gotta smile at that....

[Dai Evans]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., "Rachel Bray" <bray.262 at o...> wrote:
> It amazes me the difference of opinions on these lists.  
> For example....the people who hate the soundtrack.  That 
> blows my mind!  How can someone dislike the music?  John 
> Williams is and always will be one of the top two composers 
> in film.  Look at all he's done.  He is a truly remarkable 
> person with an amazing talent that never ceases to blow 
> away his peers' work.  Who would you have picked?  I guess 
> if it couldn't have been John Williams, I'd would have 
> picked Danny Elfman.  No one else could have done this 
> movie.

He is a remarkable composer with amazing talent. However, if he puts 
no effort in and has no enthusiasm for the project, as with the PS 
soundtrack, then the result is still going to be substandard.

A composers good predigree does not guarantee good music. It has 
already been said on list (although I havn't read the source 
interview myself) that JW carried some disdain for the movie, as if 
he felt it beneath him; I find this clearly reflected in the music.

I wonder if he is in some way trying to support his old buddy Steven 
Spielburg.

When listening to the soundtrack, as I did several times when forming 
my opinion, I found many echoings of of his previous work, 
particularly ET and Jurassic Park (also some people have mentioned 
Hook, but I don't know that one), as if he just rehashed some old 
scores and added a few new bits here and there.

Taking ET as a particular example, this has one of the most memorable 
soundtracks in a movie. I don't know many people who couldn't hum the 
famous tune in the background as Elliot flies in front of the full 
moon. Conversely I very much doubt if many people could remember the 
more memorable parts of the PS soundtrack (beyond us devotees of  
course).

There is very little about this soundtrack that makes it good. 
Admittedly, there's very little that acually makes it bad, but good 
it is not. Personally I expect better than a mediocre score to be in 
the background of a great movie. I expect people like JW (and, of 
course, Richard Harris) whos fans have put them where they are, to 
treat their fans with more respect than to churn out shoddy goods 
just because they feel a particular project is beneath their celebrity


Dai.