LK's Ten Best of 1998 & Star Wars Link

by Lukas Kendall

I wasn't going to do this, but I saw a fifth movie with a score I liked, so here are my five best scores of 1998. To come to this list of five I went through an exhaustive process: I thought of any score I liked enough to listen to on CD, which got me six scores, and then I picked the five where I still remember where I put the CDs. (Sorry, Saving Private Ryan, although I liked your "Hymn for the Fallen," and you're far and away the best movie of the year.)

1) Pleasantville: Randy Newman does whimsical Randy as well as some of the most poignant writing of the year. One theme sounds like Edward Scissorhands, but there's a lot of memorable connective tissue.

2) Playing by Heart: The Capitol album features John Barry's two main themes, in a beautiful jazz/orchestra vein. As usual, Barry's melodic choices are all brilliant. I rarely mention such things, but I finally got to meet Barry this year, and this was the score I heard him record. I listened to the "End Title" around 30 times as they refined the mix that same day, but never grew tired of it.

3) Rush Hour: Lalo Schifrin scoring one of the box office smashes of the year, with chopsocky action to boot. How cool is that?

4) Ronin: I liked the movie, with its natural locations and European pursuits. Cool use of rock percussion with growling trombones, by Elia Cmiral.

5) Affliction: I saw this tonight - great film. Paul Schrader does "men go crazy" with great insight. What appears to be a variation of Chinatown set in icy New Hampshire is really the story of men at their worst, and one man's total unraveling. Michael Brook's score features spare electronics, guitar and immaculate production. Album is coming on Citadel.

Honorable Mentions: Was Spanish Prisoner 1998 (Carter Burwell)? Elliot Goldenthal's The Butcher Boy was neat. John Williams's Stepmom puts Lifetime-cable-movie hackwork by most everyone else to great shame. The whimsical piano music in Antz. The tracked piece of Philip Glass music in The Truman Show when Truman puts his arms out to stop traffic. What little I saw of Horner's Zorro. Jerry Goldsmith going Oriental in Mulan.

M.I.A. Maurice Jarre -- I miss you!

Now for a message from one of the Internet's most passionate group of movie music fans...

by the Superman Cinema Team

Well, we're counting down the months, weeks, and days before this summer's big event..."Star Wars Episode One."

Of course, what would "Star Wars" be without John Williams's majestic score? Yes, the famous notes of "Luke's Theme" is by now on the minds of every movie goer in America, and the world.

By now, you film score buffs have collected all the "Star Wars" soundtrack albums you can possibly think of... from the old 20th Century Records double LP set of "Star Wars" to the "special edition" RCA Victor CDs from a couple of years back. But before you throw away all those "Star Wars" soundtracks you don't want anymore, I suggest you take a good look at what we're about to say.

"Film Score Monthly" has already done an issue about the epic "Star Wars" scores (Vol. 2, No. 1). But after so many years (and on the brink of a brand-new trilogy) we (with a little help from a "Star Wars" score expert named Mike Karis) have done Williams' legendary scores a great justice. We have just completed and finalized a comprehensive look at every minute of music ever written and recorded for the existing trilogy ("A New Hope", "The Empire Strikes Back", and "Return Of The Jedi").

This is not a musicological or film analysis, but a detailed look at the various bits of music and their use in the film and album (or not!). There was one previous attempt on the Internet to document such a story, but as it turned out, that project was never finished. But now the time has come to let everyone on the Internet learn about the music to "Star Wars."

To that end, there is now such an article. It's called "The Music Of Star Wars: Episode XXIV--The Symphonic Score Strikes Back" (the "XXIV" in the title pays tribute to the original "Star Wars" movie being titled "Episode IV"). In this article, you will learn a short history of the scores, the various LP and CD releases, and a track-by-track and bit-by-bit listing of all the cues, including unused and alternate tracks, where exactly you can find it on your favorite "Star Wars" soundtrack album... and yes, those tracks that remain unreleased to the public.

Over the twenty-plus years since the original release of "Star Wars", we have outworn all those vinyl records and played those CDs almost to death... not to mention watching and listening to the films over and over and over again, in theaters, TV, and video. All that research (and probably a lot more) is what led to giving the scores the tribute it so richly deserves.

And so, with the numerous "definitive" releases from Fox Scores and RCA Victor, we have indeed uncovered many, many things about the scores that not even the liner notes told us. For instance, we found alternate versions of cues not only found at certain points of certain CDs, but hidden among other tracks on the SE CDs! For example, the RCA Victor track "The Imperial Probe" (track 4 of the "Empire" SE CD) is actually the film version of the opening scene where the probes are launched into space. And the film version of the "Han Solo Returns" cue from "Return Of The Jedi" is scattered in sections on two unrelated tracks on the "Jedi" SE CD (specifically Tracks 6 & 11). And did you know there is an alternate opening section for the "Darth Vader's Death" cue hidden in Track 2 of the "Jedi" SE CD?

Of course, there have also been so many versions of "Lapti Nek" recorded for "Return Of The Jedi", but we also discovered there are no more than FOUR versions of it! There was the film version we all know and love, then there was the album version from the original RSO and Fox Scores collection. But did you also know two others have not been released to the public? An instrumental version of the actual film arrangement was heard on the "Jedi" radio adaptation. There has also been an English-language version! (If you saw the PBS documentary "From Star Wars To Jedi" you'll know what I'm talking about).

Another notable alternate cue we discovered was "Binary Sunset" at the end of Disc One of the "A New Hope" SE CD. Yes, this was the music for the Tatooine sunset scene as John Williams originally intended to use until he decided that using thematic material was best.

And here's the kicker...there are no more than FIVE alternate versions of the "main title Theme" from the original "Star Wars" movie! (That can be found in a section of the "A New Hope" only explained in the liner notes).

We could go on and on and on, but there is a lot about the legendary music to "Star Wars" that the world does not yet know. Or, perhaps you are too familiar with the music to be fooled! Anyway, visit Scott Hanson's "Unofficial John Williams Home Page" at http://www.classicalrecordings.com/johnwilliams/ and get the whole story on the monumental music to the "Star Wars" trilogy.

Read it well...and May The Force Be With You!!!

Tell Lukas the best scores of 1998 which he snobbishly omitted:

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com

Happy birthday, Dr. King.