# ‘Schindler’s List’ voted No. 1 in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame



## Guest

John Williams' 'Schindler's List' voted No. 1 in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame.

https://www.classicfm.com/composers...s-list-voted-no-1-movie-music-hall-fame-2020/

It knocked Shore's Lord of the Rings off top spot.

Here's the full list.

https://win.classicfm.com/movie-music-2020/


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## Guest

Oh good lord, I'm going to open a vein! There's a busker that plays this everyday and for hours on end near where I live - I can't stand a note of it anymore...


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## Guest

MacLeod said:


> John Williams' 'Schindler's List' voted No. 1 in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame.
> 
> https://www.classicfm.com/composers...s-list-voted-no-1-movie-music-hall-fame-2020/
> 
> It knocked Shore's Lord of the Rings off top spot.
> 
> Here's the full list.
> 
> https://win.classicfm.com/movie-music-2020/


Actually I cannot stand the film "Schindler's List". For a start the author of the book, Tom Kenneally, gives me a pain where I sit down but, putting that aside...I went to see the film in a cinema with a group of people; it was way too loud and I had to cover my ears; it dragged and resorted to cliche and I finally gave up after just under an hour and walked out. Have never watched it again. Since I've seen it I've discovered I don't like Liam Neeson (he's always the same) and Ben Kingsley is effete. The unsubtle child in the red dress; I'll take the original De Mille thanks.


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## Bulldog

Although I found the music annoying, I do consider the movie top-notch.


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## Guest

MacLeod said:


> John Williams' 'Schindler's List' voted No. 1 in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame.
> 
> https://www.classicfm.com/composers...s-list-voted-no-1-movie-music-hall-fame-2020/
> 
> It knocked Shore's Lord of the Rings off top spot.
> 
> Here's the full list.
> 
> https://win.classicfm.com/movie-music-2020/


One of the least interesting scores from John Williams. His best was "Catch Me if You Can". Definitely not for unsophisticated audiences. Sensational and imaginative graphics always help. The film is really engaging and well directed.


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## MAS

Christabel said:


> One of the least interesting scores from John Williams. His best was "Catch Me if You Can". Definitely not for unsophisticated audiences. Sensational and imaginative graphics always help. The film is really engaging and well directed.


The link took me to an Hélène Grimaud performance, not *Catch me if you can*


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## pianozach

It's difficult to separate film scores from the films which they score.

*Schindler's List* is certainly not the flashiest of *Williams*' scores, but it was certainly an effective score.

Still, I'd say the film _*score*_ gets rated higher than it deserves because the *film* itself is held in high esteem, both when released, and in retrospect.

It was nominated for twelve *Academy Awards*, winning seven, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score, and won numerous other awards, including seven *BAFTAs* and three *Golden Globes*. In 2007, the *American Film Institute* ranked Schindler's List 8th on its list of the 100 best American films of all time.


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## pianozach

*Top 100 Film scores*.

Looks like *Williams* has around 14 or so in of the top 100

That is actually impressive, no matter how you look at it.


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## Guest

I was beginning to wonder if anyone was going to comment on something other than the top of the list. I'm no fan of Schindler's List so the score passed me by anyway, except for hearing snippets quoted subsequently.

I voted for 'Arrival'.


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## Guest

Today I watched the "*John Williams Live in Vienna*" on Foxtel Arts. It was only recorded recently and Williams is incredible for his 88 years. The music was engaging, clever and revealed a deep level of understanding of the nexus between moving image and music.
His music was drawn from a wide range of genres, some I hadn't heard at all before such as "Cinderella Liberty" - clever and imaginative orchestration (presuming he did the orchestrations himself!). The Vienna Philharmonic was, as ever, stunning. The Professors can play anything. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn they could do it standing on their heads.


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## Guest

Well, it seems Norman Lebrecht thought the John Williams in Vienna concert was a stinker:

Here’s a first – a record that resists categorisation. To give it one star would be an insult, two stars a gross over-estimation. No stars is as close as I can get to describe the distinctly uncomfortable feeling I get from hearing John Williams conduct his film scores with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

No discredit to Williams, a capable conductor with years of experience as director of the Boston Pops. No credit whatsoever to the Vienna Phil, an orchestra that has guarded its pedigree for almost 180 years, only to squander it on sheets of music that were written for the enhancement of moving pictures and has, with few exceptional tracks, no independent existence. The record will, of course, sell like hot schnitzel; whatever judgement I pass will have no more impact on it than an extra lemon slice.

Played by a Hollywood pick-up orchestra, the score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind sounds hair-raisingly spooky. Played by the Vienna Phil it’s like Halloween in the Stefansdom, a confection of contrary myths – too slick, too false-dramatic, too servile to the film to be independently credible. Star Wars comes over as a cascade of misdirected asteroids.

Anne-Sophie Mutter plays the devil’s dance from The Witches of Eastwick with a Bartok-like edginess and some other dance from Indiana Jones with lacquered buoyancy. I gave up calculating how many thousands of hours of practice by 100 handpicked players must have gone into the creation of this instrumental vacuity. Some day I hope to forget what I’ve heard here. Some day they’ll reissue the record as Lebrecht’s No-Star Wars.


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## Terrapin

I don't remember the score but I hated the movie. Spielberg is to subtlety what Bruckner is to conciseness.


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## MAS

Terrapin said:


> I don't remember the score but I hated the movie. Spielberg is to subtlety what Bruckner is to conciseness.


The film is not about subtlety, but about f*cking Nazis trying to wipe out the Jews. Do you get that?


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## Terrapin

MAS said:


> The film is not about subtlety, but about ******* Nazis trying to wipe out the Jews. Do you get that?


This is the brief review I wrote when I saw the film years ago:

Spielberg's List: 
(1) This is a SERIOUS film so shoot it in black and white (except for some gimmicky use of color) with such stark contrast between extremely bright artificial lighting and darkness that every scene screams ARTIST AT WORK. 
(2) To make it clear that the Nazis are evil, have a scene where they randomly shoot Jews. And another scene. And another and another... 
(3) To really drive home the point that this is an IMPORTANT film about a SOMBER topic, fill it with enough repetitive scenes that it lasts nearly as long as WWII. 
(4) Rinse. 
(5) Repeat. 
Schindler was no doubt a great man, but his saintliness is way overdone. As for the acting, Neeson is fine, but Fiennes chews the scenery.


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