Details from IMDB:
Music by John Williams
Follows the life of legendary composer John Williams.
Initial Thoughts:
John Williams is an incredibly musician/director/composer and it’s easy to forget that if it wasn’t for him “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Superman,” “E.T.” and other films would be so different and not the classics we all know and love. I had heard about this documentary a while ago (about a year as it came out last year) but life gets busy. Sunday night it was wet and cold out so I decided to stay in and watch this, plus it would be a good pallet cleanser from “The Girl Next Door” I saw on Saturday.
Main Points:
I know John Williams has done so many wonderful scores/themes but I didn’t know anything about his personal life. This documentary did a great job of giving you just enough knowledge of him as a person along with his amazing body of work. You could tell from the interviews with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas just how much they enjoyed working him and how deeply they respected him.
I had forgotten how prolific John Williams is and how many movies he’s done, including 9 Star Wars movies, 5 Indiana Jones movies, 2 Superman movies and 2 Jaws, plus he still is a conductor/maestro and continues to work on music today! It is wonderful to see someone who loves their work so much, you could see the happiness on his face whenever he is conducting, especially at the Hollywood bowl which he has been going to know for 45 years! I think the talent and extent of John Williams musical ability is hard to even comprehend, he is truly a genius and a wonderful person we have been lucky to have.
Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this documentary and my only issues are I would have liked more time spent on “Star Wars” “Indiana Jones” and “Superman” as I feel that what most fans, like me, watched this documentary at least in part for. I give this a solid 8.5 out of 10 and a strong recommendation to anyone who enjoys learning about music in cinema, music in general and of course John Williams. I won’t get this right but he said something along the lines of “I get to make people happy with music, there’s nothing better than that!” and I agree. While I wouldn’t say this is good for young kids I think ages 11+ would be fine. Do yourself a favor and watch this happy, heart-warming documentary, you’ll be glad you did.