Restored Isolated Score: War Of The Worlds

[Chewy 2,382]

After Minority Report, here is the isolated score for War of the Worlds, presenting the picture as JW scored it, by restoring unused and replaced music.

 

Like my previous videos, I decided to use the tracks from the Intrada release without editing anything, except for cues that segue into each other and special cases like the removed silences in The Aliens.

 

This took time to do, but I'm happy to finally be able to show it to all of you. Hope you enjoy it all!

 

Special thanks to @Holko and @crumbs for the feedback and the awesome little sync ideas they gave me!

 

Prologue And Opening Montage
This cue fits well. There's some good stuff to catch like the underscore of the pigeons flying (around 2:00), something I personally hadn't noticed when watching the movie.

Film version

 

 

Alternate version
The alternate version, included on Disc 2 on the Intrada set is more orchestral and works really well too. It is a bit shorter than the version chosen for the movie so I had to slightly adapt the picture to it. 

 

 

Is It Over?
The first minute of this cue was not used in the final movie. The music is supposed to start when Rachel says "Is It Over?" after the last lightning strike. The piano that plays here makes the whole scene very dark and scary, I wish it wasn't dropped! 

 

The Intersection Scene / What Happened? / Driving Away From Trouble
Three cues that segue into each other to build a 11-minute moment of pure tension. 
 

I spent quite a lot of time to figure out how I could restore the sync points for The Intersection Scene since that particular cue was heavily edited for the final film version. The first 40 seconds were not used, the music appears in the movie on the wide tripod shot, after people starting running away from it. For the whole cue I decided not to stick to how the movie used it. Instead, I really tried to find some sync points, to the point now that we have the brass syncing with the heat rays coming from the tripods (around 2:25). No idea if this a pure coincidence, but it looks and sounds awesome!
 

What Happened? fits pretty well.
 

Driving Away From Trouble was artificially stretched in the movie, the final scene is most likely shorter than what JW scored. Since it's one single long shot, I decided to speed up just a bit the picture instead of cutting it randomly so it can still sync properly.

 

Surveing Wreckage
The movie only uses the first 30 seconds of that cue before tracking Epilogue for the rest of the scene. Here we can see Williams' original intentions.

 

Watch The Lightning
Fits perfectly.

 

Bodies In The Water
Fits perfectly too!

 

Ray And Rachel
Almost fits perfectly except that the scene in the final movie lasts longer than the cue, causing the music to be artificially stretched in the final edit. I had to adapt the picture to make it fit properly.

 

 

Attacking The Car
Totally unused cue! I had some trouble finding the sync points at first, but I think I figured it out after adding some black screens. A revelation to finally see how the cue I've been listening for years fits with the picture! 

 

 

In The Cafe
The whole cue was artificially stretched in the movie, so I decided to not try adapting my sync points to the final music edit of the movie, and it works pretty well.

 

 

The Ferry Scene
This one is a great cue, and was also quite heavily edited in the movie: segments that use tracked music: one from 0:42 to 0:45, another from 1:55 to 2:10 and a huge one from 4:16 to 4:40. In the final edit, this particular segment uses snippets from The Basket and an additional low male creepy choir (we still don't know the source of this right?). The ending of the cue was tricky to restore as well, with some sections of the music stretched, I had to rearrange the picture to get something fitting the original cue. 

 

 

Woods Walk
This cue was supposed to play as a transition between the Ferry scene and the Camelot scene that was deleted. They kept it as a transition to the battle scene for the final movie edit.

 

 

Refugee Status
This one was supposed to play right after the Camelot scene, as the battle sequence starts...and this is working perfectly well! I believe this is the intended scene for that cue and I honestly prefer it over Woods Walk.
 

 

Robbie Joins The Fight
Pretty much fits, small adjustments done to the picture to restore some sync points.

 

 

The Basement
The whole beginning of the cue isn't used in the movie. Instead of letting 30 seconds of black image, I decided to use the footage that plays right before, when Ray and Rachel arrive in the basement. Robbie Joins The Fight should play during this moment but it kind of fits the scene anyway.

 

 

Harlan Ogilvy
The cue is shorter in the movie, with some crossfade applied to remove a section in the middle. I made it start earlier so the ending section syncs and I think that's how it is supposed to play.

 

 

Probing The Basement
Here again, I decided not to follow how the music plays in the movie for some parts, especially in the beginning. Overall it fits pretty much, even though the scene got most likely edited after JW scored it.

 

 

The Aliens
Fits except for some little parts where I had to stretch some footage. I also had to re-create the silences that Mike removed when he made the track for the Intrada presentation.

 

 

Ogilvy's End
That cue was artificially stretched for the movie so I had to edit the picture to make it work.

 

 

Red Planet / The Basket
I had to adapt the picture at several points to make Red Planet work. In the movie, this cue was quite heavily microedited and sometimes replaced by tracked music. The Basket fits a bit better, even though the final movie edits also edited some parts of the original cue.

 

 

The Entrance To Boston
Some slight edits to the picture were done to make those two versions fit. What a brillant cue, and it's so good to finally be able to hear that insert at 1:17 in clean form.

 

Film version

 

 

Alternate version

 

 

Defeat And Reunion
Since the Reunion cue has 5 different versions recorded, I wanted to present them all, in order of composition. Note that the movie uses parts of both 4th and 5th version. 

 

1st version (The Separation Of The Family)
This is the version that is presented on the OST program. Fits pretty well!

 

 

2nd version (Boston Street Finale - Alternate No. 1)
I love this one, it feels definitely more emotional and direct than all the others, which definitely changes the atmosphere of the scene.

 

 

3rd version (Boston Street Finale - Alternate No. 2)
Going back closer to the first version but this time with violins, and this one fits too.

 

 

4th version (Boston Street Finale)
Very similar to the 3rd version, except that it unfortunately lasts a bit longer than the final scene.

 

 

5th version (Defeat And Reunion)
This one is pretty much the same as the first version but composed in another key. Fits properly too.

 

 

Closing Montage
There are two versions of that cue. In the movie, the Prologue And Opening Montage is tracked here to make it fit the longer scene before using the second version. So I had to shorten the picture to make those original cues, without tracking, fit.

 

First version

 

 

Second version
 

[Holko 9,499]

Awesome, can't wait to check out the whole thing!

[JohnnyD 1,221]

Sweet!

[Brundlefly 2,385]

Wow, those pictures with just the music send shivers down my spine. Such a gruesome and sometimes garish imagery mixed with cold, aggressive and depressing music - a formal masterpiece.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

You guys who do these rescores blow my mind!😍

This is such a great way to.listen to the soundtrack album.

For those of us who actually care about the art of merging images and sound, this is perfect!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

What is the " Camelot scene"? I have the script and would like to check it out.

5 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

Wow, those pictures with just the music send shivers down my spine. Such a gruesome and sometimes garish imagery mixed with cold, aggressive and depressing music - a formal masterpiece.

Spielberg is a genius when it comes visual storytelling.

[Jay 37,322]

18 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

What is the " Camelot scene"? I have the script and would like to check it out.

 

On 12/22/2020 at 7:05 PM, Jay said:

For anyone who doesn't know what the Camelot scene is, there's a compilation of info here:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/WarofTheWorlds/comments/it04ss/war_of_the_worlds_2005_camelot_deleted_scene/

[Chewy 2,382]

Second and final batch posted!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

The only weak point in the film is the basement scene.

Even JW couldn't ' save' .it

Liked hearing the alternates for once.

There are noticeable differences in approach.

 

Too bad you couldn't snip out that embarrassing cameo of Gene Barry.....😒

Liked hearing the alternates for once.

There are noticeable differences in approach.

 

Too bad you couldn't snip out that embarrassing cameo of Gene Barry.....😒

[nefaeryous 3]

I think the thing I love most about the Prologue and Montage is how a lot of the undercurrent of the cue anticipates the more aggressive build-up motif in the intersection scene (the repeated 3 notes).

[Jay 37,322]

Yes!

[karelm 2,903]

On 1/4/2021 at 9:16 PM, bruce marshall said:

The only weak point in the film is the basement scene.

Even JW couldn't ' save' .it

Liked hearing the alternates for once.

There are noticeable differences in approach.

 

Too bad you couldn't snip out that embarrassing cameo of Gene Barry.....😒

Liked hearing the alternates for once.

There are noticeable differences in approach.

 

Too bad you couldn't snip out that embarrassing cameo of Gene Barry.....😒

The basement scene isn't as bad as the ending.  The ending is why I disliked this film though the first two acts were excellent.

[JohnnyD 1,221]

On 07/01/2021 at 11:47 AM, nefaeryous said:

I think the thing I love most about the Prologue and Montage is how a lot of the undercurrent of the cue anticipates the more aggressive build-up motif in the intersection scene (the repeated 3 notes).

 

I happened to come across what you said here, and that is a terrific observation. I did not catch that during my first viewing of the film; it was only after I saw the film the second time and listened to the original album that I too made that connection. Excellent foreshadowing!