Music by John Williams (2024)

March 21, 2025 4:59 PM

French documentarian Laurent Bouzereau has directed 343 movies(!), many of which are hack-jobs of the 'The Making Of' type. MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS is his latest (and highest rated). From the Trailer, it looks like it might be the usual hagiographic bio-pic trash, but because of its subject matter, it isn't. (Similar to the 2021 Ennio Morricone biography,) it's a touching, inspiring and joyful trip down memory lane. A wholesome story about the wholesome man who was nominated for 54 Oscars, "One of the biggest pop stars ever".

Well deserved 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

8.2 on IMDb.

4.0 on Letterboxd.

Best film of the week for me too!

(I haven't seen most of the movies of his famous scores, but maybe I will even decide to watch 'Star Wars' because of it!)

posted by growabrain (6 comments total)

He's apparently just behind Walt Disney (59) for number of nominations, and arguably deserved his more. And, growabrain, you haven't seen even the first SW movie (i.e. "Episode IV)? Oh man, would love to read your impressions if/when you do.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:18 PM on March 21

(I don't like sequels & remakes, and I don't usually watch big box-office blockbusters. I've never seen any Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Fast & Furious, Pirates of the Caribbean, Marvel movies, Etc. The only superhero movie I recall seeing was 'Joker' (?). I did see the first Avatar, first Jurassic Park, Terminator 1 & 2, and many others though.)
posted by growabrain at 12:48 AM on March 22

By no means do you have to see all those films, but some of them are definitely worth watching.

This documentary has been on my watch list for a while as Williams' work has virtually been the score to my life. Return of the Jedi was the first film I remember seeing in a theater and so many of my favorite movie going experiences have had his work buttressing the story and cast.
posted by Atreides at 5:46 PM on March 22

I watched this, it was interesting. Perhaps the most interesting was hearing all those iconic themes back to back. It made me realize how many of them have parts taken from other classical music. Others have noted it, but the Jaws theme I realized is extremely similar to the opening of the fourth movement of the “New World” symphony by Antonín Dvořák. The Imperial March theme bears some striking similarities to the Mars movement in Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”. Etc. Of course, when composing programmatic music there are only so many possibilities, but I guess this is a case where mediocre artists borrow, great artists steal? Still glad to hear the John Williams story from beginning to end with generous film clips.
posted by wnissen at 4:03 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]

I got to see John Williams conduct in person at the CSO in 2023, and it was fantastic. He was 91 years old then and and moved about as well as you'd expect a healthy 91 year old to move, i.e. pretty slowly. That cheeky mofo went offstage and then came back out at least 3 more times for off-program encore performances! Absolutely delightful. He grinned like a little kid getting away with something for the full length of each shambling journey, pure delight. I really can't capture how cool it is to see someone who is SO talented and SO good at what they do, who has been doing it for 70 years, still take so much clear and apparent glee in it. I haven't seen this doc (and I'll have to to figure out how) but at least in person, he really seems to have gotten as much joy from his work as he's given to the world. What a gift.

growabrain if you want to watch something with one of my favorite JW scores that isn't franchised or sequeled, my top rec is Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
posted by phunniemee at 9:47 AM on March 27 [2 favorites]

phunniemee, ‘Close encounters’ had always been my favourite Spielberg: I saw it for the first time in 1977, and many times since. 👍🏼
posted by growabrain at 8:13 AM on April 25