I wonder why they take the quest to write something such impossible as 250 top scores. It's obvious many of us would agree with many nominations and disagree with many others. I would start with removing all the Star Wars stuff from the top250.

42zaphod, August 16, 2005; 1:57 AM

Not that I'm trying to be argumentative, lord knows I won't agree with the whole list either, but wanting to remove the Star Wars films from the list (particularly the first two) signifies a nearly complete lack of understanding of the musical, historical, and cultural significance of those scores. Orchestral film music in the last few years may have taken a turn for the worse (Media Ventures anyone?!?!) but if not for Star Wars (in particular) and a few other films from the 70's, orchestral film music would likely have ceased to exist. It had been dying a slow and painful death for years; the emergence of Williams' music (along with Goldsmith, and a few others) represented a literal renaissance in the genre. Regardless of your feelings towards Williams' music (there seems to be a bit of a Eurocentric slant against American film composers in general- I can't figure that one out really!), the music for a 'A New Hope' represents a landmark acheivment in scoring (even though 'Empire' is arguably the better score - both conceptually and orchestrationally). Separated from the films, the scores for the original triology stand alone better than virtually ANY other piece of film music since (The Lord of the Rings perhaps being the most recent exception). The epic scale is akin to the likes of Wagner and Mahler, and the cohesiveness in theme and structure is unmatched by any other film composer living today. The argument that his music is "ripped-off" from other composers is essentially invalid since nearly EVERY composer (film or otherwise) is guilty of emulating or 'borrowing' ideas from their predecessors. We're all entitled to our opinions, but if anyone chooses to make a statement like that, they should, in general, back it up in some form or another. One thing to remember is that the list was made up by people with a relatively basic knowledge of film music in general. You'll notice that nearly ALL the Oscar winners and nominees are present, despite the fact that some of them are (were) huge mistakes on the part of the Academy. Personally, I find it almost insulting that 'The Empire Strikes Back' DIDN'T make the list!!!


shehan23, August 16, 2005; 8:28 AM

JEDI
DIE HARD
ST-TMP!!!

johnhadlow, August 18, 2005; 12:06 PM

BTW, ST-TMP is present and accounted for!

shehan23, August 18, 2005; 2:42 PM

opp! Sorry..Quite right tho!
How about the themes from the mighty "DOG SOLDIERS",hmm?

johnhadlow, August 18, 2005; 5:07 PM