Star Wars Trilogy (Box Set)
Given that it's largely credited with reinventing Hollywood--or at least fostering its overweening box office expectations--it's  hard to imagine that the genesis of George Lucas' sprawling, multi-billion dollarStar Warsfranchise was once considered a risky studio proposition at best. But Lucas himself has wisely singled out the robust, retro-romantic music of composer John Williams as the unlikely artistic linchpin that holds all of the saga's disparate dramatic, thematic and technical elements firmly together. Boxed together here then are three of the most successful and influential film scores of modern Hollywood, work that draws as much on Williams' masterful sense of classical music history as it does his own well-studied melodic and arranging instincts. Each of the three double-disc collections here contains all of the music written forStar Wars: A New Hope,Empire Strikes BackandReturn of the Jedi(and even Alfred Newman's intyroductory "Fox Fanfare"), newly upgraded via Direct Stream Digital remastering that adds stunning new presence and clarity to Williams' rousing, epochal scores. Each chapter also features a lenticular 3-D cover and newly designed fold-out film poster, as well as encoded disc features allowing online access to elaborate newStar Warsscreen savers; the ultimate musical compendium of the originalStar Warstriptych.--Jerry McCulley