By Chris Snellgrove | Published
If you were to close your eyes and try to visualize the faces of Hollywood music, there is a good chance that you would see the face of John Williams. Thanks for composing killer songs for movies like this Jaws again star Warsthis prodigy is widely regarded as the greatest screenwriter of our time. Many have joked over the years that Williams’ score can save even the worst film, but slowly, the composer admitted that working with talented directors like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas saved it. hegiving him new purpose during one of the most difficult times in his life.
While creating Spielberg’s musical, Williams had to face some sobering realities: he was middle-aged, his wife had just died, and his 1972 Oscar was gathering dust on a shelf.
This information comes to us courtesy of Music by John Williamsa new documentary by Laurent Bouzereau that explores not only the meteoric career of the titular talent but also the painful behind-the-scenes details that made him who he is today.
While creating Spielberg’s musical, Williams had to face some sobering realities: he was middle-aged, his wife had just died, and his 1972 Oscar was gathering dust on a shelf. She had voluntarily scaled back her Hollywood career to spend more time with her children, but meeting Spielberg and Lucas helped her rediscover her passion for creating Hollywood blockbusters.
John Williams trusted Steven Spielberg so much that he took what turned out to be a life-changing gamble on someone else’s advice.
According to Bouzereau, one of the reasons why John Williams struck a chord with these visionary filmmakers was that they wanted to change the face of Hollywood while retaining part of what made the Golden Age of cinema so great. The documentarian says that Williams responded to the fact that “Those guys are changing cinema [but] they were like, ‘Let’s make changes, but always be lovers of the cinema we grew up in. That meant that blockbuster films were themed to popular music, and the composer had spent his entire life training for this period.
Regarding Spielberg in particular, Bouzereau revealed that there was a family relationship with Williams, but not the one you might expect. “I’ve never heard Steven call John dad,” he said, noting that the computer is “my older brother.” Sure, Williams may be 15 years old, “but fatherhood means superiority, and that’s never what that partnership means.”
Working on blockbuster films with these two directors helped Williams feel a passion for her work again, and she eventually carried that passion into a second marriage.
John Williams trusted Steven Spielberg so much that he took what turned out to be a life-changing gamble on someone else’s advice. After they did Jaws In 1975, Spielberg convinced Williams to compose a song for George Lucas. star Wars instead of making a World War II fantasy musical The Bridge Too Far. Williams was taking a big turn for the young Lucas, but it had a practical effect, and the space opera’s score helped make Williams a household name.
Sadly, John Williams was in a dark place emotionally before he started working with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas… But working on blockbuster films with these two directors helped Williams to feel love for his work again, and he finally transferred that passion to a second marriage. To this day, he is married to Samantha Winslow, and it’s good to think that his renewed career helped him find the romantic happiness he was looking for.
He may have become famous for working with some of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, but that was not the end of the story for John Williams. After making music for them he saved his career, he found the most important collaborator of all. And we’re happy to see that she and Winslow have been making great music together for 44 years, providing inspiration for lovers from here to the galaxy far, far away.
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