Music by John Williams

I usually watch films and TV shows that I need or want to pay attention to after hours, when the rest of the family has gone to sleep. Our house has one of those (mostly) open floor plans, which we love, but there’s just a lot of noise during the day (fine for news and sports).

But yesterday I did try to watch the new Disney+ documentary Music by John Williams in the afternoon, because as I explained to my family, “I’ve been waiting my whole life to see this film.” And probably that goes for most of us here! (I made it 20 minutes through the noise before waiting until late at night.)

I really enjoyed it, particularly the first half, looking at the Maestro’s early life and pre-Star Wars career. Like most fans, I am familiar with the wikipedia version of his biography, but I enjoyed hearing it in his own words and, especially, seeing the family photos and archival film footage (some of which comes from Spielberg’s home movies of recording sessions).

This is not a movie review and I don’t really want to take the brainspace either to write about what his music means to me (which we can all do, and it’s roughly similar) or his personality—which proves to be pretty much what it always appeared to be. (I have met the great man and you can read or re-read that story here.) He’s incredibly hard-working, thoughtful, brilliant, articulate and humble. As his grandson points out, he’s very private, so at a certain point, he doesn’t want to share any more of his personal feelings, and finds a diplomatic way to close off the topic. But you also see where he’s at heart an old-school jazz pianist who calls people “sweetie” and “baby.”

The second half of the film got a little repetitive because how much can you say when he’s the GOAT, and his most famous collaborator is also the GOAT—and they are both scandal-free?

It’s also hard to write or film a biography about a film composer because it’s the same story for each movie over however many decades: they watched the movie, went in their little room, thought about it and wrote the music. It’s not like shooting a movie where they can talk about wrangling horses in Montana or getting malaria in Africa.

I am, as always, filled with awe and love for the Maestro’s music, and gratitude for his work ethic, longevity and multi-faceted genius. The interview portions where he talks about the theme for Close Encounters being constructed like a question, and Ron Howard recounting Williams’ explanation how film music is evocative of the human relationship to sound, are gems.

Great work and a great tribute to a master—thank you to Laurent Bouzereau and his team!