STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS - Blu-Ray Thoughts

[DavidBanner]

I strongly doubt that Luke is a Sith. Everything I've seen indicates he's the Obi-Wan of the reboot. I'm also avoiding spoilers as I'd rather see the movie as fresh as possible when it hits home video. I do have a potential free screening I can attend, but I don't know that I want to stand in line for a JJ Abrams movie that may well play better on television.

[AndyDursin]

Let's hope that's the case -- though I'm not sure what you've seen as they haven't revealed anything of Luke, purposefully, in any trailer or anything else. The most obvious deal is he's the new Obi-Wan, and I'm inclined to agree with you because they've already cast Benicio Del Toro as the villain in the next film(s) and they already have Adam Driver.

What worries me is that they haven't shown him anywhere. Not on a poster, not in the trailer -- if he's just serving as Obi-Wan, what's the reason for that? Abrams might be holding it back as a "big reveal", which he might be doing anyway, but if he's got a big twist up his sleeve, he's certainly covered his tracks by holding Luke back from any promotion involved in the film.

[AndyDursin]

Here's Williams on the music from Variety:

The composer began work last December and basically continued all year, completing the recording in mid-November. His 90-piece orchestra recorded 175 minutes of music, he says, although nearly an hour of that was discarded, modified or rerecorded as Abrams re-edited the film.

[Eric Paddon]

Let's hope that's the case -- though I'm not sure what you've seen as they haven't revealed anything of Luke, purposefully, in any trailer or anything else. The most obvious deal is he's the new Obi-Wan, and
What worries me is that they haven't shown him anywhere. Not on a poster, not in the trailer -- if he's just serving as Obi-Wan, what's the reason for that? Abrams might be holding it back as a "big reveal", which he might be doing anyway, but if he's got a big twist up his sleeve, he's certainly covered his tracks by holding Luke back from any promotion involved in the film.

Gee, does this mean we get this kind of dialogue?

"Luke......now that's a name I haven't heard in a long while......."

[Paul MacLean]

Here's Williams on the music from Variety:

The composer began work last December and basically continued all year, completing the recording in mid-November. His 90-piece orchestra recorded 175 minutes of music, he says, although nearly an hour of that was discarded, modified or rerecorded as Abrams re-edited the film.

It's amazing to me that they would ask someone of John Williams' stature (and age) to score this film, and not hand him "locked reels", and then force him to make an hour's worth of changes. But I guess that's just the way its done these days (and another reason most film music blows).

I wonder what's going to be on the CD -- Williams' initial versions or the reworked ones...because the re-writes were probably done by orchestrators (albeit under Williams' guidance) rather than Williams himself.

Oh, and here's a better link to the CBS News feature on the scoring session...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/behind-the- ... e-awakens/

[AndyDursin]

That material should be a part of 60 MINUTES tomorrow night -- ought to be worth tuning into.

I agree Paul. He's spent most of THIS YEAR recording and rewriting? Wow. Gone are the days of a few sessions even for movies being worked on relentlessly. My guess is this will be his final STAR WARS score -- even if (and God hopes he still is) working in a few years, it'll be on projects not nearly as taxing physically.

[Paul MacLean]

That material should be a part of 60 MINUTES tomorrow night -- ought to be worth tuning into.

I agree Paul. He's spent most of THIS YEAR recording and rewriting? Wow. Gone are the days of a few sessions even for movies being worked on relentlessly. My guess is this will be his final STAR WARS score -- even if (and God hopes he still is) working in a few years, it'll be on projects not nearly as taxing physically.

Fortunately Spielberg -- bless him -- respects Williams' working method, and has the clout to allow him to take the necessary time to do the best possible job. But with Disney running the show on The Force Awakens, it seems Williams has been forced to accommodate all the endless cuts and alterations which are necessary to appease "demographics" and "focus groups" (and studio paranoia).

I'll be honest, the score I'm really looking forward to is BFG, not The Force Awakens!

[AndyDursin]

But with Disney running the show on The Force Awakens, it seems Williams has been forced to accommodate all the endless cuts and alterations which are necessary to appease "demographics" and "focus groups" (and studio paranoia).

That's exactly what's going on.

[DavidBanner]

To be fair, Williams joined Star Wars and various Spielberg projects relatively early on, taking time to read earlier drafts of the script and work with the director on themes long before picture had been locked. And he's had multiple scores adjusted by both Lucas and Spielberg. We've seen the alts for the various Star Wars films - although I realize that we haven't seen as much alt material as this article is discussing. Of course, there may have been more alts that we don't know about for the earlier movies. As I recall, Lucas heavily edited and re-edited the prequel movies to the point that multiple Williams cues were moved and re-purposed after reshoots. So this isn't something new to Williams.

That said, I'm not sure that this is Disney making corporate decisions about the score so much as it is about JJ Abrams being way behind schedule and rushing to satisfy a release date that was never realistic for him or Lucasfilm. We've all known that Abrams was pushing it in trying to get this movie into theaters this Christmas rather than waiting to release it at the normal time in May 2016 (or even waiting til the 40th Anniversary in 2017). And not only did they start shooting months later than planned, but they had a setback with Ford being injured on the set and needing to be written out of more of the movie before what I understand from here to be his contractually agreed death for Han Solo.

The part where I agree with the corporate sensibility running this is that Disney wanted this movie out now so it wouldn't compete with their summer movie slate for 2016 including a new Captain America/Avengers adventure, and Abrams wanted the movie out now so it wouldn't compete with his next attempt to inflict a production with the name Star Trek in Summer 2016. Looks like they figured that Star Wars fans would be willing to watch anything so long as it looked like the original movies and not the prequels. From what I'm seeing from plenty of fans, it looks like Disney and Abrams may have been right.

[AndyDursin]

Review embargo is lifted at Midnight Wednesday.

[Paul MacLean]

To be fair, Williams joined Star Wars and various Spielberg projects relatively early on, taking time to read earlier drafts of the script and work with the director on themes long before picture had been locked.

But there's a colossal difference between demo-ing themes on a piano for a director, vs. writing extended dramatic cues which are meticulously timed to a sequence (complete with intricate instrumental details).

A thematic "idea" which Williams would audition for a director (prior to commencing work on the actual score), would be a two-staff piano sketch, like this...



This is relatively easy to alter.

An actual cue, written to follow the action (with specific timings and sync marks, as well as details for the orchestration) looks like this...



As you can see, this involves a considerably more complex and extensive level of writing, and takes far-longer to change -- and this is the kind of thing Williams was constantly having to re-write for The Force Awakens.

And he's had multiple scores adjusted by both Lucas and Spielberg.

But never to the extent where he had to spend the better part of a year doing re-writes (amounting to an hour's worth of amended cues).

As I recall, Lucas heavily edited and re-edited the prequel movies to the point that multiple Williams cues were moved and re-purposed after reshoots. So this isn't something new to Williams.

Yes, the music was altered in some spots -- after it was all written recorded, and by music editors. This is totally different from asking Williams himself to physically re-write two thirds of the score, as JJ Abrams did.

[John Johnson]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes- ... rs-begins/

[Monterey Jack]

Picked up my opening day ticket yesterday...am still excited to see this.

[AndyDursin]

Bought tix for us Friday night...every show was still available. In fact the only sell out locally is the first show Thursday in 2D.

Unless you live near a big city it looks to me there are loads of tix still available.

Of course I remember the same thing happened with Phantom Menace. Went to North Attleboro opening day and the afternoon show was half empty. Sometimes I think people are scared away thinking its 1977 and its not lol

[Monterey Jack]

Of course I remember the same thing happened with Phantom Menace. Went to North Attleboro opening day and the afternoon show was half empty. Sometimes I think people are scared away thinking its 1977 and its not lol

Same here...waited in line a week ahead of release day for Phantom Menace tickets (even ended up on the news that night, shown fleetingly during a panning shot of the theater), went to an early-afternoon matinee, and it was maybe 3/4ths full. Too many people panic about "not being able to get in on opening day/weekend!" for big movies, but only take into account the 8:00 and 9:00 PM showings on Fridays and Saturdays, which are obviously going to sell out. I see 95% of my movies during afternoon matinees, and the only time since probably 1997 I've been turned away by a sold-out showing was about a week ago...and, for all things, Spotlight? I probably could have strolled in on Friday, bought a ticket, and still managed to get a decent seat, but since I was there yesterday, I figured why risk it? In the multiplex era, the odds of not being able to see a movie drop to about zero if you see a showing before 6:00 PM.