'Music by John Williams' Lands Most of the Notes
Movies wouldn't be what they are without their score. E.T. going to his mothership to return home would be emotionless without its score. Star Wars would be generic if under the helms of a generic composer. Although it was Danny Elfman's score to Batman that made me an avid listener of film scores, John Williams was and always will be the GOAT (greatest of all time). As Music by John Williams points out, most composers have one score that they have, which defines their career. Look no further than Howard Shore as an example. The man is only known for Lord of the Rings despite having a vast library of compositions. For John Williams, the list of classic themes and scores never ceases to amaze in their volume and ubiquity.
Like most autobiographical documentaries on folks in show business, Music by John Williams feels more like a commercial than it does a fully fleshed-out documentary. Unlike Pharell Williams's movie Piece by Piece, which tells its story entirely in animated Legos, Composed by John Williams doesn't rely on gimmicks to engage the audience with its material. Having said that, you kind of have to be a fan of John Williams in order to really appreciate the film. The biopic, more than anything, is usually a fan film made by fans, for fans. If you've lived under a rock not knowing who John Williams is, then this film might not be for you. Then again, it might spark your interest. The man has had an eclectic career. Before meeting Steven Spielberg, Williams did the theme for Gilligan's Island, Lost in Space, and Fiddler on the Roof.
Once Williams met Steven Spielberg, his life began to change—but he didn't win big with his first feature with the infamous filmmaker. Their initial collaboration was Spielberg's first theatrical debut, The Sugarland Express. It's not particularly a memorable score. Possibly even generic? But not to worry. His next line of work with Spielberg would be an unforgettable classic. Jaws. Everyone can hum the Jaws theme. I do it whenever I'm inching closer to a car in traffic. With just two notes rising faster and louder, the score reaches a breaking point, making the audience anticipate who's going to be eaten by the shark next. Within that same period, he would later go on to score Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars.
For covering such a wide array of work, I was a little let down not to see some of the less successful films he scored earn a spotlight. There are a couple of clips to A.I. Artificial Intelligence, but not much more than that. We also see his work done with Oliver Stone on Born on the Fourth of July and JFK. Yet there's no mention of Nixon anywhere. Since A.I. and Nixon have flopped and thus forgotten, it hasn't won the popularity contest in score coverage. One other nitpick I have with the film is that it shows that John had a connection in the film industry as a young man. His father was a musician passing along his connections to his son. It makes it kind of hard to root for someone when you know their road to success was easier, not easy, but less difficult than those who come from nothing.
If you're looking for a deep dive into an artist's mind, you won't get it here. Music by John Williams has that glossy Disney feel to it, where the subject is a perfect person, and every film that Williams composes is a great joy. If only folks knew how grueling the work in film is, they might think twice about being a Hollywood composer. Even John Williams himself has admitted that he likes to compose music outside of the studio realms so he can create something of his own.
We get to see Williams create some abstract art in his compositions done outside of Hollywood, revealing a darker side of John Williams that lingers underneath all of his kindness. I wish the film explored where that music comes from or how Williams uses pain, sadness, anger, hope, and love in his work. Rather than, "Hey, you know this famous tune? That's right. John composed that one, too!" let's focus on what the music means to him more than its popularity. Also, the film keeps cutting to Seth McFarlane for some random reason. Did John Williams compose Family Guy as well? What's his relevance in the man's career?
The movie does reveal something that I heavily agree with. Film scores around the eighties and even throughout the 70s were done on synthesizers, eliminating the room for an orchestra. It's what turned me off as a kid from seeing movies of the era I was born in. The music of those films was terrible. If it weren't for John Williams' contribution to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, we might have been stuck with empty, synthetic scores like the ones we've heard in John Hughes's comedies. As the film points out, there's a special place for the orchestra. If a moment of spontaneity occurs that improves the tempo in the recording studio, it can't be replicated on a digital machine.
Music by John Williams is an ordinary documentary about an extraordinary man. Seeing that I'm a fan of Mr. Williams, I didn't mind the commercialism of this biopic the way I disdain Piece by Piece. That movie was just a Lego commercial promoting a hip-hop artist's brand. It was cheap consumerism at its worst since Jingle All The Way. There's a little more soul to Music by John Williams. Sadly, not much more, as it's more of a resume viewer than an insightful documentary. There's not much new I learned about Williams other than he composed a lot of T.V. tunes before switching exclusively to film. He also created the Fox NFL theme. Something I could go without hearing after the last Bears game, which I luckily skipped.
Is this one worth checking out? It depends. Do you like film scores and want to educate yourself on Hollywood's most prolific composer? Then this might be your movie. If you're not a score buff, unlike me, you'd probably get bored by this one. For my money, it did the job to inform and entertain, but nothing more.
