For a lead actor to take an interest in the score and supply some form of inspiration, that has to be a pretty rare occurrence.
He [Tom Hiddleston] didn’t do it in a pushy way. He was like, “Only if it’s helpful.” So he was very polite about it, and I was really delighted to have his insight. And it was quite funny because I think people just thought I was an extra, but when Tom came on set and he walked over to me, all the extras [did a double take]. (Laughs.) So I was hidden until that moment.
Any working composer or painter or sculptor will tell you that inspiration comes at the eighth hour of labour rather than as a bolt out of the blue. We have to get our vanities and our preconceptions out of the way and do the work in the time allotted…There are occasionally eureka moments - off the top of my head, maybe Darth Vader's theme, you know, the imperial march.
- John Williams
Photo: George Lucas and John Williams discuss music sound track for Star Wars.
getting back to the music this week. been a little stuck lately but I’m ready to cook up. I’m bouta start documenting my journey on YouTube on becoming a film composer.
"From its opening trumpet phrase, Rota’s score takes such a position on The Corleone’s, crooning with an oppressive weight of tradition and power, even on the day of his daughter’s wedding. You are practically forced to take these people seriously. Even when the score’s mood turns lighter as in its romantic moments, there’s always a lingering sense of gravity because that’s what this score is above all else: grave power but almost as a curse, a weight that hangs over the family business and Rota infused the sound of this weight in every note."
Just a few of my favorite film scores include Star Wars, pretty much any Christopher Nolan movie score but especially Interstellar, Inception and Tenet, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and of course my all time favorite soundtrack, TRON: Legacy.
And of course I have to honor the amazing composers behind these amazing albums as well. The absolute legend, the Maestro himself, John Williams. And perhaps the second best to do it, Hans Zimmer, who along with Ludwig Göransson help create my favorite parts of Nolan films. And it's not a movie but Göransson's soundtrack for The Mandalorian is phenomenal. On the subject of Star Wars shows I have to mention Nicholas Britell and Kevin Kiner. The Kiners are the true successors to John Williams' Star Wars legacy. And of course Daft Punk and Joseph Trapanese created the soundscape that is Tron, and Trapanese did it again with M83 on Oblivion. I could go on but my last two favorite film composers would be Klaus Badelt and Nathan Furst. Badelt of course did the first Pirates of the Caribbean (though Zimmer often gets credit for all of those films) and he also did one of my personal favorite movies, ExtremeDays. And Nathan Furst just went way too hard for the third BIONICLE direct to DVD movie. I mean, that Web of Shadows soundtrack is solid!
Here's a playlist of a lot of my favorite soundtracks, mostly in a similar vibe so not every Williams score is in there:
Without John Williams, bikes don't fly and neither do brooms in Quidditch matches nor do men in red capes. There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the earth. We do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe.
- Steven Spielberg, AFI Lifetime Achievement Award speech for John Williams
The collaboration between John Williams and Steven Spielberg is probably the longest and most successful artistic relationship between a director and a composer in the history of cinema. The duo is synonymous of what means having a fruitful, honest and profound association between two people making films together. Calendar year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the very first encounter between Spielberg and Williams, which happened when the director was in preparation of his first feature film, The Sugarland Express; after being impressed by Williams’ work for such films as The Reivers and The Cowboys, the director decided he was the type of composer he was looking for. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Their roster includes some of the most successful and everlasting movies in the history of cinema: Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, but also such highly acclaimed dramas as Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Munich and Lincoln, and most recently The Fablemans. The variety and diversity of their collaboration is balanced by a unified artistic vision that always celebrates humanity, finding the perfect synergy and constant inspiration in the work of each other and letting each other to be part of their own respective worlds. “John is my musical rewrite artist,” said Steven Spielberg, while Williams spoke of Spielberg as someone who “loves music, it is such a pleasure working with him. He comes in and I play him a theme, he is always very positive and enjoys it.”
Photo: Steven Spielberg and John Williams in the late 1970s.