I just saw "The Adventures of Tin Tin" with my family and one thing struck me. I've either oversaturated myself with John Williams music or John Williams is just going through the motions of late. I think it's a little of both. His score for Spielberg's interpretation of the Georges Remi comic left me pretty cold. At one point in the movie, during a chase scene that devastates a middle-eastern town, I was taken out of the movie narrative and started wondering which Star Wars battle the music came from. His main themes for the characters sounded like something from "Catch Me if You Can" or "The Terminal".
Now, oversaturation is a distinct possibility. My ITunes playlist for Williams includes the usual(Star Wars, Indiana Jones) and the not so usual(Catch Me If You Can, Empire of the Sun). I know I can hardly expect a composer to sound completely different from himself, especially when he already has such a diverse repertoire. But, it used to be that, at least thematically, you could completely identify the characters and movie from which the music came. I think that's happening less and less with Williams. I haven't seen "Warhorse", so I can't compare it to his other score of the holiday movie season. I also still believe Williams stands head and shoulders way above most other film composers. I hope the next movie I see with a Williams score knocks it out of the ballpark. When I think of someone actually replacing Williams scoring a film(such as, oh, the lead singer of Oingo Boingo), I think of this Family Guy sequence from Blue Harvest.
It's actually not new for him. If you listen, back in '79/'80 he lifted portions of the Cloud City Theme in ESB from that Frank Langella Dracula movie. Then about ten years ago, one of the Harry Potter Quiddich matches was musically identical to the speeder chase in Episode II. I felt a little cheated at first, but then realized the guy is 80 years old and still pumping out several full orchestra scores a year, probably under the gun while the film is being edited and changed daily. I mean, how long does it take you to write and record a one-hour CD for half a dozen instruments?
Posted by: Darrin | January 06, 2012 at 07:49 AM
We're not talking about me. I have to rake the yard and clean the gutters. We're talking about the film score composing god who should be able to write unique themes in his two - four yearly 2 hour scores with full orchestra for his entire 50-60 year career. Is that too much to ask?
Posted by: Jeff DeHerdt | January 08, 2012 at 06:34 PM