Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (+DVD) - London Symphony Orchestra

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So the Star Wars saga is finally over. With the late arrival of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas' cartoonish sci-fi fantasy has reached its dreaded and most dark and desperate climax as Anakin Skywalker finally succumbs to the Dark Side and becomes the Sith Lord Darth Vader. After The Phantom Menace failed to make the impression on the general public than was hoped, the prequels have been received with more of a feeling ...
...comes to an end: the Star Wars scores of John Williams' that helped boost his fame to all new heighths and made a lasting impact on film scoring that continues to effect the way most film's are scored today.


THE MUSIC FROM THE OUTSET

From the outset it was clear that Revenge of the Sith would be a dark score. From the beginning to the end it is shadowed by Anakin's descent and transgression to the Dark Side and ... more

INTRODUCTION

So the Star Wars saga is finally over. With the late arrival of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas' cartoonish sci-fi fantasy has reached its dreaded and most dark and desperate climax as Anakin Skywalker finally succumbs to the Dark Side and becomes the Sith Lord Darth Vader. After The Phantom Menace failed to make the impression on the general public than was hoped, the prequels have been received with more of a feeling of "let's wait and see". Whereas the original trilogy of 1977-1983 was received with great excitement, the prequels have been sorely lacking in the ingredients that made the originals so gripping, namely more interesting characters, better structured stories, more authentic-looking space battles than those CGI-things we have today, and situations that kept you on the edge of your seat. The prequels on the other hand were distinctly lacking in many of these key elements and even though the CGI effects and other visual aspects of the film were quite impressive, the films were marred by choppy editing, papery characters and rather poor scripts. Along with the films, another historical legacy also comes to an end: the Star Wars scores of John Williams' that helped boost his fame to all new heighths and made a lasting impact on film scoring that continues to effect the way most film's are scored today.

THE MUSIC FROM THE OUTSET

From the outset it was clear that Revenge of the Sith would be a dark score. From the beginning to the end it is shadowed by Anakin's descent and transgression to the Dark Side and only at the end is there even a hint of hope and happiness that is to come later on in the series. However this darkness is not built from the same source as say Schindler's List, but from the more rhythmic oppressiveness of Attack of the Clones and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Invariably this rhythminess makes the music pretty impersonal and despite some quite awesome instances (particularly in the more sustained underscore) it left me quite cold from the outset. The overall style of Revenge of the Sith is the most different from the other scores in the saga. For the original trilogy Williams created multiple themes and motifs that were developed and transmogrified into many different forms throughout the series. The lengthy action, conversation and battle scenes would achieve a larger-than-life existence that would remain in your memory for a long time after the film had already ended and some of the characters would receive concert arrangements that would be rotated in concerts of film music. This kind of approach made the scores transcend the genre for which they were written and in many instances were able to stand on their own without relying on images to tell us what was happening.

When The Phantom Menace came out in 1999, Williams was counsciously trying to continue this approach by developing existing themes as well as creating new ones for new characters and situations. And, despite some obvious flaws as well as the horrendous editing done in the film, the composer was trying very hard to remain faithful to his original approach while trying to conform with Lucas' ever heightening pace of action and jumps of scenery. With Attack of the Clones Williams took a turn away from this approach. Instead of several big themes, he composed one major theme ("Across the Stars") that encompassed the entire character of the film of doomed love and it appeared in quite a few cues along the way. And even though Attack of the Clones was not entirely free of other themes or motifs, they never came as near to the kind of diverseness that we had become accustomed to in Star Wars. For Revenge of the Sith, Williams has taken a completely different direction with the emphasis on scene-specific underscore rather than relying on a strong thematic base. The score contains one big new theme, "Battle of the Heroes," that receives a concert arrangement in the third track, a "fun" rhythmic theme for General Grievous, two lamentations, and a number of little sub-themes that sound promising for elaboration but eventually lead nowhere. For the more thematically strong material Williams relies on his older themes above all, specifically the Imperial March and the Force theme.

THEMATIC MATERIAL UP CLOSE

The usage of older themes is much more extensive here than in the previous films, although listening to the album this may not strike you immediately. This all comes down to Williams' attempt to tie down the transition of Episode III to the following Episode IV that in fact was the first of the bunch to be made. As many of the actual themes, apart from the main title theme, the Force theme and Princess Leia's theme, don't actually appear in A New Hope, the composer systematically plays a downhand on the prequel trilogy's themes. On album Anakin's theme doesn't appear once, neither does "Duel of the Fates"; the love theme "Across the Stars" appears only as a reference a couple of times, most notably in "Anakin's Dream," before being deconstructed to die out in a whimper in "Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious"; and even appropriate themes for the Emperor, Luke and Leia, the Death Star, and Yoda are unusually underplayed or are missing entirely.

As mentioned previously, the primary new theme in Revenge of the Sith is "Battle of the Heroes," an epic, choral heavy piece written for the climactic lightsaber battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan. The concert version of the theme has already been circulated widely as a music video in the manner of "Duel of the Fates" (a trend sadly omitted for "Across the Stars") and is on itself a spectacularly effective theme. It opens with a turbulent string figure to which the brass and choir augment a more drawn-out melody with trumpets and horns surging above the other elements. The main contrast in the cue comes in the form of a quotation of the Force theme near the end before the underlying rhythm pretty much comes to the center stage and the piece ends with a brass hit at the top of a long crescendo. However, despite a high level of energy that more than measures up to "Duel of the Fates", the effect is not as memorable and this makes the theme probably the least easy to grasp at first hearing, although it does have a tendency to grow on you after a while. As a primary theme for Revenge of the Sith there however is a problem as it is really only used during the lightsaber battle and is not even hinted at before or after. Whereas the other themes that have received a concert arrangement in the past have always been a strong part of the underscore in general, "Battle of the Heroes" is more scene-specific than an actual part of an organic piece of thematic material that is allowed to grow and develop into a climactic battle later on in the film. As such it is probably one of the least successful of Williams' Star Wars themes, although one can enjoy it on its own with reasonable interest.

The music for General Grievous, the so-called "fun" music (Williams' own description), is very percussive and fast with rapid brass blasts, cymbal crashes and fluttering woodwinds gracing the music all the way through. It is extremely complex music but, apart from the inventive percussion base, the lack of a distinctive theme makes it very hard to remember and it doesn't offer enough individuality to stand out from Williams' usual action music. The other action music found in cues "The Revenge of the Sith," "Grievous and the Droids," and "Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious" follow Williams' usual choppy action writing with virtuostic brass and heavy percussion that by today is starting to sound a little too standardized to really make much of an impact. The opening "Star Wars and The Revenge of the Sith" is a perfect representation of this. After the opening Star Wars fanfare (somewhat curiously taken from The Phantom Menace recording), the opening cue begins straight out without the customary twinkling stars crawl with a large scale action piece that is very typical of Williams. Despite much volume and pounding around the cue just paddles around without really going anywhere and existing without trying to achieve any definite goal. This kind of sense of incoherence is what unfortunately seems to haunt much of Revenge of the Sith and acts as a considerable hindrance to the general enjoyability of the music.

The two lamentations on the other hand are some of the best the score has to offer. The first is "Anakin's Betrayal" which introduces the first of those intriguing sub-themes that appear only once in the score. The cue is wonderfully emotional with the choir adding a great sense of mourning that brings back memories of Hook and Schindler's List. The intensity and mournful majesty of this cue really puts to shame much of the more bombastic action music heard in the majority of the rest of the score. On a similar note is the later "The Immolation Scene" that follows in the same steps with layered strings performing an intense adagio. Although there is no choir, it is another very powerful cue that brings much needed heart to the score.

Other cues of interest include "Palpatine's Teachings" where the deep guttural sounds of the male choir make for an interesting effect and the fact that Williams doesn't rely on the Emperor's theme is a notable departure from his normal practices. The appearance of the Imperial March in the lower registers and the Force theme as a counterpoint, the music conveys Anakin's inner struggles quite appropriately with well over a minute of ominous bass string meanderings. The cue ends with the sudden appearance of the Coruscant fanfare that effectively breaks the established mood. "Padmé's Ruminations" is notable for its synthesized bass droning (a very rare occurrence in Williams) and a wailing Middle-Eastern female vocal. This, however, doesn't last for long and the rest of the cue descends into more low-keyed rumbling in the lower registers. A great highlight of the score is "Anakin's Dark Deeds" which begins with gentle choral music that resembles much of Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings before a full blown choral assault dispels the thought. Here we have another one of those splendid sub-themes that offer much but is not developed anywhere further. Still the music is a perfect accompaniment for Anakin's slaying of the enemies of the Republic.

The introduction of Anakin's transformation to Darth Vader in "Enter Lord Vader" is another instance where Williams plays against expectations. Without using the Imperial March, he relies on yet another under-developed sub-theme with a rather ominous presence. The Imperial March does make a partial appearance near the end of the cue with the Emperor's theme appearing very faintly at the conclusion. And finally there is "The Birth of the Twins and Padmé's Destiny" which details the birth of Luke and Leia, and the death of Padmé. Thematically this is a very curious cue. The birthing cue borrows a considerable chunk of music from the Harry Potter films that sounds quite odd at this point. Why not use the Luke/Leia theme created in Return of the Jedi for the brother and sister? The latter half of the cue then switches to the music we heard in The Phantom Menace at Qui-Gon's funeral. Whether this alludes to a funeral process in general or as thematic material to Qui-Gon I don't know yet, but either way it does sound a little less effective as it did the first time around.

THE USAGE OF OLDER THEMES

As I have mentioned before, the useage of older themes is more prominent in Revenge of the Sith than in any of the other prequels. Prevalent among these themes is the Imperial March and the Force theme. These two themes battle out in this score for supremacy, with the Force theme receiving the most fully idealised presentations whereas the Imperial March is still only gathering strength to be fully realized in The Empire Strikes Back. The one cue where the Imperial theme really gathers some strength is in the cue "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan" where it intermingles with the "Battle of the Heroes" theme. However, there is a major drawback in this approach. The Imperial March, when it appears, is a direct quotation from the lightsaber battle between Vader and Luke in The Empire Strikes Back just before Luke is hurled out of the window at the reactor shaft. Perhaps this is meant to be an allusion to the similarities between the two battles, but when it is mixed in with "Battle of the Heroes", the flow of the music suffers greatly. "Battle of the Heroes" could have worked much better alone in this context rather than being hindered by the Imperial March in an old arrangement no less.

The zenith in the use of the original themes comes in "A New Hope and End Credits" where we hear an extensive procession of familiar themes. The cue opens with the last piece of underscore where we hear Leia's theme, Luke's theme, and the Force theme in its "Binary Sunset" arrangement (although it sounds pretty modest in this performance) after which comes a somewhat poor transition to the end credits. The "End Credits" surprisingly present the greatest weakness of this score. It begins unsurprisingly with the main title theme which quite nicely segues into Princess Leia's theme. This transitions to the "Battle of the Heroes" concert arrangement, which is only expected, but events turn to the more unexplained after that. All of a sudden a fanfare brings back the "Throne Room" music heard at the end of the original Star Wars. It's inclusion at this juncture is frankly odd since a triumphal march (even though it is based on the Force theme) is not something that one would expect at this stage of the events. It is followed by yet another presentation of the Force theme, which (although it seems to try) fails to make much of an impact due to a disappointing crescendo that seems to lose power as it reaches its climax. The "Throne Room" makes one more appearance before the main Star Wars title heralds the score to its conclusion similarly to A New Hope's End Credits. The overall presentation of themes is admirable but the choice of music to include is very strange indeed. Despite running a full 13 minutes in length, Williams chooses not to make a full thematic sweep of the entire saga, but instead presents a rather uninspired re-edit of music we first heard in 1977. The "Throne Room" in particular is a jarring inclusion as it seems to have nothing to do with the events just witnessed and to have a triumphal victory march at this early stage is a little too premature.

THE ALBUM

The album presentation of the score, although offering a full 72 minutes of material, does not make great favours to the score as a whole. Williams' decision to include so much rather nonsensical underscore does not make much favors for the full score. It is a known fact that often spectacular pieces of music are excluded from the original soundtrack album either due to lack of space or through the avoidance of music heard in previous installments. However the music as presented on album suffers greatly from a lack of focus and cohesion with many wonderful sub-themes appearing throughout but not explored afterwards, the action music lacks direction, and some of the original themes (as well as prequel themes) are terribly underplayed or missing altogether, even when a particular theme could well have been used during certain scenes like the Luke/Leia theme during the birthing scene. Yoda's theme is missing, the Emperor's theme appears only once very faintly, the love theme is barely quoted… there are simply so many things that the album is missing that one can't but help feel a little cheated. The score as a whole would most certainly be a very fine composition in and of itself (and of course excluding the horrendous editing that has graced the prequel trilogy so far) and the only question that remains is whether an expanded edition of Revenge of the Sith, as well as Attack of the Clones, will be made available sometime in the future. Only then will we find out whether Revenge of the Sith is truly the great culmination that the Star Wars saga deserves.

As an accompaniment to the soundtrack album, Sony Classical also offers a special DVD free of charge. On this DVD, a somewhat tired-looking Ian McDiarmad (Palpatine) introduces 16 music videos using the concert arrangements and famous action setpieces from all six films. These music videos also include some amount of dialogue and sound effects but not in a way that is intrusive. Of course the new music video for Revenge of the Sith is also included and it offers a sneak peak of the film itself, while most of the other videos often edit together footage from all over the sextology that makes the plot jump a little too much around to make much cohesion for those not familiar with Star Wars. Still it is quite an extensive bonus (worthy of 70 minutes of music) and should prove to be quite enticing for potential buyers. Heavy on drama, but at a loss in the big picture of Star Wars music, Revenge of the Sith is still an enjoyable score (that is as far as you can enjoy your Star Wars music in a more doom-laden atmosphere). As I mentioned in my review for Attack of the Clones, for film score fans there really is no question about whether to get this or not, since the scores for Star Wars are still the cream of film scoring and should be found from even the most bare-boned of collections. A great score that is let down by its album presentation.

PS. I have now seen the movie and can make a few general statements. As for missing material of spectacular importance I found very little which is a little disappointing in that the score as a whole remains less thematic than I hoped it would be. Anakin's theme officially didn't appear once, "Duel of the Fates" appeared once and was obviously edited there from The Phantom Menace, "Battle of the Heroes" indeed (both concert and underscore cues) was used in that one battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan, and there were no further appearances of old themes (apart from the one appearance of Yoda's theme and a few more pronounced appearances of the Emperor's theme) that were not included on the album. Interestingly the appearances of the Vader/Luke lightsaber battle in "Anakin vs. Obi-Wan" was used to underscore the battle between the Emperor and Yoda! At least it explained a few things although it's still a little strange. Also the End Credits track was missing the Throne Room sequence which was a very good idea since it really didn't feel right at this point of the story. The funeral music was surprisingly used at the point where Darth Vader was lifted upright from the operating table (an analogy that Anakin is now more or less dead perhaps?). And the twinkling stars crawl was in the film but the album edited this out to begin immediately with "Revenge of the Sith."

As a whole the album didn't actually miss anything all that crucial and my assessment of the score as a whole became more solid. As for the film: short dialogue scenes more or less prepared a way from one action cue to the next and as a result the story suffered. And I also saw a sole man dressed up as Darth Vader wielding a light saber in the theater. Now that was more fun than anything in the entire movie!

TRACK LISTING

Soundtrack album
1. Star Wars and The Revenge of the Sith (7:31)
2. Anakin's Dream (4:46)
3. Battle of the Heroes (3:42)
4. Anakin's Betrayal (4:04)
5. General Grievous (4:07)
6. Palpatine's Teachings (5:25)
7. Grievous and the Droids (3:28)
8. Padmé's Ruminations (3:17)
9. Anakin vs. Obi-Wan (3:57)
10. Anakin's Dark Deeds (4:05)
11. Enter Lord Vader (4:14)
12. The Immolation Scene (2:42)
13. Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious (2:49)
14. The Birth of the Twins and Padmé's Destiny (3:37)
15. A New Hope and End Credits (13:06)

Bonus DVD
Chapter 1: A Long Time Ago
(20th Century Fox Fanfare/Star Wars Main Title)
Chapter 2: Dark Forces Conspire
(Duel of the Fates from The Phantom Menace)
Chapter 3: A Hero Rises
(Anakin's Theme from The Phantom Menace)
Chapter 4: A Fateful Love
(Across the Stars from Attack of the Clones)
Chapter 5: A Hero Falls
(Battle of the Heroes from Revenge of the Sith)
Chapter 6: An Empire is Forged
(The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back)
Chapter 7: A Planet That Is Farthest From
(The Dune Sea of Tatooine/Jawa Sandcrawler from A New Hope)
Chapter 8: An Unlikely Alliance
(Binary Sunset/Cantina Band from A New Hope)
Chapter 9: A Defender Emerges
(Princess Leia's Theme from A New Hope)
Chapter 10: A Daring Rescue
(Ben's Death/TIE Fighter Attack from A New Hope)
Chapter 11: A Jedi is Trained
(Yoda's Theme from The Empire Strikes Back)
Chapter 12: A Narrow Escape
(The Asteroid Field from The Empire Strikes Back)
Chapter 13: A Bond Unbroken
(Luke and Leia from Return of the Jedi)
Chapter 14: A Sanctuary Moon
(The Forest Battle (Concert Suite) from Return of the Jedi)
Chapter 15: A Life Redeemed
(Light of the Force from Return of the Jedi)
Chapter 16: A New Day Dawns
(Throne Room/Finale from A New Hope)

Produced by John Williams
Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams
Music Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra & London Voices
Orchestrated by Eddie Karam & Conrad Pope
Recorded and Mixed by Shawn Murphy
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London
Sony Classical, 2005 (SK 94221)

© berlioz
 

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