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Star Wars: Attack of the Clones on DVD
• "Across the Stars" music video • Dolby Digital 5.1 EX More DVD info... |
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Star Wars: Attack of the Clones on DVD
• "Across the Stars" music video • Dolby Digital 5.1 EX More DVD info... |
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
More than any other series of films in the history of Hollywood, the Star Wars saga contains a complex tapestry of strong themes, motifs in orchestration, and a magnificent consistency of quality. The Star Wars scores are a case study in thematic development and use, now containing more themes and motifs than any other sequels. John Williams, being the mastermind of thematic incorporation that he is, is trying hard --all the way through Attack of the Clones-- to weave all of his countless Star Wars themes into as many cues as he possibly can, while still inserting enough new material to keep the individual scores fresh and relevant to their films. While some of the themes from the original series won't likely make an appearance in the new trilogy (such as those for the Ewoks, Solo, Lando, etc), the saga has now created so many timeless themes that Williams is presented with a juggling act in his newest installments. It's necessary to discuss the use of themes in great depth when reviewing these Star Wars scores because, frankly, so many people judge them on how they introduce, manipulate, and integrate their favorite themes into the new films. It's like revisiting an old friend, and you want that friend to be in the best of condition when you happen upon it. First, however, to satisfy those people who read reviews for a quick answer, it should probably be said at this point that Attack of the Clones is both a fantastic score and a worthy entry into the Star Wars saga. It is Williams at his best, and its performance in the film undoubtedly will be just as powerful for audiences as it will be for listeners to the album. Summary judgment aside, there are two main factors of discussion at work in Attack of the Clones. Both the themes introduced and reintroduced beg some opinion, as to be expected. But Williams' overall package for the new trilogy, with Attack of the Clones now joining The Phantom Menace, can begin to be compared with the merits of the first trilogy. There are plenty of purists in the world who will believe, until the magnetic reversal of the poles, killer asteroids, and end of the world all occur, that the music in the original trilogy is superior to that of the new material. With two new Star Wars scores to judge now, I'd have to make the quick assessment that these purists may indeed be right. The new music, as good as it is, exists one step behind the original three in every manner. After discussing the themes in Attack of the Clones, the reasons for this will become clearer. The Attack of the Clones score begins as they always have, with a minute or two of the Star Wars fanfare in its precisely exact form from 25 years ago. Whether this opening theme should be allowed some tweaks in orchestration is another matter worth debate, as the title theme is becoming a sort of "okay, let's get this part out of the way" element on the albums especially. Star Wars fans claim that such statements are heresy, and should constitute my immediate destruction. Well... Far be it for me to denounce a sacred part of Western society, but some things do need a facelift after a while. In any case, a rather unsurprising opening titles and following cue are followed on the album by the spectacle of the score: the "Across the Stars" love theme. Without a doubt, this new love theme for Anakin and Padme is the highlight of the score. It's a large-scale, bittersweet theme with an elegant, yet staggered rhythm. It's never a free-flowing theme and yet it is beautiful at the same time, brilliantly accomplishing the concept of forbidden love. The manipulation of the theme throughout the score is remarkable, with a lovable --yet still troubled-- introduction of the theme in many parts of the first half of the score, and more agonizingly painful performances as the score reaches a dark climax. As per usual, Williams provides this love theme in a full five minute suite form on the album, and it is the centerpiece of the end credits suite as well. It's easy to tell that Attack of the Clones will be a more troubled film simply by listening to its music. Listening to The Phantom Menace, you could distinguish all of the high points and low points, the battles and meditation, with more clearly defined borders. With Attack of the Clones, however, the entire score is troubled in a soft sort of way. The third cue presented on the album --for a chase through Coruscant-- showcases a more eclectic, low key approach to handling the key role of the assassin/bounty hunter back into the series. The dark forces, outside of the fledgling Empire, don't feature a blazing theme all to the themselves. Instead, Williams, in the four or so cues on the album that the assassin plot line embodies, tackles them with a more subdued, percussion rich underscore. George Lucas praises Williams for how the technique of relying on subtle, yet driving percussion, accentuates the urban atmosphere in much of the film. As the score progresses, and the action becomes more overt on a grander scale, the thematic representations of the action become more satisfyingly pronounced. The only break in the alternation between love theme and percussive underscore performances early on the album is the curious cue "Yoda and the Younglings," which --aside from revisiting a favorite old theme-- could offer a positive foreshadowing of themes yet to be heard (if anything positive can really be forecasted to happen in the third installment). Upon reaching the climax of the film, the score ceases to meander and focuses squarely on the robust and ominous action music to be expected in a darker Star Wars score. The transition happens almost completely in a single cue; nearly three minutes into the ninth track on the album, Williams kicks the score into high gear and never looks back (that cue, though, takes a page right out of Indiana Jones and Last Crusade once again). The remaining score on album is the kind of bombastic and noisy Star Wars that we all know and love from large battle scenes in the past. Two cues in particular are knockout thematic expressions in the final tracks... cues that will be magnificent to be heard on screen. In the tenth track, "Return to Tatooine," Williams offers a fully developed performance of the theme for the force and then immediately launches into a chorus-heavy statement of the Duel of the Fates theme from the previous film --the only such statement on the album. The major talk about the album, however, is about the second fantastic duo of themes, and that is the full pronouncement of the Imperial March at the finale of the film. Just before the end credit suite, Williams leaves us with two repetitions of the Imperial March which flow right into a monumentally bittersweet final performance of the love theme. It's the moment that fans of the score for The Empire Strikes Back have been waiting for over the past ten years. But how does it all come together in the end? In some ways, Attack of the Clones is more satisfying than The Phantom Menace, but in other ways, The Phantom Menace comes across as a more balanced score. Attack of the Clones is enjoyable because it introduces one stunning theme and offers more powerful performances of favorite old themes. But it is a much muddier score than The Phantom Menace and the original three. Part of that is to be expected, given the troubled nature of the film. But Star Wars scores have always been swashbuckling scores in every way, with action that swings and love themes that sweep you off your feet. Given the music as presented on the Attack of the Clones album, however, Williams is beginning to take the music of the series into more of a straight dramatic venue, favoring serious drama instead of space-age melodrama. There is nothing lighthearted or even heroic on this album. It's a score that can most certainly be appreciated, but perhaps not enjoyed to the same extent as the previous Star Wars scores. Even the longer subthemes that gave previous scores character, such as those like the Asteroid Chase in The Empire Strikes Back and Forest Battle in The Return of the Jedi, are largely absent from Attack of the Clones. In fact, there are no noteworthy subthemes presented here in Attack of the Clones, which limits its enjoyability on album. It's difficult, however, to listen to this album and entirely dismiss Attack of the Clones for incorporating too few traditional elements of the Star Wars saga. There could be several additional, exceptional cues that simply didn't make this first album (Williams has been known to arrange albums like that in the past). Even the minority of music, as presented on this album, includes a few interesting perks. The exotic drums and electric guitars in the rebellious third track, the harp in the love theme, and the haunting vocals in the final tracks are joined by Williams' masterful blending of three themes at the end of the closing titles (in which the love theme gives way to a dying rendition of Anakin's theme and ultimately dissolves into a determined fade of the Imperial March). And yet, the score on the album lacks more of Anakin's theme, lacks the Emperor's theme, and lacks perhaps the most important of them all: the title theme. The album goes from the opening titles to the closing titles without a single pronouncement of the Star Wars theme, which is something that many people, including myself, consider inconceivable. Let's just hope there's more of it in unreleased material. The Force Theme is another favorite, and aside from two performances, it also lags behind in development in Attack of the Clones. These considerations together make Attack of the Clones the least typical Star Wars score in the series, which could be a blessing or curse depending on how you look at it. The performance by the London Symphony Orchestra is strong as usual, though mixed with a touch of excessive muting. It's a Star Wars score, for goodness sake, so give it some reverberation! It's not entirely flat as is, but even the finale performance of the Imperial March doesn't sound half as good as some of the Boston Pops performances of the same theme over the years. Speaking of the Imperial March: its confirmation, so to speak, in Attack of the Clones, begs the question as to why Williams and Lucas didn't agree on a re-recording of a few Star Wars cues for its special edition in 1997 to include the Imperial March. It seems rather odd, looking back on it and seeing that Return of the Jedi was re-scored in part, that the march is still absent from the special edition of the original Star Wars. A loss, I suppose. As for Attack of the Clones, it's safe to assume that there will be a sequel album with considerably more music released sometime in the future. Thus, don't be too disgruntled if the music on the first album doesn't meet your expectations. The choice of so much percussive underscore for this first album is a curious one to me, and I can only assume that there is more of the pompous kind of Star Wars music we all love in the majority of the remaining Attack of the Clones score that is yet unreleased. Time will tell. If you're patient, I'd recommend holding off on purchasing this score until a double-CD is available. But even from the music on this album, and the unique universe it brings to your stereo, you can easily tell that Williams is still on top of his game. Star Wars is back, and even with its flaws, it's still better than 99.9% of everything else.
Music as presented on album: **** Overall rating: *****  George Lucas shows Williams early edits of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
The packaging of the album includes a note from George Lucas and a number of stills from the film with quotes from the characters in the stills. To learn more about the making of the score, visit http://starwars.sonyclassical.com. The Filmtracks preview for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, written in February, 2002:
"These scores have about two hours of music," Williams continues. "Not in quality, but in quantity, equal to an opera. At the end of six films, we've got 12 hours of Star Wars, certainly in the history of cinema something unique. The whole canon is so voluminous, which is part of the fun, actually --taking an earlier theme and morphing it into the new one." For Attack of the Clones, Williams revisits the old favorite, the Star Wars main title, and expands upon the transition from "Anakin's Theme" into the "Imperial March" more commonly associated with the fifth episode, The Empire Strikes Back. Among the other themes, Williams revisits the popular "Force" theme, the future Emperor's theme, and the choral "Duel of the Fates" fanfare from the previous film. A handful of new themes will make an appearance, including the film's most prominent (and most speculated-about) "Love Theme" and even a short curious piece for Boba Fett. Along these lines, the thematic construction of the score will be exactly as you would expect. As Williams puts it, the "incestuous" nature of Star Wars music continues. Nearly all of the music for Attack of the Clones was printed on paper in January of 2002, in preparation for the film's release in late May, 2002. By mid-February, Williams had completed nearly all of the recording of Attack of the Clones with the London Symphony Orchestra in England. The first recording sessions with the LSO were held in Abbey Studios in the final two weeks of January and were substantially wrapped up by the end of the first week of February. Both the film's director, George Lucas, and producer, Rick McCallum, attended the recording sessions, with Lucas known to be pacing in the halls of the studios by himself. McCallum commented in late February that "It went very, very well -- effortlessly, as it always does with John. Hearing a musical score for the first time is one of the most wonderful events that can happen to you. Obviously, John hears the music when he's writing it, but no one gets the opportunity to fully experience it until then. Even though you may have heard little melodies on the piano, it never has the same impact unless you can really read music well to understand it." For each of its recording sessions, the London Symphony Orchestra included 110 players (strong by film score recording standards, though certainly not one of the largest ensembles assembled for film composers), and the choral work was recorded in just one full day of work. "There's a massive amount of music -- over 125 minutes worth," says McCallum. "That's a lot for a film; the average film has probably about 40. George made maybe five or six changes with certain cues that he wanted a little bit more intensity put in, or less. That was very easily done, especially with someone as talented as John is and as well as with music editor Ken Wannberg." With themes from the first trilogy and the previous episode being joined by themes that will be foreshadowed for the third episode, McCallum commented about how the saga is coming full circle in the musical sense. "It really is an arc now, and the music brings in all the films together," he continues. "The major themes that will come in the series start in The Phantom Menace, build in Attack of the Clones, become more refined in Episode III, and then are there for IV, V and VI. One of the first new things that came up was the love theme, and thematically, it's beautifully structured, it's really interesting, and has really wonderful moments that preview what is about to come in terms of character development." Further information about the score has been limited by more secrecy than with The Phantom Menace. None of the first four theatrical or television trailers, ranging in release date from November 2nd, 2001, to March 10th, 2002, include previews of the new music; instead, portions of the previous scores are used. Even with the great mass of music composed for the film, the Sony Classical album, set to be released more than three weeks before the opening of the film, will be a single-CD concert arrangement of the Attack of the Clones score. There is no word about an expanded 2-CD album, but one would likely arrive in late 2002, if at all. A full review of Attack of the Clones will be presented by Filmtracks in April, 2002. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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