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Independence Day


Independence Day (David Arnold)  

57 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you rate this score?

    • 5 stars
      24
    • 4 stars
      17
    • 3 stars
      9
    • 2 stars
      2
    • 1 stars
      0
    • I'm not familiar with this score
      5


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Every few days I will post a thread on a random score from my collection that we can discuss and rate. I made a playlist on my computer with one track of each score I've got, so by using the random play option, I'll be able to post a truly random score each time. Hopefully this will allow us to discuss some scores that would otherwise never be discussed. Also we can record the rating so that we can create a full list of the ratings given to scores by JWFan.com.

Today's score is Independence Day by David Arnold. Are you familiar with it? What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? How do do you think it works in the film? What are your favourite tracks?

You don't need to base your opinion on just the OST. :fouetaa:

I hope this one answers to the request to post a more well-known score this time. :(

So far JWFan has rated:

Zathura by John Debney: 3,17 stars - 16 votes - 10 unfamiliar

Rambo III by Jerry Goldsmith: 3,62 stars - 18 votes - 5 unfamiliar

Star Trek X: Nemesis by Jerry Goldsmith: 3,03 stars - 37 votes - 8 unfamiliar

The Sea Hawk by Erich Wolfgang Korngold: 4,56 stars - 28 votes - 10 unfamiliar

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Pure fun and entertainment, multitude of whistful themes in superb arrangements and orchestrations. One of the best and most enjoyable scores of the 90s. On the other hand I like Stargate even more :fouetaa:

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Day-um! Do you know how to pick the good ones or what?? Perfect 5-star rating from me.

This was the very first CD I ever bought when I managed to get it in 1997. Back then, to now, it's everything a film score for this kind of film should be, big, bold and spectacular. And it's a spectacle in all the right places, but even the underscoring for non-action scenes never bores, making not one single skippable track on the entire album and the complete score.

While Stargate has his most recognizable music, Tomorrow Never Dies was an awesome Bond score, and Godzilla was a much more complex and richly textured work, Independence Day remains David Arnold's crowning achievement. A wonderful triumph of a film score in every regard.

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I'd like to listen to this one. I've strayed away from it because I loathe the film so much, but it would be nice to hear it in a non-movie context. I think I'll track it down, as I like a lot of Arnold's work.

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4 stars. One of Arnold's greatest scores but giving it 5 stars would rate it like JW scores and it's not that brilliant. Although I absolutely love the alien theme, I love the godzilla score as much as this one. Something about big low horns and brass ensembles playing a monstrously low theme for some sort of monster :fouetaa: (ROAR!!!!)

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4 stars, I consider this to be my favourite Arnold score behind Stargate.

I passionately abhor everything else about ID4 otherwise. There was a time I use to think it was fun and excepted it for the mindless popcorn flick that it was, things changed. I now find it to be criminally insulting and avoid it wherever possible.

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It's a mediocre score, a few good parts and serves its purpose in the film but doesn't stand out much on its own compared to other similar scores. I gave it a 3.

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Again? NOOOO! And I had so hoped this one would be more known to those who were forced to go with the "I'm not familiar with this score" option the previous times. I'll be sure to pick an even more well-known score next time. Star Wars or something. :fouetaa:

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Arnold's best and most fun score. He throws it all in there and I don't think there's a single boring cue in the entire score. ****

You like Independence Day but you don't like Aliens? :fouetaa:

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Again? NOOOO! And I had so hoped this one would be more known to those who were forced to go with the "I'm not familiar with this score" option the previous times. I'll be sure to pick an even more well-known score next time. Star Wars or something. :fouetaa:

Its mostly my fault, some of the ones you are posting are must haves...

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Arnold's best and most fun score. He throws it all in there and I don't think there's a single boring cue in the entire score. ****

You like Independence Day but you don't like Aliens? :fouetaa:

Oh I love Horner's Aliens score. So much that I bought the cd!

Albeit the crappy release with vast amounts of missing music. :(

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I voted 5 stars on this one. Definitly one of my favourite scores. Although the themes are not quite as good as for Stargate, they work fine and the rest of the music more than makes up for it. There's a lot of very good action music there, but also more quiet moments of beauty and sorrow. Also it's impressive to note how cool tracks like "AWAC Gets Fried", "Launching Welcome Wagon" and "Welcome Wagon Moves In" can be for their short running time. There's something to like in virtually all the tracks, the exception for me being in "The Freak Show" and "Close Encounters of the Nasty Kind". Other than that, it's a great listen.

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I gave it a solid 5 stars. It's by far my favorite Arnold score. Of course like usual the best stuff from the nearly complete 2-CD set is left off the album. I'm hoping the full score gets a legit release one day with the rescored finale battle sequence.

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2-1/2 is what I thought but I rounded up to a 3, since my thought wasn't a selection, an average score, nothing special, certainly not worthy of 5 stars as many gave it.

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5 stars, and if I could give it more I would. This has everything you want in a great film score: great themes and lots of them, orchestral flourishes, action, drama, suspense, a superb end credits suite, and not a dull moment throughout an almost 2 hour score. Those who don't like it seriously need to swab out their ears. Or their brains. :lol:

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I gave it 4 stars.

A mindless fun energetic score that is deserving of a full release.

I too prefer Stargate over ID4.

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Very good and listenable. A lot good stuff missing from the OST, but this is a score that is not refined enough (I know, I know, 'refined' is hardly something the score needed to be) for me to listen to for long stretches. It feels all loud, all the time.

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I've never been a fan of Arnold's sometimes overbearing use of brass though.

That's always been my biggest bugbear of Arnold's and it has never been more evident than in ID4.

It feels all loud, all the time.

Yep, too damn loud.

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A solid three. I enjoy it, but I don't think it's "great" in any way whatsoever.

Agree 100%. It's nice and fun and all of that, but it is no way masterful.

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The next best thing after JW, but his only masterpiece IMO. Therefore as a composer Arnold has sank to place 4 of my favorite film composers.

5 stars.

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Yay, this is the first soundtrack I have on these polls.

I give it 4 out of 5, a very nice score, but nothing outstanding.

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I'm going with 4 on this one. I might have ranked it higher with a more thorough knowledge of the score, but as it is, a fun, stout, 4 star listen for me.

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I'm going to give it a four, but I really do enjoy it. It's one of Arnold's top works, and one of the best action scores probably ever.

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5 stars, and if I could give it more I would. This has everything you want in a great film score: great themes and lots of them, orchestral flourishes, action, drama, suspense, a superb end credits suite, and not a dull moment throughout an almost 2 hour score. Those who don't like it seriously need to swab out their ears. Or their brains. :P

Agreed. It's a great score. :)

*****

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I mostly like the end title music.

Anyone else find that the finale sounds similar to the finale at the end of Mahler's 2nd symphony? I heard it for the first time in concert recently and thought to myself "hey it's like ID4".

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Four stars, says I.

Five stars is a designation that really ought to be saved for the cream of the crop. I mean, the so-good-that-you-can't-undertand-why-anyone-would-want-to-live-without-them masterpieces.

And this ain't that. But it's all just a matter of degree; it's a great score, a great follow-up to the similarly excellent Stargate. And in my opinion, it's been all downhill for Arnold ever since (though I have enjoyed his Bond scores).

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Five stars is a designation that really ought to be saved for the cream of the crop. I mean, the so-good-that-you-can't-undertand-why-anyone-would-want-to-live-without-them masterpieces.

Well, Independence Day is definitely that for me.

:)

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Well, Independence Day is definitely that for me.
Same here. :lol:
Yay, this is the first soundtrack I have on these polls.

I give it 4 out of 5, a very nice score, but nothing outstanding.

Give the complete version a try if you can. Although the OST is really good, the complete version is really better. :lol:
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I've never been a fan of Arnold's sometimes overbearing use of brass though.

That's always been my biggest bugbear of Arnold's and it has never been more evident than in ID4.

It feels all loud, all the time.

Yep, too damn loud.

I would say all of these about Casino Royale (especially the cues: Switch and Fall of the House in Venice).

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Uhhh thats A score hmm I don't know I like it somehow..but I hate that movei...

The movie is fun, I like it with all its silliness. It's actually a good Emmerich movie.

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Uhhh thats A score hmm I don't know I like it somehow..but I hate that movei...

The movie is fun, I like it with all its silliness. It's actually a good Emmerich movie.

I dont know I just can't get into these kind of movies I think regarding that I'm to much of a girl! :lol:

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Pieter you put two of my absolute favourites Krull and Independence Day here. It was pleasure and duty to give both scores 5 stars. :lol:

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What with all this poodoo about this score being too loud?? Would you rather scores mixed down and dialed out?

I love a loud score.

Are you talking about the score as heard within the movie? If so then I prefer the score to be mixed evenly with the other audio components which together make up a film's soundtrack. Stuff like like sound effects and dialogue. I can't stand it when a score drowns out everything else in the movie and visa versa. Michael Mann movies are major culprits for blaring the music too loud, but many people would argue that is part of his style. I just think it's intrusive and it gives me a headache.

If you were referring to a score's volume when listened to purely as a piece of music (on headphones etc) then doesn't volume control dictate how loud the music is? When I said that Independence Day's score is sometimes too loud, I was referring directly to the tone and mix of the music and not just it's 'volume'. There are cues in that score which just seem to blare out uncontrollably, where a little show of restraint by the offending section of the orchestra could perhaps have been a little more effective.

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What with all this poodoo about this score being too loud?? Would you rather scores mixed down and dialed out?

I love a loud score.

In the movie, it's one thing. On the CD, it peaks very early. Doesn't pace itself. And for a score that doesn't pace itself, it is not varied enough to hold my interest for too long.

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The previous 2 posts are done by idiots!

Who's the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?

Neil

Is this another poll? :blink:

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