Legendary Composer docu at AFI Fest

The AFI Fest opened Wednesday night back at its home, the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and runs through Sunday, highlighted by world premieres of awaited new films from past American Film Institute Life Achievement Award honorees including Tom Hanks with his new film, Here, on Friday, and Clint Eastwood with his latest, Juror #2, on Sunday (among a host of prime Oscar contenders and international films). But the fest kicked off with yet another AFI honoree, legendary movie composer and musician John Williams, who is the subject of an exceptionally well-conceived and executed documentary on his remarkable career.

This is a legacy that includes more highlights and statistics and achievements than perhaps any other motion picture composer in history, although the shy and not self-laudatory musician would probably give you an argument on that, preferring to highlight those legends that preceded his glory decades that have run through the ‘50s all to way to now, where at age 92 he is still at it. His most recent Oscar nomination of a record 54 (the most for any one person not named Walt Disney) came just last year for Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny. He has five wins, several Grammys, Emmys and evey other imaginable award in addition to AFI’s aforementioned honor and as a Kennedy Center Honoree.

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau and produced by a consortium of companies including Steven Spielberg‘s Amblin, Ron Howard’s Imagine and George Lucas’ Lucasfilm, the filmmaker uses no narration but tells the story of John Williams through compelling interviews with Williams (especially as he sits at the piano), and those three iconic directors who have worked with him as well as others such as producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, musical collaborators like Itzhak Perlman and Gustavo Dudamel, and on and on. Even family members are interviewed, with one explaining how Williams has sat alone in a room for 60 years to give birth to his music.

Bouzereau, who has done countless other show business docus such as the poignant Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, 5 Came Back, Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones & Harrison Ford and the current and splendid docu, Faye, on the life and times of Faye Dunaway, has benefitted from his access as a filmmaker of so many making-of featurettes over the past 30 years that he has a comfort and up-close knowledge of his subject here and makes great use of some terrific archival material, scoring sessions, and film clips. But best of all is the way he has been able to bring Williams out of his reluctant shell to talk about his life in music, from his beginnings, his days as a jazz musician, the early film jobs like Gidget, a lot of Fox comedies where he was known as Johnny Williams, to his first Oscar win adapting Fiddler on the Roof, to working with legends like Hitchcock and Wyler, his four decades at the helm of the Boston Pops, and so much more. One particularly moving anecdote is shared by Spielberg’s wife, Kate Capshaw, when she describes her reaction upon first hearing his score for Schindler’s List.

Stories about how his immortal themes for Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark and so many others are also priceless, and fortunately Bouzereau lets the work and how it evolved take center stage. To appreciate the breadth of Williams’ film career, just look at some of the other titles: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Empire of the Sun, Lincoln and The Fabelmans, among the endless list of collaborations with Spielberg which makes up a good chunk of the movie. But don’t discount all nine Star Wars films, the first trio of Harry Potter films, Superman, Memoirs of a Geisha (my favorite and not given enough credit in this), Far and Away, Home Alone, The Cowboys, and the 1969 Steve McQueen film The Reivers which, as he tells it here, was the first introduction to a young soundtrack collector named Spielberg. This list is just a drop in the bucket of over 100 films.

Williams is caught at work in Tanglewood and a frequent stop for him at the Hollywood Bowl where he still appears each summer. A ceremony unveiling The John Williams Music Building that I was lucky enough to attend at Sony Studios earlier this year is also choice material for Bouzereau to include.

But ultimately there is the music and there is plenty of it thankfully in Music By John Williams, from a man who has written the soundtrack of our lives. As he says “music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music”. This is a well-deserved tribute for a man who has created what Spielberg calls “the purest form of art I have ever experienced from any human being”.

Producers are Spielberg, Brian Grazer, Howard, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Meredith Kaulfers, Kennedy, Marshall and Bouzereau.

Title: Music By John Williams

Festival: AFI Fest (Opening night)

Distributor: Disney+

Release Date: November 1, 2024 (steaming on Disney +)

Director: Laurent Bouzereau

Cast: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Williams, Ron Howard, Itzhak Perlman, Chris Columbus, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, JJ Abrams, Kate Capshaw, Chris Martin, James Mangold, Yo Yo Ma, Lawrence Kasdan

Running time: 1 hr 36 mins

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