Is John Williams past his prime?

[Syt]

John Williams created the soundtracks for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Schindler's List and countless other movies (almost anything Spielberg) and he's won several Oscars for his work.

I'm listening to last.fm, and am on a movie soundtrack tag. Comes up a song I think sounds awfully like something from the Star Wars prequels - fanfares, choir, etc., like fresh from an action scene. Turns out it's from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which I haven't seen).

Is the guy so far beyond his prime that his soundtracks all begin to sound alike? Or have they always been and I never noticed?

[Zanza]

While I think I have not seen that particular Harry Potter film, the ones I saw had quite a few action scenes. So why would it not fit? Without hearing a soundtrack as actually used in a movie when watching that movie it does not make much sense to judge it in my opinion.

[Sophie Scholl]

Once you get used to their style, you can almost always tell who is composing a movie's score.  Horner, Elfman, Williams, Newman, Shore, etc.  I wouldn't say it's that they're all past their primes, so much as directors hire them for their past scores and their desire to emulate the general sound that they had previously.

[Syt]

Once you get used to their style, you can almost always tell who is composing a movie's score.  Horner, Elfman, Williams, Newman, Shore, etc.  I wouldn't say it's that they're all past their primes, so much as directors hire them for their past scores and their desire to emulate the general sound that they had previously.

Good point.

[dps]

John Williams created the soundtracks for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Schindler's List and countless other movies (almost anything Spielberg) and he's won several Oscars for his work.

I'm listening to last.fm, and am on a movie soundtrack tag. Comes up a song I think sounds awfully like something from the Star Wars prequels - fanfares, choir, etc., like fresh from an action scene. Turns out it's from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which I haven't seen).

Is the guy so far beyond his prime that his soundtracks all begin to sound alike? Or have they always been and I never noticed?

Nah, the problem is that you're past your prime and all instrumental soundtracks are starting to sound alike to you.  Give it a couple of years and you won't even be able to tell the songs with vocals from the pure instumental pieces anymore. 

[katmai]

Dps is speaking from his own personal experience.

[Strix]

I would imagine that classical music and movie sound tracks have the same issues as other types of music where old favorites are "modernized" or given a re-tread every now and than.

[Lucidor]

My favorite is Morricone, Cinema Paradiso and The Mission, and countless spaghetti westerns.

[Josquius]

Thinking about it I can think of the Harry Potter 'theme tune'.
So...no he's still going well.
General 'action scene' music tends to be much the same, its point is to blend into the background rather than to dominate.

[derspiess]

I can't remember the exact one, but there is a Tchaikovsky overture I listened to a while back that sounds an awful lot like the Indiana Jones theme.

But I think John Williams has done some decent stuff fairly recently, like the music he did for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

[Sheilbh]

My favorite is Morricone, Cinema Paradiso and The Mission, and countless spaghetti westerns.

His work on Battle of Algiers is simply superb.  I love a Glass film score.

Incidentally to those who haven't watched Prisoner of Azkaban it's by far the best of the Harry Potter films

[The Brain]

He has certainly gone pear shaped, but he's still pretty succulent.

[Syt]

I can't remember the exact one, but there is a Tchaikovsky overture I listened to a while back that sounds an awful lot like the Indiana Jones theme.

Lucas originally showed previews of Star Wars footage with Holst's The Planets as music which served as inspiration for Williams. It' notable in some scenes, like the one where the Falcon is pulled into hangar 3027 of the Death Star, where the music sounds like "Mars, Bringer of War".

[Valmy]

Incidentally to those who haven't watched Prisoner of Azkaban it's by far the best of the Harry Potter films

I agree with that.

[grumbler]

Incidentally to those who haven't watched Prisoner of Azkaban it's by far the best of the Harry Potter films

Still kinda like arguing about the most virtuous mass murderer, though; "best Harry potter" still isn't necessarily good.