Which are the last 2 John Williams scores that you personally consider to be "masterpieces"?

[Holko 9,517]

It also seemed to me like JW once again blew the climax apart and spread it all over.

[Jay 37,346]

16 minutes ago, Holko said:

It also seemed to me like JW once again blew the climax apart and spread it all over.

 

The climax of the score is everything in between 6M54 Sophie's Future (heard in its entirety in OST track 12 Sophie's Future) and 6M58 Finale (heard in its entirety in OST track 18 Finale)

 

So that's:

 

1. 6M55 Giants and Bad Dreams, which we got in OST track 17 Giants Netted from 0:00-0:52
2. 6M56 Giants Netted, which isn't on the OST album at all (despite track 17's name), and only 21 seconds of which was heard in the film, the rest replaced by tracked music from 3M22 (unreleased), 4M39 (OST track The Queen's Dream), and 3M25 (OST track Dream Country)
3. 6M57 A Place Where No One Goes, which we got in OST track 17 Giants Netted from 0:52-end (with edits).  The film didn't use it, instead using:
4. 6M57 Rev A Place Where No One Goes, heavily edited in the final cut

[Holko 9,517]

Huh.

[Jay 37,346]

The big bummer is while you can hear all the music pretty well via the Blu Ray's rear channels, it's all completely covered in sound effects and vocals

[Jay 37,346]

Huh, I had forgotten that The BFG's score has ELEVEN themes in it

 

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26424-the-bfg-themes-discussion/

[Bespin 8,480]

Well, eleven, that seems a bit exaggerated???

 

For me, at least it have 6 or more that's okay.

[Fabulin 3,511]

I only listened to the BFG OST once, probably over a year ago. It felt boring then.

 

I am relistening to it now, and every track feels great, on par with tracks in E.T., The Last Crusade, Shore's LOTR, and other such.

 

Classy flow and orchestration that sounds refreshingly elegant compared to the "Christmas Tree" fests of Rimsky-Korsakoff and Co., and yet is as accomplished. It would sure make for some catchy orchestration textbook examples  #FreeTheScores

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

JANE EYRE (1970) and IMAGES (1972) 

 

Okay, I'm being a little silly as I do consider many Williams scores afterwards to be masterpieces, but these two great scores demonstrate the full breadth of his talent, and IMO he has never topped them.

 

My real answer is probably A.I. and AZKABAN as others here have already said, although MEMOIRS and THE FORCE AWAKENS are very much almost at that level, for me.

 

Yavar

[GerateWohl 4,355]

Honestly, for me it's probably War Horse and The Force Awakens as most marvelous scores in the recent years. Apart from that all Williams scores of the past 20 years are outstanding musical works without serious competitors around.

[Will 2,215]

@Schilkeman @Fabulin

 

I definitely share your views on The BFG. Here's what I wrote back in 2016: 

 

(Unfortunately, the YouTube embeds no longer work.)  

[Schilkeman 961]

I will continue to beat the drum for BFG whenever it comes up because I truly believe it is a latter day masterpiece, only hampered in its appreciation by being attached to a pretty good (but not great) film.

 

I'm glad to see some people give it another shot. I always try to get back to scores that didn't click with me the first time, maybe every few months, just to see how it hits. I've found quite a few favorites that way.

[mrbellamy 6,278]

I can see both Tintin and BFG going into the sort of Dennis the Menace, Pagemaster category, the kinds of movies and scores that aren't pop culture touchstones but help make some nerdy kids' ears perk up to high quality music.

 

And I imagine the new Star Wars is already its own animal, of course, not just the new themes but his use of the old material in 7-9 will basically be how a lot of kids really associate and take ownership of it as well. Even if they've seen the originals or prequels it's not gonna be the same for them as hearing it in a shiny new movie, new recordings, even better if they got to see/hear them in a movie theater. That's sort of the beautiful thing is it won't make a difference to them what were the things he wrote 40 years ago or when he's ripping himself off stylistically or what, they won't have been poring over his career like that, so everything will hit them like a brick wall. If they do notice anything, it'll be an exciting discovery, not zzzzz boring like we all think. And they're not gonna give a fuck about the sound mixing either, there's 100% stuff they'll notice in magical little ways that we can't appreciate. 

 

I think about that a lot in regards to when I saw Harry Potter, I had no concept that he had been writing shit like that before in Hook, which is a movie I definitely had seen beforehand and loved the music. But I remember my mom even mentioning to me like "Yeah it kinda sounds like Hook!" and I was like "What is she talking about, no it doesn't, it sounds like Harry Potter!" Kid logic. 

 

Like it remains to be seen exactly what kind of effect Williams is having on this generation but it's unfathomable to me that this stuff will fly by unnoticed to kids who are hearing John Williams in these instances for the first time. Even if they've seen their parents' favorite movies or just heard his music before randomly, it's not the same as locking into something new for themselves. That'll be the real value of these things, we can listen to them our way and debate their grown-up artistic merits and that's all fine but I think there's something to be said for the way these kinds of scores are meant to work on a person who has very little context for anything. He's still making a valiant effort to write the most sophisticated music he possibly can for children, especially those born with the right instinct for the good drugs.