What is your favorite Star Wars film score?

Notice that this refers to the actual score, and not the soundtrack releases.

 

ESB of all the saga

ROTS for the PT

 

Star Wars (or, as you listed it, "A New Hope"). As for the others...

The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Phantom Menace
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones

 

Love the ROTS soundtrack; best one of them all in my opinion. 2nd fav is ROTJ.

 

I think TESB has the best score out of all of the movies. I also think TPM has the best score out of the PT while ROTS has the worst score out of the entire saga.

 

ESB music is just amazing but i also love the battle of Yavin music from ANH and battle of the sarlacc in ROTJ.

 

Empire, no question.

 

ROTJ with ROTS a very close second. It could change actually.

 

For me, it's almost a tie between AotC and RotS. Both make excellent use of pre-existing thematic material, imo. But ultimately, RotS wins because of better original music. And better use of Duel of the Fates.

 

I love ROTS now because the soundtrack has a melancholy quality at times that just doesn't get touched by any of the other soundtracks.

 

I love the AOTC music the best. Especially the dark spooky themes that play throughout it (eg when Obi Wan is spying on the separatists).

I also like the Kamino arrival music, the music during Obi Wans report to Yoda and Obi Wan, and the speeder chase music and lots of others.

 

What a surprise, Revenge of the Sith is in the lead.

Do this poll again in a few months, when the hype has worn off. Then we'll see.

 

ESB. Best use of leitmotif, best new themes -- the best of the saga, IMO -- and overall variety. But all the scores are great, each containing one or more examples of Williams' best work.

 

Return of the Jedi is my favorite, closely followed by ESB.

 

"Phantom Menace" is the best score, hands down. The music is what keeps that movie afloat, and the main reason why it's more tolerable than "AOTC." There's the theme for the Naboo starfighters, the theme for the battle droids, "DOTF"...even the Jar Jar music and Anakin's theme, while stylistically very different from all of "SW," perfectly captures what "TPM" was trying to accomplish: A wonder-filled child's fantasy.

And hey, the music's so good, they recycled it over and over again in "AOTC" and "ROTS." The album for "ROTS" gave me such hope for the music in the film, and all the new stuff is fantastic, but it's still pretty unforgivable how much of it is taken directly from "TPM." Oh well.

 

Overall, ANH... best themes are introduced within the entire saga in ANH's theme IMHO.

 

i really liked the music from the new movie

 

I still think ESB is John Williams' master work.

1. ESB
2. ANH
3. ROTS
4. ROTJ
5. AOTC
6. TPM

 

ROTS all the way especially Battle of the Heroes

 

BotH owns your soul, actually for me they are all tied.

 

I'm still going with ESB, but I have a hard time coming up with a complete ranking. ANH is probably no. 2. Brief summary of my feelings currently:

TPM - the most thematic of the PT; the end battle music could become a real classic if Williams gets a chance to rescore it.

AOTC - two great cues towards the end of the film, both using the love theme beautifully

ROTS - most emotional score of the PT.

ANH - everyone is so familiar with this score that it's often overlooked. It establishes much of the series, but since later scores follow the tradition, people seem to not count these cues--opening crawl, rebel fanfare and Luke's theme end credits, the use of the Force Theme--as part of ANH's contribution.

ESB - the second CD of this score is one of my favorite CDs.

ROTJ: has a few immortal cues, especially in Death Star 2, but otherwise not a favorite.

 

1: ROTS
2: ROTJ
3: ESB
4: TPM
5: ANH
6: ATOC

My View

 

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Return of the Jedi
3. Attack of the Clones
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. The Phantom Menace
6. A New Hope

- O_F

 

Revenge of the Sith

It's much more mature than the others, and darker. Only thing it suffers from is not very many repeating themes, and of course, it's too short.

Return of the Jedi

If only, if only, if ONLY the sound quality would be better. The last half of this score is amazing.

Empire Strikes Back

Like all the OT ones, it could use a quality improvement or re-recording. Got a lot of recurring themes, and some very good material.

Attack of the Clones

Similar to ROTS in that it lacks some recurring themes other than the Love Theme, but it's about as mature and dark as ESB and as romantic.

The Phantom Menace

Good score, but the best parts are the action music, which always puts me in a good mood. But it's the least mature and it's just fun music.

A New Hope

Sooooooooo dreary. Whenever I listen to this, I only listen to the same few tracks. "Imperial Attack", "Ben Kenobi's Death", "BInary Sunset" "Battle of Yavin" and "Throne Room/End Credits".

 

If only, if only, if ONLY the sound quality would be better. The last half of this score is amazing.

You know... it does exist in better sound quality. Little thing called the Star Wars Trilogy Anthology. I just ordered it, and am going to edit its Jedi cues with my RCA Victor version.