Music by John Williams is a Disney+ documentary that celebrates the life and career of this legendary composer. While the film highlights John Williams as one of the most influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, there are a couple issues with the production that undermine its impact and don’t do full justice to establishing his place in musical history.

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The documentary chronicles John Williams’ musical journey, giving an inside look at his family life, his professional work, and his military service through the stories shared by John himself as well as his close friends and colleagues within the film and music industries. The documentary serves as a soundtrack for modern cinema – illustrating so many moments over the last 60 years that used the sounds of John Williams’ music to capture our collective triumphs, heartbreaks, and adventures. From scoring the Olympic Fan Fare and NBC’s Sunday Night Football to films like Star Wars, Schindler’s List, and Harry Potter as well as television themes like Gilligan’s Island and Lost in Space, John Williams’ influence on modern society and popular culture is unmistakable.

First Impressions of the John Williams Documentary
The documentary doesn’t just cover his upbringing and accomplishments, which are often the bulk what you get with these things. Instead, it also gets into his writing process, how music and film work together to deepen the visual impact of the story unfolding on screen. It also highlights his work ethic, which gave him the skill and opportunity to hone his craft across so many different genres of music.

John Williams’ scores aren’t just background sound, they are often essential parts of the characters within the film, and in some cases his characters’ themes are so strong that the characters themselves don’t even need to be on screen for the audience to feel their presence. The shark’s theme in Jaws as an excellent example of how a simple combination of notes can evoke a sense of the character, their purpose, and their inevitable impact on the story. Stephen Spielberg even makes the joke that they used John’s music to fix his broken shark, illustrating the profound impact that music can have on cinematic storytelling.

Music by John Williams acknowledges the depth and breadth of John’s personal interests and his musical talents, which he used to bridge the gap between popular music, classical music, and film scores. Rather than composing in a silo, he broke down musical barriers, winning over the masses as well as the classically trained musicians from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and more. What’s amazing about this is that to compose the music he creates at the level that he works; he must also demonstrate an intimate working knowledge of each instrument to bring out just the right selection of notes and chords to convey the energy and emotion of everything we are seeing (and not seeing) on screen … and he writes it all down by hand

How Music Shapes Film and Emotion
He has an uncanny ability to hear the essence of life and then to translate that essence into music that evokes fear, dread, joy, and laughter. His music embodies a sense of movement that is so vivid you can almost feel what it’s like to fly or run or swim just from the sounds you hear. He makes it look easy to create these echoes of life with music, but the documentary shows just how much time and dedication he poured into honing his craft so that he could transcribe experience into sound.

As a result, the music he creates has the innate ability to pull you into a story, making it impossible to imagine the films he scored with any other music than his. I can’t help but to wonder if Star Wars would have had the same impact if someone else had scored the film and we never heard those iconic opening notes as the prologue begins scrolling.

Telling John Williams’ Story
A significant part of the documentary relates to his friendships with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, and the impact that these three men had on each other’s lives and careers. There is a deep and powerful friendship there and the stories they shared are intimate, showcasing how their bonds contributed to some of the most significant collaborations in film history.

The structure of the film avoids the rigid linear format that we often see in documentaries. Instead, it shifts by topic, touching on the people and influences who impacted John Williams’ development as a musician, a composer, and conductor – intertwining the narratives to show how his musical styles evolved while generally moving through his career.

As a result, we see how key moments in his life connect to the films he scored, and then to our own lives and the first time we saw those films in the theater. The overall effect is a touching narrative that connects us to him while emphasizing the life he lived and the legacy he built. An example of this is a deeply emotional moment when Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, recount the first time they heard the theme foSchindler’s List– withjust the three of them standing around John Williams’ piano as he played. The way the documentary pulls together the dialogue, footage, and music is masterful and brought tears to my eyes…but I tend to cry at commercials. So, there is that.

What the Documentary Gets Wrong (And Why It Matters)
Despite all the good in the film, and I’ve only barely touched the surface, few films are perfect, and this documentary is no exception. It opens with a series of people paying tribute to John Williams, but none of them are identified with lower thirds. While I get that they wanted to open the film by keeping the focus on John Williams, the absence of names backfired because it drew attention to the speakers and away from John as I wondered how they could make such an obvious mistake. The lower thirds were added after the opening credits, but by then the impact was already spoiled.

The second issue is the documentary’s narrow focus, which limits the mention of his musical influences to people who are primarily within the film industry. As a result, Aaron Copland, who was an obvious influence on John Williams, wasn’t mentioned. There’s a chance that I simply missed the reference, but I don’t think he was included, and given the importance of Aaron Copland, if feels wrong not to mention him.

So, I can’t help but to wonder if it was a directorial choice to not mention the man who is considered the most significant composer in American history because (like with the lower thirds) they don’t want to take attention away from John Williams. As a result, the omission does exact that. It draws attention away from John Williams for viewers with any general knowledge of classical music, and this just feels like another instance of Disney not understanding how to create a story within a complex story universe that is capable of acknowledging more than just a hyper-focused section of story influences. It feels like a huge mistake, especially considering the opposition that John Williams faced when he first became the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Is Music by John Williams Worth Watching?
Despite any flaws that it may have, I really loved the documentary. If you enjoy John William’s music and the films that he has scored over the literal decades of his career, I have a feeling that you will enjoy this documentary. It’s a reminder of the profound impact that John Williams’ music has had on cinema and the stories we love. This is one film I’ll be watching again, and I think you might too.

Have you watched Music by John Williams? What are your favorite scores by this musical legend? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how his music has impacted you.

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