Search - London Symphony Orchestra :: Return of the Jedi: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Special Edition)

Five stars, but could still be better.

Christopher D. Applegate | MI, USA | 09/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Reviewing the RCA/Victor 1997 "Special Edition" soundtrack of Return of the Jedi, one finds that it is the best soundtrack for the 1997 edition of the film, and perhaps the best soundtrack for Jedi overall. It gets five stars for the music, four for musical presentation, and five for packaging.



Nearly all of the music from the film is presented here, including some concert suites and diagetic Ewok music. However, a lot of the 1983 music is missing, including every version of Lapti Nek (there are at least three extant), every version of the Ewok song (two?), Jabba's suite, and all the original music from Max Rebo's Band (one or two cues). In their place, one finds the listenable Victory Celebration and the terrible Jedi Rocks. Some of the missing cues are available in the earlier Anthology set, some you may be able to find through gray market channels.



Those with good ears may be disappointed by the sonics of this album. The engineers who mastered it were not working for the best elements, so the 1983 music sounds muffled in places. I have read that better sources have been discovered, but Sony has no intention of remastering this soundtrack.



The packaging and liner notes push this set up to five stars. There is an outer slipcase with an embossed foil Star Wars Special Edition logo and a track listing on the back. Inside is a small hardcover book, with the discs placed in envelopes glued to the inside cover. The disc is laser-etched to depict an X-wing engaging a TIE Fighter in front of the Death Star. The booklet, which is about 30 pages, contains recording information, a brief history of the original recording and the Special Edition, and commentary on all 27 tracks by Michael Matessino. My slipcover has become damaged in the last 10 years--back before MP3, we had to loan physical CDs to our friends, and some of our friends were not very careful with them--but the whole thing remains a very classy-looking affair. Let us hope Sony gives us a re-release that treats the music with just as much class."

My favorite!

M. Kellogg | Lenexa, KS USA | 05/07/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really love this soundtrack! I can listen to the "Victory Celebration" track for hours. The only drawback is the grating "Jedi Rocks"...I hated it in the movie, and I hate it even more on the CD. At least in the movie it had special effects to make it bearable. However, the rest of the soundtrack more than makes up for this one track. I especially like the tracks with the Emperor's theme in them. Very haunting."

Best of the Trilogy

M. Kellogg | 11/09/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"RotJ is definitely the best soundtrack of the Star Wars Trilogy, and one of Williams' best ever. This is basically a compillation of the best themes from the previous films and then some new ones as well (The Emperor's Theme with it's impressive male chorus comes to mind). I can't even begin to touch on the best tracks because there are so many. I must mention however, that the scene where Darth Vader dies is just one of many examples of Williams' brilliance. The music is simply the theme of the Imperial March, but played in an incredible bittersweet way. In short, if you can only buy one of the trilogy's sountracks, make it this one."