JWFAN Members Top 10 John Williams scores lists

[JamieC 13]

I watched The Rare Breed on tv here in the UK a few weeks ago and was fascinated by how sustained JW's music for it is.

In the moment of watching a scene unfold, in which James Stewart's character finds one of the cattle frozen in the snow, it sounded to me like an entire portion of the suite for The Rare Breed that I imagine lots of us know.

I simply thought that this was a very nice example of underscore functioning as such a strongly thought-out and coherent expression of an idea (which is what all music strives for in some way or another).

JC

[Henry B 50]

1. A.I. Artificial Intelligence

2. Star Wars

3. The Empire Strikes Back

4. Raiders of the Lost Ark

5. Schindler's List

6. Hook

7. Return of the Jedi

8. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

9. Memoirs of a Geisha

10. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Thanks HB

[stewdog1 50]

I'm going to play a little later today with my list. My problem is that the more recent scores i have not listened to that much, if at all.

Sent from Tapatalk

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I may be making a huge change to mine as well. the universe may wink out.

[wanner251 17]

1. E.T.

2. Hook

3. Close Encounters

4. Raiders of the Lost Ark

5. Star Wars

6. Jurassic Park

7. Jaws

8. War Horse

9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

10. Schindler's List

[Jay 37,321]

9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Yea!

[Brónach 1,301]

When's the last day for this?

[fommes 153]

1. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

4. Minority Report

5. Memoirs of a Geisha

6. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

7. Jurassic Park

8. The Eiger Sanction

9. Jane Eyre

10. The Empire Strikes Back

[Jonesy 55]

When's the last day for this?

December 31.

[Smeltington 1,436]

1 - The Empire Strikes Back

2 - Return of the Jedi

3 - Star Wars

4 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

5 - The Phantom Menace

6 - Raiders of the Lost Ark

7 - Hook

8 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

9 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

10 - Jurassic Park

[JoeinAR 1,949]

When's the last day for this?

December 31.

January 15th, 2013

[Jonesy 55]

That's great!

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

I would love to include the Lincoln to my top ten but it is hard to take anything off from my precious top ten...

Lincoln would be definitely in my top 15 score chart.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I'm letting Lincoln sink in but I do not expect it to break in my top 10 but others might.

[Uni 306]

Someone who knows of my budding interest in film music told me to check this place out. Thought I'd give it a try. . . .

Indeed, this vulgar exercise in rigid taxonomization runs flagrantly counter to the art form we claim to revere. Notes, wild and free, leap off the page, burrowing into our collective unconscious and stirring something that resides deep within us -- something elemental, something primal, something that tells us who we are. In an instant, we are transfigured, and the images before us, once discrete, become our reality.

In creating these sorts of lists, we try to tame that which cannot be tamed; we try to reduce complex, uncertain reality to simple, reassuring numbers. But the moment we impose artificial structure on who we are and what we perceive, we lose our humanity.

Just pick 10 you cry babies.

Man, I've missed this place. S'good to be home.

And the timing is fortuitous. I've actually had a "list" topic creeping around in my head for a while, and I thought I'd make my grand re-entrance with it. This works just as well, though. Wouldn't dream of sitting this one out—although doggone it if it isn't just as tough an exercise as everyone claims, especially when factoring in the various elements people have tossed out as influences on their thinking. Some of them were outrageous, yes (sound quality? Really?!), but a few others made me think. I even stumbled across a factor no one's brought up yet: concert suites. There are several occasions where a lesser-than-top-10 score has wrought something like a Top 3 concert rendition. The score itself might not have made the list . . . but without the score, we wouldn't have the resulting piece, and what kinda life would that be, anyway? (Relax: I know it doesn't affect the scoring, at least as far as the official list goes. But it did enter the picture for me when whittling things down to my own Top 10.)

When confronted with the need to narrow it down to the final ten, here's the question I ultimately asked: Which scores would it suck the most to lose forever—either moving forward (as in, I'd never get to hear them again), or even retroactively (imagining they'd never been composed at all)? That's what helped me reach the final roll.

Anyway, here it is:

1. Superman: The Movie

2. E.T. The Extraterrestrial

3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

4. The Empire Strikes Back

5. Hook

6. Jurassic Park

7. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

8. Schindler's List

9. Empire of the Sun

10. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Now . . . someone call me a moronic loser, so I know I'm back where I belong.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

.Man, I've missed this place. S'good to be home.

It is one of the Elders! Unless my eyes are cheated by some spell?

Now . . . someone call me a moronic loser, so I know I'm back where I belong.

I'll do you one better, a golden oldy from years ago.

"Hey Uni, you still worshipping God? Last I heard he was worshipping me!" Stefancos, somewhere in the early 2000's

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Someone who knows of my budding interest in film music told me to check this place out. Thought I'd give it a try. . . .

Indeed, this vulgar exercise in rigid taxonomization runs flagrantly counter to the art form we claim to revere. Notes, wild and free, leap off the page, burrowing into our collective unconscious and stirring something that resides deep within us -- something elemental, something primal, something that tells us who we are. In an instant, we are transfigured, and the images before us, once discrete, become our reality.

In creating these sorts of lists, we try to tame that which cannot be tamed; we try to reduce complex, uncertain reality to simple, reassuring numbers. But the moment we impose artificial structure on who we are and what we perceive, we lose our humanity.

Just pick 10 you cry babies.

Man, I've missed this place. S'good to be home.

And the timing is fortuitous. I've actually had a "list" topic creeping around in my head for a while, and I thought I'd make my grand re-entrance with it. This works just as well, though. Wouldn't dream of sitting this one out—although doggone it if it isn't just as tough an exercise as everyone claims, especially when factoring in the various elements people have tossed out as influences on their thinking. Some of them were outrageous, yes (sound quality? Really?!), but a few others made me think. I even stumbled across a factor no one's brought up yet: concert suites. There are several occasions where a lesser-than-top-10 score has wrought something like a Top 3 concert rendition. The score itself might not have made the list . . . but without the score, we wouldn't have the resulting piece, and what kinda life would that be, anyway? (Relax: I know it doesn't affect the scoring, at least as far as the official list goes. But it did enter the picture for me when whittling things down to my own Top 10.)

When confronted with the need to narrow it down to the final ten, here's the question I ultimately asked: Which scores would it suck the most to lose forever—either moving forward (as in, I'd never get to hear them again), or even retroactively (imagining they'd never been composed at all)? That's what helped me reach the final roll.

Anyway, here it is:

1. Superman: The Movie

2. E.T. The Extraterrestrial

3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

4. The Empire Strikes Back

5. Hook

6. Jurassic Park

7. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

8. Schindler's List

9. Empire of the Sun

10. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Now . . . someone call me a moronic loser, so I know I'm back where I belong.

excellent list Uni.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Indeed. Seven matches with my list.

[Uni 306]

.Man, I've missed this place. S'good to be home.

It is one of the Elders! Unless my eyes are cheated by some spell?

Well, they usually are, but in this case. . . .

"Elder." I like the sounda that. 'Cept for the "old" stigma that goes with it. . . .

Now . . . someone call me a moronic loser, so I know I'm back where I belong.

I'll do you one better, a golden oldy from years ago.

"Hey Uni, you still worshipping God? Last I heard he was worshipping me!" Stefancos, somewhere in the early 2000's

One of so, so many from that era. (I think this forum might still have been in outline format at the time. . . .)

- Uni

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

O.k..let's get this thing over with, shall we?

First of all, JW has composed so many superb scores that I am sure that it would be almost impossible for any JW fan to come with just 10. We have, though, and more power to us for doing so.

Here's mine:

1 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.

2 SUPERMAN

3 THE TOWERING INFERNO

4 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

5 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

6 1941

7 THE WITCHES OF EASTWCK

8 EMPIRE OF THE SUN

9 THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST

10 JFK

Of course, to include 10 scores, means to exclude 100 scores, so honourable mentions go to PRISONER OF AZKABAN, and MINORITY REPORT, both scores being truly late-flowewring masterpieces.

Something else occured to me: why? Why do we like what we like? What significance does SCHINDLER'S LIST play in Uni's life (for example) when some other people do not like it?

Case in point: ET. Recently, this score has completely fallen off of my radar, when just a few years ago, it was easily #3, or possibly #2. I listen to the score, and I watch the film, and I am completely unaffected by either.

I know that lists such as this are movable feasts, but how have our individual lists altered over the years, and what has been the precipitation for this?

[Uni 306]

Something else occured to me: why? Why do we like what we like? What significance does SCHINDLER'S LIST play in Uni's life (for example) when some other people do not like it?

And something else occurred to me: Why? Why did he pick me, out of all these other people? Not that I have a problem with it, mind you. Kinda nice to be chosen.

And then . . . why Schindler's List, out of all the others? Nearly every one of the other nine has a personal story attached to it. Schindler's List, on the other hand, was the one that I simply couldn't leave off the list. It's too powerful, too all-encompassing, too important to overlook for a designation like this. It's hardly my favorite, but I can't imagine not including it in any top-10 list. But it hasn't played any "significant" role in my own life. Yet you happened to chose that one out of the others. Huh.

It's an interesting question you ask, but likely prohibitive in this setting. Asking more than a hundred people to go back and tell 10 stories, even in a few words, would create a pretty good-sized amount of reading material.

Maybe those who are interested could choose one or two from their list, just as examples. . . .

- Uni

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Very interesting point indeed.

ET. Recently, this score has completely fallen off of my radar, when just a few years ago, it was easily #3, or possibly #2. I listen to the score, and I watch the film, and I am completely unaffected by either.

This quote is from Richard's post and I simply cannot understand you lost your interest in E.T. and there is 1941 in your list.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Something else occured to me: why? Why do we like what we like? What significance does SCHINDLER'S LIST play in Uni's life (for example) when some other people do not like it?

And something else occurred to me: Why? Why did he pick me, out of all these other people? Not that I have a problem with it, mind you. Kinda nice to be chosen.

And then . . . why Schindler's List, out of all the others? Nearly every one of the other nine has a personal story attached to it. Schindler's List, on the other hand, was the one that I simply couldn't leave off the list. It's too powerful, too all-encompassing, too important to overlook for a designation like this. It's hardly my favorite, but I can't imagine not including it in any top-10 list. But it hasn't played any "significant" role in my own life. Yet you happened to chose that one out of the others. Huh.

It's an interesting question you ask, but likely prohibitive in this setting. Asking more than a hundred people to go back and tell 10 stories, even in a few words, would create a pretty good-sized amount of reading material.

Maybe those who are interested could choose one or two from their list, just as examples. . . .

- Uni

To be perfectly honest, Uni, I picked you because I had a (not so) hidden agenda: that being, I can't stand "Schindler's List", and I wanted to know why it is held in such high regard by many JWfaners, when I cannot connect with it. I listen to "SL" and I hear a sugary, woeful, self-pitying mess, when, at the same time, I listen to "Masada", and "QBVII", and hear passion, and pride. Why don't I like "SL"? As Vivian Stanshall once said: "b***ered if I know".

I will, however listen to it again, and try to appreciate it (actually, I quite like the 10-minute piece - "Schindler's Workforce", is it?).

Very interesting point indeed.

ET. Recently, this score has completely fallen off of my radar, when just a few years ago, it was easily #3, or possibly #2. I listen to the score, and I watch the film, and I am completely unaffected by either.

This quote is from Richard's post and I simply cannot understand you lost your interest in E.T. and there is 1941 in your list.

To be honest with you, Hornist, neither can I. The short answer is: I prefer "1941" to "ET". The long answer has probably a lot to do with changing tastes, and changing personal circumstances. Like most people, diferent pieces of music come in and out of my life at various times. At this time, "ET" is out of my life (please; no MJ jokes!), but I am sure that it will re-enter my life when it is wanted to, or, indeed, needed to.

"ET" is, make no mistake, possibly JW's single greatest work for the cinema, and is a towering score, and one to be very proud of. I fully appreciate "ET": I just want nothing to do with it it at this time.

[Uni 306]

The second of your responses above answers for the first. As much as I can appreciate 1941 and it's place among Williams' works during his Golden Age, I can't conceive of ever putting it on a top-10 list. (Or even a top-20, frankly.) Or of keeping E.T. off of one. To be honest with you, I was a little surprised myself that I included Schindler's List. I don't think I would've done that five or ten years ago. But when I think of "Remembrances" (one of Williams' most hauntingly beautiful pieces), the variety of thematic material contained in the score, and—most especially—the image of John conducting as Itzhak plays, I just can't deny it's inherent brilliance and beauty. It's earned my vote, even if it hasn't done the same for you.

But that's the point of this entire exercise, isn't it? If we all held the same scores in exactly the same regard, compiling a definitive "favorites" list for this site would be a waste of time and effort. It's the variety of perspective we all bring to the table that makes this a fun and fascinating endeavor . . . and personally, I'm very much looking forward to the results.

- Uni

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

...as am I, Uni, as am I.

Some people llke "Hook", and "Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade". I prefer "Images", and "The Missouri Breaks" to either of those scores, but it doesn't matter, because it's all just one big parlour game, and more power to it!

As to the validity of the ultimate poll: I put more "faith" - if that's the right word - in a poll of JWfaners who truly appreciate and converse about his music, rather than a bunch of pulled-of-the-street meatheads who can whistle the first 7 notes of "Star Wars", and...that's it! It's the JW equivalent of Classic FM's top 50, that would have you believe that "POTC" is the best score ever made. I weep for the future...

Anyway, if this poll says that "SL" is JWfaner's top score, then who am I to argue? perhaps it would spur me on to investigate the score afresh.

[Cantus Venti 13]

x

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

"Raiders Of The Lost Ark" underrated? Not on this website, mate!!!!!

[Cantus Venti 13]

I must be underrating it due to how the main theme has been overplayed and the effect spoiled, yet I think the melodic energy is too brilliant to dismiss. The Imperial March for instance is overplayed but I don't find it so brilliant. It's really all the other Star Wars themes that I love, and I love the music of Raiders much more than the movie, same with most of Williams' movies.

[alicebrallice 134]

- The Terminal

I'm liking you already.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I still have to watch that film....

[Quintus 5,399]

It's sappy but actually really watchable. Do you like that warm feeling of being contented at the end of Home Alone, or When Harry Met Sally? You'll find it in The Terminal.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You think Alice will be impressed with me if I watch it?

So far everything else has failed....

[Quintus 5,399]

She might turn up at your door out of the blue if you wish for it hard enough.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Thank you Mr. Quint. I'll take it under advisement....

(that would have worked so much better if you hadn't changed your screen name)

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1. JFK

2. E.T.

3. Star Wars

4. Jaws

5. Superman

6. Raiders

7. Temple of Doom

8. Jurassic Park

9. Hook

10. The Terminal

[JoeinAR 1,949]

If you have not submitted a JWFAN Top 10 score list you need to do so in the next week or so.

My plan was to start compiling the list around the middle of the month but because I have vacation attached to the next Holiday here in the states I will start putting the list together on January 21st. So that gives you guys and gals 2 more weeks to either submit a list or update/adjust your list.

There are several prominent members who have not submitted a list and I would love to see theirs.

I want to have the list compiled and ready to be posted in time for his 81st birthday.

SO

please post your list if you have not in honor of the man

whose maginificent life has enriched so many lives here on this message board.

[Joe Brausam 214]

1. Born on the Fourth of July

2. War Horse

3. The Empire Strikes Back

4. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

5. Hook

6. Star Wars

7. Jaws

8. Jane Eyre

9. Schindler's List

10. Lincoln

That wasn't very easy, and the 10th place spot isn't 100% certain, but that's as close as it will get for now! The top 5 were easy and without a doubt are 100% how I feel, the rest sort of fudges it.

Other scores that made my short list while compiling this, just for fun:

Nixon, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich, Home Alone.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

please post your list if you have not in honor of the man

whose maginificent life has enriched so many lives here on this message board.

J.R.R Tolkien?

[Brónach 1,301]

Yeah, assign me more homework! Just what I need!

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

1. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban

2. Star Wars

3. Star Wars Empire Strikes Back

4. Star Wars Return of the Jedi

5. The Lost World

6. Raiders of the Lost Ark

7. Images

8. Seven Years in Tibet

9. War Horse

10. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial

[JoeinAR 1,949]

bloodboil hasn't posted his list but he's posted in that thread alot but I don't think he really knows 10 Jw scores.

[Jay 37,321]

I don't think so either

[Quintus 5,399]

He doesn't know his arse from his elbow!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I am sure he is up to his elbow in his own arse though.

Checked my list again. I stand by it. Could juggle the odd position, but really no need to.

[Sandor 796]

I am sure he is up to his elbow in his own arse though.

Checked my list again. I stand by it. Could juggle the odd position, but really no need to.

Was actually looking for your list, but just can't seem to locate it...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Its there....

Wait, why is your name still Roald in that thread?

Christ! I am losing my mind!

Sandor and Roald at the same time!!!!!

AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!

[Jay 37,321]

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22224&st=40#entry847187

Your list is 8/10ths the same as mine. You are easily the person with the closest list to mine

http://www.jwfan.com...24

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

8 is quite a number with so many possible scores. I had 7/10 with one member witch was cool.

[Jay 37,321]

I don't think I found anybody else with more than 4 scores in common with mine