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Steven Spielberg is Making a John Williams Documentary


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Shorter than I hoped but pretty standard doc length. 

 

It's still a little unclear to me if Williams himself was interviewed for this? It seems like that should be obvious but the Legacy of John Williams is the only site I could find explicitly saying he was, not sure where Maurizio sourced that. 

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17 hours ago, Jay said:

Thanks to @thx99 for the head's up.  The documentary will be 1 hour, 45 minutes long:
 

https://debut.disney.com/fyc/twds/movie/music-by-john-williams-1726612788788?tab=synopsis


Great; I can’t wait to see it!

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The duration is not good. I hope there will be a longer uncut version. I hope they will mention his jazz roots and the great jazz music he has written through the years. Also his performing skills. And I really hope that members of his family are interviewed. I do not really care of the opinion of some of the directors and producers listed. I am a lot more interested about the musicians opinions. Other film composers and Mike Mattesino that takes care of Williams work the last years have opinions and views with a lot more gravitas than say Kathleen Kennedy.

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1 hour 45 minutes is a respectable length for a doc. I'm expecting a little more than a superficial puff piece, but of course it won't satisfy the aficionados who know everything and want a really deep dive into the details of his life.

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36 minutes ago, Andy said:

Any time a new doc from him comes, I always see something new.

Just enough that you want to slap him for cutting away after 10 seconds!

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Well that is the thing lol. But it'd be 10 seconds more than we had. I'm sure the interviews will have surprises and funny moments of their own as well.

 

Regarding his early career, it got about 2 minutes in the AFI special before reaching The Sugarland Express, so there's the low bar ;) I brought it up earlier in the thread but I am somewhat expecting this to be an extended version of that type of doc style. Nice and flashy, highly watchable, but you can sort of feel the Wikipedia of it. The more patient and candid the doc is in showing interviews and archival footage, the better, I think. 

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2 hours ago, Andy said:

Hear me out.  I don’t want to see montage after montage.  But I have to say Bouzerau does do them well. 
 

1:03

 

17:59

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think a montage over the end credits could be a good way to end it. Also choosing the Jaws 2 End Title for that montage is perfection🤌🤌

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"Please note that all reviews for MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS are under embargo until 10/23/24 at 10pm PT."

 

Now Disney really own him.

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What I'd hope it contains more of than anything else is Williams and SS (and other directors) talking about a scene on the scoring stage, like we've seen snippets of here and there from different composers - you see them working in their natural environment and exchanging honest views on how the music is working.

 

Hearing the classic quotes would also be quite fun, actually. The only thing that I think is inevitable, and requires some expectation management is that it might just turn out to be 100 minutes of a narrator going through Williams' filmography or eras, and featuring talking heads talking about why each score is the greatest thing ever. Nobody learns anything from such interviews.

 

The documentary as a whole is worth making to celebrate Williams' career, but I hope it's going to have some substance for film score fans.

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1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

What I'd hope it contains more of than anything else is Williams and SS (and other directors) talking about a scene on the scoring stage, like we've seen snippets of here and there from different composers - you see them working in their natural environment and exchanging honest views on how the music is working.

Maybe a clip of the real story behind Schindler's List when Spielberg objected to the use of violin as too sentimental.  Rumor is that Williams responded like this:

 

 

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If indeed the big angle is about Williams's contribution to helping to preserve orchestral music, then expect even less about his early scoring life and more on the mid-70s forward.   

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I’m most looking forward to the part at the end where Spielberg says in some b-roll-style footage that JW is already working out ideas for his UFO/alien movie next year that will knock everyone’s socks off. 

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On 23/09/2024 at 6:27 PM, TownerFan said:

It's easy for hard-core fans to get jaded when it comes to these things, and in this particular case I believe all fans had their own wishes and very specific ideas on what would be the ideal scenario, but let's be realistic and look at the positive side--a feature-length documentary about John Williams has been made, in full cooperation with him and his closest collaborators and friends, telling the life story of our beloved Maestro. This is something to really look forward to.

 

Well said.

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If one looks at that Spielberg joke, it’s actually derogatory towards John Williams in a way. 
Williams says (admits) to him that he (Williams, that is) is not a good enough composer to do the score to his film, and Spielberg actually AGREES with him, saying that yes indeed Williams isn’t a good enough composer for the film, but alas all the composers who could write a better score than Williams are already dead, so he has to go with him. If you look at it this way, not so flattering. 
Yes, I know it’s a joke by Spielberg, but if you were a composer you wouldn’t want to hear it from your director that he hired you not because you are the best but because all the better composers are already dead, so he has to choose you. :D

Well fy, Spielberg. ;)

 

 

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2 hours ago, Davis said:

If one looks at that Spielberg joke, it’s actually derogatory towards John Williams in a way. 
Williams says (admits) to him that he (Williams, that is) is not a good enough composer to do the score to his film, and Spielberg actually AGREES with him, saying that yes indeed Williams isn’t a good enough composer for the film, but alas all the composers who could write a better score than Williams are already dead, so he has to go with him. If you look at it this way, not so flattering. 
Yes, I know it’s a joke by Spielberg, but if you were a composer you wouldn’t want to hear it from your director that he hired you not because you are the best but because all the better composers are already dead, so he has to choose you. :D

Well fy, Spielberg. ;)

 

 

 

The actual reason for his "bruised vanity".

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8 hours ago, Davis said:

Yes, I know it’s a joke by Spielberg, but if you were a composer you wouldn’t want to hear it from your director that he hired you not because you are the best but because all the better composers are already dead, so he has to choose you. :D

 

Luckily, Williams's ego isn't so big that he's offended by someone suggesting he's not the greatest composer who ever lived.

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2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Luckily, Williams's ego isn't so big that he's offended by someone suggesting he's not the greatest composer who ever lived.


But I dare say that the dead composers couldn't have come up with a much better theme.

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3 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Luckily, Williams's ego isn't so big that he's offended by someone suggesting he's not the greatest composer who ever lived.

 

Spielberg and Williams both often share their appreciation for standing on the shoulders of those who came before, so I think that spirit is why Williams is obsessed with loves the anecdote and feels flattered by it. It's simultaneously humbling and self-aggrandizing. Also it's obviously based on the premise that Williams thinks there are better living composers as well as dead. 

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1 hour ago, mrbellamy said:

Also it's obviously based on the premise that Williams thinks there are better living composers as well as dead.

Has Williams

mentioned anyone in particular? John Adams maybe?

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4 hours ago, Thor said:

Funny thing is that I prefer Williams over all those dead guys anyway.


Hokey composers and ancient melodies are no match for a good Maestro at your side. 

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On 22/09/2024 at 8:16 PM, Thor said:

I think everyone needs to adjust their expectations for this film.

I will bet $100 that this will be a fairly superficial documentary, covering all his "greatest hits", but little in the way of the lesser known, at least for us fans. Perhaps some montages and stuff to cover the pre-JAWS scores, if we're lucky, but not much. Doesn't matter that Spielberg is involved on the production side (and might pony up a brief recording session snippet or two), it's a Disney+ documentary aimed at the general masses, directed by a guy who's notorious for superficial featurettes on DVDs. It will not be like the Morricone documentary, lovingly directed by one of his frequent collaborators.

I think you're better off having those kinds of expectations to the Tim Greiving book next year.

 

I am HOPING for something a lot more, like the bonus DVD that came with the Sony box set a few years back (I feel like that is already like.... 8 years ago). But I think the above statement is probably more accurate.

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8 minutes ago, WilliamsStarShip2282 said:

 

I am HOPING for something a lot more, like the bonus DVD that came with the Sony box set a few years back (I feel like that is already like.... 8 years ago). But I think the above statement is probably more accurate.


Refresh my memory. What box set are you referring to? The John Williams & Steven Spielberg Ultimate Collection set from seven years back?

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8 minutes ago, JohnnyD said:


Refresh my memory. What box set are you referring to? The John Williams & Steven Spielberg Ultimate Collection set from seven years back?

 

Yes, I liked that there was a lot of footage from the recording and a lot of them speaking, instead of just random montage or obsessing over oscars and the usual none sense.

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