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| Williams |
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: (John Williams) And
so the saga continued... Never in the history of cinema had one film
been so eagerly awaited, with costumed fans lining streets for weeks, a
few getting married right on the spot, waiting to be among the first to
view the initial prequel to George Lucas' famed
Star Wars trilogy
of the late 1970's and early 1980's. The mystique of that original
trilogy had been amplified when Lucas upgraded its films' special
effects and re-released them to theatres in 1997, stirring the pot of
hype to such frenzied levels that
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
was assured phenomenal profits. The whole of the second trilogy that has
followed is not revered to an extent even approaching the original
classics, but they are nevertheless dazzling entertainment. Not only
were fans of the films desperate for a glimpse of the Old Republic, but
film score collectors were equally enthralled by the possibilities. The
most anticipated film score in the history of Hollywood, the first
The Phantom Menace album hit the shelves two weeks before the
film's theatrical opening, causing enough explosive interest online
alone to shut down entire networks because of bandwidth stress
(bootlegged versions of the album, among the first to be immediately
leaked online, didn't help the situation). Meanwhile, across the globe
in Yugoslavia, as war between the Serbs and NATO raged at the time, the
propaganda machine of Slobodan Milosevic was using John Williams'
"Imperial March" from
The Empire Strikes Back as the soundtrack
to its films equating America with Nazi Germany. The same piece was
endlessly incorporated into stadium playlists for sports events around
the world. Even members of the public not familiar with science fiction,
or even those who rarely venture to the big screens, could recognize the
title march for the
Star Wars franchise. The music itself was a
phenomenon, and after several years of absence from the genre of high
adventure, Williams fans could not have asked for a better gift. The
original album cost Sony Classical millions of dollars to purchase the
rights for and produce, though with an equal amount of copies sold
worldwide, the popularity of the music for the franchise was
confirmed.
In terms of film music history, the prequel trilogy that
included
The Phantom Menace,
Attack of the Clones, and
Revenge of the Sith bracketed arguably the most respected and
impressive trilogy of music of all time: Howard Shore's massive work for
Peter Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings. Williams' scores for the
Star Wars franchise had always been considered the modern
standard in the use of leitmotifs, and his incorporation of themes from
previous films into a subsequent sequel or prequel is always intelligent
and appreciated. When you look at the prequel trilogy of
Star
Wars films, a set for which Williams knew there would be follow-ups
and had a general outline of how the characters and situations would
mature, there was surprisingly little foreshadowing, if any, of future
themes in
The Phantom Menace. While he very adeptly included most
of the major themes from the previous trilogy in the ranks of
The
Phantom Menace, you hear no previewed applications of material heard in
Attack of the Clones or
Revenge of the Sith, even when
such usage would have been more than appropriate (such as the potential
use of a fragment of the "Across the Stars" love theme from
Attack of
the Clones when Anakin and Padme first meet). In these regards, the
seeming lack of planning ahead by Williams sets his prequel trilogy
music, despite its numerous strengths, a step behind Shore's
excruciatingly developed set of countless motifs for the three
The
Lord of the Rings films. Indeed, the circumstances and time frames
behind the productions were different, but whenever you go back and
listen to the score for
The Phantom Menace, this difference
becomes blindingly clear. In short, how cool would it have been if when
Attack of the Clones and
Revenge of the Sith had debuted,
fragments of seemingly orphaned themes from
The Phantom Menace
were finally explained? Williams doesn't work like that, though, and
instead he endeavors to very cleverly build upon previous material to
produce continuity. Even the initial idea of re-scoring parts of
A
New Hope at the time of the "Special Edition" to include "The
Imperial March" as the permanent identity of the Galactic Empire was
axed.
Regardless of this minor retrospective complaint,
The
Phantom Menace is still an outstanding standalone score and entry in
the franchise. Williams once again uses the London Symphony Orchestra to
its fullest capacity, and this time intersperses massive choral
accompaniment throughout the score (a technique missing from most of the
original trilogy scores and only prominently used for a scene or two in
Return of the Jedi). The second trilogy truly defined a new style
of extraordinarily complex action writing for Williams. The roots of
this sound come from
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (and, to
a lesser extent,
Hook) and these techniques are most evident in
the rhythmic staggering of primary and counterpoint harmony, explosive
sixteenth notes on trumpets, and a distinct progression of timpani and
cymbal accents. One of the few faults of this score is that its music
for the encroaching droid army, as well as some of the more noble
statements of theme on low strings, are highly reminiscent of
Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade. By the end of the prequel trilogy,
however, Williams had redefined the identity of this sound as that of
these films specifically, and in subsequent efforts, including
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Crystal Skull, the trademark sound
of Williams' Digital Age action writing is commonly referred to as that
of the
Star Wars prequel trilogy of scores. Within the three
efforts in that group, an argument can be made that the cohesiveness of
Williams' handling of thematic and instrumental continuity declined in
each successive score. While some fans complained about a lack of truly
tight thematic structure in
The Phantom Menace, it has a much
stronger core identity than
Revenge of the Sith, which, by
necessity, had a certain chaotic element to its personality. Williams
achieved this success with
The Phantom Menace in part because of
the consistency in action material as already discussed, and also partly
because there were fewer thematic elements to constantly juggle. That
said, Williams' handling of the classic trilogy themes, in conjunction
with the two major new ones, is about as well organized as anyone could
have expected. And, as we all know, the expectations with this score
were extremely high.
Of the two major themes that Williams introduces in
The
Phantom Menace, the more famous one is ironically quite limited in
its application, both in this movie and its successors. The "Duel of the
Fates" theme only appears as the three-location battle late in the film
gets heated up, and it specifically accompanies the lightsaber battle
between the two Jedi and Darth Maul. Distinct because of its sixteenth
notes for brass and chanting adult chorus over turbulent percussion,
"Duel of the Fates" is an explosively frightening theme to hear over the
pivotal battle sequence. Woodwind interludes can barely compete with the
brass, which convey both the heroic and tragic elements that emerge from
the outcome of the duel. The chorus performs with the same overbearing
sense of gravity as in Williams'
Indiana Jones and Temple of
Doom, and while its contributions really present the theme of the
piece, the rowdy five-note brass bursts over the top produce the lasting
memory. Some listeners have complained that the choral element is
overblown, and on album that can be the case; in the film, you don't
suffer as much from the mix (or the repetitive false endings) that you
hear in the concert version of the theme. Although the boisterous title
theme has more raw orchestral power to offer, the beauty of the score
resides in "Anakin's Theme." Ever so carefully crafted, this idea for
the "chosen one" has a tender, floating quality on the one side and a
morbid sense of doom on the other. In the latter stages of the theme,
listeners are greeted by a subtle and haunting foreshadowing of "The
Imperial March." So no matter how cute the kid is (and no matter how
often his theme starts each segment with hope and loftiness), the idea
always returns to its destiny with "The Imperial March" in its final
four notes. This masterful touch is one of the best uses of theme from
Williams in years, and its continuous, brooding truth returns at regular
intervals in the score. This theme, unlike the "Duel of the Fates"
(which only rears its ugly head again in
Revenge of the Sith), is
developed extensively in the two subsequent prequel scores as well,
being integrated directly into the love theme at the heart of
Attack
of the Clones and fading away to only hints as the boy's innocence
is lost.
Williams does conjure several other new motifs, but they
only make a minimal difference. A whispering chant for Darth Maul is
distinctive, but not particularly memorable. A handful of ideas for
Anakin's Tatooine relationships is never clearly defined. Qui-Gon's
theme is underutilized, but consistent. The use of previous thematic
material in
The Phantom Menace, however, is both intelligent and
satisfying. Perhaps no single cue is as enjoyable as the full
rip-roaring performance of "The Imperial March" at the end of
Attack
of the Clones, but
The Phantom Menace is a better score in
which to seek out renditions of the theme for "The Force," which was an
integral part of
A New Hope. The Jedi and their council are often
treated to appropriately noble performances of this theme on horns, and
key cues involving Anakin's freedom and future training make frequent
use of this idea. The theme for the future emperor, only heard in
Return of the Jedi in the classic trilogy, is the second most
frequently stated existing theme in
The Phantom Menace, with
almost all of Darth Sidious' scenes with Darth Maul accompanied by the
familiar, deep male choral theme. Williams even cleverly adapts the
theme into the melody of the celebration song at the end of the film,
one of the most creatively rewarding adaptations in the prequel trilogy.
Otherwise, the use of previous themes is held to a minimum. The most
surprising aspect of
The Phantom Menace is just how seldom
Williams inserts the title theme from the entire franchise; outside of
its mandatory usage in the opening and closing titles, there are only a
couple of notable utilizations, the first and most obvious occurring
during the two Jedi's defensive droid battle near the outset of the
film. The usual fanfare is also absent from the end of the closing
credits. The theme for the budding empire, as mentioned before, is still
one film away at this point, but in addition to being suggested in
"Anakin's Theme," it makes one token appearance during a conversation
about the ominous future that the Jedi foresee (this cue is featured
under different titles in the two commercial album released). In the
same cue is one comforting statement of the first section of Yoda's
theme. The crowd-pleaser of the lot is, surprisingly, the theme for
Jabba the Hutt, which Williams adapts into a completely different
emotional setting for the preamble to the pod race on Tatooine.
The score's presentation on album was initially greeted
with enthusiasm, though when fans saw the film they quickly realized
that the first single-CD Sony album is sadly inadequate. It was also
rearranged significantly for the purposes of a listening experience, and
not only are the cues out of chronological order, but they are sometimes
mislabeled as well. What follows in this review is a track-by-track
analysis of mainly the first commercial album, which covers all the
major bases, and then some supplemental discussion about Sony's 2-CD
follow-up product. On the first commercial product, the score
predictably opens as all the others in the franchise have. The
Star
Wars fanfare is presented in almost an identical form, with the only
difference seemingly being an emphasis on a heavier mix of the snare. The
next cue, "The Arrival at Naboo," offers one of the score's generic
fanfares (which would, incidentally, carry over to the other pictures
whenever Lucas provides a transitional vista shot). The album's two
concert suites follow. "Duel of the Fates" was released to radio
stations a week before the official release of the entire album, and a
music video version was adapted for television. The piece does annoyingly
roll into two false endings during which the ensemble comes to one
symphonic blast on key, and then halts for a few seconds before building
up to yet another climax. Like the "Luke and Leia" theme in
Return of
the Jedi, the concert version of "Duel of the Fates" is overextended
and functions better when integrated into the rest of the score. The
concert suite of "Anakin's Theme" is next in line, and is a far easier
listening experience. In "Jar Jar's Introduction," Williams establishes
a light, bouncing atmosphere around strings and woodwinds that will
remind listeners of the frivolous and playful nature of the Ewoks'
music. A high, whimsical spirit follows in "The Swim to Otoh Gunga,"
with an ethereal female choir lending an extra dimension to the
underwater sequences throughout the film. The "Sith Spacecraft and the
Droid Battle" combo track features the first ass-kicking action cue,
with an abundance of triplets with a hint of the "Imperial March"'s
minor key (Sith) references and a portion of the noble "Duel of the
Fates" counterpoint brass motif. The cue resembles "Into the Trap" from
Return of the Jedi, albeit with far more complex
structures.
In "The Trip to the Naboo Temple," Williams pulls shades
of
Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom in its bold strength and
slightly exotic tendencies. For "The Arrival at Tatooine," Williams
remains loyal to the franchise, with a jolly spirit of rhythm for the
droids carrying over from early in
A New Hope. Commonly performed
by orchestral groups in its own concert suite arrangement, "The Flag
Parade" is a pivotal cue in the score and perhaps the most vibrant of
the suites usually appearing on compilations. Its presentation here is
badly rearranged so that its natural introduction is withheld until the
"Anakin Defeats Sebulba" track later on the album. Still, it's a wildly
royal fanfare that takes inspiration from the great race preludes from
Hollywood's Golden Age and its accompaniment of the colorful
effects-laden scene is stunning on screen. A superb return to the
simmering music of Anakin's fate, "He is the Chosen One" toys with the
theme for "The Force," a few notes of "Yoda's theme," and the
character's own musical identity, with turbulent, low string shades not
unlike those from the later
A.I. Artificial Intelligence. With the fanfare
at the end of this track and the start of the actual pod race sequence,
the album really starts to pick up the pace. In "Anakin Defeats
Sebulba," we finally hear the other half of the parade sequence.
Following one of the more satisfying expressions of "The Force" theme,
Williams launches into a massively impressive performance of Jabba the
Hutt's theme; it's almost unrecognizable with so much low brass
performing the tune instead of a single tuba. The cue establishes an
enormous amount of suspense, resulting in a rigorous action cue much
like "Den of the Rancor" in
Return of the Jedi. The victorious
tone at the end is announced by a few bold timpani rolls. Turning back
to earlier scenes in Naboo, the eerie effect of wavering strings and a
singular flute in "Passage Through the Planet Core" produces adequately
creepy underscore, with a very alienating quality. The following
"Watto's Deal and Kids at Play" track is unremarkable if not for the
"The Force" theme's unadulterated performance in the latter half of the
its mix, with a performance that is similar to the one high among the
Endor trees in
Return of the Jedi.
The first instance of the franchise theme in full on the
commercial album occurs in "Panaka and the Queen's Protectors," a
frantic adventure cue with the "Duel of the Fates" theme well integrated
into the action. A spirited, seldom used theme for the cause of Naboo is
best heard in the first minute of this cue. Beginning with a sense of
agony, "Queen Amidala and the Naboo Palace" is both sinister and
forbidding, though Anakin's theme rescues the cue and leads into yet
another massive fanfare for the Naboo's glorious waterfalls. The
sweeping strings in this cue seem constantly at battle with the
militaristic percussion that boils underneath the surface at all times.
For the third time on this album, the track ends abruptly with a single
orchestral hit (something that happened often in the recording of the
score for
The Empire Strikes Back), and it's likely due to the
fact that the cue is meant to lead directly into another recording when
edited. The scenes for the invasion of the droids provide excellent,
pulsating action, with muted trombones and relentless, charged strings.
The cue almost falls into chaos at points, before the second section
begins with "Appearance of Darth Maul." Williams, with fantastic
success, uses a sort of howling effect (likely on synthesizer) to mirror
the sound of a crying, lone wolf to signify coming evil. The ensuing
silence yields to a full, deep choral statement of the Emperor's theme.
Although brief, this extremely enjoyable moment is pure evil. Qui-Gon's
death scene is scored with a final few blasts of the five-note brass
counterpoint motif before transitioning to a quick and pounding array of
percussion and timpani that likely accompanies part of the concurrent
space battle. The Jedi meeting and funeral sequence is another
interesting collection of themes interpolated very well, with Yoda's
theme making one brief, but noble appearance, and one longer and subtle
performance of the "Imperial March" on low woodwinds. The funeral scene
incorporates an almost Viking-like chorus, with "The Force" theme
providing one last tribute to Qui-Gon. The fact that this cue doesn't
make outward use of Qui-Gon's theme (which you really don't hear on this
album anyway) is a bit odd, though the effect of the cue in the film is
quite stirring.
The final cue in the film and on this album is the only
truly disappointing part of the equation. Williams inserts yet another
cute and fuzzy theme right out of the Ewok book for the celebratory
finale. The music is absolutely hideous, complete with a children's
"la-la" vocals and funky, totally bizarre electronics. To his credit,
Williams lets the audience know that the trick is on everyone except
Senator Palpatine, for the melody the children are performing is a
light-hearted version of the "Emperor's Theme." It's not as harsh as
"Lapti Nek" from
Return of the Jedi, but it produces the same
effect. Unfortunately, the performance doesn't mesh well at all with the
start of the usual end credit sequence, which is something that Williams
at least attempted to do with his original celebration music at the end
of
Return of the Jedi (before the new scene was added in 1997).
The end title format is the same as it has been in all of the other
Star Wars scores, with the exception of the fact that it doesn't
allow the franchise theme one last performance at the end. The concert
versions of "Duel of the Fates" and "Anakin's Theme" are mostly
identical to their previous incarnations early on the album, though
Williams does extend the dark undertones of Anakin's theme into very
slight hints of "The Imperial March" in the waning seconds. The audience
is left to contemplate the darkness to come, about which little argument
can be made. On the whole, it didn't take long for fans to realize that
this initial album presentation for
The Phantom Menace was
completely chopped up and rearranged almost to the point of confusion.
But it is as Williams wanted to be, and as a coherent listening
experience, it functions well enough (so long as you don't try too hard
to correlate each cue with the action you remember on the screen). The
album was strong enough to convince fans that Williams was indeed back
in fit
Star Wars shape, and for the majority of casual listeners,
the inclusion of the two concert suites makes the product a sufficient
buy. But
Star Wars scores had a history of causing
dissatisfaction on album, and even Sony's highly advertised and
anticipated follow-up release a year later would cause collectors to
scratch their heads.
With millions of copies of the original 1999 album sold,
the expanded, 2-CD "Ultimate Edition" of
The Phantom Menace hit
the shelves sooner than expected. Along with the 10 to 16-year wait that
fans of the franchise were accustomed to when it came to full soundtrack
releases, the timing of this particular release for Sony was very
curious. First, there was no DVD release of any of the films at the
time, and the VHS release was many months prior, meaning that there was
no tie-in for this album to accompany. Secondly, there were thousands
upon thousands of copies of the original 1999 album still in stores, and
the expanded release was certain to cause those originals to either be
returned to Sony at a great monetary loss or simply collect dust on the
store shelves. At any rate, November 2000 was the chosen time for Sony
to generously supply a more complete version of the
The Phantom
Menace score on album. It was likely brought to the attention of
Sony that bootlegs of the "complete" score had been floating around the
internet market for over a year already, and perhaps a legitimate
expanded release, they might have figured, would shift that demand to a
consumer product. Fans disappointed by the single CD status of the
original album first praised the news of an expanded release, but soon
after the first promotional copies of this 2-CD set became available, a
new controversy erupted. The packaging, as well as press releases from
Sony, indicated that every single note of Williams' score for the film
would be included in sequence on the album. At first, this recipe
sounded much like the final, complete releases of the first three
Star Wars scores. But Sony decided to do something odd with this
product. Instead of taking the master tapes of Williams' recording
sessions and provide those original performances on this set, fans are
instead presented with what is essentially an "isolated score" track of
edited music from the film itself. Therefore, most of the tracks run
together and, while the volume is consistent, sharp edits on some of the
cues make this album very different from the typically fine-crafted
Williams presentations of the modern age. Cues are returned to their
proper titles, though, with "The High Council Meeting" on first album
correctly termed "The Queen Confronts Nute and Rune."
Williams himself was not particularly happy with the
final film edit of many of his cues in
The Phantom Menace,
claiming that a certain amount of injustice was done to them in the last
days of frantic editing of the production by George Lucas. Both men will
admit, however, that it was too late to re-score the film by that point.
But even so, this doesn't necessarily mean that Sony was artistically
forced to abandon the original master recordings and instead simply suck
the music track right out of the film. For what it's worth, the
following scores in the prequel trilogy never received any expanded
treatment whatsoever in the first two decades of their existence. What
does this mean for film music collectors interested in
The Phantom
Menace? Abrasively, it causes the 2-CD set to contain a few fade-ins
and fade-outs, as well as several abrupt shifts, and the suite
performances are not heard at all. Thus, if you prefer Williams'
delicate and masterful talent for creating smooth, suite-formatted
albums of his music, then you might be better off with the original.
Some die-hard fans went so far as to accuse Sony of taking the cheapest
route in producing the album, but it's entirely possible that the label
mistakenly assumed that this format was what the fans wanted to hear. At
any rate, when the original album debuted, it was missing several
important cues and, in some cases, minimized a few thematic elements to
almost non-existence. The middle third of the score contained
significant melodic development for Qui-Gon and Anakin's relationships
on Tatooine. The Qui-Gon theme is heard triumphantly at the start of
"Anakin is Free" (obviously conveying the Jedi's success at acquiring
the freedom of the fateful boy) and fleetingly during his actual death
scene. While it doesn't relate directly to his funeral cue, this idea is
the one that often produces many comments about Williams' lifting of
material from
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade because of its
similarly stately manner on strings. The themes for Anakin's
relationships, likely tied in with his mother by Williams' intent, are
evident at the outsets of "The Racer Roars to Life" and "Hail to the
Winner," and Williams summarizes these ideas for the last scene on
Tatooine (heard again in "Anakin is Free"). Some of these performances
are quite compelling, including the heroism of the first two tracks just
mentioned and the solemn beauty of the solo woodwind rendition in the
middle of "Anakin is Free."
Two cues of music that made a monumental impact in
The Phantom Menace but were painfully missing from the 1999 album
are provided in their full forms on the 2000 expansion. First, the
"Anakin is Free" cue is obviously pivotal, and not only does it wrap up
most of Qui-Gon's material and that of Anakin's youth and mother, but it
also concludes with a rousing and memorable performance of "The Force"
theme. The other cue is "The Tide Turns," which accompanies the scene in
which Anakin single-handedly destroys the federation station at the
climax of the film. A heroic combination of "The Force" theme and the
"Duel of the Fates" counterpoint motif are explosively presented in this
three-minute cue. With these cues alone, most fans should be satisfied
with the album. A few additional performances of "The Force" theme exist
only on this product, including a notable one in "Shmi and Qui-Gon
Talk." The second CD contains the mass of really good unreleased music,
from the two major tracks above to the distinct "Gungan March" (complete
with native horn effects). That CD is plagued with most of the poor
edits, however; "Duel of the Fates" is split into pieces because of the
ongoing shifts in location between the space battle, droid battle, and
the lightsaber duel. These sharp fades, such as the jarring transitions
starting at "The Duel Continues" and continuing for three more cues, are
a great detriment to the album even though such cuts weren't noticed
with all the sound effects during the film. Of the 68 tracks on the two
CDs, only 20 of them have pleasant fades at the start and end. The
listening experience over those entire 68 tracks is a bit more difficult
if you want to enjoy all the music from end-to-end, but if you're only
seeking key omissions from the first album, then this set will suffice.
The beautiful packaging does have a few flaws, including the lack of
much notation and the restriction of track titles to one section deep
within the attached insert. And, of course, the album isn't complete.
Despite Sony's publicity effort, there are pieces of cues here and there
that are missing, and of course the suites are also gone. Two bonus
tracks, including one source piece and the audio track to the "Duel of
the Fates" music video, are instead provided. Sony re-issued the 1999
album in its 2016 "Ultimate Soundtrack Collection" set. Upon Disney's
ownership of the franchise's rights, its label remastered that same
presentation again in 2018 for another pressing. Ultimately,
regardless of quibbles over the album situation,
The Phantom
Menace remains a fantastic entry in the
Star Wars franchise,
and it's arguably the best of the prequel scores. Seek it with
confidence.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for Film: *****
- Music as Heard on All Albums: ****
- Overall: *****
| Bias Check: |
For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.67
(in 90 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 356,795 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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