 [Larger view] | John Williams, John Williams and more - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
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 Reuse of the Sith | |
| I need to speak my mind about this CD and the music from Sith. I should preface this by saying that I am a lifelong Williams fan: in fact, on my more cynical days I regard him as the greatest composer EVER. Which is why it's so infuriating to watch this new Star Wars film and have to be subjected to hearing so much of the SAME MUSIC, reused track by track, from other Star Wars films, in Sith. I was really cheesed when Lucas did this with AOTC too (I'd write to him to complain, but does anyone have any idea how to actually contact Lucas or Lucasfilm? Is his address posted anywhere? Not that I could find.) I really just want to know: why? I understand that Williams is older, and maybe can't commit to writing 2 hours of film score (like the score to ESB)... or did Lucas not like what Williams wrote and just cut most of his new music and replaced it with older stuff? Or was Williams cheesed at Williams for hacking up TPM and just wrote a half-effort score for AOTC and Sith? I don't know, but watching Sith was semi-disappointing, as scene after scene you are listening to the music and thinking, "Oh, that music is from TPM where Anakin blows up the Federation ship", or "This is Bespin lightsaber battle music", etc etc... It's all very distracting if you are a big fan of the OT music.
In any case, I picked up the CD and it's good for the most part. It's no ESB that's for certain. Many of the tracks, especially 'Anakin's Betrayal', are very emotional, powerful works. 'A New Hope', right before the end credits on the last track was also a treat to hear. As well, 'The Immolation Scene' was a staggering, remarkable scene in the film, and the music thankfully is included on this cd ("You were my brother!!" - Lucas finally got a scene perfect in his new trilogy) But a large portion of this soundtrack disappoints. For instance, why do we hear Qui-Gon's Funeral Music during 'The Birth of the Twins/Padme's Destiny'? Are the two events in any way related? It's frustrating to have a certain piece of music in your mind that you specifically associate with another scene in SW, and have your intelligence insulted that 'we can just throw this "somber-sounding" music into this scene and the audience will go for it.' I hear that music, and I'm reminded of Qui-Gon's funeral pyre, and now I'm supposed to associate this same music with Padme in childbirth? It completely throws off the film-watching experience, and I also feel like a sucker for buying, basically, the same music twice (and dollars for donuts the Main Theme wasn't re-orchestrated but just reused from a different Star Wars film too...) 'Anakin vs. ObiWan' Same thing. Enjoyable at first (and has a 'Harry Potter' feel to it), but then, out of nowhere, the music starts incorporating ESB Bespin battle music segments. Suddenly, it's like I'm listening to Empire again, and it doesn't even sound newly-recorded, but just like a blatant reuse of the same music cues. Then back to the new material again. Sigh. The End Credits are also disappointing... do we need a recap of 'Leia's Theme' and 'The Throne Room' material from ANH here? The stretch to include Leia's theme I can understand, but the inclusion of the 'Throne Room' is simply baffling. This isn't continuity.... this is blatant reuse. I really want to know who's responsible.... is this just Lucas and the editing team? Or did Williams only commit to writing 50% of this score due to health reasons? Why did they do this? What I wish they had done: if indeed the reason that Williams' music is so skimpy is due to his age and health, why couldn't he have been paired with another composer, and this composer could have written some of the other incidental music (such as the Wookie battle scene, that featured reused TPM music) or other sequences in the film, so that the entire score could have been a completely original 2-CD set? I know, you all want to praise Williams incessantly and SO DO I! Believe me, I can't get enough of his music (big hits and smaller films too... I consider 'The Accidental Tourist' one of his finest works, a CD most people haven't even heard of). But this film and this score honestly really disappointed (I know I know.... "How dare he put down Star Wars and Williams!?" 0 of 900,000 people found this review helpful....sigh....) | |
 "Sith" Happens - Williams Comes Full Circle | |
| The sixth & final score for the "Star Wars" saga is definitely worth grabbing just for the DVD & track 3 ("Battle of the Heroes") alone.
The CD contains a little over an hour of new music. The only small speed bump that I found is that a lot of previously used themes from "Episodes I & II" are also used in "III" & some of the new score isn't present on the CD (The Main Titles differs a bit from what actually appears in the final film). Other than that this is a great score. I highly recommend listening to tracks: 1. Main Titles (its not "Star Wars" w/o it) 3. ("Battles of The Heroes" the showdown between Darth Vader & Obi-Wan) 5. ("General Grievous" in all his hacking, lightsaber, buzz-saw wielding glory) definitely 9. (Darth vs.Obi-Wan Pt.II. Contains elements of "The Imperial March") & 15. (The End Titles & a nice tribute to the saga in general, however the Throne Room score from the first "Star Wars" isn't in the actual end credits for "Sith"). I have a Yamaha 700+ watt Dolby Digital home theatre system & when I listened to track 9 (Anakin vs. Obi-Wan) the windows in my apartment were shaking. The DVD is a decent enough tribute with an option of intros from Ian McDiarmad that starts with the "Star Wars" main titles & goes through the complete saga. | |
| great , but where's the rest of it ? | |
| Just saw the film and it's terrific ; 2nd only to EMPIRE; ditto the soundtrack , which should have been a 2 cd release ; great score , a LOT more music than is on the disc.Only caveat ; it seems like the release was cut from a much longer film ; if so , hopefully Lucas will put out a director's extended version ( a la LOTR) on dvd. A great end end to an epic saga ! |
