MovieScore Media presents the ultimate John Williams homage with George Shaw’s score for Way to the Rebellion - A Star Wars Fan Film. Produced by Wong Fu Productions, the story is set alongside the timeline of A New Hope and focuses on what events make average people follow the Rebellion instead of the Empire. By building on Star Wars lore, including the search for a crystal that could be used for creating lightsabers, Way to the Rebellion expands on the trilogy’s world - and the same can be said about Shaw’s score that is an ode to the brilliance of John Williams...

Don't get me talking about John Williams... I could go on forever. He was the sole reason I started collecting soundtracks in the early '80s and I still listen to some of the old classics from time to time. His work on the Star Wars movies is probably where he's at his most inventive and exciting. So I was interested to hear how George Shaw would pay homage to the great man.

I must admit that on first play through I wasn't a huge fan of this score. Sure it had its moments, but there seemed to be way to much time spent on trying to mimic Williams's style, by using familiar themes from Star Wars and changing them a bit.

But returning to it and playing it through again for a week or so I soon started to really embrace what Shaw had delivered.

Tracks like 'Wielding A Saber' have a subtle beauty. It's an original track and actually comes close to matching Williams's at his best (as does 'Final Frontier Awakens').

There are also plenty of Star Wars references. The more subtle ones include 'Imperial Evasion' which takes its cues from A New Hope's 'Landspeeder Search'; and 'Trek Wars' that borrows from The Empire Strikes Back's 'The Battle of Hoth'. Shaw also incorporate themes from Episodes I-III - 'Saber Duel' being the most obvious.

'Typical Muggle - Use the Forks, Luke!' takes a step outside the Star Wars universe and instead incorporates music inspired by Williams's work on the Harry Potter franchise, While 'Join the Rebellion' owes more to the work of John Barry than Williams.

Finally we have 'War Among the Stars' which is a little cheesy and probably as close as you can get to the original Star Wars theme without being sued.

The album contains 18 tracks (40 min, 47 sec) and at its heart is a loving tribute to the wonderful work Williams originally gifted to the Star Wars community.

9

Darren Rea