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Rate your Williams scores!


indy4
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It's been a while since we've rated our Williams collection, and I'm ready to do it again. My ratings are out of 5 stars.

Bachelor Flat: 3 (for what it is, it's good)

None But the Brave: 2 (pretty boring, except for a few good parts)

Lost in Space: 1.5 (great main themes, everything else is incredibly boring)

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!: 3 (it's fun, but nothing great)

How to Steal a Million: 3.5 (my favorite score by Johnny, really exciting and beautiful)

Penelope: 3 (it's fun, but nothing great)

Guide for the Married Man: 3 (the main theme is really catchy, and there's a good amount of really cool stuff)

The Reivers: 4 (beautiful score, I love the harmonica)

The Cowboys: 4.5 (really exhilerating)

The Poseidon Adventure: 2 (really boring, except for a few good moments)

Images: 3.5 (JW's most unique score)

The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing: 2.5 (some cool parts, but overall it drags a bit)

Cinderella Liberty: 3 (took me a while to warm up to it, but it's a fun score)

Earthquake: 3.5 (some really fun and cool passages, better than it sounds in the film)

Jaws: 4 (love the swashbuckling stuff, and the main theme is incredibly effective)

Thomas and the King: 4 (songs are for the most part really good)

The Eiger Sanction: 4 (lots of really cool music here, love the mix of jazz and symphonic)

Family Plot: 4 (one of JW's more imaginative scores, great use of chorus, harpsichord, and synths)

The Missouri Breaks: 3 (nice love theme, but overall easy to forget)

Midway: 2.5 (kinda boring, but the march and the "Men of Yorktown" theme are very good)

Black Sunday: 4 (great at building tension, very effective when listened to as a whole)

Star Wars: 4.5 (exhilerating and beautiful)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 4 (some of it is hard to get through, but when it's good it is fantastic)

The Fury: 4 (love the tension and horror)

Jaws 2: 4 (possibly better than the first score, a really fun listen)

Superman - The Movie: 4 (parts of it drag, but like CE3K, when it's good it is fantastic)

Dracula: 4.5 (beautiful and haunting)

1941: 4 (exhilerating, love "Swing, Swing, Swing")

The Empire Strikes Back: 5 (JW's first masterpiece, fantastic)

Raiders of the Lost Ark: 5 (another masterpiece, the Lost Ark theme is one of his best themes ever)

Heartbeeps: 4 (beautiful, catchy, and fun)

E.T.: 5 (another masterpiece, but probably the least awesome of the masterpieces because it drags a bit)

Monsignor: 3 (good, but nothing incredibly noteworthy)

Return of the Jedi: 4 (good, but there are moments where it drags)

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: 4 (great score, but a little overbearing at times)

The River: 3.5 (good score)

Amazing Stories: 3.5 (both episodes are good, as is the main theme)

SpaceCamp: 4.5 (exhilerating and beautiful, if not the most original score)

The Witches of Eastwick: 3 (good, but not incredibly memorable except for the "Dance of the Witches")

Empire of the Sun: 3.5 (beautiful passages, but also some less memorable stuff)

The Accidental Tourist: 3.5 (beautiful and delicate, but a bit too reliant on the same two themes)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: 5 (another masterpiece)

Born on the Fourth of July: 3.5 (beautiful)

Always: 3 (when it's good it's beautiful, but there are a lot of boring parts)

Home Alone: 4.5 (really fun, heartwarming score)

Hook: 5 (another masterpiece, exhilerating)

JFK: 4 (tension filled and exciting)

Far and Away: 4.5 (gorgeous love theme)

Home Alone 2: 4 (suffers from self plagiarism, but there's enough new material to make it enjoyable)

Jurassic Park: 4 (the main theme can get a little tiring, but this score offers a lot of other material)

Schindler's List: 3.5 (beautiful)

Sabrina: 4 (gorgeous)

Nixon: 3.5 (haunting and obsessed)

The Lost World: 4.5 (superior to the original score)

Seven Years in Tibet: 3 (haunting main theme)

Amistad: 4 (some parts are so beautiful)

Saving Private Ryan: 3.5 (some boring parts, but some truly beautiful stuff)

Stepmom: 3 (good, but a little boring)

The Phantom Menace: 4 (exhilerating, a great return to the saga)

The Unfinished Journey: 3.5 (great highlights, but some self-plagiarism)

Angela's Ashes: 4 (haunting and gorgeous main theme)

The Patriot: 3 (good, but not great)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence: 4.5 (the themes are so beautiful)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: 5 (another masterpiece)

Attack of the Clones: 4 (a very different direction for the SW saga, but a great score)

Minority Report: 3.5 (some moments are great, but some are boring)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: 3.5 (again, lots of plagiarism, but also lots of great new stuff)

Catch Me If You Can: 4 (one of JW's most unique scores, half jazz half symphonic)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: 5 (his most recent masterpiece)

The Terminal: 4 (the love theme is one of his all time best)

Revenge of the Sith: 4.5 (best SW score since Empire)

War of the Worlds: 3 (good, but hard to listen to sometimes)

Memoirs of a Geisha: 3.5 (good if you have the patience to sit through the entire score)

Munich: 3 (good, but not great)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 3.5 (lots of fun to listen to)

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Jaws, Star Wars, CE3K, Superman, TESB, Raiders, E.T., ROTJ, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade, Hook, Jurassic Park.

^ The masterpieces.

Everything else, 3-4 star goodness.

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Jaws, Star Wars, CE3K, Superman, TESB, Raiders, E.T., ROTJ, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade, Hook, Jurassic Park.

^ The masterpieces.

Everything else, 3-4 star goodness.

:up:

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5 stars:

Jane Eyre

Jaws

Star Wars

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Superman - The Movie

The Empire Strikes Back

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Schindler's List

4 stars:

Family Plot

Black Sunday

The Eiger Sanction

The Fury

Dracula

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The Witches of Eastwick

Empire of the Sun

JFK

Far and Away

Jurassic Park

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Seven Years in Tibet

The Phantom Menace

Angela's Ashes

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Catch Me If You Can

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Revenge of the Sith

War of the Worlds

Memoirs of a Geisha

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

3 stars:

The Missouri Breaks

Jaws 2

Midway

1941

E.T.

Return of the Jedi

The Accidental Tourist

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Born on the Fourth of July

Hook

Home Alone

Home Alone 2

Amistad

Saving Private Ryan

The Patriot

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Attack of the Clones

Minority Report

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The Terminal

Munich

2 stars:

Heartbeeps

Monsignor

The River

SpaceCamp

Nixon

Stepmom

1 star:

Always

Sabrina

The rest I don't know.

Karol

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I like the opening, the Yoda bit, finale and end credits. That's about it. Don't like the movie and never did (even when I was a kid). I'm serious.

Having said that, I've never ever heard the original album.

Karol

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Whether you like the movie or not doesn't really matter either way. There's things I'm not interested in or a fan of, but I can still appreciate greatness objectively.

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Whether you like the movie or not doesn't really matter either way. There's things I'm not interested in or a fan of, but I can still appreciate greatness objectively.

You see, the problem is, apart from the bits I mentioned, I can't really hear anything special in the rest of the underscore. Even if I detach myself from it completely. I often either turn it off or fall asleep. It's a fact. Can't do anything about it.

What should I do? Give it 5 stars only because other people would do that? Hell, no! It's my personal list and it stays that way.

(unless, of course, our dear moderators decide otherwise ;))

Karol

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(unless, of course, our dear moderators decide otherwise ;))

Karol

Perhaps you need correcting.......

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My kids, sir, they didn't care for the score to E.T. at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches, and tried to burn my CD. But I "corrected" them sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I "corrected" her. .

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use Mark's link to find my ratings,

sorry Croc, but your rating of ET is a croc, a croc of shit. If you don't like the little underscoring in it then you don't like the underscoring in most JW films. That said Adventures on Earth trumps most everything else.

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★★★★★

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Empire Of The Sun

Schindler's List

Saving Private Ryan

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

Munich

★★★★

Cinderella Liberty

Jaws

Black Sunday

Star Wars

Superman: The Movie

The Empire Strikes Back

Heartbeeps

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom

The Accidental Tourist

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

Hook

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

Jurassic Park

Rosewood

★★★—★★—★

Everything else

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I guess I'll play along. Of course these ratings are just MY opinion only. You may or may not disagree with it.

5 Stars:

The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars

4 Stars:

The Phantom Menace

Revenge Of The Sith

Home Alone

Jurassic Park

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

Hook

3 Stars:

Attack Of The Clones

Harry Potter (all 3)

Witches Of Eastwick

Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Black Sunday

Schindler's List

2 Stars:

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

I'll probably get flack for A.I. but I honestly don't like it that much...

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My kids, sir, they didn't care for the score to E.T. at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches, and tried to burn my CD. But I "corrected" them sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I "corrected" her. .

ROTFLMAO

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I'm too lazy to grade every single work I own (which is about 200), but yeah...this Williams guy.....great composer!

;)

(seriously, though, I might do this if I get the sudden urge).

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The Cowboys ***

Family Plot ***

Jaws ****

Midway ***

Black Sunday ***1/2

Star Wars *****

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ****

Jaws 2 ****

Superman ****1/2

The Empire Strikes Back ***** (First Place)

Raiders of the Lost Ark *****

ET *****

Monsignor ****

Return of the Jedi ****1/2

Temple of Doom ***** (Second Place)

Spacecamp ****

Witches of Eastwick ***

Empire of the Sun ****

Last Crusade ****1/2

Born on the Forth of July ***

Home Alone *****

Hook ****1/2

JFK ***1/2

Far and Away ****1/2

Home Alone 2 ****

Jurassic Park ***** (Third Place)

Schindler’s List *****

The Lost World ****1/2

Seven Years in Tibet ***

Amistad ***

Saving Private Ryan ***

Phantom Menace *****

The Patriot ***

AI ****1/2

Sorcerer’s Stone ****1/2

Attack of the Clones ****

Minority Report ***1/2

Chamber of Secrets ****

Prisoner of Azkaban *****

Terminal ***

Revenge of the Sith ****1/2

War of the Worlds **

Memoirs of a Geisha ****

Munich ***

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ****

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By rating and roughly ranked in order of my personal preference (which fluctuates):

5 stars (the masterpieces):

The Empire Strikes Back

Return of the Jedi

Jurassic Park

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Star Wars

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

E.T.

Hook

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Sabrina

4 stars (anything short of an outright masterpiece):

Empire of the Sun

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Attack of the Clones

Revenge of the Sith

3 stars (great scores - worth a listen once in a while):

The Phantom Menace

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

1-2 stars:

I don't bother listening to Williams' scores I think would be ranked this low, but I have yet to listen to one bad enough to earn the rating. I didn't include any scores on my list that I don't own or haven't listed to all the way through.

Also, a disclaimer - my love for a score can sometimes be influenced by my familiarity with it. Eventually, some of the scores you may consider a 5-star score that I rated lower may move up the list as I discover its intricacies.

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About these collection lists, it always surprises me the absence of CE3K. Or if one has it, the

low rank. People, please give it a change.

Too true. Especially considering how influential Williams was on that film.

Speaking of, Jay, almost done with your complete cue list for it?

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Just a quick detour, there is an interview out there somewhere where Kasdan talks about working with Williams and how he would never do it again because he had no input on the score. :lol:

He basically said Williams watched a rough cut and went off for several months and Kasdan didn't see him again until the scoring sessions.

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MY absolute 5 Star scores from Mr. Williams (in no particular order)

Jaws

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

Star Wars

The Empire Strikes Back

-----

The rest are all rather close, and although I do consider some of his others '5 Star Scores', those are my absolute favorites.

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MY absolute 5 Star scores from Mr. Williams (in no particular order)

Jaws

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

Star Wars

The Empire Strikes Back

These types of lists are so boooooring (no offense to you ;)). E.T. is the only usual suspect that makes my list.

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