Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Star Wars

Star Wars Radio Talk with Captain Phil

After reading yesterday’s panegyric and screed about the rise and fall of Skywalker, Phil Merkel invited me on to his radio show, Captain Phil’s Planet, to continue in that vein this afternoon, beginning around 3:40 EDT.

There will be about a half-hour of jawboning about Jawas and tunes from Tatooine, as Cap and I travel back to our collective youth, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way, to reminisce about what it was like to see “Star Wars” in the theater in 1977.

Tune in to WUSB, the radio station of Stony Brook University, at wusb.fm. To hear the stream, click on the silver WUSB player button at the upper left-hand side of the page.

See you there, dorks!

https://www.wusb.fm/

PHOTO: To give you an idea of what you’re in for, these guys were way cooler than us

May 5, 2022
Star Wars Day: Remembering the 1977 Magic

“Star Wars” opened on May 25, 1977. Yet today is celebrated as “Star Wars Day.” Why? Because of a stupid pun: May the Fourth be with you.

I can get behind that.

The young will never truly understand what it was like to experience “Star Wars” in a theater for the first time back then. Standing in enormous lines. Not being able to get in. An absorbed audience without cell phones. No vacuous tabloid entertainment “news” prior to the feature. 45 years ago, before the lights went down and the trailers started, you had the conversation of your family or friends.

Then the 20th Century Fox Fanfare. The peculiar text “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” The brash appearance of the film’s title – STAR WARS – receding into space. The opening crawl. The enormity of the first star destroyer. The richly-imagined creatures and lived-in locations. The jump to light speed. The grappling hook swing across a yawning chasm. The light saber duel. The extraterrestrial dogfights and dizzying race to destroy the Death Star. And of course, the exhilarating, exuberant, totally transporting music.

In 1977, not only was “Star Wars” sensorially thrilling, but the overall experience resonated. It was clearly-told, cleanly-executed, and deeply satisfying, and viewers left the theater glowing.

Whether or not it was intended to be so, the film was a brilliant piece of postmodernism. Everything about it was fresh, yet comfortingly familiar, with elements of the western, the swashbuckler, the war movie, the matinee serial, the samurai chanbara, and whatever else George Lucas may have picked up from film school and a lifetime of going to the movies.

Likewise, John Williams’ score was like an ice cream soda, with dollops assimilated from English and Russian classics of the western canon, topped by a schlag of Austro-German Romanticism.

“Star Wars” mania swelled like an overstuffed Shmoo to dominate pop culture. But in 1977 it was all brand-new, and the merchandizing had to scramble to catch up. At first, there was the novelization and the Marvel comics and some t-shirts, and that was about it. Kenner, the toy company, was caught totally off-guard and unable to meet the demand for action figures in time for Christmas. Anybody else remember the Early Bird Certificate Package? At Christmas 1978, they were still struggling to keep up.

For better or worse, “Star Wars” changed movies and merchandizing, and the relationship between the two, forever.

Alas, in 2022, the magic has long since faded. There’s little nutritional value in the devouring of one’s own tail (or tale) and, decades later, the franchise, like an enormous ouroboros, has lost most of its vitality.

Furthermore, you can’t even see the original movie anymore, or rather the theatrical cut, thanks to years of Lucas’ digital retrofitting. Here’s hoping that someday Disney allocates some of its profits to removing the “overpainting,” as it were, so that the film can again be experienced as it was originally shown.

Lucas has been steadfast in insisting that his revisions comprise a definitive version, yet he continued to tinker right up until the time it left his hands. He even went so far as to claim that the source material was so degraded by then that such a restoration would be impossible.

Yet the theatrical cuts were selected by the Library of Congress National Film Registry for preservation as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” Lucas tried to offer his retooled versions in place of the originals, and the library said no thanks. So the theatrical cuts are out there, folks. I just hope somebody’s taking care of them.

Long live “Star Wars” (the original), and may Disney do everything in its power to restore the 1977-83 trilogy to its original brilliance. At this stage in the decline of the franchise, I would venture to guess, it would generate more revenue than to produce another substandard movie. Then, to promote the reissue on home video, why not rerelease the original trilogy in theaters? There would be three generations of “Star Wars” fans lining up to see it.

Don’t let J.J. Abrams get you down. The Force is still strong with this one.

Happy Star Wars Day!

A face-melting side-by-side comparison (still not comprehensive) of Lucas’ alterations to “Star Wars”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J09VSUHZDLc

May 4, 2022
NJ Concerts Star Wars Williams Korngold

Here’s a link to a cleaner, more readable facsimile of my article in this week’s U.S. 1 newspaper.

All-John Williams, performed by the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra – with Jonathan Wintringham the soloist in the saxophone concerto “Escapades,” after “Catch Me If You Can” – at the Trenton War Memorial this Saturday at 7:30 pm. Daniel Spalding conducts.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto at the Princeton Symphony Orchestra – with Stefan Jackiw the soloist – at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on May 7 & 8. Rossen Milanov conducts.

Williams’ score to “Star Wars,” performed by the New Jersey Symphony, with the film, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick on May 12. (Additional performances at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank on May 13 and New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on May 14.) Constantine Kitsopoulos conducts.

Reel music is real music! Read all about it here:

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/eeditions/page-page-10/page_f0b402cd-d18f-5a99-a5fc-eeee5d595098.html

April 21, 2022
William Walton: Star Wars Inspiration

Today is the 120th anniversary of the birth of Sir William Walton. Walton is perhaps best remembered for his coronation marches and film scores, but he also wrote operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and choral works.

Sadly, these days, we don’t seem to encounter these much in concert anymore, at least in the U.S., which is a great pity, since Walton was an impeccable craftsman and his music often quite inspirational.

Be that as it may, his influence has been felt by just about anyone who’s ever gone to the movies since 1977. That’s the year John Williams married Walton’s heroic sound to George Lucas’ vision of a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Walton’s concert music may have fallen out of fashion, but Williams would have never become the household name he has without having assimilated his marches, harmonies, and orchestrations. When André Previn first heard Williams conduct his music to “Star Wars,” he could hardly contain his glee, exclaiming, “Why, it’s Willie Walton!”

Hear for yourself…

“Star Wars” throne room – from the one-minute mark, pure Walton:

What Walton cooked up for the Queen in 1953 – there’s a proto-“Star Wars” moment about two minutes in, but do listen to the whole thing:

This is what he composed for her dad in 1937:

For Olivier’s film of “Richard III”

“Belshazzar’s Feast”: “Praise Ye!”

“Belshazzar’s Feast”: “Alleluia”

In 1966, Previn himself laid down what is considered the benchmark recording of Walton’s Symphony No. 1. It’s possible he managed to surpass it with this explosive performance with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1970:

Happy birthday, Sir William Walton!

PHOTO: Walton (right) with Previn, his champion

March 29, 2022
Kenneth Wannberg, Star Wars Music Editor, Dies at 91

Kenneth Wannberg, a major influence on the shaping of John Williams’ classic film scores, has died at the age of 91.

In the capacity of Williams’ music editor, Wannberg was responsible for, among other things, selecting the best takes from the recording sessions of a particular cue and assembling them into a coherent whole. The main title to “Star Wars” was recorded five times for the original movie. Wannberg used the best three takes to produce the final version as heard in the film.

He was also responsible for the placement of streamers and punches on the work print of a film for the conductor (in this case, Williams), and for the assembly of the soundtrack album.

In the special editions of the original “Star Wars” trilogy and in the subsequent prequel trilogy, George Lucas had a tendency to ramp up Ben Burtt’s sound effects at the expense of Williams’ music. At a time when seemingly everyone had become a Lucas yes-man, Wannberg stepped up during the mixing of “Revenge of the Sith” to point out that the effects were too noisy. When Wannberg explained that the music was the “thread through the montage of cutting back and forth” in the climactic duel scene, and that it needs to “live a little,” Lucas considered his words and ultimately conceded. There weren’t very many people who would have stood up to Lucas at that point in his career.

Wannberg worked with Williams at least as far back as 1967, when Williams provided music for “Valley of the Dolls.” He also assisted him on the Reader’s Digest-produced screen musical “Tom Sawyer” (with songs by the Sherman Brothers). Most significantly, he was at the composer’s side all throughout his heroic hot streak of “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.” He remained with Williams until his retirement, following work on “Revenge of the Sith,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and “Munich,” in 2005.

Williams, who dedicated to Wannberg a concert version of “Star of Bethlehem” (originally from Williams’ score to “Home Alone”), will turn 90 on February 8.

Wannberg was a composer himself, providing scores for “The Late Show,” with Art Carney and Lily Tomlin, “Losin’ It,” with Tom Cruise, and “The Philadelphia Experiment.”

R.I.P.

https://variety.com/2022/music/obituaries-people-news/kenneth-wannberg-composer-and-music-editor-who-worked-with-john-williams-on-star-wars-series-and-50-other-films-dies-at-91-1235171606/

PHOTO: Wannberg (center), with John Williams and Steven Spielberg, backstage at a concert in Seattle in 2017

February 4, 2022

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