When Steven Spielberg first heard the film score for one of his movies 50 years ago, he didn’t immediately understand how brilliant it was.
What did Spielberg not understand? Steven Spielberg is considered one of the greatest and best film directors of all time, but when he first heard the score for “Jaws” 50 years ago, he thought it was a joke.
The soundtrack of the horror film was composed by American composer John Williams and features two repeating notes (E and F) that change in volume and intensity to announce the approach of the dangerous great white shark.
What exactly does Spielberg say about the music? In the documentary “The Music by John Williams,” which focuses on the composer’s life work, Spielberg plays a significant role since the two collaborated on 29 films. There, the award-winning director also shares how his initial, very honest thoughts about the music of “Jaws” were:
“At first, I thought he was joking. […] I just thought: ‘Oh my God, we won’t have an orchestra. We’ll only have a piano, and Johnny will just play a few things in the lower registers.'”
Yet despite Spielberg’s initial concerns, Williams’ musical proposal made it into the film and became a legendary soundtrack that every film lover knows.
Why did Spielberg still use the music? Spielberg explained in the documentary that Williams kept saying he should listen to the film’s music again – and he did. At some point, the spark then jumped over, the director reports: “Then I started to understand the genius of what you had created.”
Williams himself explains the thought behind the soundtrack in the documentary with these words: “Imagine you are completely alone in a dark place where you can hardly see anything. It is absolutely silent. And the first thing you hear is [imitates the theme from ‘Jaws’]. You feel that something dangerous is coming towards you. Just through those deep tones in an atmosphere that they actually don’t belong in at all.”
John Williams has also composed music for many other films, including Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, and E.T., with which he also collaborated with Steven Spielberg. However, in the case of the latter, Spielberg admitted to a mistake made years after its initial release: The most successful director of all time knows that he makes mistakes, and one involves an alien named E.T.
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