Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - The Ultimate Edition at Music Hills.com

Music CD 1

Fox Fanfare
Star Wars Main Title
Boarding The Federation Battleship
Death Warrant For Qui-Gon And Obi-Wan
Fighting The Destroyer Droids
Queen Amidala Warns The Federation
The Droid Invasion
Swimming To Otoh Gunga
Inside The Bubble City
Attack Of The Giant Fish
Darth Sidious
The Giant Squid And The Attack On Theed
Qui-Gon And Obi-Wan Rescue The Queen
Fighting The Guards
Escape From Naboo
Enter Darth Maul
The Arrival Of Tatooine
Street Band Of Mos Espa
Padme Meets Anakin
Desert Winds (Bonus Track Not Included In Motion Picture)
Jar Jar's Run-In With Sebulba
Anakin's Home And The Introduction To Threepio
Darth Sidious And Darth Maul
Talk Of Podracing
Watto's Deal/Shmi And Qui-Gon Talk
Anakin, Podracer Mechanic
The Racer Roars To Life/Anakin's Midi-Chlorian Count
Darth Maul And The Sith Spacecraft
Mos Espa Arena Band
Watto's Roll Of The Die
The Flag Parade
Sebulba's Dirty Hand/Qui-Gon's Pep Talk
Anakin Defeats Sebulba
Hail To The Winner, Anakin Skywalker
The Street Singer

Music CD 2

Anakin Is Free
Qui-Gon And Darth Maul Meet
Anakin And Group To Coruscant
The Queen And Palpatine
High Council Meeting
The Senate
Anakin's Test
Qui-Gon's Mission/Obi-Wan's Warning
Nute And Rune Confer With Darth Sidious
The Queen And Her Group Land On Naboo
Jar Jar Leads Group To The Gungans
War Plans
Darth Sidious Receives News Of The Gungan Army
The Gungans March
The Queen And Her Group Sneak Back To The Palace
The Battle Begins
The Republic Pilots Take Off Into Space
Activate The Droids
The Gungans Fight Back
The Duel Begins
Anakin Takes Off In Spaceship
The Duel Continues
The Battle Rages On
Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan And Darth Maul Continue Battle
Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, And The Invisible Wall
The Gungans Retreat And The Queen Surrenders
The Death Of Qui-Gon And The Surrender Of The Gungans
The Tide Turns/The Death Of Darth Maul
The Queen Confronts Nute And Rune
The Funeral Of Qui-Gon
The Parade
End Credits
Duel Of The Fates (Dialogue Version)

Music reviews of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - The Ultimate Edition

Music Review: Tsk, Tsk, Tsk...
Rating: 3 Stars

Yes, whoever was in charge of this project at Sony Slassical goofed up. Near as I can tell, all criticisms aimed at this release are justified and accurate, and not just a lot of whining from insatiable Star Wars fanatics. I must bring this one thing to attention- contrary to anything claimed on the packaging, NOT ALL THE MUSIC IS HERE.

Like nearly every movie, Phantom Menace was edited. This movie happens to have been POORLY edited. George Lucas himself cops out by mentioning the confusion with the pink walls in the end swordfight sequence. He thinks that should be cleared up in a special edition of the movie another 20 years down the road. Yeah, right. Not just that part of the movie, but numerous other times the movie was cut, and the ends pasted together. Small sections were lobbed off, other sections were resequenced. But what happens to the music that was originally written for the movie when the film is spliced so? With dark glee, I tell you 'butchered' is the word. Lucas/McCallum/whoever should have asked Williams to re-score scenes, like any careful moviemaker would. It's not even as if there is very much music missing; it probably adds up to a few minutes or so. But you only have to take out a few seconds here and a few more seconds there to send the continuity of a song straight to heck.

So the folks at Sony decided to use the movie edits instead of the original, unadulterated Williams masterpiece. I can almost cope with that, and I'm sure you can almost cope with it just as well. But then they included they included the dialogue cut of Duel Of The Fates, which as I understand it is itself a cut of a larger piece Williams composed. So the question arises, if they had a space leftover, if they had a HOLE to fill on the release, why not just stick in the extra few minutes of music to make the listening experience more enjoyable, to make the music flow properly? Why include a soundbyte that anyone with a tape recorder and a television can make themselves? I can only conclude that Sony Classical is trying their hardest not to please customers. It actually becomes a sort of magic trick when an expanded release of a loved score receives negative attention. I've heard it put somewhat like this: "to understand what's on these CDs, put the original CD in your player, press play, and commence hitting it with a baseball bat..." My advice, in case The Powers That Be are paying attention --Take this embarrassment of a soundtrack release off the market, and recreate it from the master tapes.