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Born on the Fourth of July


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What do you guys think about John William's music to this film? I think it's good, but there isn't a lot of it.

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It is a marvellous and very beautiful score, and perfect for both the deep tragedy and very humane and non-violent heroism of the film.

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Never really listened to it tbh. I've heard its a very good score, but the main theme never really did it for me. Having said that, it suited the movie perfectly, which is what matters most.

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It is probably one of my favorite themes by John Williams- it's both tragic and uplifting at the same time. I have not heard the entire score, but from what I have read about the film and heard of the music, it is just another great piece of work on his part.

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I love the music from this film. The strings just sing right to the soul, it's pure Americana. If don't have it already, I recommend finding "Music for Stage and Screen" by the JW and the Boston Pops, which contains a 3-movement suite from Born on the 4th of July, brilliantly performed, plus a great presentation of material fromThe Reivers.

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I love the Main Theme.  One of my favorite parts of all time is Tim Morrison's trumpet solo in the middle, especially when he just glides up to the high notes.  Gorgeous.

~Conor

:angry: Yes indeed it is!

The opening credits with Williams music is one of my favourite audio visual couplings, there is a beautiful oboe solo when young Ron is experiencing his first kiss which is so tender (the music that is ;) ) and when the veterans appear in their wheelchairs acompanied by Williams strings it really does leave a lump in your throat.

Best of all though is the tremendous surge of strings and French horn at the point when young Ron bats a home run (appropriately accompanying an edit and musical accent is John Williams screen credit which I always thought was perfectly placed!)

- Tim.

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The "expanded" version can get a little repetative at times but the theme ranks up there with Williams' best.

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I was talking about the original release, not the expanded version.

Actually, your first post asks about the music in the film, so I think the expanded release is more then appropriate for the conversation. :music:

Tim, who loves the score and film.

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One of my favorites. Lush, rich string writing with some very nice trumpet solos,

particularly Homecoming, with its quasi-militaristic, bittersweet anthem. I like that he’s able to

create music that is very American sounding but appropriately different from the typical patriotic

sound. The score very accurately evokes both the turbulance of that era and in the more romantic moments, idealism and nostalgia. I don't know that there's another score he's written that it reminds me so it has the added virtue of being both very good and very unique.

- Adam

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What do you guys think about John William's music to this film? I think it's good, but there isn't a lot of it.

haha do u mean the original release with like 30 minutes of music and the rest songs?

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Born on the Fourth of July is an amazing score. Lyrical, haunting, powerful. The complete score only adds to the listening experience and also contains some wonderful alternates and unused cues. Williams' string writing truly expresses pure emotion from joy and victory to agony and anguish. Tim Morrison's trumpet solos are amazing and expressive. It is one of my favourite scores although it is an emotionally taxing listening experience.

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What do you guys think about John William's music to this film? I think it's good, but there isn't a lot of it.

haha do u mean the original release with like 30 minutes of music and the rest songs?

Yes :music:

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I know that it's scored for orchestra and many instruments are used prominently, but to me the score has an unappealing abundance of strings. I like the theme, and the concert Overture, and other parts of the score, but none of it really entertains me in the typical John Williams way, with fascinating multiple-layered colours and orchestrations, imitations and interweaving parts. I like it but I guess I'm biased to the harp/celeste/percussion/woodwind-adorned and especially rich, jazzy horn-7ths-adorned Williams writing.

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I love the Main Theme.  One of my favorite parts of all time is Tim Morrison's trumpet solo in the middle, especially when he just glides up to the high notes.  Gorgeous.

~Conor

:music: Yes indeed it is!

The opening credits with Williams music is one of my favourite audio visual couplings, there is a beautiful oboe solo when young Ron is experiencing his first kiss which is so tender (the music that is 8O ) and when the veterans appear in their wheelchairs acompanied by Williams strings it really does leave a lump in your throat.

Best of all though is the tremendous surge of strings and French horn at the point when young Ron bats a home run (appropriately accompanying an edit and musical accent is John Williams screen credit which I always thought was perfectly placed!)

- Tim.

I agree 100%!!! Love this score!!! :jump:

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The movie was just on TV yesterday.Seems like there's not that much music.

K.m.

I recall an interview with JW after the movie where he mentioned the downside of scoring movies is watching a lot of music taken out and he mentioned that this happened with Born on the Fourth of July. It might have been one of the interviews where he says that scoring movies can be soul-crushing. But there are quite a few moments in the movie that seemed to call out for music where there was none, so I assume these are the scenes where music got taken out. For example, Kovic praying, the montage at the beginning of the movie of him working out, etc. All this could have been very good music and its not on the bootleg.

- Adam

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All this could have been very good music and its not on the bootleg.  

- Adam

Then Williams didnt intended music for it, or Stone asked him not to write anything...

I suppose the bootleg is complete since one 3rd of it are alternates

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I saw this movie last month, and it left me speechless. I loved Williams' score in the film, even though there are many parts of the movie that are score-less. Great movie, great music.

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All this could have been very good music and its not on the bootleg.  

- Adam

Then Williams didnt intended music for it, or Stone asked him not to write anything...

I suppose the bootleg is complete since one 3rd of it are alternates

Many of the so-called alternates are other recordings off of different albums.

EDIT :

After going through the album which says that tracks 18-30 are alternate or unused this is more or less what seems to be the case :

18 How the score actually begins in the movie. The prologue on the album is the unused cue.

19. Re-recording off the Pops album

20. The first part is from the movie but the last part seems like 22

21. Re-recording off the Pops album

22. - 29 Most of these are labeled as alternates which would leave only 3 unused cues in the sense of scenes that were going to have music but had none. However I don’t trust the labels, especially since the alternates often have very different times and since so little effort was made for accuracy in the track titles.

30. Bad re-recording by an orchestra I don’t remember

So it seems there are more unused cues than I originally thought and it may be complete but its difficult to tell for sure given how poorly it is assembled and labeled.

- Adam

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I know that it's scored for orchestra and many instruments are used prominently, but to me the score has an unappealing abundance of strings.

haha i guess you hate psycho then. :)

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With regard to the strings, JW also mentioned that he doubled up the strings. So it its twice as abundant as a regular orchestra but I personally like it better for this piece. The Pops re-recordings, for example, lack the rich, weightier sound from the original. I think JW rightly recognized what was needed for the material and the movie.

- Adam

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