Word: phantomed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Recently, I found myself arguing with a friend over the merits of John Williams, the composer of numerous film soundtracks including the upcoming Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. My friend was accusing Williams of being a shameless sell-out, a hack who borrows from a hundred other works, including his own soundtracks on occasion. The Star Wars soundtracks steal voluminously from Holst and Wagner, as well as Stravinsky; the soundtrack for JAWS is an amalgam of numerous traditional sea themes from dozens of sources. But while I attempted to make a comparison of Williams' use of so many different sources...
...what is the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace soundtrack like? Quite dissimilar from its predecessors, actually, though it does share a few things in common with other John Williams soundtracks...
However, the soundtrack of The Phantom Menace is somewhat disappointing in its lack of energy. Quirky, dainty and mysterious themes abound, but there is little of the excitement of a "Battle of Yavin" from the original film or the track titled "Return of the Jedi" from that film's soundtrack. There is something that sounds suspiciously similar to "The Emperor's Theme" from Return of the Jedi, but I can't be entirely sure. Of course, the familiar Obi-Wan Kenobi/The Force theme is present from time to time; but they are mere gestures that haunt the soundtrack, which actually...
...nevertheless a fun and interesting piece of music. It is one of the few essentials of Star Wars collecting, and while it may be somewhat derivative, it is also creatively inspiring and interesting. John Williams creates some of the best film soundtracks today, and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace is one of them...
...have probably heard, for example, that Liam Neeson signed to star in The Phantom Menace before he was able to read the screenplay. Neeson later joked that when he eventually got his hands on the script, security was so tight that Darth Vader himself was standing guard outside the room. (Neeson was, of course, well-paid for his enforced ignorance.) You probably know about the sandstorm in Tunisia that demolished most of the Mos Espa spaceport set when location shooting was only half-finished...