Williams' score

fedoraboy

Well-known member
The worst Indy score?

I've listened to it several times now and nothing is jumping out at me. I'd have thought Williams would have put more into it after such a long absense as he did with the fantastic sw prequel scores, but there seems to be quite a lot of recycling of old themes here and no real standout new tracks...still a great soundtrack album and I'm hoping it will grow on me but, like the film, I think its the weakest of the bunch.
 

Nurhachi1991

Well-known member
Out of the 3? Yeah by far its the worst the only things that stood out to me were when they mixed in bits like Marions theme or the Ark theme thats about it.
 

MartyB

New member
A standout John Williams tune. I loved The Map Room in Raiders. The Temple Music in TOD, and the Grail theme in LC. Nothing really stuck in my head about KOTCS. In fact i can't even remember the McGuffen tune in the film?
 

eroc

New member
It's better than The Last Crusade score. Almost as good as The Temple of Doom.

Did anyone pick up on the recurring Peter and the Wolf theme? Or how about the quick Imperial March?
 
eroc said:
It's better than The Last Crusade score. Almost as good as The Temple of Doom.

Did anyone pick up on the recurring Peter and the Wolf theme? Or how about the quick Imperial March?

No it isn't. Crusade had brilliantly composed themes for The Grail and the German Scherzo. This score has NO memorable themes. It regurgitates War of the Worlds Intersection scene and Harry Potter for Mutt. Williams really phoned it in and it's a huge disappointment.
 
I'd certainly say it's the weakest of the scores. It's the weakest of the films in my eye too. By far on both accounts. The score was very bland. I legitimately remember hardly any of it from the film. Nothing was even so much as vaguely memorable to me. Johnny Williams bombed this time around. Hey, you can't win um all.
 

eroc

New member
Agent Spalko said:
No it isn't. Crusade had brilliantly composed themes for The Grail and the German Scherzo. This score has NO memorable themes. It regurgitates War of the Worlds Intersection scene and Harry Potter for Mutt. Williams really phoned it in and it's a huge disappointment.

I have to disagree wholeheartedly.

If you don't think that using Sergei Prokofiev's music from Peter and the Wolf for the Russians is brilliant or memorable than I don't know what to say to you.
 

SwingingMonkey

New member
better than Last Crusade? Last Crusade is in my top five favourites of all time. It also happens to be one of Spielberg's favourites.

Like Revenge Of The Sith, Johnny decided to lift too much from the original film. Maybe he's slowing down now...I don't know, I was expecting more. I spend more time listening to the soundtracks than I do watching the movies.
 
eroc said:
I have to disagree wholeheartedly.

If you don't think that using Sergei Prokofiev's music from Peter and the Wolf for the Russians is brilliant or memorable than I don't know what to say to you.

What it needed was a strong Russian theme inspired from Igor Stravinski, Shostakovich or Mussorgsky.
 

eroc

New member
Agent Spalko said:
What it needed was a strong Russian theme inspired from Igor Stravinski, Shostakovich or Mussorgsky.


You don't think Sergei Prokofiev inspires a strong Russian theme?
 

martinland

New member
MartyB said:
A standout John Williams tune. I loved The Map Room in Raiders. The Temple Music in TOD, and the Grail theme in LC. Nothing really stuck in my head about KOTCS. In fact i can't even remember the McGuffen tune in the film?
Alrighty, here are my observations, Marty:

Having seen it three times in the theater I thought: Oh well, John T. Williams is borrowing a lot of old musical material this time around. It's not as hummable, etc...

But tell you what: I think, the final mix is a bit unfair to the music.

Today I listened to the soundtrack CD twice with headphones, and there's plenty of material and there are extremely fine little details (not to mention the biig twist with the raiders march at the very end of the credits).

It's only more subtle, dare I say 'matured' and granted a bit more short-motifed in style, like Bernard Herrmann - but that's the direction John T. Williams' music has taken in general anyhow.

It's different, it's the same (more in the film - and with quite funny results actually!, less on the album) - I like it. :)

I'm going to cite the Crystal Skull theme and improvise on it in a duet w/ Theremin and trumpet the day after tomorrow during our next gig. That'll be a blast I can tell you! Maybe I'll mention 'a small movie having opened a couple of days ago'... ;) ;) ;)

Martin
 

Erik Pflueger

New member
Hell, even the theme assigned to Spalko - one of only two discernible new themes (the other was for the Skulls) - didn't sound all that Russian to me.

In any case, this is something Agent Spalko and I can absolutely agree on, for a change. Whatever the faults of the film - and I see FAR less of them than Spalko does - the fact is that this is NOT Williams' best. And Spalko is right: the chase scene in Crusade, with the scherzo for motorcycle and orchestra, was memorable, clever, and thought out from beginning to end. More to the point, you could hum it. It was the equivalent, more or less, of the chase music Williams did for the truck chase in Raiders, the asteroid chase and final pursuit in Empire, and so on. It made what I consider to be a lesser chase scene greater.

By contrast, I feel that the music for the college campus chase scene - in my view, a fine chase - was hindered by the fact that the music just wasn't that... well, HUMMABLE! It just goes all over the place, except for the Indy theme quotes. And I think I can be honest when I say at the very lack of a hummable line, which I see less and less of in Williams' work, is what I lament. They'd have been better off keeping Shake, Rattle and Roll playing.

Will I feel differently after a while? Maybe. Certain themes from the prequels felt more memorable once I DID memorize them like I had the original ones. Still, right now, I really can't hail this as a classic or as a stand-out part of his decades-long body of work.
 

Grizzlor

Well-known member
I loved the 50's music in the beginning. The songs they picked were the best. The music from then on was terrible, and often didn't agree with the scene. It detracted from the film.
 

Peacock's-Eye

New member
I liked the rock n roll, the Mexican & Russian 'folk' music, Spalko's 'James Bondish' theme & the Crystal Skulls motif.

But yeah, I agree - this was a weak score in general & the weakest of the Indy scores.

2 out of 5 Indys for this one!
:whip: :whip:
 

bad_dates

New member
I personally liked the crystal skull theme.
It's probably in my top five indy fav's

1. Raiders March (duh)
2. Map Room
3. Marion's Theme
4. Crystal Skull
5. Holy Grail

Three/Five
:whip: :whip: :whip:
 
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