A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

In the fall of 1977, Arista Records (a now defunct label owned by Sony Music Entertainment) released Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, a 10-track selection of cues and themes composed by John Williams for Steven Spielberg's eponymous "humans meet aliens" UFO film. Arista released the album as a single-disc vinyl LP, as well as on cassette and eight-track tape. It also released the disco version of "Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on a 7-inch single, which was included as a bonus on the vinyl release. The theme, if memory serves, was incorporated into the tape editions as a bonus track; this was also done with the 1990 compact disc distributed by Varese Sarabande Records under license by the original label. Composer John Williams and director Steven Spielberg began working on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3K) as early as 1975, shortly after Jaws (the duo's second collaboration) was completed....

Nos·tal·gia : Pronunciation: nä-'stal-j&, n&- also no -, nO-; n&-'stäl- Function: noun Etymology: New Latin, from Greek nostos return home New Latin -algia; akin to Greek neisthai to return, Old English genesan to survive, Sanskrit nasate he approaches 1 : the state of being homesick : HOMESICKNESS 2 : a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition; also : something that evokes nostalgia - nos·tal·gic /-jik/ adjective or noun - nos·tal·gi·cal·ly /-ji-k(&-)le/ adverb Nostalgia. For most of us, the past sometimes seems more attractive than our present or somehow less frightening than the undiscovered country of the future. It's an illusion, really, but memory has a way of dulling all but the sharpest pains, the saddest memories, and the rest of all our yesterdays becomes a series of sepia-colored memories in which we take refuge from our 21st Century red state-blue state, conservative vs. l...

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade's soundtrack recording, like most albums of the genre, has its virtues and vices. Even keeping in mind that it was released originally in 1989 in records, cassettes, and the still-new CD format, it is still an album that offers John Williams' score for the third film in the Indy series, but not enough of it.  Having veered by design into dark thematic and musical territory in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, director Steven Spielberg, producer George Lucas and composer Williams decided to revisit the more fun and thrilling tones of Raiders of the Lost Ark, adding depth to Indy's character by including his father, Professor Henry Jones, Sr. and new themes reflecting the father-son dynamic and the quest for the Holy Grail.  Keeping in mind the limitations of this album, the music here is enjoyable. Listen to "Indy's Very First Adventure" (track 1) and you can almost see young Indiana Jones (as incarnated by the late River...

Part One: Confessions of a Film Score Junkie   From the first minute I saw this boxed set on the shelf at Camelot Music, I knew I was doomed.  It was the spring of 1996, and I had just celebrated my 33rd birthday. I had just gotten together with my best friends to celebrate and they had given me a few CDs and VHS versions of theatrical movies, but my mother and older sister had given me $50 between the two of them because they didn't know what I wanted, and I felt that I was much too old to sit down and put together a Wish List. I  did  own a custom-built PC with an Intel 386 processor and a 80 MB hard drive, and even though I didn't have a modem or an Internet Service Provider at the time, I  was  still very much into computer games and simulations. I thus entered Camelot Music (now FYE) with the intention of browsing around for a good PC-compatible game.  Because most music-and-video store managers know their buyer's psychology well, t...