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Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: (John Williams) By the
time
Return of the Jedi opened in theatres in 1983, seven out of the
top ten grossing films of all time featured a John Williams score. Since
impressing the world once again with
The Empire Strikes Back,
Williams had written the classics
Raiders of the Lost Ark and
E.T. in successive years, with the latter earning Williams his fourth
Academy Award. As a film,
Return of the Jedi would ride the wave of
Star Wars mania to its epic conclusion, marginally passing
The
Empire Strikes Back in gross profits but failing to garner the same
astonishing record-setting success in audiences' and critics' books as its
predecessors. From 1983 through today, fans of the series continue to argue
that the music for Lucas' famed universe never got better than
The Empire
Strikes Back. Indeed, Williams had presented himself a significant
challenge by producing a score for the first sequel that eclipsed the
original classic. If the standard of excellence for
Return of the
Jedi were to be raised any higher, then Williams would have no choice
but to produce the best score ever written for Hollywood. Few scholars would
argue that Williams accomplished this feat, but at the very least, Williams
maintained a level of outstanding quality for
Return of the Jedi that
many would consider better than any of the prequel scores that would follow.
An interesting note about
Return of the Jedi is that the sound
quality, despite improvements industry wide by the 1980's, has always
suffered from a dull soundscape that defied those technological advances
(especially notable in the cue "Into the Trap"). Nevertheless, if you allow
yourself to become enveloped in the four new themes, the interpolation of
the previous themes, and the usual excellent standard of underscore, then
the merits of the score's ideas will easily carry it for you. Recording once
again with the London Symphony Orchestra and the same crew, Williams would
pump out a score even longer than
The Empire Strikes Back, with more
material eventually released on album than the total length of the film.
When you look at the logistical nightmare of attempting to weave more than
ten major themes together into one score, the length is less of a surprise.
Some might argue, though, that
Return of the Jedi is more cluttered
and less than focused than the others in the classic trilogy.
Among the new thematic ideas are Jabba the Hutt's cute tuba
piece (playing along the politically incorrect lines of tubas representing
fatness), an equally cute and percussively creative theme for the Ewoks, a
theme for Luke and Leia's changing familial understanding, and finally a
demonic male-choral piece for the Emperor. At the time of the film's
release, the Ewok and Luke & Leia themes were the ones that you'd hear most
often in concerts. Also arranged for concerts were the Sail Barge Battle and
Forest Battle cues (as well the occasional Jabba arrangement), but the
emphasis on the aforementioned two themes is heard more specifically by
their appearance in the end credits suite for
Return of the Jedi.
While structurally equal to Williams' earlier quality, neither theme was as
attractive to the mainstream as previous
Star Wars themes. The one
for Luke and Leia is similar in atmosphere and instrumentation to the
Princess and Han Solo themes from the previous films, and the Ewok theme
downright irritated some listeners with its frenetic energy and perkiness.
The interesting aspect of all these themes is that the other two, lesser
themes would prove to have the better shelf life, with both the themes for
the Emperor and Jabba the Hutt jumping immediately to the prequel trilogy.
Williams made one outstanding choice, however, in allowing the Imperial
March to have its more than fair share of screen time. With its presence in
Return of the Jedi spanning from the opening approach to the Death
Star to its final appearance in Darth Vader's death scene, the infamous
march for the Empire once again steals the show. The varying levels of
conflict within Vader's character allowed Williams the opportunity to
experiment with the softer, less bombastic representations of the theme that
would remain confined to
Return of the Jedi (until the prequels). The
"force" theme would make two extremely important appearances (among others)
in the film, first at the moment when Luke defeats Vader in the final duel,
and secondly during the funeral pyre for Vader at the end of the film. The
gorgeous "Solo and Princess" theme graces the screen twice in full as well,
first when Leia is revealed in Jabba's palace and during the finale
revelation and celebration.
A few overall statements about
Return of the Jedi
should be made before diving into the discussion about the albums. First,
one notable detraction of Williams' work here is the lack of weighty drama
that we heard in
The Empire Strikes Back. The desperation in rhythmic
movement does not jump to the third score, probably because the situation in
Return of the Jedi is less dire in a romantic sense. Another general
statement about the score is its capacity for chaos above and beyond the
others. Williams' score is forced to jump around significantly in its last
30 minutes because of the juxtaposed battle sequences happening
simultaneously on screen. This technique would be used extensively again by
Lucas in
The Phantom Menace, and in both cases it caused the music to
sound artificially cut in places. In short, the "flow" from the first two
scores isn't there. Finally, and this is both a positive and negative,
Return of the Jedi has significantly more "singular" cues, whether it
involves background source music, outright songs, or score tracks. Unlike
the single "Cantina Band" scene in the first film,
Return of the Jedi
has the use for source-like songs or music in Jabba's palace and with the
Ewoks. In both cases, this material conflicts with the orchestral music
surrounding it. "Lapti Nek" and the subsequent replacement song for the
Special Edition are both insufferable, and the Ewok feast source music
serves only to slow the pace of the music in and apart from the film. It is
perhaps no coincidence that the two major non-orchestral cues in the film
were both replaced for the Special Edition release of the film in 1997.
While Jabba's music got worse, the groovy celebration music is now less
specific to the Ewoks than the original so that it could generally cover
celebration scenes on Bespin, Tatooine, and Coruscant. That celebration
music fits well with the similarly conceived celebration music at the end of
The Phantom Menace --sort of Williams' universal method of providing
party music-- but the sound quality is far too rich for the end credits
suite that follows. In fact, the abrupt edge between them makes for an
uncomfortable ending for the newly revised film. On the upside, though, one
of the singular cues in
Return of the Jedi that is vastly superior is
the unique choral cue accompanying the final duel sequence between Luke and
Vader. One has to wonder why Williams doesn't insert this theme (also heard
at Yoda's death) in Anakin's last duel of
Revenge of the Sith to
finish the trilogies off with thematic bookends.
Like its predecessors, much of the same information about the
albums applies to
Return of the Jedi as it had for the other two, but
with a continuing twist in the LP release. By 1983, the future of LPs was in
doubt, with the concept of the compact disc first breaking into commercial
markets. With the viability of an LP release questionable at best, the LP
was restrained to only a single record in length. Given that
Return of
the Jedi is longer than the other two scores, this presented an
immediate shortage of music available from the film. But history was far
from finished with
Return of the Jedi on album, with the CDs proving
that every time you think you've purchased the
definitive and final
version of any of the classic trilogy scores, you can wait a few years and
be treated to yet another re-release in the stores. While the existence of
all of the music from the classic
Star Wars film scores is taken for
granted today, the first fifteen years were quite lean for Williams fans. It
would take a full twenty years before the entire finished products --with
every available cue released-- would finally reach fans in time for the
Special Editions in theatres. Much of the information that follows,
regarding each of the various releases of the score, is relevant to not only
this score, but the others in the classic trilogy as well, so you'll read
very similar accounts in the Filmtracks reviews of those scores as well.
After their initial, separate releases on LP records, the CD editions of the
scores have always been released as a trilogy, despite your ability to
usually buy them separately upon each update of all three. In its debut on
CD, a carbon copy of the
Return of the Jedi LP was translated onto CD
in 1986 at the same time as
Star Wars (the score for
The Empire
Strikes Back had already been available on a shortened CD for a year).
The muted sound quality that prevailed in that LP was also a hindrance on
the Polydor CD, making it an extremely frustrating 45-minute listening
experience. As they had done with both
Star Wars and
The Empire
Strikes Back, aficionados of the series searched for comfort in, once
again, the only alternative source of music from the series: Charles
Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra.
The only substantial alternative for music from this score
(and the others in the saga before 1993) was the Charles Gerhardt
re-recording of 46 minutes of the score with the NPO. For years, Gerhardt
and the NPO had recorded famous film scores from mostly the Golden Age of
Hollywood, but as a few of their final collaborations, Gerhardt recorded the
three classic
Star Wars scores near the times of their release. In
fact,
Return of the Jedi would be very final entry in this
magnificent series. Gerhardt's versions of
Star Wars and
Return of
the Jedi were both released in 1989 by RCA, with superb sound quality
and a usually excellent standard of performance that Williams himself had
claimed to honored by. The NPO's brass section did make some noticeable
mistakes in this performance, although it's compensated for by a rousing
instrumental version of the Ewok celebration music. For three years, this
Gerhardt CD was the only digital source for some cues absent from the
official 1986 release, including the only available release of Williams'
extended concert arrangement of Jabba the Hutt's theme (with strikingly
whimsical strings) and the presentation of "Fight in the Dungeon" as an
extra bonus. Still, even with this extra music, only one fifth of the
combined music from
Return of the Jedi was released in some form on
CD. It's no surprise, therefore, that the ultimate trilogy
Star Wars
Anthology released by 20th Century Fox in 1993 was considered a godsend by
fans. The anthology finally offered 103 minutes of music from the film,
including several vital cues from the middle section of the film that had
been completely neglected by previous releases. While the addition of
material from
Return of the Jedi was significant, it was not as
earth-shattering as the anthology had been for
The Empire Strikes
Back. That said, the anthology (produced by some of the biggest names in
film score production) featured additional music that was certainly welcomed
with great anticipation. There were, however, problems with the presentation
of that music, despite the best intentions of the producers. The anthology
put as much music from each film on an individual CD for each of the three
scores, but then pressed additional unreleased cues on a fourth CD that
spanned all three scores. Thus, to get cues such as the memorable "Leia is
Wounded/Luke and Vader Duel" and lengthy "Brother and Sister/Father and
Son/The Fleet Enters Hyperspace" you would have to insert the fourth CD to
enjoy them. Add on a large, custom-sized package (roughly DVD size by
today's standards) and hard-to-read individual CD covers within, and you had
some ill-received protests from some fans.
The anthology release of 1993 is looked upon with fondness
by many
Star Wars fans today simply because it filled a major void in
collections at the time. In 1997, however, the anthology was rendered
largely outdated by the massive, highly advertised RCA Special Edition
releases of 1997. By January of that year, George Lucas had announced the
production of
The Phantom Menace and revealed newly enhanced versions
of the original three films for a 20th anniversary theatrical release. On
album, fans were treated to double-CD releases of each
Star Wars
score in film order with alternative cues and extensive attention to detail
in the mixing and arrangement. Including several source and alternate cues,
a whopping total of 148 minutes of music on this special edition made it the
definitive release. Keep in mind, however, that unlike the previous two
scores, there still remains 15 to 20 minutes of music from
Return of the
Jedi that is not heard on even the most complete albums. Most of that
music, however, is not vital (or previously released someplace), and a list
of it can be found at the bottom of this page. Extensive notes and
pictorials graced both the 1993 and 1997 releases, with the glittery CDs of
the latter series a nice touch. Later in 1997, these albums were re-packaged
by RCA and offered in slimline packages that feature the special edition
poster art, but these fell out of print about five years later. In 2004, the
Sony Classical label, which had been releasing the second trilogy scores,
had acquired the rights to the classic scores and decided to re-press the
1997 releases with new artwork. These 2004 albums offer Sony's Direct Stream
Digital remastering, and while this technique does provide some minimal
extra clarity on high-end stereo systems, casual listeners will notice no
significant change since the 1997 albums. Thus, if you own the special
edition albums and don't require slightly improved sound, there is no reason
to seek the 2004 ones. In fact, the 2004 albums are badly lacking in
packaging compared to previous releases, with absolutely none of the
fantastic notes and pictorials presented in the 1993 or 1997 releases.
Essentially, you can look upon the 2004 albums as nothing more than a
re-pressing of existing streamlined albums. Overall, owning
Return of the
Jedi is perhaps not as necessary (compared to the others in the classic
trilogy) in a very casual soundtrack collection. Still, for any significant
film music enthusiast, it is a must-have score, and with its outstanding
packaging and complete presentation of music, the 1997 special edition album
(the original full version bound in black booklets) continues to be the best
Return of the Jedi product available.
Score as Heard in Film: *****
1986 Polydor: *
1989 RCA Gerhardt: ****
1993 Fox Anthology: ****
1997 RCA Special Edition: *****
2004 Sony Classical: ****
Overall: *****
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