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THE POST - SCORE Thread


1977

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11 minutes ago, king mark said:

 I get a feeling there's cool unreleased music  because only a few tracks fit that description

 

There isn't a TON of score but what score there is dramatic and impactful because of the scenes it plays over. I think the scenes by themselves might not be that dramatic, or the score by itself might not be that impactful, but together they are both dramatic and impactful - the essence of a film score.

 

 

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Question:

 

Some here have been saying that JW's music here sounds like several certain modern composers. Are there any examples of these composers' works you think sound similar?

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I think not. None other than Howard Shore essentially scored a similar movie in style and construction - and it was scored less adventurously I would say and in a very dissimilar manner. 

 

I think Williams instinct is much more dramatic than perhaps other composers might have attempted. Desplat would have written his usual smallish chamber score. Newman I dunno if he might have scored this in a similar way. Newman in general is a less insistent scorer. I dunno who else would even be hired to score a prestige drama of this sort.

 

 

 

 

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There are basically no sound effects of any kind. Maybe typewriters and press machines but that's it. So there is only dialog and music most of the times. So you can hear the score very easily. It is mixed at regular volume for a drama but because there are no SFX, you can hear it clearly.

 

Compared to say something like Phantom Thread which is also a drama but the score there is mixed very loudly.

 

 

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36 minutes ago, Will said:

Question:

 

Some here have been saying that JW's music here sounds like several certain modern composers. Are there any examples of these composers' works you think sound similar?

Without knowing which other composers were referenced but this score sounds distinctly JW to me. There are portions of AI that sound similar to a modern concert composer whose name I can't recall but nothing from The Post echoes the influence or style of other composers as far as I can tellm

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49 minutes ago, Will said:

Question:

 

Some here have been saying that JW's music here sounds like several certain modern composers. Are there any examples of these composers' works you think sound similar?

 

There's more Glass-type minimalist structures than Williams' usual fare.

 

And the "Setting the Type" 'motif' sounds like it could have came straight out of Marianelli's Atonement:

 

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I wasn't enamored with this score on first listen. Not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't what I heard! Just sounded very repetitive and underscore-y.

 

Second listen today and I'm now hearing recurring ideas and some really delicate writing in there. It's a wonderfully crafted score and doubtless works well in the film. The jazzy source pieces are superb and probably album highlights (along with Presses Roll). You can tell JW loves revisiting his old stomping ground from time to time!

 

Will be interesting to see how the FYC expansion re-calibrates my thoughts on the score.

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5 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

THERE ARE NO SPOILERS FOR THIS FILM. THIS IS A HISTORICAL MOVIE WITH ZERO SURPRISES.

 

I saw the film today. Take that Academy award nomination to the bank. 

 

As the film began I thought this is the most sparsely spotted JW score in a long time. The first half is essentially scoreless with a very dry long section to set up the second half. I thought not much score here.

 

But both Spielberg and JW let it rip with the melodrama in the second half. The second half is capital D super DRAMATIC and most of the score is spotted there. And JW does a terrific job of heightening the tension and drama of those sequences. Setting a fucking newspaper font is scored with the intensity of Luke walking out to make a last stand and it is hella entertaining and super super dramatic.

 

The score absolutely makes its presence felt and has a massive impact on the entire second half. I would say much more so than TLJ.

 

This is Williams as a dramatist showing his skill at charting the pulsating highs and lows of a fast moving drama.

 

And now I shall listen to the album!

 

Nice post, Ulee. 

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN had zero surprises, but that didn't stop it from being f***ing brilliant!!!!!

I bet that Jason Robards is a better Bradlee. "WOODSTEIN!!!". 

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1 hour ago, Brundlefly said:

Don't you dare listing Rosewood!!!

 

I can't take you seriously when you want JW to stop writing scores.

 

4 hours ago, Arpy said:

Is it strange for me to like this score more than TLJ? :D

 

Don't ask, don't tell.

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21 minutes ago, Alex said:

Has JW ever written a passage of music like 0.52 - 1.13 in "The Presses Roll" before? I don't think I've ever heard anything like that from him before. It's great.

 

All music is something new from JW. I like it! Finally, John Williams is not on autopilot...like in The Book Thief, War Horse, or The BFG

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6 hours ago, Richard said:

 

Nice post, Ulee. 

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN had zero surprises, but that didn't stop it from being f***ing brilliant!!!!!

I bet that Jason Robards is a better Bradlee. "WOODSTEIN!!!". 

 

I need to see that one now.

 

I like The Post just fine - the surprises thing was a dig at the spoiler sensitive culture today.

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1 hour ago, Alex said:

Has JW ever written a passage of music like 0.52 - 1.13 in "The Presses Roll" before? I don't think I've ever heard anything like that from him before. It's great.

 

It sorta reminds me of this:

 

 

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I keep listening to The presses Roll because reading all the comments I started thinking that we don't listen to the same piece...

I don't know, I don't hear anything noteworthy.

 

I have a theory, which may apply may not.

i don't listen to ANY recent film music generally. So, for someone that keeps up with all the film music scores of today, maybe such a Williams score sounds as a wonderful oasis?

I'd bet it does.

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8 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I can't take you seriously when you want JW to stop writing scores.

 

 

I just don't want him to score Indy 5. I'm very afraid of Spielberg fucking it up, but when John Williams is involved I cannot take a healthy distance to that project.

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JW kicking some serious ass here:

 

 

(also that whole segment leading up to it sounds like something that could be in Mission: Impossible. Awesome!)

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3 minutes ago, artguy360 said:

A brand new JW OST released just yesterday, how is this thread not burning hot?!

 

Also, Mother and Daughter is a pitch perfect, gentle theme that doesn't make itself too apparent but instead quietly reveals its motif throughout the track. It's even more restrained than the stuff JW wrote for Lincoln.

Mother and Daughter is my favorite track on the album.

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I love the transition from the opening piano rendition to the strings and the unresolved ending. This score has echoes of that restrained, yearning and turmoil from Catch Me If You Can and I love that!

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My favorite cue is Setting The Type. The urgency and drive in that cue is tremendous. In the movie theater I thought WOW that's pretty good.

 

This is the second consecutive score with a repeated figure section that I loved. In TLJ we have the ending of The Spark for you know what. Here we have an equally propulsive cue for the humble and mundane act of setting the newspaper font. 

 

 

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As expected, the score is divisive. I'm glad to be on the side of the 'applauders'. In fact, it will no doubt feature somewhere in my Top FIVE of the year when I do my list in a few days. THE LAST JEDI, on other hand, will -- at most -- receive a special mention.

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4 hours ago, Thor said:

As expected, the score is divisive. I'm glad to be on the side of the 'applauders'. In fact, it will no doubt feature somewhere in my Top FIVE of the year when I do my list in a few days. THE LAST JEDI, on other hand, will -- at most -- receive a special mention.

Agreed

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On ‎24‎.‎12‎.‎2017 at 1:42 PM, Thor said:

As expected, the score is divisive. I'm glad to be on the side of the 'applauders'. In fact, it will no doubt feature somewhere in my Top FIVE of the year when I do my list in a few days. THE LAST JEDI, on other hand, will -- at most -- receive a special mention.

 

:blink:

I would like to see your final list, where TLJ only receives a mention. So many better scores...:unsure:

 

I do not like 95% of the film music these days.

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4 hours ago, publicist said:

 Still convinced the movie is a borefest.

 

It is actually insanely entertaining. Specially the second part. Trust Spielberg to turn a seemingly pandering dry tale of journalistic heroism into a gripping race-against-time thriller with multiple dramatic confrontations and complications. It is all shamelessly reductive and simplistic but still terrifically accomplished and entertaining.

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6 hours ago, Incanus said:

I found The Post to be a minor entry among the Spielberg/Williams collaborations. A few great tracks (e.g. The Presses Roll and Setting the Type) but to my ears the score on the whole isn't all that exciting on album. Alas I even found most of the stately Americana of the finale a bit too familiar and thin worn to be truly emotionally resonating. 

 

By comparison the Last Jedi OST works like gangbusters despite its entirely familiar Star Wars-ness.

In the entire JW/Spielberg collaboration I agree The Post is a minor entry but as a listening experience right now it is very entertaining. Every piece of music sounds spot on and nothing leaves me questioning or confused like moments in the TLJ OST and film do.

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I have been thinking one of the references for the dramatic urgency motif/music might have been another journalism drama - The Lives Of Others by Gabriel Yared.

 

 

The motif from 1:52 sounds maybe like a reference for the motif used prominently in Setting The Type and then later in The Presses Roll too.

 

I don't even know what kind of music Spielberg would use it to temp while editing. Maybe Presumed Innocent? Maybe this?

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I like this score! It's much more understated even than Lincoln, but there are some really nice moments that shine through. And unlike TLJ, it doesn't suffer from scatterbrainedness or an over reliance on music that's already been written.

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10 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

It is actually insanely entertaining. Specially the second part. Trust Spielberg to turn a seemingly pandering dry tale of journalistic heroism into a gripping race-against-time thriller with multiple dramatic confrontations and complications. It is all shamelessly reductive and simplistic but still terrifically accomplished and entertaining.

 

We will see. It sounds a bit like Spielberg realized how much sweet filmcraft toppings this dry affair needed and supplied it in spades. Which can make the resulting movie even more frustrating - all the huffing and puffing in aid of a fairly boring topic desperately presented as RELEVANT JUST NOW! even if trust in the government was dead probably even in 1971.

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