Strongest Williams Star Wars Finale (not incl. end credits)

[crumbs 14,304]

George Lucas has explained at great lenghts that the Star Wars films have musical finales, where the music is able to express the emotion and events of the film, rather than using dialogue.

Of the 6 films, which finale do you believe is the strongest? Each film's final cue (not including the token appearance of Luke's theme over the end credits) varies greatly in length and how many themes it includes, but I consider the "finale" cue to be everything prior to the DIRECTOR credit, until a pause in the music.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

The best: it's hard to pick between The Throne Room and The Rebel Fleet. I'll say The Rebel Fleet because it's my favourite, but both are equally as strong

I do have a soft spot for 'Confrontation With Count Dooku' though.

The worst: Augie's, undoubtedly. I don't think either of ROTJ's are particularly great, but Augie's just - for me - reflects the annoying and slightly retarded tone of the film.

ROTS is okay, maybe a little bit of a cheat, but it's a beautiful performance and there weren't many other ways I could see it happening.

[pete 906]

Of the 6 films, which finale do you believe is the strongest?

Best, I'd say Empire, with Star Wars a close second.

Worst is difficult in as as much as I hate Ewoks, I really dig Ewok Celebration and quite like the 1997 rewrite for Jedi.

I also like the end of Phantom, I just love those upbeat cheerful pieces. They make me smile!

I think I'd have to say Attack of the Clones, but that's more a reflection of the movie than the music.

What could more could John have done with such a shit film?

[Quintus 5,399]

IV and II

[Neimoidian 14]

Best one: Throne Room (I almost stand up and applaud everytime I see it);

Worst one: Ewok Celebration (Celebrate the love - yuck...)

[Jay 37,322]

No-brainer for me. Empire's the best, Phantom's the worst

[Ollie 1,059]

Star Wars is the best and TPM is the worst.

[Williamsfan301 11]

The Rebel Fleet. It's the most sweeping and romantic (as in the Romantic period) of the Finales. I love the Throne Room too, but every time I hear it, I feel like I'm graduating from school.

[Wojo 2,453]

The Throne Room is best. Rebel Fleet is a close, close second.

Victory Celebration is worst simply because it exists. I don't like it any less than Augie's song, but the mere fact that the charming Ewok song was revamped sours me.

[Hlao-roo 389]

Star Wars is the best and TPM is the worst.

Jedi's the one with the hairy-- n/m.

[Jay 37,322]

The finale from Empire is not just my favorite Star Wars finale, its my favorite finale to any movie period. One of the most emotional pieces of music I've ever listened to.

[Henry B 50]

Best: "Throne Room." Worst: "Augie's." I think they're all pretty good for what they are, whether source or score. Revenge of the Sith has a really nice finale, although it's sort of continuous through the whole last half hour of the film, so it's tricky to say where it begins. I'll go with "Padme's Funeral" up to the end credits. The only blotch is the actual transition into the end credits; it's just awkward.

[Vaderbait1 1]

Rebel Fleet and Confrontation With Dooku. They give me chills every time I listen to them. In fact, Confrontation with Dooku had such an impact on me that I remember exactly where I was when I first heard it.

I was entering my hometown, where the highway finally slows down and hits a red light. The sun was setting and the sky was almost red and the weather was warm. Had my windows open, and I was anxiously awaiting the Imperial March, which rumor had it was in this track (before the movie came out) and BAM. Powerful stuff. The atmosphere really added to it.

[John Crichton 4]

Revenge of the Sith has a really nice finale, although it's sort of continuous through the whole last half hour of the film, so it's tricky to say where it begins. I'll go with "Padme's Funeral" up to the end credits. The only blotch is the actual transition into the end credits; it's just awkward.

And of course the best parts are unreleased- Padme's Funeral and the funeral theme/Imperial March meld in the Star Destroyer scene.

ANH

AotC

ESB

RotS

TPM (bonus points for the Emperor's theme keeps it from being worst)

Jedi

[aj_vader 533]

I picked AOTC as the best, I love how the Imperial March is played and then how Across the Stars soars beautifully out of the Vader Theme.

[Marian Schedenig 8,177]

The best: it's hard to pick between The Throne Room and The Rebel Fleet.

Agreed. Ultimately, I'm just more fond of Throne Room. The orchestral arrangement of the ROTJ finale as conducted by Gerhardt would be third place for me.

Sadly, I can't vote, because I barely remember the finales from II and III to pick a "worst". TPM's is certainly the most excentric (or Glass-centric, if you prefer), but it's not *bad*, and a brilliant use of the theme... plus I like the variation on the credit transition bit Williams first introduced here.

[Red 75]

Empire is the best, followed closely by "The Throne Room" from Star Wars.

TPM would be the worst, although for what it is I still like it, as has been mentioned the use of the Emperor's theme is pretty brilliant.

[Jacob 0]

ANH

ESB

RotS / AotC

RotJ (SE)

RotJ

TPM

[Datameister 2,037]

Hard for me to say. I voted ANH as my favorite, but ESB was pretty tempting, too. I voted for ROTS as my least favorite just because of the incredibly awkward cadence that leads into the credits. I remember hearing that for the first time when I saw the film on opening day and going...."HUH?!" I'll take Augie's over that any day.

[Jacob 0]

But, but... it's The Force Theme! You can't take Augie over The Force Theme! (Just what the nerf is an Augie anyway?)

[Joe Brausam 214]

Hard for me to say. I voted ANH as my favorite, but ESB was pretty tempting, too. I voted for ROTS as my least favorite just because of the incredibly awkward cadence that leads into the credits. I remember hearing that for the first time when I saw the film on opening day and going...."HUH?!" I'll take Augie's over that any day.

I don't understand that at all. Why did he have to do Binary Sunset in that key if it was going to force a weird modulation?

[Wojo 2,453]

(Just what the nerf is an Augie anyway?)

A Gungan musician who led the Great Municipal Band during the time of the prequels. The Great Municipal Band was a Gungan band that performed at all major events significant to the Gungans. And actually, the name of the song that we know as "Augie's Great Municipal Band" is known as "Symponik Nabooalla" by the Gungans. It became one of the most well known and long-lived symponiks of all time, bringing Augara fame even off Naboo and in the Core Worlds of the Republic.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Augie

You can't make this crap up.

[Jacob 0]

Apparently someone did.

Wow.

[Delorean90 42]

The best is easily "The Throne Room." So exhilirating and joyous! Yeah! I love it. And its segue to the end credits is just sublime.

I had a really hard time picking the worst, because there isn't any that I really and truly DISLIKE. But ultimately I went with "Ewok Celebration." I may regret it, but to me it just seemed the most incongruous. I still think that "Victory Celebration" is a bit too reserved for the finale to the freakin' STAR WARS SAGA, and I would've preferred something more like the finale from SOTE, perhaps with more thematic relevance, but "Ewok Celebration" took the cake. "Augie's..." was the other candidate.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

SW

TESB

AOTC

ROTS

ROTJ

TPM

ROTJ: SE

[Henry B 50]

The best is easily "The Throne Room." So exhilirating and joyous! Yeah! I love it. And its segue to the end credits is just sublime.

I had a really hard time picking the worst, because there isn't any that I really and truly DISLIKE. But ultimately I went with "Ewok Celebration." I may regret it, but to me it just seemed the most incongruous. I still think that "Victory Celebration" is a bit too reserved for the finale to the freakin' STAR WARS SAGA, and I would've preferred something more like the finale from SOTE, perhaps with more thematic relevance, but "Ewok Celebration" took the cake. "Augie's..." was the other candidate.

I like that it ends humbly. The Ewok Celebration sequence strips away all the technology, civilization and superweapons and displays life at its simplest and truest level. At least, that's the notion it puts forth; the way Lucas executes it is another matter entirely. But the music works.

[Ollie 1,059]

(Just what the nerf is an Augie anyway?)

A Gungan musician who led the Great Municipal Band during the time of the prequels. The Great Municipal Band was a Gungan band that performed at all major events significant to the Gungans. And actually, the name of the song that we know as "Augie's Great Municipal Band" is known as "Symponik Nabooalla" by the Gungans. It became one of the most well known and long-lived symponiks of all time, bringing Augara fame even off Naboo and in the Core Worlds of the Republic.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Augie

You can't make this crap up.

That's more info than I wanted to know.

[Luke Skywalker 1,793]

(Just what the nerf is an Augie anyway?)

A Gungan musician who led the Great Municipal Band during the time of the prequels. The Great Municipal Band was a Gungan band that performed at all major events significant to the Gungans. And actually, the name of the song that we know as "Augie's Great Municipal Band" is known as "Symponik Nabooalla" by the Gungans. It became one of the most well known and long-lived symponiks of all time, bringing Augara fame even off Naboo and in the Core Worlds of the Republic.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Augie

You can't make this crap up.

That's more info than I wanted to know.

That story was created by a fan made for the oficial site 'What's the story?' thing

The Complete name is Augura Jowil, the surname a homage to John Williams.

I select as best finale the 'Throne room'.

I cant select a worst. Every one of them has redeeming qualities.

[John Crichton 4]

(Just what the nerf is an Augie anyway?)

A Gungan musician who led the Great Municipal Band during the time of the prequels. The Great Municipal Band was a Gungan band that performed at all major events significant to the Gungans. And actually, the name of the song that we know as "Augie's Great Municipal Band" is known as "Symponik Nabooalla" by the Gungans. It became one of the most well known and long-lived symponiks of all time, bringing Augara fame even off Naboo and in the Core Worlds of the Republic.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Augie

You can't make this crap up.

And I thought my Tolkien explanatory posts were geeky...

[Wojo 2,453]

Actually, three sentences of that were cut and paste from Wookipedia, and the sentence with the two titles in quotes is my own paraphrase.

There's more info at Wookiepedia, and it took a certain air of editing to refrain from just pasting the entire thing here. THAT would be more than you want to know.

[John Crichton 4]

Heh, OK I can't make that excuse. When I post Tolkien stuff it's all from memory.

[Wojo 2,453]

A lot of Tolkien stuff I post is from memory, too. But there is no minor unnamed character in the SW prequels that's interesting enough to ad lib about. Fortunately there are enough SW fanboys at that wiki site that have enough crap written to just cut and paste.

[John Crichton 4]

You could have just made it up and no one would ever have known.

[Red 75]

You could have just made it up and no one would ever have known.

Oh, someone would've.

[Luke Skywalker 1,793]

I would.

Sadly

[Datameister 2,037]

But, but... it's The Force Theme! You can't take Augie over The Force Theme!

The Force theme is beautiful, as always - one of my favorites from John's entire career. But that transition into the end credits is quite simply unforgivable. That moment should have said musically, "Okay, the saga is over. You can go home now if you want, or stay here for awesome music to come, whatever, but in any case, be satisfied." Instead, it left me bug-eyed, scratching my head. It's just so...bad! Should have done the Force theme in in Eb minor, not G minor. It would have been a lower horn solo, but not by that much.

[Jacob 0]

This is one of those musician things, isn't it?

[Datameister 2,037]

Since I was already a musician when I first heard it, I can't say if it would have bothered me otherwise. I suspect it would have at least bothered me slightly...but most likely, it would have bothered me quite a bit, but I wouldn't be able to put my finger on what wasn't right. Thanks to the fact that I know music theory, I know exactly what the maestro did, and I know exactly which part of it I don't like.

[paleo 63]

I voted for:

best: Empire

worst: ROTJ - Ewok song

I almost chose TPM for "worst", but I find the use of the emperor's theme in cheerful major too intriguing, so I decided to go for the rather dumb and saccharine ewok music...

[indy4 155]

As much as I'd like to think that JW was purposefully injecting the Emperor's theme in "Augie," I doubt it. It seems like JW would have mentioned it somewhere, considering the fact that he mentioned that Vader's theme was hidden in Anakin's Theme (though I suddenly realized--I don't remember where I heard JW discussing the use of Vader's theme, did this actually happen?).

[John Crichton 4]

It's way to obvious for it not to be intentional.

[Ollie 1,059]

As much as I'd like to think that JW was purposefully injecting the Emperor's theme in "Augie," I doubt it. It seems like JW would have mentioned it somewhere, considering the fact that he mentioned that Vader's theme was hidden in Anakin's Theme (though I suddenly realized--I don't remember where I heard JW discussing the use of Vader's theme, did this actually happen?).

Yes Williams did discuss Anakin's theme working it's way to the Imperial March, or something along that line.

[Jacob 0]

Since I was already a musician when I first heard it, I can't say if it would have bothered me otherwise. I suspect it would have at least bothered me slightly...but most likely, it would have bothered me quite a bit, but I wouldn't be able to put my finger on what wasn't right. Thanks to the fact that I know music theory, I know exactly what the maestro did, and I know exactly which part of it I don't like.

Ah, I was just messin' with ya.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

I don't remember where I heard JW discussing the use of Vader's theme, did this actually happen?

You probably heard it

(try approximately 1:07 or so).

[Hlao-roo 389]

It's way to obvious for it not to be intentional.

Indeed, Williams also purposely derived Cinque's theme from the Emperor's theme to convey the imperialistic nature of his captivity.

Either that, or Williams is a racist.

[Datameister 2,037]

Ah, I was just messin' with ya.

Oh, haha, gotcha.