Star Wars without the music of John Williams...any good?

[Tsippy]

I was chatting to a friend recently about Star Wars and the subject of the music came up, we both agreed that without the musical genious of Williams, it would not have been such a success.

What do you think? Does the music enhance (or even make) the film or would it have survived with a typical cheesy 80s musical score?

[james_tigerwoods]

Music maketh the film - The right score can make or break a film, you just have to look at how some music tracks have become intrinsically linked to a film:

For example, can you imagine how Platoon would have been without Barber's Adagio for Strings.

There are lots of better examples, of course, John Williams having written a ton of the good ones:

Jaws
Raiders of the lost ark
Schindlers list
Superman
Harry Potter

Not just John Williams, of course, the right track will make you remember the film forever.

[Racefan_uk]

Spielberg is on record as saying that John Williams' was the shark that he didn't have for Jaws as the plastic one kept breaking down and he had to film certain things differently and the score made a huge difference to the feel and impact.

Can't really imagine Star Wars without that score now though, can you?

[Zad]

Just a shame that he used the same music for Star Wars, Superman and Battlestar Galactica really.

[BigJonMcQuimm]

It even worked in Ferris Bueller :-)

[Langweilig]

You're probably right. It wouldn't have been the same. It says a lot about Williams' prowess as a musician when he was given credit on the Family Guy Star Wars spoof, Blue Harvest.

[cazzer]

I dunno...seems to work well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q47GIgmQWo

[Famous Graham]

Langweilig said:

You're probably right. It wouldn't have been the same. It says a lot about Williams' prowess as a musician when he was given credit on the Family Guy Star Wars spoof, Blue Harvest.

Well, that was also down to the fact that he was IN it

[Brighton Derly]

Here's a less well-known Williams composition from the film '1941'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9DQ4iGmDGE

One of the best composers ever, imo.

[Tsippy]

cazzer said:

I dunno...seems to work well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q47GIgmQWo

That's quite good

[Castrol Craig]

Along with Hans Zimmer, i think they are the 2 greatest musical composers for film soundtracks ever.

[Asterix]

I'd like to nominate Holst for basically writing most of the above - listen to 'Mars' from the Planets suite and I'd say there is more than a bit of inspiration going on.

That said, Williams is a genius. Some wonderful work.