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| Williams |
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: (John Williams)
One would have imagined that George Lucas would have no financial
difficulties producing a sequel to his classic
Star Wars three
years later, but dwindling funds were just one of many challenges the
concept's creator faced when assembling
The Empire Strikes Back.
Although Lucas decided not to direct the picture, reportedly choosing to
concentrate on his greater role in producing the movie amidst clashes
with banks and Twentieth Century Fox, the remainder of his cast and crew
carried over for the 1980 follow-up. Freakish weather events, the desire
to keep the truth about Darth Vader's identity a secret, and a budget
that bloated well beyond its original boundaries all conspired against
The Empire Strikes Back, and critics were initially not
overwhelmingly receptive to the film. Time proved very kind to it,
however, and in retrospect,
The Empire Strikes Back is widely
considered to be among the best sequel films of all time, and, for some,
superior in many regards to its predecessor. Nobody could contend that
the special effects of Industrial Light & Magic hadn't improved in the
prior three years, but some in the audience did not care for the fact
that the movie was part of a larger plotline, its narrative conveying no
distinct beginning or satisfactory end. Indeed, this aspect of
filmmaking was a tough pill to swallow at the time, as was the truth
about Vader, though a definitive conclusion to the arc in
Return of
the Jedi largely resolved such issues. The entirety of
The Empire
Strikes Back essentially involves a protracted interstellar chase,
the alliance of rebels from the first film now on the run from the
Galacic Empire and Vader leading the charge to find Luke Skywalker at
all costs. The protagonist, meanwhile finds himself training with Jedi
master Yoda to become a knight and makes the choice to abandon that
regimen to save his friends when Vader uses them as bait. The
overwhelmingly downbeat note on which the film ends has added to its
mystique through the years, making it a sharp contrast from those that
came before and after in the franchise. Playing this melodramatic
despair to the maximum is composer John Williams, who was in the middle
of the most productive time of his career at the start of the 1980's and
had firmly established himself popularly as "the maestro."
Within a period of six years, Williams wrote
Star
Wars,
Superman,
Raiders of the Lost Ark,
E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial, and
Return of the Jedi, and yet, even in
that incredible bracket of time, some collectors of the composer's music
maintain that
The Empire Strikes Back is the finest score of the
lot. Other debates exist about
The Empire Strikes Back as the
best of the classic
Star Wars trilogy of scores, to which you'd
probably get less resistance if you argue on its behalf. Following
Star Wars: A New Hope was no easy task; the film had set all
world box office records and the LP record album of the soundtrack had
sold over 4 million copies, easily becoming the top-selling score of all
time. This concerned Williams, for he wished to maintain the Wagnerian
approach to 19th Century Romanticism in his music and balance the
previous film's primary themes with several new ones. Offering a retread
was the last thing he wanted to do. After the saga stretched into to two
trilogies, you might get the feeling from
The Empire Strikes Back
that Williams was creating a monster, setting a standard of
incorporating new and old themes into each picture that would eventually
make the idea of that very incorporation quite daunting by the final
venture (given the wealth of previous themes he had established). With a
budget of $250,000 in hand for the recording of the score for
The
Empire Strikes Back, Williams returned to the London Symphony
Orchestra, the majority of its performers veterans of the first score's
original performance. Consisting of 18 recording sessions over two
weeks, the task of assembling the score for the sequel was made more
difficult by the fact that it was roughly 40 minutes longer than
A
New Hope. With the same supporting crew, however, Williams succeeded
in his recording and debuted the score's two primary themes to great
applause in his first conducting appearance at a concert with the Boston
Pops several weeks before the release of the film. The double-LP album
for
The Empire Strikes Back sold over a million copies in just
four months, but never unseated its predecessor in record sales, like
the box office returns finishing firmly in the #2 position. The legacy
of the sequel score was cemented not long after its release, however,
its main identity for Darth Vader and the Empire becoming so famous as a
motif of evil symphonic determination that it has made
The Empire
Strikes Back as popularly recognizable as both
A New Hope
and, more interestingly,
Jaws.
In terms of its grandiose space opera personality,
The
Empire Strikes Back is every bit as impressive as its predecessor,
exhibiting the same leitmotif techniques and transparent orchestral
bravado that
A New Hope had popularized. Its scope remains on par
with the rest of the franchise and its thematic applications are boosted
in dramatic appeal to match the shocking shifts of love and hate in the
story. Williams likely did not intend for "The Imperial March" to
dominate the franchise in public perception so many years later, but
given its effectiveness as a representation of the villains in the tale,
it's hard not to become fixated on it. The idea's incredibly simplistic,
minor-key structure is devilishly successful in conveying determination
and evil while, at the same, expressing itself in enjoyably bombastic,
self-important fashion. Because the structure of its primary phrases is
so basic, Williams could interpolate it into any of his other themes,
and, as heard in the prequel scores, insert it with great stealth as a
foreshadowing device. The key to its memorability is the fact that each
of its three phrases, including the longer interlude sequence, conclude
on the same three note figure, making those notes so easy to integrate
that they alone could finish any of the other themes as a reminder of
who's doing the chasing in the story. Williams adapted elements of the
progressions from the "Imperial March" into everything from
Nixon
to
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, whether they involved
the opening three notes on key or that ominous three in conclusion. Its
place in cinematic history was initially underplayed by critics who
perhaps devalued the theme because of its existence in a sequel score
(and maybe that's why it lost its bid for an Oscar), but it is still
played endlessly in sports arenas and other public venues in post-2000
America. Its application as a tool of parody didn't take long to become
engrained in the public's imagination, too, used commonly in the 2000's
by the media to represent the much despised New York Yankees baseball
team. So far-reaching is its influence that an official Al-Queda
propaganda video near the time of the 9/11 attacks of 2001 used
Williams' "Imperial March" beneath its Arabic dialogue to represent the
"Imperial United States" and its worldwide Christian crusade against
Islam (one has to wonder what Williams thinks about such things). The
prequel scores in the
Star Wars franchise extended the theme's
life as well, starting as a hint in "Anakin's Theme" in
The Phantom
Menace and experiencing its magnificent announcement at the end of
Attack of the Clones as the Empire is born.
In its different incarnations resulting from
The Empire
Strikes Back, the "Imperial March" is best known for its concert
version, the aggressively chopped string rhythms launching the idea with
extreme deference to the root key. In the film, this arrangement is
heard during the introduction of the Star Destroyer fleet near the
beginning of the film, though the use of the concert version in this
placement was actually as a substitute for an arguably superior
recording of the "Aboard the Executor" cue. The rejected version, with
harsh and pulsating brass performing the bass rhythm instead of the
straight strings, long remained the hidden gem of the score, tantalizing
fans with its reinsertion into the appropriate place in the
corresponding radio drama for
The Empire Strikes Back and only
finally available on album by the time of the 1997 Special Editions.
Different versions of the "End Credits" suite also exist, once again
leaving the better, album rendition of the "Imperial March" out of the
original cut of the film. Fans' frustration with the incomplete album
presentations prior to 1997 often revolved around the lack of the
"Imperial March" statements that you hear throughout the film whenever
the scene shifts to Vader or a Star Destroyer. Williams is extremely
predictable in his usage of the theme, referencing it in resolute,
partial ensemble phrases when Vader is seen stomping around the ice
planet or cloud city and elongating its meter to represent the
character's use of the Force or, at the end of the chase in
"Hyperspace," when he quietly leaves the bridge of his ship after losing
his prey. Occasionally, Williams adds a pronounced pause after the first
three notes on key (as in the quick cloud city departure reference),
infusing a touch of hanging suspense in the melody. The reminders of the
theme during special effects shots of massive Imperial spacecraft yield
the score's guilty pleasure moments, much the same as the equivalent
shots of ships arriving at the Death Star in
Return of the Jedi.
Conforming to Williams' usual method of operation for the films in this
franchise, this major theme is joined by two other primary new
identities in an "End Credits" arrangement bookended by the famous title
theme from the previous movie. Although the main
Star Wars theme
is heard in all of the sequel and prequel films, its application
diminishes with each successive entry, and you can hear immediately in
its frightfully diminished role in
The Empire Strikes Back that
the composer was trying to avoid redundancy. A lack of truly heroic and
swashbuckling moments in this darker movie also contributed to an
arguable inability of Williams to state the heroic fanfare in any
particular sequence.
The other two major new themes in
The Empire Strikes
Back are so strong that they, when bracketing the "Imperial March" in the
"End Credits" suite, together produce the most satisfying such
arrangement in the franchise. The theme for the Jedi master, Yoda, is a
benign and touching reflection of wisdom and restraint, heard
extensively during the scenes on his jungle planet of Dagobah. Its
optimistic progressions are an important counterweight to the rest of
the score, and its generally affable nature carried over into a cameo
performance of much fame in the Halloween scene of
E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial. For the troubled romance between Han Solo and
Princess Leia is a stunningly gorgeous love theme, its concert
arrangement accompanying their first kiss in "Han Solo and the
Princess." Just as the theme for the Force had accomplished in the prior
film, the love theme in
The Empire Strikes Back carries a very
heavy, mournful sensibility with it, punctuating the carbon freezing
scene and finale of the movie with unquestionable weight. The melody
keenly shares its first two notes with Princess Leia's theme from
A
New Hope and uses that existing theme as counterpoint during the
aforementioned concert arrangement. The duo of "Han Solo and the
Princess" and "Across the Stars" from
Attack of the Clones
represents the most powerful melodramatic string writing in the
franchise, both themes saturated with gloom despite their romantic
allure. Aside from these major players, two important sub-themes call
this score home, not appearing to any great degree in the other scores
for the franchise; a sour motif for Boba Fett and an upbeat march for
Lando's cloud city both exist in the latter half of the film. The
existing theme for the Force, a dominant element in
A New Hope,
does make some important contributions to
The Empire Strikes
Back, including a few in the understandable scenes on Yoda's jungle
world. Its most poignant application, however, comes when Luke uses the
Force to call out to Leia at the cloud city; as the Millenium Falcon
turns around to rescue Luke, Williams expresses one of the boldest
incarnations of the theme heard in the entire series. As with the prior
film as well, Williams includes a few vignettes in
The Empire Strikes
Back that demand mentioning of their singular success. Foremost is
the haphazardly frantic rhythmic movement of "The Asteroid Field,"
though equally respected are the churning brass motifs of "The Battle of
Hoth" to emulate the motions of the enemy walkers. The ethereal high
vocals for "City in the Clouds" create a false sense of beauty and hope
that is yet cold and distant.
Systematic rhythmic churning is important to defining the
personality of the score for
The Empire Strikes Back, with
Lando's processional and Fett's departure yielding to a hyperspace motif
(a very underrated portion of the score) that agonizingly flows with
suspense as the heroes attempt to cut their losses and escape at the
end. The "Imperial March" itself is the ultimate extension of this
rhythmic approach, and it symbolizes the inevitable path towards the
"dark side" with great effectiveness. The precision of application for
each motif in
A New Hope is really what propelled the structural
success of that score (outside of the raw emotion of the Force theme
during the binary sunset and burning homestead cues). In
The Empire
Strikes Back, Williams takes that precision one step further and
applies a far deeper emotional palette. A more heart-wrenching score,
The Empire Strikes Back is significantly heavier on the drama and
lighter on the science-fiction action. No point exemplifies this reality
clearer than the full "Carbon Freeze" cue, extending from a desperate
performance of the love theme prior to Solo's freezing through Boba
Fett's frustrating departure. When you saw
The Empire Strikes
Back for the first time, you got the feeling that damn near
everything was going wrong, as it should be, and part of that feeling
was the ambience of a relentlessly uphill struggle created by Williams'
score. Despite everything that went right with this music, there are
some less engaging moments that maintain effectiveness but are less
interesting on album. The mass of material outside of Yoda's thematic
expressions during the training sequences on Dagobah are not
particularly noteworthy, often representing the most striking dissonance
of the score (as in "The Magic Tree"). Likewise, the score takes quite
some time to build momentum, the early pre-battle scenes on the ice
planet treated tepidly. That said, there are few other detriments to
what is otherwise an extremely impressive score. Regarding the albums
for
The Empire Strikes Back, much of the same information applies
to this score as it did for
A New Hope, but with one major twist.
The original LP record release was a double-album, with two LPs
featuring a significant amount of score from the film. When the album
was translated from that medium onto CD, the content was cut down to one
CD, making the LP (and its stunning booklet presentation) something of a
collector's item. The history of the album on CD, however, shares the
fact that every time you think you've purchased the
definitive and
final version of any of the classic trilogy scores, you can wait a
few years and be treated to yet another re-release.
While the existence of all of the music from the
classic
Star Wars film scores is taken for granted today, the
first fifteen years were quite lean for fans of the composer and
trilogy. In fact, it would take a full twenty years before the full
scores finally reached fans in time for the 1997 Special Editions in
theatres. Much of the information that follows in regards to each of the
various releases of the music is relevant to not only this score, but
the others in the classic trilogy as well, so you'll read very similar
accounts in the Filmtracks reviews of those scores. After their initial,
separate releases on LP records and their early CDs, the scores on
subsequent discs have always been released as a trilogy, despite fans'
ability to usually buy them separately upon each update of all three.
The first CD release of
The Empire Strikes Back, as mentioned
before, reduced the 1980 2-LP release of 75 minutes down to 42 minutes
and rearranged some of the cues. It was, surprisingly, released by
Polydor as a bargain item in 1985 even before
A New Hope made it
onto CD from its original LP form in 1986. Considering the mass of music
unreleased from this score, listeners searched for comfort in, once
again, the only alternative source of music from the series before 1993:
Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra. For years,
Gerhardt and the NPO had recorded famous film scores from mostly the
Golden Age of Hollywood, but as a few of their final collaborations,
Gerhardt recorded the three classic
Star Wars scores near the
times of their release. For
The Empire Strikes Back, the 1980
re-recording of 45 minutes for an LP record remained absent from CD
shelves for a longer period than the other two classic trilogy scores.
His versions of
Star Wars and
Return of the Jedi had been
released in 1989 by RCA, but Gerhardt's
The Empire Strikes Back
recording took until 1992 before Varèse Sarabande finally pressed
the album on CD. For over a year, this Gerhardt CD was the only digital
source for music that had appeared on the original LP for
The Empire
Strikes Back but had been dropped from the official CD. A newly
arranged performance of the "Imperial March," adding some "Carbon
Freeze" material to the start, is a highlight despite weak brass. Even
more than for
A New Hope, the
Star Wars trilogy Anthology
released by 20th Century Fox in 1993 was considered a godsend by fans.
The Anthology finally offered the contents of the LP and several extra
cues as well, featuring a much more significant boost than the other two
scores in the set. Produced by some of the biggest names in film score
production, the additional music was certainly welcomed with great
anticipation.
The presentation on the 1993 Anthology, however, was
not perfect. It placed as much music as possible on an individual CD for
each of the three scores but then pressed additional unreleased cues on
a fourth CD that spans all three. Thus, the long and vital "Carbon
Freeze/Luke Pursues the Captives/Departure of Boba Fett" and "Drawing
the Battle Lines/Leia's Instructions" were orphaned from the rest of the
presentation. Add on a large, custom-sized package and hard-to-read
individual CD covers within, and you had some ill-received protests from
fans. That Anthology was rendered outdated by the massive, highly
advertised RCA "Special Edition" releases of 1997. In January of that
year,
The Phantom Menace was announced along with newly enhanced
versions of the original trilogy for a 20th anniversary theatrical
release. On album, fans were treated to double-CD releases of each
Star Wars score in film order with alternate cues and extensive
attention to detail in the mixing and arrangement. Including the
alternate version of the "End Credits" that actually made it into
The
Empire Strikes Back (attached to the end of a
Return of the
Jedi cue, for some reason), a total of 124 minutes of music on this
Special Edition appeared on the definitive release. Extensive notes and
pictorials grace both the 1993 and 1997 products, the glittery CDs of
the latter a nice touch. Later in 1997, these albums were re-packaged by
RCA and offered in slimline packages adorned by the Special Edition
poster art, but these fell out of print about five years later. In 2004,
the Sony Classical label, which had been releasing the prequel scores,
acquired the rights to the classic trilogy and reissued the 1997
releases with new artwork. These 2004 albums offer Sony's Direct Stream
Digital remastering, and while this technique does provide some minimal
extra clarity on high-end stereo systems, casual listeners will notice
no significant difference. Those who owned the Special Edition albums
and didn't require slightly improved sound had no reason to seek the
2004 sets. The same presentation was re-pressed in 2016 by Sony as the
"Ultimate Soundtrack Collection." More basic re-issues dribbled out
with Sony's various 2007 releases (the "Corellian Edition" compilation
and "30th Anniversary Collector's Edition"), both of which redundant,
unnecessary, and irritatingly packaged. Upon Disney's ownership of the
franchise's rights, its label sadly remastered only the original LP album
presentation for a single CD in 2018. Overall, owning
The Empire Strikes Back is an absolute must for any film score
collector, even more so than the other entries in the classic trilogy.
With its outstanding packaging and complete presentation, the 1997
Special Edition album (the original full version bound in black
booklets) continues to be the best product available for this undeniably
classic score.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: *****
- Music as Heard on the 1985 Polydor Album: *
- Music as Heard on the 1992 Varèse Gerhardt Album: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1993 Fox Anthology: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1997 RCA Special Edition: *****
- Music as Heard on the 2004/2016 Sony Classical Albums: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2007 Sony and 2018 Disney Albums: **
- Overall: *****
| Bias Check: |
For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68
(in 91 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 363,495 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The 1985 Polydor album contains no information about the film,
score, or recording. The 1992 Varèse Sarabande Gerhardt product
contains notes from both Robert Townson and John Williams, as well as
multiple color pictures of the composer at work on the score. The 1993
Fox Anthology has extensive notes and pictorials in an oversized booklet
with information written by John Williams, Nicholas Meyer, and Lukas
Kendall. The 1997 RCA Special Edition albums with the black book format
include extensive notation from album arranger Michael Matessino
regarding the film, score as a whole, and each cue. A recording log for
Star Wars in this 1997 album also includes information about each
take. The 1997 RCA Special Edition slimline format lacks the same level
of detail. The 2004 Sony Classical products (available both as a set and
individually) include a fold-out poster, but sadly no extra information
about the film or score. The packaging of Sony Classical's 2007
"Corellian Edition" is minimal, though the label's "30th Anniversary
Collector's Edition" includes the original LP packaging for each score
and a bonus CD-ROM with additional material. The detailed Matessino
notes about the scores are once again missing from the 2007 products.
The 2016 Sony set included a bonus CD featuring audio interviews with
Harrison Ford and John Williams, the "Star Wars: A Musical Journey" DVD
(a one-hour special highlighting select musical themes alongside key
sequences from the films), a fold-out poster, and three collectible
stickers for your children to decorate toilets. It does not, however,
feature the same notation about the scores as earlier releases. The same
quality of notation is also missing from the 2018 Disney album. Its
promotional materials state, "The soundtracks were reconstructed from
new hi-resolution (24/192) transfers supervised by Shawn Murphy and
Skywalker Sound."
