MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS - Mark Reviews Movies

Music by John Williams, Disney

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 31, 2024

It comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that John Williams, the quintessential composer of film scores, doesn't watch many movies. Then again, he has been so busy writing and playing music for movies and television since the 1950s that maybe it's much of a surprise. The man's output is staggering, not only in terms of quantity, but also by way of quality. The music of Williams is so engrained in popular culture that, even if you somehow didn't know the name, you could probably hum multiple bars of several of his pieces by naming some of the most popular movies of the past five decades.

Most who watch Music by John Williams will know all of this, of course. After all, the intended audience for a biography of a film composer likely knows enough about movies to be ahead of director Laurent Bouzereau's documentary before it even starts. Those who know and have admired Williams' work since they began paying attention to film won't learn much about the composer's technique or style. That's fine, in a way, because the music does speak for itself.

Instead, this is a love letter from fans, colleagues, and friends to Williams, who seems genuinely and pleasantly surprised when Steven Spielberg crashes the composer's interview with Bouzereau. The two have known each other since Williams agreed to write the music for Spielberg's first theatrical feature, and they have worked together on 25 films since then. Spielberg is one of the producers of this documentary, joining others who have worked with Williams in the past, and the affection they all show on the camera for the man is infectious.

The man turned 92 this year, and as far as anyone can tell, he has no intention of actually retiring, even if he has threatened it a couple of times in recent years. It does sound like a threat, because it's difficult to imagine not getting any more movie music from a composer whose name makes us think of some of the most memorable film scores ever made. That day will come eventually, as it must, but in the meantime, here are a lot of people who admire the music and adore the man to tell us why they do and why, if somehow we already don't, we should, too.

Williams' telling of his own life is somewhat new, at least, for those who primarily concentrate on the work of artists. Even his life story is pleasant for the most part. He grew up as a son of musicians, who encouraged him and his siblings to learn piano from a young age. One amusing detail is that a young Williams was so often surrounded by musicians, since his parents and their friends were, that he simply assumed growing up meant figuring out which instrument or instruments you were supposed to play and finding a job that you allowed you to do that. It's an innocently romantic notion.

The stuff of his career is insightful, too, since he started as a jazz pianist, who recorded a couple albums, and began playing in the orchestras at various movie studios as a young man. In that setting, he worked with some of the past greats, including Elmer Berstein and Bernard Herrmann, and for someone who has come to define the craft of movie scores and push them into mainstream and high-class cultures, it's impressive how simple, humble, and practical Williams was and remains.

He didn't become a composer for the glory or some artistic ambition or anything lofty like that. No, he had a wife and three children, all of whom also became musicians in some way, to support. Composing paid more than session playing.

Even though he composed many scores before starting his partnership with Spielberg, it really was his collaboration with the then-young-and-upcoming filmmaker, who did watch a lot of movies and noticed Williams' talent and versatility, that put him on the map. That was partly because of Jaws, wherein Spielberg credits Williams for musically creating the presence of a shark that kept failing him mechanically during shooting.

It was mostly, though, because Spielberg knew another young filmmaker named George Lucas, who had an idea for a space adventure movie. You're probably humming one of Williams' themes for Star Wars or its multiple sequels in your head or aloud right now, and that's the sheer power of his music.

In its career retrospective side, Bouzereau's documentary is mostly a greatest-hits compilation, which focuses exclusively on Spielberg's bigger films, almost everything to do with Star Wars, and late appearances from Ron Howard, who also produced the film, and Chris Columbus to offer thoughts on their collaborations with Williams. What's kind of lovely about these interviews is that these filmmakers come across as ebullient fans, in the same way that the likes of other interview subjects Seth MacFarlane and Chris Martin of Coldplay do. It's easy to question what some of the interviewees are doing here, but it's probably easier to just accept that they genuinely love the music and want that to be known.

Obviously, the documentary bypasses a lot, either by way of audio-visual montages or complete absences, but any thorough assessment of Williams' work, which also includes plenty of non-movie work, would be an undertaking of some dedication and length. Instead, Music by John Williams is succinct and sweet, and as an ode from friends and fans, it is really, really sweet.

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