No composer has done as much for
modern pop culture than John Williams. Go ahead and hum the first movie theme
that comes to mind—there’s a pretty good chance that John Williams wrote it.
Yet despite his omnipresence in some of my favorite films and franchises I did
not know much about the man himself, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. After
watching Music By John Williams I still feel that way, as the
documentary is really more of a celebration of the music and career of the
composer rather than a deep dive into who he is as a person, but that might
just be enough—as Williams himself says, there is a little bit of him in
everything he writes.
Music By does
go through some touchstones of Williams’ life—his birth, education, the tragic
death of his first wife, etc. But once it starts focusing on his career and its
impact it rarely touches on anything else. This telling is roughly linear,
starting with Williams’ early days as an ensemble jazz pianist to his first
composing gigs to his years of universal recognition as the guy who wrote the
Jaws, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones soundtracks.
Near the end of the runtime things do get a bit more scattershot, bouncing
from Harry Potter to Jurassic Park to his
various non-movie compositions as if dutifully crossing things off of a list as
to not irritate any fans of a particular work by omitting their favorite. This
makes for a rather rushed and awkward ending that could have used some more
tweaking and streamlining.
There are some insights that I quite enjoyed in Music By,
especially Williams’ explanation of the psychology behind the famous five-note
refrain from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as well as the
more general importance of character themes and leitmotifs. Keep in mind that
while I greatly enjoy and appreciate music I am by no means any expert, so the
fact that I understood the occasional intricacies discussed by Williams and the
rest of the talking heads speaks to their ability to dumb things down for
laymen like myself without making us feel like idiots.
Ironically it is the music itself that makes this film exceptional. Is it
even possible to create a bad documentary when you're using John Williams’
music? Isn't it kind of cheating? Music By John Williams could
have consisted of a two-hour shot of a monkey scratching itself or grass
growing, because as long as Williams’ soundtracks are in there, it really
couldn’t fail.
Even so, the filmmakers went the extra mile to make Music By visually
interesting, mildly enlightening, and highly entertaining. I may not know the
man behind the music much better than I did before, but if he is to be believed
his personality and story were behind the notes all along, subtly zipping
through our zeitgeist like a potato-faced Extra Terrestrial or a handsome
Kryptonian. He will live for as long as we hum his songs, which will probably
be forever.
Music By John Williams is now available on Disney+.
This review was first published in the Keizertimes on November 8th,
2024. Visit at www.keizertimes.com
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