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Favorite Williams End Titles Cue?


Disco Stu

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Oh and how could I forget Angela's Ashes! Spectacular!

4 minutes ago, Uni said:

I actually like the stand-alone version of "A New Beginning" better than the concertized version.

As a bit of trivia did you know that Sean's Theme from the album is an alternate of that A New Beginning?

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Makes sense. I think of "A New Beginning" as a development of (rather than an alternative to) "Sean's Theme." The latter has a downward trend in the underlying strings, the melody is more melancholy, the minor key emphasized, the picture of a fragmented and lost relationship, whereas the former is the music of resolution, the picture of a relationship (with Anderton's wife) redeemed and reconciled, complete with another child on the way. Rather than alternates of one another, they work perfectly in conjunction to illustrate an arc of the story's characters.

 

 

1 hour ago, Incanus said:

The end credits of Presumed Innocent, from the 90's, is actually brilliant piece. The theme, the obsessive main theme heard throughout the score is finally offered a musical release. I consider the score is very effective and subtle one, illustrating obsessions of all kinds to the woman Harrison Ford's character has been infatuated and how she haunts him in the form of the theme that repeats and repeats as he keeps remembering her after her death.

 

It's wonderful, too, in that it's not simply a note-for-note repeat of the main title (which happens too often, especially in these scores for smaller films). It's reshaping of that theme that approaches the material from the other end of the story, with a slightly quicker tempo and heavier hits--that "release" you referred to, and yet not an overly happy or completely resolved kind of release. Great stuff.

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9 hours ago, Uni said:

Makes sense. I think of "A New Beginning" as a development of (rather than an alternative to) "Sean's Theme." The latter has a downward trend in the underlying strings, the melody is more melancholy, the minor key emphasized, the picture of a fragmented and lost relationship, whereas the former is the music of resolution, the picture of a relationship (with Anderton's wife) redeemed and reconciled, complete with another child on the way. Rather than alternates of one another, they work perfectly in conjunction to illustrate an arc of the story's characters.

Williams himself mentions on the music documentary of the film that Sean's theme is a bit un-film noir as it is so sentimental in character when usually the point of view of those films is cynical and detached. The track Sean's Theme would have given the epilogue an entirely different and moodier shading though than the redemptive transformation of the A New Beginning which dovetails perfectly with the Spielbergian and rather un-film noirish finale of the film.

 

 

9 hours ago, Uni said:

It's wonderful, too, in that it's not simply a note-for-note repeat of the main title (which happens too often, especially in these scores for smaller films). It's reshaping of that theme that approaches the material from the other end of the story, with a slightly quicker tempo and heavier hits--that "release" you referred to, and yet not an overly happy or completely resolved kind of release. Great stuff.

The piece that opens the album named Presumed Innocent isn't actually the main title but another concertized arrangement of the main theme. The film main titles is a subdued variant of the theme over a shot of empty courtroom benches with Ford's narration but Williams introduces the theme in full form on the opening track as he often does as sort of road map to the score but I agree wholeheartedly that its fantastic how he ever so slightly revises the orchestration for the End Credits to give it further and palpable sense of completion and  almost dread filled finality but as Robert Townson says in the original liner notes the love theme or rather love motif never seems to find fulfillment in an entirely satisfying way.

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On March 2, 2016 at 2:46 PM, Uni said:

Gotta nitpick: technically, this is an epilogue piece, playing over the final scenes of the movie, not an end credits suite (once the credits begin to roll as the camera pulls away from the isolated house, it switches to the actual end credits piece). Aside from that, however, I'm in complete agreement. This is one of the most sublime pieces Williams ever composed, and it's one of my favorites as well.

 

I re-watched Minority Report for the 1st time in at least 10 years the other night and you're totally right, it starts with Sean's Theme before going into, if memory serves, the Spiders music, and then it gets to 'A New Beginning'.  I wish the actual full end credits piece was on the soundtrack (I always do) as it's a nice, quick summary of the great themes in the score.

 

Also, the movie totally holds up.  What a gripping, fascinating, emotional story. Top 5 Spielberg for me.

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12 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I re-watched Minority Report for the 1st time in at least 10 years the other night and you're totally right, it starts with Sean's Theme before going into, if memory serves, the Spiders music, and then it gets to 'A New Beginning'.  I wish the actual full end credits piece was on the soundtrack (I always do) as it's a nice, quick summary of the great themes in the score.

 

Also, the movie totally holds up.  What a gripping, fascinating, emotional story. Top 5 Spielberg for me.

I believe the film version is an edit. It goes from Psychic Truth and Finale to a snippet of Sean's Theme to A New Beginning (shorter film version) to a lengthier snippet of Sean's Theme for the start of the credits where we see the camera slowly panning out the cabin where Agatha and the twins live before transitioning through an edit to the actual End Credits or Minority Report as it is titled on the album which plays in its entirety for the actual text credits sequence.

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4 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I re-watched Minority Report for the 1st time in at least 10 years the other night and you're totally right, it starts with Sean's Theme before going into, if memory serves, the Spiders music, and then it gets to 'A New Beginning'.  I wish the actual full end credits piece was on the soundtrack (I always do) as it's a nice, quick summary of the great themes in the score.

 

Also, the movie totally holds up.  What a gripping, fascinating, emotional story. Top 5 Spielberg for me.

 

And I was only able to correct you because . . . I did the same thing myself years ago. No kidding. I could've sworn I remembered "A New Beginning" playing during the long helicopter shot receding from the house where the precogs are reading at the end. I was surprised to find upon a later reviewing that I was mistaken. So I can relate perfectly to your misrecollection. ;-)

 

And I've been completely sold on that film myself for years. It's actually one of my favorite movies of all time, completely engaging and consuming. My only beef is with the slight overuse of the digital grading, which wears on the eyes after a while. But that isn't enough to change my opinion of the story. A near-perfect mystery from a master filmmaker.

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2 minutes ago, Uni said:

And I've been completely sold on that film myself for years. It's actually one of my favorite movies of all time, completely engaging and consuming. My only beef is with the slight overuse of the digital grading, which wears on the eyes after a while. But that isn't enough to change my opinion of the story. A near-perfect mystery from a master filmmaker.

Agreed. Just such a terrific film. And score.

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On 2. März 2016 at 3:26 PM, Bespin said:

 

Well this one is not easy to find these days... I'm still waiting for a cheap used copy on Amazon. I will certainly not pay over 40 $ for it!

 

1990... maybe it's time for a reissue!

 

p_vsd5280.jpg

 

Presumed Innocent [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] (1990, Varèse Sarabande, VSD-5280)

 

Presumed Innocent; Remembering Carolyn; Family Life; Love Scene; The B File; The Bedroom Scene; Carolyn's Office; "Leon Talks"; Rusty Accused; Case Dismissed; The Boat Scene; The Basement Scene; Barbara's Confession; End Crédits.

 

 

 

Look at Amazon.de, there are lots of cheap copies 

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2 hours ago, hanser said:

 

Look at Amazon.de, there are lots of cheap copies 

 

Thanks, I will check that. But sometimes it's cheapier when the sellers have a canadian account on my Amazon (amazon.ca) even if they ship from Germany.

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48 minutes ago, Bespin said:

 

Thanks, I will check that. But sometimes it's cheapier when the sellers have a canadian account on my Amazon (amazon.ca) even if they ship from Germany.

I have bought several used CDs on Amazon.com that cost me 1,50$ each but the shipping was the usual 10$+.

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3 minutes ago, Incanus said:

I have bought several used CDs on Amazon.com that cost me 1,50$ each but the shipping was the usual 10$+.

 

It's what I do on Amazon.ca. Buy CDs at 0,01 $... and pay 3 $ for shipping. hehe

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Finally, there is no bargain for me on Amazon.de.  14 Euro for shipping, that's terrible for my little canadian money :o

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E.T. for sure.

 

The opening piano solo from the end credits of E.T. is some of the most famous and well-known music he has ever written. I think few end title cues have this much recognizablility. It is also something new for the end credits, a solo piano version, which we hadn't heard throughout the score. 

 

Its my favorite for sure. Must have listened to it hundreds on hundreds of time.

 

 

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My favorite performance of E.T. music from any release, including any of the official soundtracks, is still the Boston Pops version of "Adventures on Earth" from The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration.  That's probably just because it's the first John Williams release of any kind I ever bought though. Nostalgia clouds my ears :P 

 

 

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1. Empire Strikes Back

2. Last Crusade

3. Temple of Doom

4. TFA

5. Raiders of the Lost Ark

6. A New Hope

7. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

8. E.T.

9. Return of the Jedi

10. Attack of the Clones

 

Side note: #4 and above are not even close to my top 3.

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Definitely Empire Strikes Back, of late there's a small bit right towards the end that hits the right note (as it were) every time.

 

Jaws would run this a close second.

 

Towering Inferno in third, to be different.

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9 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Far and Away. Gorgeous suite.

 

2 hours ago, alextrombone94 said:

 

Agreed. The whole score is one of Williams' best in my opinion

It is certainly that. Such a well rounded summation of the score's major elements and a symphonic overture in its own right.

 

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Its a great end credits suite.  Very happy we got two different versions on the expanded score releases since it wasn't on the OST.

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Close Encounters (1998 CE, not the OST/film version which never flowed nor was executed well)

ESB

Jaws

TFA has a very satisfying ending with that celesta, which has me in my feels, as it were.

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