Decoding The Musical Themes of Star Wars (Frank Lehman interview)

[TownerFan 4,983]

Great stuff from scholar Frank Lehman:

 

http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2018/03/02/music-star-wars
 

Quote

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" is up for four Academy Awards this year, including Best Original Score, by the legendary composer John Williams. One of the pre-eminent experts on Williams and his work for Star Wars is right in our backyard at Tufts University.

 

Frank Lehman, assistant professor of music theory at Tufts University and creator of the online catalogue of Star Wars leitmotifs.

 

 

[bollemanneke 3,338]

Very interesting!

[filmmusic 1,823]

Does it have spoilers for The Last Jedi?

At the moment he said "a reunion ..." I stopped it!

[Demodex 557]

You haven't seen it yet?

[filmmusic 1,823]

2 minutes ago, Demodex said:

You haven't seen it yet?

Nope.

i will watch it tomorrow.

(and i find it a chore too but... it's something that must be done)

[Demodex 557]

Why do you find it a chore?  It's the best SW film since Empire.

[filmmusic 1,823]

9 minutes ago, Demodex said:

Why do you find it a chore?  It's the best SW film since Empire.

well, we'll see.

But i'm generally against exploiting Star Wars and making a soap opera out of it.

I only love the original trilogy and I believe anything beyond that is unecessary.

I was bored to death with  TFA.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

What code?

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

DJ, The Master Codebreaker.   

-Bibilibilip- Corellian Smelt -Sniff Sniff- Best conductor.

[Chen G. 3,944]

8 hours ago, Demodex said:

Why do you find it a chore?  It's the best SW film since Empire.

 

Is it?

 

The Force Awakens is much better packaged. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

16 hours ago, Demodex said:

Why do you find it a chore?  It's the best SW film since Empire.

 

Thank you!

8 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Is it?

 

The Force Awakens is much better packaged. 

 

I love how TFA is suddenly a well paced, well plotted film.

[Chen G. 3,944]

It’s not perfectly paced - the introduction of Starkiller Base at the midpoint being the main culprit - but it was and remains a nice, brisk watch, and the production value is better.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The pacing kinda falls apart once Han is introduced. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

I guess you could look at the Rathtars as the equivalent of Canto Bight, but its much more brief.

 

There was a lot in the scenes cut from the film - originally, Rey was to meet and confront that orange-Jabba creature, the finale was to include a whole other thread including a chase through the snowy forests, etcetra - but JJ had the nous to cut these things entirely. Rian Johnson just doesn't strike me as a filmmaker with much restraint.

[Faleel 5,341]

So Peter Jackson?

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Some People-Let me be in the opening scene!!! Please!!!

Peter Jackson-Okay so this is the opening scene. I'm in it.

 

 

[Chen G. 3,944]

4 hours ago, Fal said:

So Peter Jackson?

 

Each Peter Jackson film has more scenes cut out of it (even in its extended form) than the entire runtime of The Last Jedi, so I would say no.

 

Yes, he has made a couple of overlong movies (I actually think King Kong, which I enjoy nevertheless, is his most egregious as far as running time goes) but that doesn’t excuse The Last Jedi’s length.

 

Also, I find that The Last Jedi feels overlong very much because of how intense it is throughout. If you’re firing at 11 for the entirety of the runtime, very soon 11 stops sounding and feeling like 11. Not so with Jackson. What he does is mostly to extended the buildup.

 

And there’s the way each filmmaker handles none-linear storytelling. Jackson became very good at that lately. In The Last Jedi, the way all the subplots compiled, and at the midpoint no less, felt overwrought. It’s all too tempting to make the midpoint so tense that it feels like the end of the film. Although to be fair, Jackson did just that in The Fellowship of the Ring. But again, two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

I think a better comparison can be found in Nolan’s work, which has produced some long movies as of late, such as Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises. The latter in particular has so much stuff going on simultaneously in the third act that it’s maddening; and his The Dark Knight reaches its peak at the midpoint.

[Holko 9,499]

But TLJ already has 30 minutes cut out of it. It's more of a script problem, because right now I can't name a single substantial scene or sequence which could be cut out without needing heavy reshoots to explain what happens in that storyline. I could only imagine more inconsequential moments of levity like those overall 10 or so seconds with the caretakers, or a few porg shots, and those won't make much of a difference in the big picture, I think they'd just make it feel even more like it's constantly going on 11.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Yeah, but there’s a lot of stuff that you wouldn’t know is an issue until you’ve filmed it, and sometimes not until you’ve assembled the footage.

 

The first cut of Fellowship of the Ring, for instance, was four and a half hours long! Yes, some of what was in it wasn’t in the script (which isn’t a bad thing!), but still.

[crumbs 14,305]

Ultimately the entire Canto Bight sequence proved to be unnecessary. In the end, the Codebreaker became a pointless cliché character with no real purpose except to betray our heroes. Scrap that whole plot, retain their infiltration mission aboard the Supremacy and everything can unravel the same way. Just change the script slightly so there isn't some convoluted process to get Finn and Rose onboard the Supremacy.

 

Then integrate Rose's backstory elsewhere without needing to liberate the Fathiers.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Yes. Part of the issue is that the Canto Bight setpiece doesn’t belong to this film’s overarching theme: that of characters learning from failure and of hope. Instead, suddenly we have to deal with issues of animal cruelty and the morality of arms deals, and since those themes are as side-tracked as they are, they feel very rushed. 

 

Oh, because the Ressistance happens to use weapons from an arms dealer who also happens to sells arms to the First Order, that somehow puts a dent in the legitimacy of their struggle? Yeah, right. It’s the definition of a strawman argument in so-called “cerebral” movies.

 

I'll get to watch the film on the small-screen later today or sometime tommorrow, and that might change my opinion on some of my lesser quibbles. We'll see.

[Jay 37,322]

- I see a new thread about Frank Lehman's theme analysis I hadn't opened yet

- I read the first 2 posts about the analysis

-The thread immediately devolves into a dissertation on the TLJ film

 

.... JWFan!

[John 2,032]

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