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Which era of JW action music do you prefer?


mxsch

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Late 70s/early 80s. Basically Jaws through Temple of Doom. I like his action music from other eras too, but this stuff tends to just be so focused, memorable, varied, and energetic.

 

That being said, the action music in his two JP scores, Hook, and the prequel trilogy is pretty damn exemplary. Some of the Potter stuff too. For me, things started to get a little denser, duller, and more monotonous after the prequels, though I still enjoy the stuff.

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Hard to say. The action music from the Star Wars and Indiana Jones have always been in my opinion absolutely perfect and both cover a long time of its carrear. I would generally said the end of 70's and 80's for the many action score he has written but I would be forgetting the JP, Tintin, HP and War Horse.

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Overall I embrace the evolvement of Williams' action writing. On the one hand I would say, it improved continuously, in the other hand to me the Battle of Hoth from Empire an the Desert Chase from Raiders are still the best action cues he has ever written. But this also has to do with the degree how they lift up the respective scenes.

In newer movies there is less to lift up, but still it is marvelous what is going on there musically.

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14 hours ago, Datameister said:

Late 70s/early 80s. Basically Jaws through Temple of Doom. I like his action music from other eras too, but this stuff tends to just be so focused, memorable, varied, and energetic.

 

That being said, the action music in his two JP scores, Hook, and the prequel trilogy is pretty damn exemplary. Some of the Potter stuff too. For me, things started to get a little denser, duller, and more monotonous after the prequels, though I still enjoy the stuff.

This times a million. 

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I really like his action music from 97 to 2005. Most of my favorite Williams action cues are from that era: Visitor in San Diego, the space battle from TPM, Tavington's Trap, the quidditch cues from HP 1, 2 and 3, Anderton's Great Escape, etc.

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I’d say 90-00s as well.

 

The Asteroid chase is probably the best action music he ever composed but I just prefer that mid period stuff from TLW, TPM and Private Ryan etc. 

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I loved the action writing in HP (well all the writing) but my preference is the golden age (1975-85) it was just so inventive and virtuosic with those great action set pieces (Asteroid field, Hoth, Desert Chase, E.T. ending, Shark Cage Fugue and ending, ToD, etc) but there were so many returns to form like some of Hook, race in Far & Away, etc., but to me those were return to form of the golden age so still golden age wins out. 

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All of it is great, but post-2000-ish is my favorite--

 

The "Ludlow motif" identified by Frank Lehman is one of the most thrilling action figures ever:

 

 

As for specific cues, we have gems like this: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Etc. 

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This is a very tough question for me.  I kinda feel like he's written equally great action music his entire career!  Different eras have had a different feel to it for sure, but I like them all so much I don't know which one I'd say I prefer over another!

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I don't think I'll ever outgrow his 70's and 80's stuff.  Gripping, hummable, memorable, rhythmically accessible.

 

But his newer more complex style has an adrenaline to it.  Interesting that as he aged, he wrote more frenetic music.  Maybe less hummable, but exciting in its own way.

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Just when you think the man has said everything that could be said about action music, he comes out with Falcon Flight at age 87 and you realize he'll be continuing to innovate his whole damn life

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I know I am obsessed with Galaxy's Edge.  While not a pure action piece per se, it is energetic and actiony/adventury.  One of the things I like about it is that it has elements of OT, PT, and ST (and thus all the big eras) scoring but blended seamlessly.  

 

To answer the question, 70s/80s, but I love them all.  

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Just when you think the man has said everything that could be said about action music, he comes out with Falcon Flight at age 87 and you realize he'll be continuing to innovate his whole damn life

 

It blows my mind that a cue like Falcon Flight is basically unknown to those who don't know what a FYC is (which is the vast majority of humanity :blink:). 

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Correct!   Legality doesn’t have anything to do with it for me in this case.  I had a very meh reaction to Hook, the Indiana Jones scores when I heard them expanded because I had already been listening to most of the new music for ages.    


Just a personal preference thing - if I die without hearing all the music in TROS, that’s fine because I’ll be dead.  When an eventual expansion comes, it’ll be more worth my money to me if the new music is actually new.

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10 hours ago, Jay said:

The Presses Roll is "action music"?

 

Well, about as close as you'll get in The Post! Certainly borderline. Anyway it's an awesome piece regardless of what it's classified as. 

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