motif and the Island’s Voice, the synthesized animal noise rising to haunt the protagonists along with aleatoric woodwind screams as three raptors try to kill our heroes. The Island’s Voice calls out in deadly synthesized voices around 1:25 and 2:25, receiving a more ponderous reading with brass accompaniment at 2:42 as the situation grows more dire and until all the orchestral forces, notably including wild aleatoric woodwind section, grow more chaotic by the second and finally the music comes to a staccato halt with brass and percussion hits when the women get the boards loose in the back wall and try to escape that way. 24. High Bar and Ceiling Tiles (11m3-12m1) 4:12 (LLL set D 4 Track 5) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 136 bars But another Raptor is waiting outside and a sharp timpani stinger and the percussion rhythm return as the action writing in the style of the previous cue continues fresh and furious. Sarah and Kelly have no choice but to go up climbing toward the roof for safety. Malcolm who has been trapped in a car, succeeds in evading the Raptor and runs inside driven by nervous blasts of brass, only to find himself face to face with another of the vicious carnivores that has nearly gotten in. He decides to climb as well and the orchestra and percussion follow his movements while cruel rhythmic brass exclamations trail the Raptor jumping after him. In the nick of time Kelly saves her father with a well targeted gymnastic move, sending the dinosaur through a window and to its demise below, impaled on a palisade, underscored by cymbal crashes and deep fateful staccato bursts from the brass section starting at 1:19. But the victory is only temporary and after a short pause the Raptor brass sounds return with vengeance as Sarah heads for the roof while Malcolm and Kelly escape through the shed door. Nervous aleatoric woodwinds again creep into the score alongside Sarah’s panic as the vicious beast is after her and she has to make a leap to the roof of another building with the creature in hot pursuit. Her jump falls short, leaving her hanging from the slate roof edge with the score ratcheting up the tension and drive with the ever present percussion drive and sharp trumpet figures. The dinosaur jumps ahead of her so now one Raptor waits Sarah on the roof and another on the ground below. She hangs by the roof tiles and gets a quick idea and begins to pull the slates down. Slowly but surely the shingles give away and take the precariously balanced Raptor with them. Here the raging woodwinds, quick sharp brass bursts and string figures now accentuated by cymbal hits create a feel of deadly unpredictability, the musical chaos climbing to a small crescendo at 2:31 resembling the finale of the previous cue. But as Sarah loses her hold of the tiles and falls, the score shifts to new action rhythm and the two Raptors, now is midst of a scrambling fight with one another battling for the quarry, are scored by keening brass tones and a subtle quote of the Island’s Voice at 2:36. The paleontologist tries to stay out the way of the hissing, biting creatures and suddenly falls through a trap door and out of a window to land safely near Malcolm and Kelly. Brass and percussion continues in staggered bursts, repeating the action motif of the previous two cues, the Island’s Voice howling several times in the brass becoming each time more dramatic and ponderous as the heroes try to make their escape. And almost as if exhausted along with the characters the score comes to a sudden slow fading coda in the strings and weary horns as they get to the helicopter pad of the visitor center with Nick waiting for them and InGen helicopter approaching. In the Making In the film the Lost World theme concert version was tracked in as Sarah falls through the floor and continues when the trio heads for the main building’s helicopter pad, the triumphant feel more suitable for their rescue. Williams original music was much darker and harsher, letting the savage mood and tension continue almost up until the last minute. 25. Heading North (12m2) 2:14 (LLL set D 4 Track 6, OST track 3 Malcolm’s Journey 3:33-end) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 46 bars Weary string lines rise as the helicopter is taking our heroes off the island, offering a melancholy respite from the ordeal they have just experienced, harp and brass offering their own somber tones to the quiet moment of aftershock for the protagonists. Deeper brass creeps into the music assisted by a timpani roll when we are shown Ludlow and Tembo with another InGen team capturing the sedated T-Rex male, the CEO congratulating the hunter for his prize. Tembo, who has lost his friend Ajay, is grim, remarking that he is glad to get away, having spent enough time in the company of death, timpani rumble, husky flutes and low strings underscoring his lines. For a transition shot of the helicopter appearing in the night skyline of San Diego Williams offers a grand yet dark reading of the Lost World theme complete with tambourine flourishes, but even in triumph it is tempered by the horrors experienced on Isla Sorna. And thus the new main theme of the score musically bookends the whole experience on the island. But the story isn't over yet. 26. Ludlow’s Speech (12m3) 3:15 (LLL set D 4 Track 7) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 91 bars This cue begins the last act of the film. Ludlow is desperate to re-coup his losses and is transporting the T-Rex to San Diego on a boat, having already spirited the infant Tyrannosaur to the InGen facilities in the city via helicopter. He has gathered media at the docks to greet the arrival of the cargo ship due to land in the early hours of the morning and is holding a press conference. Ian Malcolm and Sarah are there to witness this folly. The music continues very much in the jungle mood as the percussionists set up another rhythmic groove underneath the orchestra that now has both a conspiratorial and expectant feel to it, especially thanks to the dotted nervous woodwind lines that crisscross the composition. As the harbor master interrups Ludlow’s speech and calls him to inspect something in the offices, the inexorably rising orchestral and synthesizer lines of the Island’s Voice motif supported by the percussion section give us a forewarning that something is certainly amiss as the motif is taken over and repeated in turn by several sections of the ensemble. The ship arrives but they can’t make contact with it, the vessel approaching the docks with an alarming speed with no signs of slowing down and when the blinking dot on the radar grows closer and closer the brass and woodwinds present their own nervous dotted figures over ominous high string lines and percussion for the nearing ship. A tense countdown motif begins in the orchestra, rhythmically taut and persistent, gathering up speed with the vessel, a ghostly synthesized wail of the Island’s Voice and full ensemble reaching terrifying intesity and a lengthy thunderous crescendo the score comes to a halt just after the ship appears from the darkness and plows into the pier wreaking chaos and destruction. In the Making In the film the music stops short at 1:59 as people are watching the night sea and hearing the ship approaching, the rest of the mounting tension of the scene is carried just by sound effects. 27. WOMPI’s Wrench/Wreck? (12m4) 2:22 (LLL set D 4 Track 8, OST track 10 The Compys Dine 2:47-end) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 36 bars Muted horns and slow ominously tremoloing strings set the mood of building horror for the scene, the Island’s Voice motif performed cruelly by the woodwinds and then passed between different instruments, obviously announcing death. Ludlow, Sarah and Malcolm with the harbour and InGen officials climb to inspect the ship only to find carnage onboard, with bodies littering the decks, victims of unseen assailants. The Island’s Voice is heard again in ghostly synthesizer voices, Ludlow nauceously backing out from the bridge of the ship after seeing the captain’s severed hand holding the wheel. Sarah and Malcolm both notice the big cargo hatch of the ship clanking as if the mechanism had stuck and notice a dead man holding the remote. With tabla playing softly in the background, the brass section starts a slow menacing series of growling bursts that grow in intesity, the Island’s Voice making another exclamation in the midst of mounting dread. Strings shudder, the brass continue their deep ponderous blasts now paced out slower for increasingly foreboding effect as Ludlow wants the cargo hold opened and while Malcolm tries to stop him, one of the police is quicker and obliges. Malcolm calls everybody off the boat. In the Making This cue went completely unused in the film which favours again silence over music. The music would have started immediately in the aftermath of the ship’s crash, as the survivors survey the devastation. 28. Monster On the Loose (12m5) 2:38 (LLL set D 4 Track 9) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 50 bars And thus the button is pushed setting the Rex on the loose! The ponderous monstrously deep brass blasts from the previous cue return with even more commanding weight as the T-Rex emerges from the cargo hold, crying havoc, the rhythmic gait of the music underscoring its heavy steps as it disembarks the ship and heads for land. Strings spiral into a tight knot and a percussion and timpani rumble alongside the grave brass heralding a dire reading of the Island Fanfare as Malcolm announces to the trembling CEO of InGen that now Ludlow is like John Hammond, his dream in pieces and a monster set free in the city of San Diego, the theme here another bittersweet reminder of the noble pipe dream gone awry for the second time. The T-Rex crashes past the harbour buildings to the heavy plodding of the orchestral forces, high strings presenting their own fateful rhythmic motif over the cymbal crashes, double bass and timpani, Tyrannosaurus Footfalls, the phrase ending with pounding timpani notes as we see the creature against the silhouette of the city growling its fury. The percussion section offers some suspense accompanied by writing for strings and synthesizers, Malcolm and Sarah inquiring from the InGen technician what was used to tranquilize the beast and demanding from Ludlow where the T-Rex baby was taken, Sarah planning to use the infant to lure the monster back to the ship. The Island’s Voice on ghostly synth voices and strings makes an eerie another appearance, Ludlow sitting despondent and still in shock, telling them the baby is at the InGen waterfront facility, muted sharp horns and clarinets underscoring the duo’s decision to go and get it as they speed off in Malcolm's car. In the Making In the film a portion of this composition was replaced by music tracked from the following cue (A Neighborhood Visitor) when we see the T-Rex against the city lights. 29. A Neighborhood Visitor (13m1) 3:26 (LLL set D 4 Track 10 0:00-3:26, OST track 13 Visitor In San Diego 0:00-3:24; Unused in the film 0:00-22) Orchestrator: John Neufeld Length (sheet music): 72 bars In the middle of the night the T-Rex wanders around a San Diego suburb, seeing a pool in the backyard of a house and stopping for a drink. Deep taiko drums, bass trombones, contrabass clarinets, bassoons, celli and double basses shudder under the steps of the monster, catching its movements, horns growling a throaty and pinched variation of the Island’s Voice motif. The camera moves inside the house and into the bedroom of a small boy. The fish tank beside his bed vibrates to unseen footfalls, the tremors captured by the harp, metallic rub rod,skittery sul ponticello strings, woodwinds and percussion and synthesizers, the Island’s Voice subtly quoted by bass clarinets as the boy wakes up. He sees the T-Rex and backs away, goes to his parents’ room and drags the sleepy and complaining pair to his room babbling all the time about a dinosaur in their backyard, the expectant nervous orchestral effects coalescing, clarinet and flute presenting twice a jumpy variation on the Island’s Voice in a bed of bubbling woodwinds and percussion. At 1:35 very quietly at first a familiar rhythm of Tyrannosaurus Footfalls takes hold of the score, growing slowly in menace under rising string reading of the Island’s Voice, finally reaching a dramatic peak as the parents see the hulking beast through the window with a dog coop hanging by the chain from its jaws, ferocious horns repeating the 4-note Tyrannosaurus Footfalls rhythm and adding a 5th note here imitating the T-Rex’s roar. At 2:09 the Tyrannosaurus Footfalls and its accompanying rhythmic string motif continue as we cut to Malcolm and Sarah speeding towards the InGen facilities, the cymbal crashes coinciding with the moment before the car crashes through a guardpost safety beam. The heroic and urgent Island Fanfare calls out over the string motif as the two arrive at the Jurassic Park facilities and the discovery of the caged baby T-Rex is treated to a brief ethereal passage for flute and synthesized zither, perhaps a textural nod to the earlier music for the infant dinosaurs heard in the film. As our heroes take the infant and get into the car, the forceful string motif from earlier returns and with this determined musical ally the pair prepares to go searching for the adult Tyrannosaurus. In the Making The heavy percussive opening (0:00-0:22) was ultimately not used in the film and T-Rex steps into the backyard in silence, the sound effects again carrying the suspense without musical help. 30. Streets Of San Diego (13m2) 4:14 (LLL set D 4 Track 10 3:27-end, OST track 13 Visitor In San Diego 3:24-end; Unused in the film 0:00-0:41) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 105 bars Meanwhile on the streets the panic is rising. A quick cut to a screaming woman’s face opens the cue as rapid fire trumpets and yelping piccolo runs launch her car away from the T-Rex only to crash into the side of another vehicle. Sharp snapping of piccolo snare drum, percussion, resounding cymbal hits and brass describe the on-screen mayhem with raucous fury, low thumping piano and the strings joining the fray. People flee in panic. The Island’s Voice makes a doom laden announcement in the brass further enhanced by the cymbal crashes at around 0:50. The raging orchestral forces push the action forward, Malcolm and Sarah spotting the monster, Sarah waking the baby and its voice luring the adult T-Rex after them and the beast giving furious chase all captured with brilliant aggressive and blazing music for orchestra, brass and percussion highlighted throughout the cue. Again the rhythm seems to be the key here, the ever driving momentum hurtling the action forward with unstoppable speed. At 2:32 a new action rhythm appears, underpinned by deep blasts from trombones and tuba, the trumpets wild and fervent, horns howling the Island’s Voice, the music underscoring Malcolm and Sarah dashing through the streets and into the harbor, abandoning the car and cutting through the warehouses on foot with the T-Rex in hot pursuit, reaching the ship and dropping off the Tyrannosaurus baby and with the final flourish of the Island’s Voice from the orchestra the pair jumps over the ship's railing into the water, leaving baffled Ludlow to take measure of the situation. In the Making The opening 42 seconds music were not used in the film for the initial shots of the Tyrannosaur attack starting from the transition to the screaming woman backing away from the dinosaur up until the shot where the mauled bus crashes into the video rental store. Interestingly a brief snippet of High Bar and Ceiling Tiles (deep Island's Voice exclamation) makes an appearance for the shot of fleeing Japanese businessmen before the actual cue returns as the script writer David Koepp makes his cameo as the unfortunate pedestrian who gets eaten by the Tyrannosaurus. 31. Ludlow’s End (13m3-14m1) 2:52 (LLL set D 4 Track 11, OST track 12 Ludlow's Demise 1:35-end) Orchestrator: John Neufeld & Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 74 bars A string motif similar to the one heard under Tyrannosaurus Footfalls (and in snippets in the previous cue) returns in much accelerated guise with full orchestra backing as Ludlow looks down into the cargo hold with a helicopter and a sniper emergimg from the background ready to kill the adult dinosaur. In a shimmer of harp the motif dies down and atmospheric sul ponticello strings and the nervous percussion passages underscore Ludlow descending to the cargohold to find the baby T-Rex, synthesized animal howl further enhancing the edgy moment for the InGen CEO. But soon the adult T-Rex emerges behind the cargohold doors and comes down to find its infant and the previous string action ostinato motif returns with vengeance punctuated by agitated woodwinds, fateful brass rising to an exclamation point of Ludlow’s demise, orchestral hits scoring the baby T-Rex descending on the wounded man and finishing him off. Outside Sarah and Malcolm are determined to safe the dinosaurs, Sarah loading a tranquilizer gun, the string action motif, breathlessly fast brass figures and cymbals raising the tension while in the helicopter the sniper is ready to take the T-Rex down per Ludlow’s orders. Finally the piece reaches its dramatic conclusion with the tortured string and brass lines over percussion pulse rising to a climax, a heavy orchestral thump announcing Sarah’s tranquilizer dart finding its mark. In the Making In the film only the first 15 seconds of the cue are used but the suspenseful underscore is dropped and the T-Rex capturing and crippling Ludlow and feeding the man to his infant and Sarah tranquilizing the creature were tracked with the Lost World theme concert version (and End Credits intro). Williams originally scored the scene much as a continuation of the previous action cues, the string motif heavy and unrelenting, enhancing the ferocity and merciless way the dinosaurs dispatch Ludlow. The film makers’ intention was obviously to highlight justice being done, the bad guy of the movie getting his rightful reward for his actions, with the dinosaurs representing the nemesis and the music celebrating the happy ending for these animals. This could be seen as a continuation of a tradition started in Jurassic Park of showing the T-Rex in a heroic light as it's appearance was re-scored with tracked music (The Island Fanfare) also in the first film to give the finale an optimistic feel. But in some way the original cue fitted the action much better even though it deprived the scene of a victorious sense of closure, which Williams reserved for the next cue. 32. The Saving Dart (14m2) 3:01 (LLL set D 4 Track 12, Film Edit LLL D 4 Track 15, OST track 14 Finale and Jurassic Park Theme 0:00-2:23) Orchestrator: Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 57 bars Fluttering woodwinds, synthesized celesta/piano and tremoloing strings announce the Tyrannosaurus falling unconscious and into the safety of the cargo hold. Led by the horn section the orchestra rises to a noble but tragic exclamation of victory and the end for the adventure as Malcolm, weary and breathless surveys the scene in front of him, offering Sarah a grateful and relieved look. We cut to a hotel room and see the trio on a couch with a CNN news report showing on the television, Sarah and Malcolm sleeping, Kelly alone watching the transportation of the dinosaurs back to the island. With harp accompaniment flutes, horns and strings present a luminous slow and fragmented major mode variation on the Lost World theme, here warm and comforting, the news showing the cargo ship at sea escorted by the military back to Isla Sorna. When John Hammond offers his own view on the matter in the TV interview, piano enters alone, playing the Dinosaurs theme (or the Main theme) from Jurassic Park offering its gentle blessing to the endeavor and to Hammond’s dream continuing in another form. The film then cuts to Isla Sorna and shows the dinosaurs living in their natural habitat while a wistful and slightly pensive coda using subtle interpolation of the Island's Voice motif on synthetic chorus with gentle harp arpeggio accompaniment trails into silence as a Pteranodon lands on a branch of a nearby tree, letting out a victorious cry. Life has indeed found a way. In the Making In the film the short 38 second ending of the cue was replaced by the Island Fanfare tracked from the concert suite material recorded for the film, ending the movie on a more positive and triumphant note. This editorial version was also included on the LLL set (Disc 4 track 15) while on the original soundtrack album the suite from Jurassic Park followed immediately after the piano rendition of the Dinosaurs theme. Williams original more subdued and pensive ending can be heard on the LLL set for the first time. 33. End Credit Intro (unnumbered) 0:14 Orchestrator: ? Length (sheet music): 11 bars For the End Credits Williams wrote a revised opening for the new theme of the film featuring a bit deeper brass, horns and trombones in particular, and percussion than the original version. This is edited to flow to 34. The Lost World (End Credits) 3:34 (LLL set D 3 Track 1, D 4 Track 14 (with End Credit Intro), OST track 1 The Lost World) Orchestrator: John Neufeld & Conrad Pope Length (sheet music): 134 bars The concert version of the main theme. As with many Williams’ concert suites this seems to almost tell the story of the film. Here the thematic material receives its most adventurous, celebratory and lengthiest development closing the score in the most triumphantly thrilling and satisfying way. 35. Jurassic Park Theme 5:30 (unnumbered) (LLL set D 4 Track 13, OST track 14 Finale and Jurassic Park Theme 2:23-end) To accommodate the length of the end credits Williams re-recorded his concert arrangement of his two main themes from Jurassic Park, which he created after the release of the first film and recorded for one of his Boston Pops compilation albums, Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores. In the suite he first presents the Dinosaurs Theme/Theme from Jurassic Park, which starts much as it does on the original soundtrack album, on solo horn, but the performance is markedly faster and there is no choral accompaniment. The composition fuses together thematic development from the Welcome to Jurassic Park and the cue Dinosaurs from Jurassic Park and goes fluidly to the Island Fanfare that has also gotten embellishments in the orchestration, making it a bit more powerful performance percussion-wise than on the Jurassic Park OST and closing with the triumphant music from the end of T-Rex Rescue and Finale. In the Making In the film the Island Fanfare portion of this suite opens the end credits which is then edited to continue with the Lost World theme concert arrangement which in turn is editorially combined with theme's variations from the cue To the Island . The Theme from Jurassic Park section of the suite goes completely unused in the film and the end credits and can only be heard on the album releases of the score. -Mikko Ojala- © Special thanks to Datameister, Jason LeBlanc and Goodmusician for complete cue lists, musical analysis, mock-ups and all the rest. Notes [1]The Lost World DVD documentary: The Making of the Lost World. © 1997 Universal Studios & Amblin Entertainment Inc. © 2001. All Rights Reserved. [2]Wikipedia article: The Lost World Jurassic Park (film score) written by Datameister. [3]Wikipedia article: The Lost World Jurassic Park (film score) written by Datameister. [4]The Lost World DVD documentary: The Making of the Lost World. © 1997 Universal Studios & Amblin Entertainment Inc. © 2001. All Rights Reserved.
  17. This is just a theory, so don't take anything I'm saying here as fact - but Mark Graham recently posted on Instagram this picture: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvdIKBiSt4Z/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA. I recognise the cue as being Riding the Lizard from Revenge of the Sith. The recent date in the bottom left seems to imply that this version of the score has been prepared recently (and that he's not just looking in the archives for fun). (Keep in mind I have no idea how the JKMS library is set up - this could mean nothing). Perhaps this part of the score is being prepared for a future concert (which seems an odd choice), or maybe even an LTP performance of Revenge of the Sith (though the formatting is a little different to other LTP scores I've seen).. Any thoughts?
  18. By golly...I feel like I'm about to vote YES! It's already shot up to the top ten of my iTunes play counts.
  19. Check it out: http://fpdownload.adobe.com/strobe/FlashMediaPlayback.swf?src=http://collections.mun.ca/videos/extension/image/2603.mp4 I found the link via Lukas Kendall at Film Score Monthly: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=100763&forumID=1&archive=0
  20. One of my favorite film score topics is film score what ifs. What would've happened if this composer hadn't quit or was replaced. What would've this score sounded like had the composer not declined due to creative differences? What would it be like if this composer did this score instead of that composer? On the topic of John Williams, there's only very few occasions where John Williams couldn't do a score. None of which was due to him being fired (who's stupid enough to do that?). All these instances were due to timing. The one I think about is X-Men. Bryan Singer revealed in 2006 that he had offered Williams the gig only for him to decline due to commitments to Saving Private Ryan (at least that's the movie Singer mentioned). Would've been interesting to hear what an X-Men score by John Williams could've sounded like. Would it have been just as iconic as other Marvel movie themes like Spider-Man, The Avengers, or Black Panther? Would he have created leitmotifs for Magneto, Rogue, and Wolverine? Would his theme have been carried through different movies even if he didn't score them? Something to think about. So my question is what's a score that John Williams almost did would you like to have heard? Or is there just any movie you wanted Williams to do? Did ever want him to score a Star Trek movie? A Pixar movie? Transformers? Just anything you can dream of. Love to hear y'all's thoughts!
  21. Recently, the question of how much of the CoS score was done by William Ross came up, and I said I'd do an analysis basen on what we have. Well here it is! There are also a lot of misconceptions thrown around about how much of the score is just retreading the first one, I hope my final numbers can put an end to that. Any thoughts and corrections on calculating errors, typos and unnoticed references are most welcome! I'm using the leaked PS and CoS sessions, so the main analysis will only take into account the final intended version of every cue so far known to be recorded for the movie, no unused/not recorded music from leaked sheets and no tracked cues. I will assume satisfactory knowledge of the movies and all major themes at least. I've also decided to have a look at the OST and recommend the best cues not on it, and also to break down the major tracked cues appearing in the cue list, just for completion's sake - look for the Appendix at the end of this post. The Analysis My custom terminology OM - Old Material, used in PS, similar tempo, similar orchestration - will reference PS session cues, slates and timecodes if relevant, won't if unnecessary (I don't have to point out where Nimbus 2000 is in Hedwig's Theme) AM - Adapted Material, themes/specific cues used in PS or other movies, but adapted/orchestration and tempo changed significantly enough (like Nimbus 2000 in Cakes for Crabbe and Goyle, for example) NM - New Material, thematic and melodic material first heard in CoS From Reel 3 onwards, I'll be using contractions for frequently reappearing themes with long and tedious names : 3NL - 3-Note Loop (original Philosopher's Stone motif here repurposed as a generic danger/mystery theme) HWWO - Harry's Wondrous World Opening N2 - Nimbus 2000 Reel 1 Reel 1 Old Material: 05:52 Adapted Material: 03:19 New Material: 06:07 Complete: 15:18 Reel 2 Reel 2 Old Material: 5:56 Adapted Material: 3:22 New Material: 8:40 Complete: 17:58 Reel 3 Reel 3 Old Material: 2:49 Adapted Material: 3:51 New Material: 5:43 Complete: 12:23 Here I must also stop to say the movie must have been criminally overspotted, because a lot of good and new bits have been left out. Normally, lots of bits and pieces go missing, because the picture gets trimmed after the recording takes place, so the music goes with them, but here most scenes are intact and the music is taken out from under them, for example the beginning of Transformation Class (I guess they wanted the 3NL to be more sudden and dramatic in its appearance?) or the Whomping Willow and some Spiders material (probably tension and "jumpscare" reasons). This could potentially be forgiven had most of Reel 8 not been tracked - a lot of important action score, mysteries and big revelations to never see the light of day because JW had to spend his time writing minutes of unrecorded music, and writing and recording several more minutes that were not used. Kind of like The Arena vs. The Battle of Geonosis all over again! Reel 4 Reel 4 Old Material: 3:40 Adapted Material: 1:54 New Material: 8:46 Complete: 14:20 Reel 5 Reel 5 Old Material: 2:05 Adapted Material: 4:57 New Material: 7:20 Complete: 14:22 Reel 6 Reel 6 Old Material: 2:40 Adapted Material: 1:27 New Material: 3:31 Complete: 7:38 Reel 7 Reel 7 Old Material: 4:56 Adapted Material: 1:54 New Material: 9:58 Complete: 16:48 Reel 8 Reel 8 Old Material: 00:00 Adapted Material: 2:16 New Material: 9:35 Complete: 11:51 Reel 9 Reel 9 Old Material: 4:13 Adapted Material: 3:24 New Material: 4:14 Complete: 11:51 Conclusions Standout NM cues: All Dobby material, Magical Household, all Lockhart material, all Flying Car material, all Fawkes material, Writing on the Wall, Transformation Class, Petrified Colin, Dueling Club, The Spiders Pt.2, Ginny Gets Snatched, Reel 8 Standout OM cues: Escape from the Dursleys, Letters from Hogwarts, Harry meets Lucius, Introducing Colin / Mail, Flying Pixies, Dumbledore and Harry, Reunion of Friends Total Numbers: Complete: 2:02:29 Old Material: 32:11 (26.27%) Adapted Material: 26:24 (21.55%) New Material: 63:54 (52.17%) Discrepancies between the final numbers and the cue list numbers can come down to podium changes, or the fact that I couldn't be bothered to count the seconds of silence on the beginning of every sessions track or in the middle of some cues. The final percentages would not be impacted in any significant way. So on an expanded 2-disc release, counting with 78 min. max per disc, there would be at least 36:40 left for bonus material, probably a few minutes more, since the aforementioned silences and properly joined tracks would make the score shorter than my estimate. I believe we have no idea how many alternates exist/were recorded/were even written, if not many, this could probably house the Children's Suite (24:11 if we count Harry's Wondrous World as the finale, 18:50 if we don't). We'll 100% get HWW as the HP1 Credits, so on HP2 it'll either be the Credits or the Suite (and thus the CD2) finale, if the suite or even the HWW is on there, of course. Appendices Appendix A Reel 10 (Additional material, I don't consider these part of the score) Appendix B The tracked cues - what do they consist of? (An editing guide) Appendix C A complete intended score editing guide This includes every single sessions cue (even ones removed from the movie) and tracked cues. Note: this is simply a guide to my preferred way of listening to the score, not an attempt at a complete film edit recreation with all edited out bits and pieces tracked down; that exceeds even my patiance and tolerance levels, it's work for another year - and probably another user. (A Remixed and Restored trilogy á la Jurassic Park based on the Black Friday John Williams Harry Potter Collection, perhaps? :P) I consider two types of edits: hard and soft. A hard edit means two cues were written to be joined/overlapped, but recorded separately. Listening to them separate worsens the listening experience because you get a buildup to an unsatisfying climax, a few seconds of silence, then a sudden out-of-nowhere climax and continuation. Temple of Doom, for example, is filled with these types of transitions. A soft edit just means one cue is winding down/a note is held, while the other starts or winds up without there being a gap between these. Not joining these cues does not necessarily worsen the listening experience. Hard edits I always recreate, this means I had to split a few tracked cues in half in Reel 8 to avoid overstuffed, non-focused 15 minute tracks. Soft ones I'm more liberal with - if it makes sense musically and thematically as one track, I'll even join cues separated by seconds of silence in the movie. Since there are way more soft edits than hard ones, I'll only indicate hard edits (+ and +h instead of +s and +h). The final track names are my own creations, sometimes I'd reference the edit I've listened to for years, sometimes an original session name since I like it better, sometimes it's completely made up. Appendix D So what is on the OST? Personal comments incoming, feel free to ignore them if you happen to like inexplicably random and non-chronological presentations! OST Old Material: 22:26 (31.83%) Adapted Material: 6:44 (9.55%) New Material: 41:19 (58.62%) Complete: 70:29 Appendix E Which unreleased cues can I look forward to most in a future expansion if I don't touch bootlegs and session leaks? (Personal favourites, recommendations) Yes, I've got way too much free time.
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