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POLL: Best John Williams Score of the 2010s


SteveMc

POLL: Best John Williams Score of the 2010s  

90 members have voted

  1. 1. What do you think was the best John Williams score of the 2010s?

    • Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
    • War Horse
    • Lincoln
    • The Book Thief
    • The Force Awakens
    • The BFG
      0
    • The Post
    • The Last Jedi
    • Dear Basketball
      0
    • The Rise of Skywalker


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To rank:

1. The Book Thief

2. War Horse

3. The Force Awakens

4. Lincoln

5. The Rise of Skywalker

6. The Last Jedi

7. Tintin

8. The BFG

9. The Post

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If I were to rank them as film-scores

 

1. Tintin

2. The Post

3. War Horse

4. The BFG

5. Rise of Skywalker

6. Force Awakens

7. Last Jedi

8. The Book Thief

9. Lincoln

 

If I were to rank them as music

 

1. Tintin

2. Lincoln

3. Force Awakens

4. Rise of Skywalker

5. War Horse

6. The BFG

7. Last Jedi

8. The Post

9. The Book Thief

 

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I'll rank as well:

 

1. War Horse

2. The Book Thief

3. The Force Awakens

4. Lincoln

5. The Rise of Skywalker

6. The Post

7. The Last Jedi

8. Tintin

9. The BFG

 

The Book Thief and War Horse should have won best score in their respective years.  And The Post should have been nominated over The Last Jedi.

 

In regards to Tintin, I really really need to try to listen to that score more often.  It hasn't clicked with me yet, and that's not to say it ever won't.  I just haven't given it a fair chance.

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On album:

  1. Lincoln
  2. War Horse
  3. The Last Jedi
  4. The Adventures of Tintin
  5. The Force Awakens
  6. The Post
  7. The Book Thief
  8. The Rise of Skywalker
  9. The BFG

In film:

  1. The Last Jedi
  2. War Horse
  3. The Post
  4. The Adventures of Tintin
  5. The BFG
  6. Lincoln
  7. The Book Thief
  8. The Force Awakens
  9. The Rise of Skywalker

Ryan Johnson and Steven Spielberg know how to give weight to the music. J.J. Abrams excels at making great scores sound generic.

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Had to choose The Rise of Skywalker, a phenomenal score for Williams' last hurrah.

 

1. The Rise of Skywalker

2. The Force Awakens

3. War Horse

4. The Adventures of Tintin

5. The Last Jedi

6. The BFG

7. Lincoln

8. The Post

9. The Book Thief

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4 hours ago, Josh500 said:

What's so great about The Post? Seriously. Just curious, because I find this to be mediocre Williams at best. And a mediocre movie, too. 

 

The film is a masterpiece, the best of 2017 (or 2018 in Norway). The score is probably the only time since 2005 I've been properly excited while hearing a Williams score in context, or on album for that matter. Lean, mean, propulsive, elegant. WAR HORSE has its highlights that rival it, but overall a less concise and consistently good effort. Most anything else JW has done in the 2010s, I have bigger issues with. Yes, including TFA.

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16 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

The film is a masterpiece, the best of 2017 (or 2018 in Norway). The score is probably the only time since 2005 I've been properly excited while hearing a Williams score in context, or on album for that matter. Lean, mean, propulsive, elegant. WAR HORSE has its highlights that rival it, but overall a less concise and consistently good effort. Most anything else JW has done in the 2010s, I have bigger issues with. Yes, including TFA.

 

Hmmm, I gotta relisten to that one. Maybe I'm missing something. So what are some of the other highlights, except "The Presses Roll"? 

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The whole thing is really a highlight to me; how the album comes together without any real dips. That's more important to me than any particular highlight tracks.

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War Horse. Feels the most "complete". 

 

It is followed by these in this specific order:

 

The Adventures of Tintin

The Book Thief

The Force Awakens/The Last Jedi/The Rise of Skywalker (all about on the same level)

Lincoln

The BFG

The Post

 

Karol

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The BFG above The Post? :shakehead:

 

1 hour ago, Josh500 said:

 

Hmmm, I gotta relisten to that one. Maybe I'm missing something. So what are some of the other highlights, except "The Presses Roll"? 

 

Anybody who likes the suspense writing of Minority Report should like The Post.

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11 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

The BFG above The Post? :shakehead:

The BFG has Dream Jars and a couple of good enough themes I can remember. I can't remember absolutely anything for The Post. In fact every listen feels like a first.

 

Karol

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"The Court's Decision and End Credits" (which of course includes the "Presses Roll" theme in the suite) is probably one of my 10 favorite Williams cues of last decade if I made such a list.  It's no "Peterson House and Finale" but it's excellent Williams style Americana with that light 1970s edge to it.

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Lincoln

The Force Awakens

War Horse

The Rise of Skywalker

The Adventures of Timing

The Post

Solo: A Star Wars Story (theme)

Dear Basketball (short)

The BFG

The Book Thief

The Last Jedi

 

I... have spoken (lol)

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13 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Lincoln

The Force Awakens

War Horse

The Rise of Skywalker

The Adventures of Timing

The Post

Solo: A Star Wars Story (theme)

Dear Basketball (short)

The BFG

The Book Thief

The Last Jedi

 

I... have spoken (lol)

Since you included Solo, where would GE fall on  your list (and yes, I get that it is not a score proper).  

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7 hours ago, Josh500 said:

 

Hmmm, I gotta relisten to that one. Maybe I'm missing something. So what are some of the other highlights, except "The Presses Roll"? 

 

Get a load of the suspense writing in Deciding to Publish from 1:40 onwards. It contains one of JW's best suspense motifs. It is as tense and ballsy as anything in the Star Wars scores. It is also very dramatically compelling in the movie and sets up the stakes perfectly. There are several pregnant pauses in that section of the movie - as characters contemplate the consequences of their words and actions. And it is Williams' music which fills those pauses - like the ticking timer on a time bomb about the explode. It is exemplary stuff.

 

46 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

I like the post but it’s a poor man’s Spotlight 

 

Spotlight is your garbage American indie. The Post has some of Spielberg's best direction of the decade. Literally the entire second half is like a long setpiece.

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2 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 

Spotlight is your garbage American indie. The Post has some of Spielberg's best direction of the decade. Literally the entire second half is like a long setpiece.


I was talking about the scores.

 

I haven’t see The Post

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1 minute ago, SteveMc said:

Most of y'all are sleeping on The Book Thief, to borrow a dumb phrase from the kids these days.

 

Agreed, it's 2nd behind, War Horse.  The Book Thief is a beautifully cohesive score, with such wonderful moments of sadness and joy, but never overbearing.

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1.The Last Jedi

2. The Adventures of Tintin

3. The Force Awakens

4. The Rise of Skywalker

5. War Horse

6. Lincoln

7. Dear Basketball (short movie)

8. The Post

9. The BFG

10. Solo: A Star Wars Story (only theme)

11. The Book Thief

12. Galaxy's Edge

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If Dear Basketball is included on this poll, shouldn't Solo (considering he wrote more music for that film than DB, even if Powell composed the majority)?

 

That score includes some of my favourite cues from him this decade (at least, the ones we've narrowed down to being Williams cues). Just the concert suite alone is phenomenal, really. That it spurred an entire score is testament to the brilliance of those two themes (and Powell's).

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1 hour ago, crumbs said:

That score includes some of my favourite cues from him this decade (at least, the ones we've narrowed down to being Williams cues). Just the concert suite alone is phenomenal, really. That it spurred an entire score is testament to the brilliance of those two themes (and Powell's).

 

Which cues were narrowed down to being Williams? I do recall reading he wrote a few.

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1 hour ago, mrbellamy said:

End of “Dice and Roll” is pretty likely. The War Horse-esque cue with Han and Chewie saying goodbye to Enfys Nest at the end has been speculated. 

 

I thought the former was confirmed via some database that listed Williams as the composer.

 

And the latter, well, I'll eat my hat if that cue isn't Williams. It's exactly the type of cue his ears would have pricked up during the spotting session and said, "I know exactly what to do here, please let me score that part." He's done similar 'homecoming' scenes in many films over the years and always nails them, musically.

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On 1/5/2020 at 6:55 PM, hornist said:

horrible movie

(Y)Yeah. All the President's Men is better.

 

1. The Force Awakens - I've "internalized" the score. After a decade of Zimmer and Friends, it was nice to have a new SW score from JW. I didn't expect it to be so modern and clean. Now I just love it. It's Star Wars themed CE3K. This is the one that I keep coming back to. Just below ROTJ, my favorite score.

 

2. War Horse - I saw the film last year and at first it felt cold. I'm going to get the CD soon.

 

3. The Last Jedi - Another score that is "internalized." There's more room for the orchestra to breathe, probably because there's no all that crazy JJ action. It might dethrone TFA.

 

JW can't write bad music. Love what you love, hate what you hate. :):)

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War Horse is still the one for me. I acknowledge the criticisms of it and have sort of mulled over them through the years. As a film score it's a little twee, a little messy, but when I look back at the decade, it remains my favorite JW and my favorite film music of the decade. Well-rounded stylistically, action's good, emotions are big. Melodies all stand out, the shorter motifs are well-integrated, he pays off all the longer lined stuff. Long cues that build clear narratives. And I feel like wherever his head was at on this one, it's influenced the rest of his 2010's in surprising and favorable ways so it gets the edge.

 

I have a lot of admiration for Lincoln and The Force Awakens. I think they are probably his most fully successful pieces this decade, the most intelligently constructed and I think support their films the most gracefully. 

 

Tintin, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker would be a hair below, where I feel like he's just throwing a ton out there without really tying it together, but their exuberance wins me over. I like these three together as sort of different strengths of his action/adventure style...Tintin has the best whimsy, TLJ has the greatest intensity, ROS is the most heartfelt.

 

The BFG and The Book Thief, I also hear as sorta cousins of each other. Pleasant, actually pretty stirring at times but nothing I would 100% go to bat for at the end of the day. Dear Basketball is circling that territory too.

 

The Post, I never really know what to do with it. I have seen the movie once, I sorta like what he's doing here and there and it is JW so I'm sure there are moments I'm missing, but it just hasn't grabbed me and haven't gone out of my way to give it closer listens. 

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