As a preface, I have never got "wild" about, enjoyed, the Star Wars universe - and most of you probably remember that I have never regarded Williams' STAR WARS score as such a splendid achievement as his SUPERMAN score a year later.

Before this night's eureka experience I had regarded Episodes I and II only as lousy SEQUELS for a classic movie Trilogy - yep, I know it sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly how I felt about TPM and AOTC. And to top it, previously I regarded the original STAR WARS (Episode IV) being a completely silly movie with continuous battles, light-sabre fights and explosions in a brainless "who-cares-script". BUT NOW, seeing the original STAR WARS again (after some five years), the movie storyline, the characters, and even all the clashbangbroom action started to make a lot of sense.

But the biggest EUREKA came with the music I had previously almost ignored within the movie - THIS IS WHAT A SCORE SHOULD REALLY BE, only to support the movie and NOT be pouring out of every minute of it. There is surprisingly little amount of music in the original STAR WARS - and EVERY SINGLE SCENE WORKS; Williams enters with his music precisely at the right moments.

Thus I started to think about these two new movies which should serve as EPISODES I & II for this 6-chapter saga - and first I laughed out loud when thinking how funnily the scores of the saga "develop" into a much more romantic, imaginative, melodic and uplifting content the farther the saga goes. And that's exactly when it hit me - perhaps John Williams REALLY does all this purposely (AOTC score being what it is).

I started to see it a very fascinating idea that the musical quality between the two "trilogies" (the old and the new) changes so drastically when EPISODE IV starts... A New Hope enters... Fresh and innocent... New people... The Force making its glorious return... The galaxies being far more adventurous, more dangerous, more dramatic... - And all underlined with the glorious scores from Williams' Golden Age.

But there is one other thing - perhaps even a more psychological thing for us movie music lovers. Most of us might agree that movie sequels usually have better scores than the original ones. It has previously bothered me a lot that Williams writes this new "trilogy" in his more mature sound and doesn't create such a magic as he did in early 80's - but this has bothered me mainly because I somehow regarded, despite the fact, these new movies being SEQUELS, a kind of "continuity" for the marvelous scores of EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and ROTJ. But as we all probably realize, that's not the case - these NEW scores come actually BEFORE those Golden ones in the saga, so these new ones have to be considered purely as their own "trilogy" and NOT to be compared with something that happens LATER in the trilogy

That's why I started to see the complete saga in a new light - and all of the music makes suddenly sense (well, except the "Imperial March" on AOTC...)

EPISODE I has indeed a very STAR WARS-like classical but youthful and melodic, innocent, and even imaginative quality in it, while EPISODE II is just a turmoil of tormented notes - which gives us a clue that EPISODE III must be even a worser turmoil but hopefully bringing in sharper dramatic quality... which leads us to the second "trilogy" where a New Hope and a totally new, innocent and pure musical, magical world enters to the saga.

That's why I started to believe that John Williams isn't just a talented composer, but also the Freud of psychological movie music - I think he really torments us purposely with his scores for AOTC and the upcoming EPISODE III - and NOW, I ENJOY IT ALL !!!

KEN

Glad to read your post, but slightly concerned about other people out there who have only seen the prequels. That's like passing a judgement on Disney after seeing only Pocahontas...

k

quote:

---

Originally posted by Camillu:
That's like passing a judgement on Disney after seeing only Pocahontas...

---

LOL!!!

Jz

quote:

---

So what you're really trying to say is...???

---

Well, geez, I think you answered your own question, really, though you didn't quite allow for the element of sardonic and satirical elements. (That is, comparing Star Wars with a religion...)