Score: Episode III (No Spoilers)

[miftah]

Before we all get ourselves emersed in reviews of the film on the 19th, just want to make some notes about the score. I listen to film scores all the time. People like to comment on my music as being filmic frequently. That's no accident. Film music is as much an influence on me as any other format of music.

I've had this score for a few weeks, but wanted time to live with it before I said anything. I've listened to it about two-dozen times since and I think I'm starting to have a clear feeling about it. Its difficult to say anything definitively since I've yet to see its practical application. But as it is presented here without context, I still have a listening relationship with it, and will respond in kind.

I have a love/hate relationship with John Williams. When he delivers a theme, he does it like no one else before him. His themes are strong, lyrical and emotional. In short, his thematic elements are a huge influence on me musically.

That said, he also has a tendency to get a little overly-academic with his work as well, making his compositions a little too referential in places - a little too charicaturish of film's golden age. But as a liability, this is a damn good one to have as at his advanced state of experience, Williams is on a plane of his own when it comes to cutting to the emotion of a scene.

With this score, Williams reaches a level of emotional understatement that alone gives cause to get excited about this film. You can easily sense from the score the level of awe Williams was reacting to at what was onscreen. The emotional texture of this is not showy, or flashy. No wild experimentation. No silly world-beat flavors (which notably more often are the influence of Lucasfilm - to avoid laying blame at a hero or two of mine) or rock guitars or techno underpinnings. This score is what Williams does best: pure cinematic emotion. If the images line up properly with this score, you may weep at this film. The texture is that expertly rendered.

There are elements that annoy me for certain. For the epic title and the positioning as a single from the score, "Battle of the Heroes" is so turgid and slow-building that I nod off before it delivers its thematic payoff, which is also one of Williams weakest, ironically. When the music video came out, I couldn't help but notice the visuals more, and since they were cut up to punctuate the sound, that makes the sound less effective.

That said, "Anakin's Dark Deeds" may be one of my favorite pieces of music any ever. The restraint in this piece is genius. It unfolds so elegantly that you don't even notice until the end what its done. Beautiful.

Familiar themes are interwoven. Those Skywalker twins and their famous themes are popping up left and right at the end, and fans of the incomparable "Imperial March (or Darth Vader's Theme)" will want this disc post haste as it makes so many references to that passage of music, this could almost be considered a remix disc.

The emotional texturing here never panders with simple, mournful strings. Williams is too smart for that. He doesn't need to use such amateurish devices. He always seems to come at a scene from a less obvious perspective than what the audience could be manipulated to feel, but rather he simply tells the story with his music. This score is typical of him in that way, and above any other score I've heard him produce, states this most clearly.

He wondered aloud at the last film if he would live to complete the series. Luckily he has. If this were his last score, the triumphant snare roll at the close of the end credits medley would be a lovely signature at the bottom of an amazing career.


PS: The bonus DVD is also awesome. Even if I get a bit pissed at the over-use of dialogue in the presentation. I thought we were supposed to be focusing on the music. But Ian McDiarmid's introductions to each piece are wonderful to listen to. Some say this DVD comes with a bonus score. I say very funny. But truly it is a very nice bonus to an able and strong score.