Certainly a body of work that's legendary and some of my favorite music to listen to. I think these four John Williams pieces are some of the greatest music ever written;
Jaws - Man Against Beast Star Wars - Hologram/Binary Sunset Raiders of the Lost Ark - The Map Room Memoirs of a Geisha - The Journey to the Hanamachi
However, in my world Jerry Goldsmith is the master. His ability to create atmosphere and tension is unmatched. You can feel it. You become part of the film. Also, his work is typically darker than Williams - which I prefer. Williams is really more of a reoccurring theme \ fanfare guy with an occasional atmospheric piece with some tension or suspense. Goldsmith, on the other hand, seems to inhabit that world. These are examples of what I'm talking about;
Alien - Main Title Logan's Run - The Monument Patton - The Battleground
Great stuff! I've seen and read other interviews with him and he is a really intelligent and well spoken guy. Very interesting to listen to. Seems very grounded too. He's a good guy.
Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle I think that what has disappointed me most is that I thought of Lucas as being like Tolkein.
The only similarity Lucas has to Tolkein is from ripping off the basic structure of Lord Of The Rings for Star Wars. Previously uninvolved person follows strange old wizard to go off and fight the evil lord in a battle of good vs evil.
Originally posted by: JediFlyer06 I never believed that a band of teddy bears with sticks and stones would defeat a legion of the Emperor's best troops ...
They would have been killed immediately in a battle that lasted about 5 minutes, after which, the troops would have gone back to the business of finding the main characters. The ewoks were just more mass marketing, movie tie-in stupidness. Lucas has long since admitted that.
The scene where 3PO is reading stories to them may be the lowest point in all of the entity that is Star Wars.
Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle ...it is difficult to grasp a clear picture of the worlds and mythology they are 'based' on.
That's because he keeps insisting on giving every tiny detail some sort of backstory. He isn't content to let his audience use their imagination. He's a control freak to the point of even wanting to control what you may imagine happened to the characters years before. He's just about removed any sort of wonder from the vastness of the universe in Star Wars. He's shrunk the story down to nothing. It's not grand and mysterious in it's current configuration.
That's why the 1977 version of Star Wars worked so well - it was gigantic. It was mysterious and magical.
Uhh...yeah they are. That's the whole point of our conversation. But if you are not talking about Luke and Leia, then who are you talking about?
I was speaking in terms of the original story - before Lucas ran out of ideas and started altering shit on the fly, years later. That's why it's so hard for people to make sense out of the plot holes. It's a poorly altered story line. They aren't related, they didn't have the same mom, they aren't the same age, none of that crap. That's why it doesn't make sense. Because it wasn't originally written, acted, or filmed that way.
Luke and Leia being related was never a part of the original story....................nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!
Originally posted by: vtpeters It all makes perfect sense if you consider the possibility that there never was a larger Star Wars back story to begin with. Just a draft of screenplay for ANH....
You mean the one where Annikin is actually younger than Luke Skywalker and they aren't related to each other? Yeah, it's not just a possibility. It's the truth.
Lucas had one story. He filmed it and it was successful. After that, he did what his other famous charcter once said in a movie - "I'm making this up as I go"
Weird how many times he's willing to try to sell that whole - "I had a grand idea of the story of Annikin, spanning 6 or 9 films" - BS of his.
Hey Lucas - a great many of us were there in 1977. We remember what really went on, we remember what you really said.
Man, come on September. After that, I can cut Lucas and all his BS loose forever. I'll have the one movie I want. In it's correct form.
Originally posted by: andy_k_250 ...PT fans are sad, disillusioned youths who grew up in white, upper middle-class suburbia and can identify with Anakin because they also know how frustrating it can be when you lock your iPod in your Humvee.
Originally posted by: Neil S. Bulk I still maintain Lucas hasn't done anything good with Star Wars starting with the release of ROTJ. Hell, I'd almost go so far as to say ESB was the real fluke and the future of Star Wars was presented to us on CBS in November 1978. Everything since that time, with the exception of Empire has been junk. Neil
I agree fully. The Empire Strikes Back was already showing that Lucas had no real story to tell after Star Wars. I saw Return Of The Jedi at theaters on opening day and again about 14 years later. I disliked it both times. Lucas way over-thinks things and continues to provide answers to questions no one has asked. To me, the real fluke in all of this is the 1977 version of Star Wars. Look at what a mess he's made of it now that he's really put his mind to it.
Lucas got lucky with Star Wars. He capitalized on that luck with Empire Strikes Back. After that, it all went downhill fast.
Originally posted by: Invader Jenny TPM is already starting to die away from the collective minds of both the nerds and the general public. And that was only 7 years ago. The PT will go the way of the dinosaur and just become a novelty of the hardcore fans, but the true nature of the Force (i.e. the Original Trilogy) will live on. It's already got a good 23 years on the PT and going strong.
Very well put, Jenny.
Star Wars was a true blockbuster movie - an industry-changing film. It changed the way people thought about science fiction movies, it changed the way people thought about adventure stories, it changed the way films were made, it changed the way special effects looked. It was a true turning point in the history of film. In the film world there's pre-Star Wars science fiction movies and post-Star Wars science fiction movies.
The PT is none of that. They're just some movies that came out in the summer time along with several other films in their respective years. They didn't run for a year, grab the collective conscious of the public, generate a wave of copycat films and TV shows for years afterwards, or strike a chord with multiple generations.
If it weren't for the internet - the PT would have been forgotten already. Star Wars, on the other hand, survived and flourished solely as a film. A film that you had to drive to go see. There was no internet fan base, no message boards, no fan-based user communities. There weren't multiple-edition DVDs that you could watch at any time of the day, no special feature-laden discs with running commentary by the director or the wardrobe assistant that you could turn on and off at random.
Star Wars existed in only one form - a movie playing at the local cinema. On that alone, it captured the imagination of millions.
This is now a world where one is rewarded for doing nothing, where no one takes responsibility and everyone has an excuse. No wonder they relate to Anakin; they are Anakin. Everyone owes them something for gracing the Earth with their presence. .....Why do your best when everyone from the star goalie to the bench-warmer gets a ribbon? PT fans can’t help being PT fans just like many of us can’t help being OT fans. In both instances the films reflect the world of the fans on a fundamental level. In a nutshell:
OT Fan: Give me liberty or give me death.
PT Fan: Give me that it’s mine.
Outstanding post, Adroit !! We were having a discussion at work about that, just the other day. Like you, when I was a kid we didn't graduate from the sixth grade or get a fifth place trophy. We were rewarded for achievement - not participation. 60 minutes did a fascinating piece on the Echo Boomers several months ago. As they are now entering the real world, they were all (about 10 of them interviewed) very matter-of-fact about how they fully expect to succeed at everything they choose to do.
Here's a link to the transcript. It's very interesting. The Echo-boomers don't have the slightest idea of what a $hitstorm adult life can really be.
Is there any software for turning the entire contents of a DVD movie into an audio CD? I'm looking to turn some of my favorite movies into audio CDs that I can listen to in my car CD player on long trips. Sort of an audio book kicked up a notch.
It was used as an avatar on message boards about a year or so ago. Little kid, making a sort of WTF expression, wearing a knit cap, seems like it was green or teal. Not the kid giving the finger. This kid is just staring at the camera. Looks British, maybe.
Originally posted by: THX If the disc art looks anything like the box art, I'll be making "backups" anyway, at which point, you may as well remove the menu and extras.
I've mentioned before that I plan on making a copy so that I can have a disc without any new artwork on it, to go along with the cover I'm making.
Is it easy to leave the game and Lego preview off of the copy? *edit* - Yeah, and the menu also. I just want the movie on there.