When I was a kid I lived in Lowell, Massachusetts. My parents used to take me, my brothers, and my sister to the Esplanade in downtown Boston along the Charles River every summer to watch/listen to the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra perform a lot of patriotic themes and all of John Williams famous scores from the movies he was involved in the 70s & 80s. Music by John Williams was a huge part of why I am as big of a film aficionado as I am today. 

As a kid and later as a teenager there were many of the scores that Williams created that I loved. The scores for The Cowboys, Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, ET the Extraterrestrial Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Home Alone, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter, and Lincoln, are all ionic and most of them became scores I would remember to this very day. I find myself whistling a lot of them at random times just because I love them so much. 

The film does a lot of the things most other documentaries do. The most common of those is all the talking heads in this film. The list consists of Chris Martin lead singer of Coldplay, collaborators Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, James Mangold, George Lucas, JJ Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Chris Columbus, who are all directors and producers, Alex Ross Music Critic/Historian, Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri both stellar composers Seth McFarlane Fan, Branford Marsalis Saxophonist, Elvis Mitchell Radio Host, Jenny Williams Daughter, Yo-Yo Ma Cellist, Kathleen Kennedy producer, Key Huy Kwan actor, and Itzhak Perlman Violinist. All the talking heads bring great insight into this man’s family, career, and all of his great film achievements. He’s more than just a music composer and orchestra conductor.

Another thing that is pretty standard in films such as this is archival footage and photos. The archival footage obviously will bring any long-time fan of Williams’ work back to the time when quite a few of the films he worked on came out. Every time one of the movies he did a score for came up I got excited to hear him talk about the process behind creating those scores. How he used various musicians and techniques including a piano, in which he created a lot of his most popular themes, violins, and cellos, was fascinating to me as someone who isn’t that knowledgeable about music. I was glued to every word Williams and other musicians said. This type of music has interested me for decades now, specifically because of Williams.

As I mentioned I was a fan of the Boston Pops growing up as a kid, so the part about the Boston Pops was interesting to me. I believe Williams is the greatest conductor and music composer of the last 50 years. Even as great as he is he didn’t always get along with all of his colleagues. He butted heads which caused him to quit the Pops and eventually Comeback to them once cooler heads and people calmed down. He was Arthur Feidler’s replacement, but as far as I’m concerned he’s the greatest conductor of the Boston Pops. I still to this day watch them perform on the 4th of July even though he’s not the conductor anymore.

Two of the people Williams worked with the most in his career were Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Lucas got Williams to work on Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back at the behest of Spielberg.  He didn’t know what he was working on, but he knew Lucas had a vision for these films. Little did he know that the Cantina Theme, Darth Vader Theme, Luke’s Theme, Lea’s Theme, Yoda’s Theme, the Binary Sunset, Rey’s Theme, Dual of the Fates, and the Opening Fanfare of Star Wars would become some of the most iconic music in film history. I am still blown away by the Darth Vader Theme called the Imperial March and the Mos Eisley Cantina music today. I love them and get goosebumps every time I hear them played in any context.

Music by John Williams would be a pretty straightforward documentary if it weren’t about the greatest conductor and composer of the last 50 years. There was a lot of talk in the film about Williams’ work ethic and drive to be the best, but he had great collaborators who saw greatness in him and continued to work with him over and over again like Spielberg and Lucas. They became close friends and remain so to this day. As a fan of this man and his great work, I will always love so many of the themes and scores that were talked about in this film. This was an amazing documentary for any fan of Williams’ work and of great music from so many incredible movies he and others worked on together.

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen