John Williams has had quite a career as a film music compser and wether you love his stuff or hate it you’ve got to admit that it’s pretty catchy.
So what I want to know are two things.
What is your favorite JW movie main theme?
And
What is your favorite JW movie musical scene?
I know we basically have a race between Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back Vader’s March, Indiana Jones and Superman. But there is also Close Encounters, Jaws, Jurassic Park. And now some of his latter stuff is really, IMHO, quite nice like A.I. and Catch me if you Can.
For me
Theme I really love the main theme from Midway. It’s a nice 6/8 march that is just develops in a grand theme.
Musical bit I’ll say the fugue of ‘Building the shark cage’ from Jaws. That just really adds to the tension for the scene. Very close second would be Cadillac of the Skies from Empire of the Sun and the Conversation from CE3K.
I like the heavy-on-the-horns one from Superman. Bum-bum-baaaaaaaaaaaaam…bam-bam-bam-bam-baaaaam-ba-baaaaaaaaaaaaam…
I also like the Imperial March one from Empire Strikes Back. Bum-bum-budubum-budubadabum!
Recently, I truly enjoyed the piece that was playing during the Darth Maul fight. It really had some great tension, then the singing operatic notes that swelled up, you knew something was going down. do-de-dodado-do-de-dodado-do-de-DODADO…AAAAAAAAHHHHHH - Ah AWWWWWWWWW!!!
There was a commercial back in the 60’s (I think) for Kent cigarettes that had a jingle with a bunch of “to a <something> it’s a <something else>” several times and finally “to a smoker it’s a Kent.” If you ever heard that jingle (and it ran A LOT) you’d have wondered why Williams used almost the same melody for the Indiana Jones theme. I could never hear it without thinking of that schlocky commercial.
Jaws is another well above the rest for me.
Williams trivia: before he became the highly regarded composer, he was a better-than-competent jazz piano player. Check here for more details
Remember, we’re talking only about the music, right?
I thought Duel of the Fates was as good as anything he has done. The choir adds the perfect touch and the music forms a perfect fit with the Qui Gon / Obi Wan / Darth Maul light saber duel.
As for the rest of the movie…well, that’s another topic all together.
I don’t own the soundtracks for the original Star Wars trilogy, so I don’t know the track names, but I’m immensely fond of the Force theme (both the soft version played during emotional scenes and the bombastic version played at the end of A New Hope) and Rebel combat theme. The Imperial March is a classic as well.
Duel of the Fates is fantastic, one of the very few things about Episode 1 that I really liked. I also enjoyed the Love Theme from Episode II… until I actually saw the movie, and whiny-stalker Anakin inextricably linked himself to the piece. Ugh.
Also love the Indy theme, and all of the music from A.I., which I consider a sadly underrated film (it’s just the ending that’s bad, really!).
Williams’ score for JFK was really good, and his work for Presumed Innocent is one of the few examples where I really felt he wrote something original. My personal favorite, though, and the only Williams score I actually own, is his music for Born on the Fourth of July. He really managed to capture the idea of that movie musically, and didn’t go for his typical overly-prevalent style. Definitely one of his best.
His more recent work, such as the Harry Potter movies and the new Star Wars scores, are sort of catchy but profoundly unoriginal. One of my big complaints about Attack of the Clones was its really poor use of music. Not only was the music poorly-done, but it was used in inappropriate places. Which is really unfortunate, because the sound design for AOTC apart from the music was top-notch.
As for which Williams piece goes best in the film, I’d have to go with either the “Desert Chase” music from Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which the music really supplemented the action well, or the Vietnam segments from Born on the Fourth of July, for a completely different reason.
I like most of his work, but especially Exsultate Justi from Emperor of the Sun. I love the behind the scenes stuff in the Jaws DVD where Steven Speilberg describes John Williams’ first demonstration of the now-classic theme he worked out. J.W. sits at a piano and plinks two keys back and forth (duh DUH, duh DUH). Speilberg laughs and says something on the lines of “No, really. What’d you come up with.” Williams played it again and Speilberg finally ‘got’ it and agreed to use it. There’s also the great piece he came up with that is only 5 notes but is instantly identifiable: The communication tones used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. That shows an amazing variety of styles that he can work with.
I have a “greatest hits” type of CD of his music, and my favorite is music from The Cowboys. It starts out fast and furious, followed by a slow middle section with a beautiful soaring melody, then it gets countrapuntal (almost Copland-esque), and then returns to the fast section again. I never get tired of listening to it.
And for years I always had the Raiders theme in my head at all times.
At the conclusion of watching Schindler’s List, and also Amistad, I remember thinking, "This music was really good - I’m glad that Spielberg didn’t use John Williams this time, his music just wouldn’t have worked for this movie. And then in the ending credits I see that it actually was his music. I was pleasantly surprised at his versitality.