A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

"Steven and I began, as we always did. by screening his finished cut of the film. And, at the end, the lights came up, and it was time for us to begin talking about the role of music in the film. But I was so overwhelmed by what I'd just seen, I really couldn't speak. So I excused myself and walked around the building for a few minutes to gather myself, and then came back to resume the meeting. And I said to him quite seriously, 'Steven, you really need a better composer than I am for this film.' And he said, very sweetly, 'I know. But they're all dead.'" - John Williams On December 3, 2018, almost a quarter century after MCA Records released the original 14-track soundtrack from director Steven Spielberg's Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List, Burbank-based La-La Land Records began to ship a limited edition 2-CD reissue titled Schindler's List: 25th Anniversary Soundtrack. Produced, edited, and remastered by Michael "M...

© 1993, 2018 La-La Land Records, Universal Music Special Markets, Amblin Entertainment, and Geffen  On December 3, 2018, La-La Land Records of Burbank, CA released Schindler's List - 25th Anniversary Soundtrack, a 2-CD set that presents John Williams' Academy Award-winning score in a limited edition (only 4000 units were made) reissue. Made in cooperation with Universal Music, Amblin Entertainment, and Geffen, this double album was remastered by soundtrack expert Mike Matessino and was approved by director Steven Spielberg and Maestro John Williams, who produced the original 1993 soundtrack. Per La-La Land's announcement, this limited edition consists of the original soundtrack album, which was reconstructed from material "sourced from the original 1993 release’s 24-karat gold Ultimate Masterdisc digital master." on Disc 1. Disc 2 presents six tracks that were not included in the 64:39 original soundtrack, including two cues (" Schindler's Workforce...

Superman was also released as a "Christmas movie" in 1978. It didn't change the "true meaning of Christmas." © 1978 DC Comics and Warner Bros.  Someone on Quora asks: Do you think that Disney's plan to release Star Wars movies around Christmas is to make the holiday about Star Wars instead of the true meaning of Christmas? Hardly. Traditionally, all of the major movie studios, including Paramount Pictures, Columbia, Universal, MGM, and Disney’s newest acquisition, 20th Century Fox, have  always  released major movies during the December holiday season. This is nothing new, and it’s not, as you suggest, a marketing strategy centered around one movie franchise. There are several reasons behind this strategy, but the biggest ones are: The holiday season is when most businesses usually make the most money Children and adolescents are on winter break The last quarter of the year (October, November, and December) is when most studios releas...

Schindler's List , Thomas Keneally's 1980 non-fiction "novel" about Oskar Schindler's transformation from a bon vivant German (actually, Sudeten German, born in what is now part of the Czech Republic) war profiteer to savior of over 1,000 Jews during World War II, is one of the most fascinating accounts about the darkest chapter of that global conflict, the Holocaust. It vividly portrays the horrors of the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish inhabitants in German-occupied Europe while at the same time proving that one person, no matter how flawed and contradictory in nature he or she is, can rise to the occasion and make a difference. In his Author's Note, Keneally explains that he uses the oft-used technique of telling a true story in the format of a fictional account, partly because he is primarily a novelist (Confederates, Gossip From the Forest) and "because the novel's techniques seem suited for a character of such ambiguity and magnitud...