The verdict is in on the AOTC score....

[Uni 306]

[Warning: This is really for those who have seen the film. Spoilers abound.]

Well, this is my verdict, anyway. I had an extended session with the portable Discman the other night, and listened to the AOTC score several times over. To sum up....I'm pleased. Very pleased. TPM never really got off the ground with me; I still feel somehow distanced from it (not that the Ultimate Sedition did much to bridge the gap). Oh, I thought both new themes were great ("Duel" and "Ani's Theme"), and I still do. But it seemed to be missing....something. And I'm still looking for it.

AOTC, on the other hand, seems much more like a real Williams score, a return to more familiar SW styling and pace. Not so much thematically, I suppose, since there's really only one new, major motif that pretty much takes control of the score, but in its organization, its presentation, and its execution. And as for the central theme itself....well, I think I'm gonna hafta change my vote on the (sort of) recent poll asking which love theme we liked the most (too late - the old MB's gone). The new Love Theme does everything it should and more: it invests the space opera with a properly epic aria, one that goes on to imbue the rest of the story with added breadth and meaning, a feat the last score failed to accomplish. As a matter of fact....it's almost too good. More than the film, or the love story anyway, deserves. I think that's part of the problem I had with the central sections of the movie. Once again (as I've claimed he did with Hook), Williams chose to score the underlying elements of the story rather than their specific presentation. This is meant to be the tale of how Momma and Poppa Skywalker met, mutually wooed, and changed the fate of a galaxy; that their reunion and subsequent courting has the effective dramatic weight of a middle-school class play doesn't alter the historical significance of the event itself.

I think that's why the score didn't make as much of an impact on me until I listened to it apart from the film. There are scenes where its heady Shakespearean-tragedy, Russian-ballet gravity doesn't match at all with what we're watching on the screen. "The Meadow Picnic" is the most obvious example of this. Williams is here masterfully coaxing the orchestra into a passage that might better reflect romance on the scale of Romeo and Juliet, but the characters aren't paying attention. They're busy making a Mentos commercial. We see Amidala come running up through the high grass - and I swear, given Lucas's tendencies toward "traditional" storytelling, I half expected Anakin to come running toward her from the other end of the field (I pulled a muscle trying to stifle the rising laugh). I was spared that image, however, only to be treated to the worst CGI shot in the film - I know they could have used a stuntman and a bluescreen for this one - followed by the ol' "I-pretend-I'm-hurt-'n'-cop-a-hug" bit (last seen somewhere in the region of third grade). The incongruity between the music's depth and the scene's lack thereof made for some pretty awkward cinema (if the kids are gonna play, wait until the composer's taking a break).

There was, however, a point where the score and the movie finally met and made the appropriate, vastly moving impression: the final wedding scene. At that point it no longer mattered how they met, or what-all they gushed and frolicked their way through to get there; if you really wanted, you could go ahead and make up your own love story to precede it (I did; it was kind of fun). Right then and there, they were Anakin Skywalker, future Sith Lord and father of two, and his beautiful bride Senator Amidala the of the Ageless Face; and with a vow and a kiss they sealed the destiny of millions of people. That was an epic event, one with lasting significance, and upon my second viewing - much to my surprise and in spite of the cartoon romance that heralded it - I found myself welling with tears as the score burst in transition from the Imperial Theme into the broad and gorgeous rendering of the Love Theme. I was witnessing history, from the viewpoint of one who has seen its culmination, and it was stunningly effective (thanks again to JW....Jedi Williams).

A few other thoughts on the rest of the score:

- The lone appearance of "Duel of the Fates" was excellently rendered and placed; my only complaint is that it vanished too soon. I would have liked seeing it rear its horns again as Anakin exacts his revenge on the camp (the scene itself could have been longer as well; we would have better gauged the intensity of his wrath by seeing it, rather than listening to him whine about it later). While we're on it, I had another thought: With its appearance here, the scope of the theme seemed to change a bit, at least in my mind. Now, by attributing it to Ani, it seems to broaden, ellucidating more than one single encounter or character. Dare we call this theme illustrative of the apprentices - knowing or otherwise - of Darth Sidious?

- Maybe this is just me, but it seems that Williams has latched on to a certain four-note phrase that he's used recently to emphasize dark or evil circumstances or characters. It was used as Tavington's theme in The Patriot, and it appeared again in Harry Potter. (I heard it on the Ep. II CD; I don't recall where it pops up in the movie.)

- It would have been nifty to hear a childlike version of Boba Fett's trembling theme (or was it there, and I just missed it?).

- While I found the music for the Coruscant traffic chase a little pedestrian (no pun inten--well, maybe a little one), I was fascinated to hear electric guitars being used this way in a Williams score. The man is always full of surprises.

- Finally, there have been quite a few complaints about the rehashing of old themes, particularly in the last act. I dunno....I kinda like hearing them again. There's a certain comfortable familiarity about hearing Yoda's Theme at the right moment, and certainly the Emporer's Theme belongs here. Actually, I may be one of the few who wishes there were more references to the classic scores. This is the second film wherein the end credits suite finished on a quiet, dark note; it was novel the first time, but I was sort of wishing for the old codas that reminded us we had just watched a Star Wars film. (I know; those finale themes were representative of the Rebels 'n' all, and that hasn't come about yet. I still miss them.) On the other hand, I found that a single, variagated theme after the Main Title burst (as opposed to two or three) gave it a more unified feel. So I can live with it, I guess.

Well....I'd better stop, I suppose. I didn't mean for this to be a full-fledged review. I just wanted to say I liked it. (I should know better than to trust myself with a keyboard....)

- Uni....who still makes up in wordcount what he will always lack in post quantity.... :oops:

[Hlao-roo 389]

About the four-note evil motifs...

Yeah, he's been fond of that approach lately; I think it started with The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Frankly, it disturbs me a bit that he might heading into James Horner territory in this respect...

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

He already used a 4-tone motif in Jurassic Park.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays the Music of John Williams

[Morn 8]

Plus this 3 note sad motif that was first in Sleepers. And it's cool to have a few signature motif's.