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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... the 1997 Special Edition albums over all others because they feature the best combination of outstanding packaging and a complete presentation of John Williams' music. Avoid it... the 1986 - 1993 albums because of poorer sound quality and incomplete presentation, as well as the 2004 re-pressings that are identical to the 1997 albums and without the superior packaging. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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.
1986 Polydor: * 1989 RCA Gerhardt: **** 1993 Fox Anthology: **** 1997 RCA Special Edition: ***** 2004 Sony Classical: ****
* Contains previously unreleased material ** Previously unreleased music *** Composed by Alfred Newman (1954)
* Previously unreleased ** Contains previously unreleased music *** Alternate recording for "Light of the Force" # Contains partial film version of "The Emperor Arrives" $ Composed and Recorded by Williams in 1996 for the Special Edition @ Composed and Arranged by Jerry Hey in 1996 to replace "Lapti Nek"
Music from Return of the Jedi not contained on 1997 or 2004 albums:
• Lapti Nek (English version, "Fancy Man") (2:46) • Lapti Nek (album version)* (2:48) • Leia's News (alternate)* (1:19) • Ewok Celebration (film version)* (1:56) • Ewok Celebration (album version)* (1:56) • Jabba the Hutt (concert arrangement)** (3:43) • Max Rebo Band Instrumental Music*** (3:00) • Unused Source Music (not in film)*** (1:30) * Cue is included on the 1993 anthology set ** About (1:20) of this piece was tracked into "Han Solo Returns" on the 1986 album and 1993 anthology set. *** These selections were not included because they could not be found. CAUTION: Due to a packaging error, some copies of the 1997 RCA release may have two "Disc 1"s and no "Disc 2." If you are purchasing one of the remaining new copies of them now, be sure to check your set immediately to make sure you purchased a complete product. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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