Which SW score has the best action music?

[artguy360 1,842]

Hmm..I'm not quite sure what to make of the action music in TFA. I really like Finn's theme in Follow Me but The Falcon is pretty bland for music accompanying the Falcon flying for the first time in years being chased by tie fighters. On the other hand, I Can Fly Anything is great and The Resistance from the FYC album is great. But then all the Bombing Run music sounds really poorly presented in the film. The Attack on the Jakku Village is pretty good though. 

[indy4 155]

5 hours ago, Datameister said:

"Riding the Lizard" and "Fighting With Grievous", yes. "Rolling With Grievous" (the middle segment that's partially reprised at the end) not so much.

 I love Rolling with Grievous!  Although hate how it is reprised on the album version. 

[Datameister 2,034]

I don't hate it...if it existed in a vacuum, I might even really like it. But I can't help hearing it as almost a caricature of Williams' action writing of the 2000s - uneven meters, shrieking piccolos, jabbering trumpets, murky harmonies, and a nearly complete lack of melodic material. The other two cues in that track are much more interesting, IMO.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The General Grievous material is Williams going through the motions. It sounds like the werewolf scene from Azkaban or Jurassic Park. It's pre-reel 5, when the really good stuff begins.

 

I would have to agree that the TIE Fighter Attack and The Last Battle are definitive Star Wars action tracks.

[Jay 37,249]

I really like the concert version of the TIE Fighter Attack, "Here They Come!"

[Ricard 2,242]

On 01/18/2016 at 7:34 PM, JasonTHX said:

For me it'll always be that entire last hour of Jedi. And then he did the same with TOD the following year! Mind-blowing. No wonder he took a break in 85.

 

The highest point of Williams' career. Not that I find his most recent output to be weak, but to me that level of brilliance hasn't been surpassed.

[Jay 37,249]

I absolutely LOVE the "I'll score the third act of this movie wall to wall" approach he took with ROTJ and TOD so much, just so much brilliant music all brilliantly seguing together.  It's awesome.  He did it later with Hook too.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

11 minutes ago, Ricard said:

 

The highest point of Williams' career. Not that I find his most recent output to be weak, but to me that level of brilliance hasn't been surpassed.

 

You are wrong! Obviously A.I. was the highlight of his career!

[Ricard 2,242]

Hehe

[Luke Skywalker 1,792]

I dont know. I love ROTJ and ESB so much.

 

But i think ROJ has more action material as a whole.

[Demondm810 397]

Jedi for me.

[tedfud 38]

On 18 January 2016 at 0:05 AM, Stefancos said:

TESB!

 

Battle of Hoth/The Asteroid Field is unbeatable.

 

yup

 

t

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

8 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

You are wrong! Obviously A.I. was the highlight of his career!

 

For some of us, this may be a legitimate perspective. Childish to scoff at it... how sad. 

[tedfud 38]

On 19 January 2016 at 4:31 PM, Sharky said:

ANH's action music doesn't appeal to me much these days. I find it tinny and lacking in sex appeal.

Is this because of the Sound of the recording ? It does sound a little naff in places and I read that they had a very small mixing desk , so had a very limited number of mics. And decided to spot mic the orchestra rather than go for more ambience. You can really here this in the brass.....horribly brittle and farty at times. The horns especially . Which is a shame as the music is some of his best . 

 

t

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

4 hours ago, tedfud said:

Is this because of the Sound of the recording ? It does sound a little naff in places and I read that they had a very small mixing desk , so had a very limited number of mics. And decided to spot mic the orchestra rather than go for more ambience. You can really here this in the brass.....horribly brittle and farty at times. The horns especially . Which is a shame as the music is some of his best .

 

Partly yes, but it's also the writing. I was never crazy about Williams's music for Lost in Space and it does draw from that sound. I don't know, I just prefer the more abstract, slightly more of esoteric sequel and prequel scores. You're right though, a rerecording would do wonders.

 

Jedi is my favourite SW score but as someone said earlier in the thread, the highlights are the non-action stuff. The retreads of Sail Barge Assault and The Battle of Endor III put it at a disadvantage.

 

[Score_Fan 36]

TPM

ROTS

AOTC

ANH

ESB

ROTJ

 

I just can't really get into the music for TFA, outside of a few tracks no matter how hard I try. :/

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Why not?

[Score_Fan 36]

I'm not sure- it's not bad...but outside of a few tracks- Rey's theme, the Scavenger, Attack on the Jakku Village, Torn Apart, Ways of the Force & Jedi Steps/Finale, overall the score is just kinda....there. I'm not crazy about the re-recording of the main title either.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Traitor!!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

[Score_Fan 36]

Well, I like the prequel films, so i've been a traitor for about 17 years now.

[EdwardHall 30]

The music from the last act of The Empire Strikes Back is as good as it gets, in my opinion. I don't even care to break it up into the individual cues. JW was in rare form.

[artguy360 1,842]

2 hours ago, EdwardHall said:

The music from the last act of The Empire Strikes Back is as good as it gets, in my opinion. I don't even care to break it up into the individual cues. JW was in rare form.

 

Yeah, from the beginning of the carbonite scene all the way to the very end of the credits, ESB is just fantastic and there is so much great action music in there. What I really appreciate is that the action music has a weighty drama to it. 

7 hours ago, Score_Fan said:

TPM

ROTS

AOTC

ANH

ESB

ROTJ

 

I just can't really get into the music for TFA, outside of a few tracks no matter how hard I try. :/

 

I originally had a similar opinion of the action music in TFA until I realized how great I Can Fly Anything is, and that The Resistance March is also a great action piece along side Scherzo for X-Wings/The Bombing Run. Follow Me is also pretty fun but The Rathtars! and The Falcon are pretty bland.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

The Rathtars!  is incredible. And also The Falcon. What the hell?

[artguy360 1,842]

12 minutes ago, hornist said:

The Rathtars!  is incredible. And also The Falcon. What the hell?

The Rathtars! is just a completely uneventful, bland action piece. It goes nowhere. The Falcon has some nice bits of Finn's theme but Follow Me does that better. Outside of that, the Falcon feels like a wasted opportunity. The music for first time the Falcon flies again should be grander and more fun that.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Idiot!

[Datameister 2,034]

"The Falcon" ought to have been an old-fashioned action setpiece. What we got instead has continued to grow on me, but I still wouldn't rank it as being among the many great action cues from the Star Wars saga. (As many folks have said, though, the flute figures at the very end are totally classic Star Wars. I just wish they didn't trail off so quickly!)

 

I do quite like "The Rathtars!" Certainly not Williams' best, but there are some fun, creepy flourishes in there.

[Red 75]

I love "Battle of Hoth" so friggin much. I don't know if I'd call Empire the absolute best for action cues but that track has to be up there with my favorite pieces in the series. 

[Datameister 2,034]

Agreed. It's one of my favorite musical sequences from any film, actually.

 

It just occurred to me that my favorite action music tends to either give a real sense of drama and danger or explore a lot of really fun, exciting musical ideas. (The Battle of Hoth contains both.) I don't really get either of those from "The Falcon", though - it's mostly made up of nervous, relatively unremarkable figurations. Interspersed in those jittery tremolo textures are shadows of true Williams greatness, but there's not really enough there to create a real sense of drama or a real sense of fun.

[artguy360 1,842]

1 minute ago, Datameister said:

Agreed. It's one of my favorite musical sequences from any film, actually.

 

It just occurred to me that my favorite action music tends to either give a real sense of drama and danger or explore a lot of really fun, exciting musical ideas. (The Battle of Hoth contains both.) I don't really get either of those from "The Falcon", though - it's mostly made up of nervous, relatively unremarkable figurations. Interspersed in those jittery tremolo textures are shadows of true Williams greatness, but there's not really enough there to create a real sense of drama or a real sense of fun.

I agree with this, and The Falcon also doesn't have a strong unifying motif to give the piece a sense of character the way the best SW action cues do.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

3 hours ago, artguy360 said:

The Rathtars! is just a completely uneventful, bland action piece. It goes nowhere. The Falcon has some nice bits of Finn's theme but Follow Me does that better. Outside of that, the Falcon feels like a wasted opportunity. The music for first time the Falcon flies again should be grander and more fun that.

 

Eh, you're not wrong, but when you're desperate for new Williams and he's been putting out stuff like The Book Thief and KOTCS, TFA sounds amazing!

[artguy360 1,842]

1 minute ago, E.T. and Elliot said:

 

Eh, you're not wrong, but when you're desperate for new Williams and he's been putting out stuff like The Book Thief and KOTCS, TFA sounds amazing!

Oh don't get me wrong, I have fallen in love with the TFA score. I've really enjoyed exploring all it has to offer and it has some amazing highlights, and the quality overall is great. But there are tracks that just don't offer much (the ones I tend to skip at this point).

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

That's why it needed a shorter OST.

[Datameister 2,034]

50 minutes ago, artguy360 said:

I agree with this, and The Falcon also doesn't have a strong unifying motif to give the piece a sense of character the way the best SW action cues do.

 

Yeah, it's really fun when an individual action cue gets its own great melodic material to develop and play with. Gives the cue (and the scene it accompanies) a lot more character and identity. Whether the material is treated almost like a concert suite (e.g., "The Basket Game") or just occasionally referenced amidst other scoring (e.g., "The Battle in the Snow"), it helps a lot.

 

I suppose Finn's theme functions on much that way; aside from its presence in the credits and Williams' own reference to it being a theme for Finn, it really just acts as a standalone theme for that musical sequence (including "Follow Me"). Unfortunately, I just don't find it to be that strong a theme, and the surrounding material could be better.

 

As I've said, though, it does grow on ya.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Finn's Theme reminds me of Rambo: First Blood Part II or Total Recall.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I thought it was more Conti's MOTU.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

That too!

 

(That's a far better score than TFA)

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

All the action cues in ESB are great show pieces, all of them concert house quality. But have not much to do with what is happening on the screen. Modern Johnny is much better FILM composer than those days.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Ummmm...what?

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

That.

 

I love Asteroid Field so much. But the asteroid scene in AOTC is better without any music.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

*shakes head*

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Hangover?

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Sadly no. Didn't drink.

 

The asteroid scene in AOTC is NOT better!

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Well, it is ... different.

 

And it fun to be provocative against so much praised ESB.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Just have a drink and settle yourself down!

[Bespin 8,472]

I usually don't like action music.... Well except in one movie.

 

The Empire Strikes Back.

[Datameister 2,034]

4 hours ago, hornist said:

All the action cues in ESB are great show pieces, all of them concert house quality. But have not much to do with what is happening on the screen. Modern Johnny is much better FILM composer than those days.

 

If the goal is to support the film without ever drawing any attention to the music, then yes, Williams has gotten a lot better. And I'm sure that's exactly what a lot of filmmakers are looking for.

 

As a consumer of film music, though, I prefer material that's almost distractingly great. Stuff that does draw attention to itself.

 

And I disagree that ESB's action music is dissociated from what's happening onscreen. It may be "distractingly great", but it's very well tailored to the tone of the individual scenes. That's especially true of "The Asteroid Field" - some scenes are better off without music, but this one is profoundly enhanced by it.

 

ANH, on the other hand, as amazing as it is, does have some moments where the (stunningly good) music is actually a little puzzling in the context of the film. I also find the music more distracting in that film - ESB is plenty iconic and in-your-face, but the music is sits a little more comfortably within the film.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

What are those puzzling moments in SW?

[Datameister 2,034]

I was hoping no one would ask.  It's an opinion based on my most recent viewing of the film, which was a month or so ago. I'm afraid I can't remember any specific examples, though. I just recall being struck by how the music "follows" the film...differently. It's not really a bad thing.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Those big orchestral flourishes that harken back to the golden age Korngold and Steiner scores.