Hello and welcome to this week's installment of Cue by Cue.
Today we're going to be listening to 2m3 Luke's Rescue.
This cue is 62 bars long and was orchestrated by Herbert Spencer.
Here's what the sketch and orchestrated conductor's scores look like:
Now let's listen to the cue together:
At 0:00 the cue begins with some fast horns (picking up immediately from the previous cue) which are soon joined by some woodwinds and strings as the camera zooms in and we get our first glimpse of snowspeeders.
At 0:08 they are joined by brass as more snowspeeders enter frame, which climaxes at 0:11 as they fly off in different directions.
At 0:17, a horn solo for the closeup of the pilot, which leads into buildup for the big fanfare at 0:26 as the speeder flies by the camera.
The music quiets down for a second at 0:40 for another look at the pilot, before getting some slow almost whimsical ascending woodwinds.
This leads into some celebratory music at 0:55 as Rogue Two radios that he's found Skywalker. This lasts all the way until the snowspeeder arrives at Echo Base.
At 1:13, more energetic music as we see Luke struggle in the Bacta tank. The music gets higher pitches as he wakes up and floats to the top, before fading away entirely at 1:31.
Finally we get some soft woodwinds and strings as a healed Luke is greeted by his friends. Thus, the cue ends...
This cue was almost completely replaced in the final cut. This appears not to have been driven by the video edits in this scene, but rather because the filmmakers didn't like the cue, as evidenced by the fact that the 70mm version with the early cut already has the replaced music.
That brings me to an explanation about the visual edits - the scene of Luke being healed in the bacta tank was reedited between the 70mm theatrical release and the 35mm wide theatrical release so that Luke wasn't violently flailing in the water, and instead was more passively being watched by his friends. For these shots in the video above I used the original edit from the 70mm version. These edits don't affect the timing at all so the original music could have worked in the re-edit.
As for the music edits, in the final cut:
0:00-0:09 = silence
0:09-0:11 = 12m2 To Hyper-Space 0:17-0:19
0:11-0:14 = 12m2 To Hyper-Space 0:17-0:19
0:14-0:16 = 12m2 To Hyper-Space 0:17-0:19
0:16-0:19 = 12m2 To Hyper-Space 0:17-0:19
0:19-0:22 = 12m2 To Hyper-Space 0:17-0:19
0:22-0:46 = 12m2 To Hyper-Space 0:28-0:52
0:46-0:56 = 12m2 To Hyper-Space 1:05-1:15
0:56-1:13 = 2m3 Luke's Rescue 0:56-1:13
1:13-1:30 = 1m3-2m1 Luke's Escape 0:10-0:27
1:30-end = silence
I'm not really sure why the beginning was replaced, 12m2 To Hyper-Space is a similarly energetic athematic piece, but the loops and edits are kind of obvious and I think it sounds worse than the original cue.
As for the second half, I can understand why it was replaced by 1m3-2m1 Luke's Escape, the original piece is a bit strange in how energetic it is after getting back to Echo Base. I think it makes more sense in context with the original Bacta scene, but it still doesn't quite fit and I think the quieter woodwinds work better, even if the edit is pretty bad.
At least the celebratory line from 0:56-1:13 was kept in the film, that's probably my favorite part of the cue.
Since I don't have a recording log I'm unsure what day this cue was recorded, but based on the take numbers written in the sketch it was likely recorded in mid January. I'm also unsure how many takes were recorded, but according to the sketch the performance edit uses take 210.
This cue has been officially released on four different albums:
1) In 1980 on RSO Records' OST album
2) In 1993 on Arista Records' 4-CD Anthology box set
3) In 1997 on RCA Victor's 2-CD Special Edition set
4) In 2018 on Walt Disney Records' Remastered album (remastered OST rebuilt from scratch from the session masters)
More specifically, 2m3 Luke's Rescue can be heard:
From 0:00-1:37 of track 12 "Rebels at Bay" on the 1980/2018 albums
From 0:00-end of disc 2 track 4 "Luke's Rescue" on the 1993 album
From 7:05-end of disc 1 track 3 "The Wampa's Lair/Vision of Obi-Wan/Snowspeeders Take Flight" on the 1997 album.
All albums have the clean opening but only the 1993 and 1997 albums have the clean ending. The 1980 album is remixed, and the 1997 album is brickwalled. Surprisingly, the 2018 album for this cue appears not to be a remix, one of the only cues on that set to actually sound like it's supposed to.
Additionally, all releases of this cue play at the wrong pitch/speed, although this can easily be corrected in an audio editor:
1980 set has to be sped up by 0.60 to match film
1993 set has to be sped up by 0.77 to match film
1997 set has to be sped up by 0.77 to match film
2018 set has to be slowed down by -0.35 to match film
For the video above I used a speed corrected copy of the 1993 set.
That's all I have for today, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any comments or questions.
Next week we'll be listening to one of my favorite cues, 2m4 The Probe Scanner. See you then!