Because he's long been stereotyped by the rousing neo-romantic adventure scores for the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park franchises, it's easy to forget that composer John Williams is hardly idiomatically challenged. When Steven Spielberg gratifyingly used the clout of his enormous commercial success to produce and direct this brave Holocaust drama, his long-time musical ...
You needn't see the film of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to appreciate the wonder, magic and fearful chills of JK Rowling's phenomenal bestseller in John Williams' outstanding score. Williams typically avoids the source material for the films he scores, but he reportedly derived great pleasure and inspiration from Rowling's first Harry Potter adventure, and created a perfect ...
The most eagerly anticipated movie of 1999, if not the decade, The Phantom Menace was also a mouth-watering prospect for soundtrack fans. Star Wars, after all, has become arguably the best-known and most influential movie score ever written, so a new instalment from John Williams, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, was always going to be a cause for celebration. And if the ...
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second Harry Potter movie and as director Christopher Columbus notes, "You'll hear the familiar themes that all of us have grown to love and associate with Harry Potter. You'll also hear a wealth of new material... Like the Potter novels, John Williams's new score is not a sequel." There is indeed a rich diversity, with a pompous march for ...
Peter Benchley's bestselling novel about the sobering impact of shark attacks on a New England beach town's tourist season gave director Steven Spielberg the perfect opportunity to craft a suspenseful action-drama. An immediate blockbuster upon release in 1975, the movie is being hailed as a classic 25 years later by being released on DVD. The 20 minutes of additional score and interviews with ...