STAR WARS, JAWS Composer John Williams Reflects on Musical Legacy
By Movieguide® Contributor
Hollywood composer John Williams reviewed his long and successful career in a recent interview with Variety, revealing memories with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and sharing details about famed projects like JAWS and STAR WARS.
“Creating…big, bold, brassy musical moments has become Williams’ trademark over his seven-decade career,” Variety reported last week. “Without his symphonic genius, some of the most indelible images in movie history — from E.T.’s flight across the moon to the ravenous shark zeroing in on an unsuspecting swimmer — would have lacked their singular power.”
“People ask about a legacy,” Williams said. “If I could be remembered as someone who did his job well and remembered as a good solid musician, I would rest very happily.”
The odds that he will be remembered like that are in his favor.
Williams received his 54th Academy Award nomination this year, a number surpassed only by Walt Disney. At 92, he’s also the oldest person ever nominated for an Oscar.
Variety said, “Ask Williams what the 54 nominations mean to him, and he says, ‘Well, I’ve lost 49 of ’em, or something like that’ — though for him the initial nods that come from the music branch are the main thing, because ‘the selection process is that of your peer group, and so their approval and appreciation is doubly meaningful.’”
“Part of it is being very lucky, to be able to work as long as I have been able to do, health-wise and opportunity-wise,” the composer said. “And I don’t think one ever gets really jaded to the point where these things are meaningless. Certainly not in my case.”
Variety argues that Williams deserved more than five awards. It says he created America’s most well-known scores, from INDIANA JONES, JURASSIC PARK, E.T. and JAWS to SCHINDLER’S LIST and STAR WARS.
“George was very clear to me that the music should be symphonic,” Williams said about STAR WARS director George Lucas. “I took it to mean late 19th century, maybe European — Mahler, Wagner, Strauss, that period of orchestral writing. He said it should be classical.”
“Not Bach — not classical in the baroque sense, but in the romantic sense, the Byronic sense. Why? Because all the images you’re going to see are images of desolate places or places you’ve never seen before, with people wearing clothes you’ve never seen before. It’s all alien, the whole visual experience,” Williams said.
“So the emotional experience should be familiar. It should be a classical modality that describes heroism and romance and adventure and operatic emotions higher than reality,” he said.
Williams previously told the New Yorker that Lucas had wanted to use pre-existing classical music, and he had convinced him otherwise.
Collider noted, “Using pre-existing classical music would put STAR WARS in a rather odd position, as a significant part of what makes it iconic is indeed Williams’ music.”
The composer revealed that in the first STAR WARS movie, he accidentally wrote a romantic song for siblings Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.
“Realizing the error of his ways gave Williams an opportunity to write Carrie Fisher a new, non-incestuous theme for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, along with first-time leitmotifs for Darth Vader and Yoda that would further become part of this universe.”
“Over the nine STAR WARS films he scored, Williams has written 45 identifiable, recurring themes — or so he’s been told by fans,” Variety said.
When Williams worked on JAWS, Steven Spielberg couldn’t believe Williams wanted to use the humble three-note score.
“I played boom boom boom on the piano for him,” Williams recalled. “and Steven said, ‘Are you serious?’ I said, ‘If you hear the basses and celli in the orchestra, I think it might work.’ And so we did a session with the orchestra, and he said, ‘Oh, this is wonderful.’”
“It was apropos of Benny Herrmann’s violins in PSYCHO, which came from two notes. With JAWS, we have three notes — two up, one down,” Williams shared. “But I don’t think doing PSYCHO with Hitch and Benny was fun. Doing JAWS with Steven was fun.”
Spielberg and Williams worked on 29 films together. The director spoke highly of Williams’ talents.
“Every score he’s ever composed, and even the ones that might have the most complicated orchestrations, he always has a beautiful main theme,” he said.
“Every time we see each other,” Spielberg said, “Johnny asks, ‘Are you working on our next film?’ Because John has been my primary creative partner across my entire film career. And that’s not gonna end until we do.”
Williams’ most recent movie score was INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY.
INDIANA JONES actor Harrison Ford said, “As I often remind John, his music follows me everywhere I go — literally. When I had my last colonoscopy, they were playing it on the operating room speakers.”
Part of Movieguide®’s review of DIAL OF DESTINY reads:
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is revisiting an old friend. It has the exciting, suspenseful action scenes and narrow escapes moviegoers expect from an Indiana Jones movie. DIAL OF DESTINY has a strong moral worldview, with some Christian, redemptive content, including three references to Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. Eventually, the hero discovers that love is worth all the knowledge in the world. However, there’s some foul language and scary moments involving murder, plane crashes, bugs, and a bevy of eels underwater. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.
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