Was just thinking about the many scores that came out after STAR WARS and how many of them, stylistically speaking, are obviously inspired by what Williams wrote. I don't copycats, I'm talking about movies that literally were trig to steal the lightning in the bottle that was released when SW burst unto the scene. It seems that nearly every composer from around that time frame had ascot at making a big splash and composing something that might achieve what Williams had accomplished. Goldsmith obviously had STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, Horner had BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS and STAR TREK II. Elmer Bernstein had SPACE HUNTER and SLIPSTREAM, while Henry Mancini had LIFEFORCE. Can any one you name a few other?
I'd argue that KRULL is to Horner what STAR WARS is to Williams - A tour-de-force space opera of Wagnerian scope and vitality. I'd also argue that Horner's effort is the more compositionally adept, complex, and beguiling score as MUSIC and notwithstanding cultural implications and influence, but then that's just me.
More directly to the point of the question, I think scores that are clearly the product of producers saying, "Make it sound just like Williams/Star Wars!", is a narrower and easier list to amass: Craig Safan's LAST STARFIGHTER being the most immediate, obvious example in filmdom in my opinion.
Would Horner's BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS qualify, or might we argue that that score is more a product of the STAR TREK influence?
Would Horner's BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS qualify, or might we argue that that score is more a product of the STAR TREK influence?
It qualifies. It was even mentioned in the first post.
It qualifies as more a STAR WARS influence than anything else (besides, I've always thought that STTMP only happened because SW was such a big hit. So, in effect, Goldsmith had to follow Williams, as he did with his score to SUPERGIRL, as well.)
The unreleased score to "Prisoners of the Lost Universe" (1983), though it added a little bit of a '70's groove to it, and I'm only talking about probably half the score.
The composer: Harry Robertson.
EDIT: Sorry, I looked right over the "Favorite" part and just went for an example of one.
Not wanting to go too far off topic, but there's a stark contrast in Morricone's score to The Humanoid (1979), which was such a rip off it could have been made by some of the Star Wars crew as a lark after the day job had been completed.
Morricone went for the electronic/baroque crossover rather than the swashbuckling symphonic SW style (which is rarely his cup of tea anyway) and produced the only decent thing about the film in doing so. Unless you count Mrs Ringo Starr's less-than-fully-clothed scene.
I've often wondered why Aldo Lado took that musical approach when there would presumably have been hosts of composers waiting to stretch their symphonic muscles - but I'm very glad he did.
Has Morricone EVER done a JW-style swashbuckling score? Grand and symphonic, sure, but I can't think of any example that would fit the particular style we're talking about here.
Has Morricone EVER done a JW-style swashbuckling score? Grand and symphonic, sure, but I can't think of any example that would fit the particular style we're talking about here.