Los Angeles, August 2025 – In a strikingly candid interview for his upcoming biography John Williams: A Composer’s Life, the celebrated composer behind Star Wars, Jaws, E.T., and Schindler’s List revealed he “never liked film music very much.” At 93, Williams offered a self-effacing critique of the genre he helped define, calling most scores “ephemeral,” “fragmentary,” and often lacking the enduring quality of classical concert works.
Williams’s assessments—made not out of false modesty but from genuine critical reflection—span more than five decades of scoring for major films. His argument: that much of what is revered as “great film music” owes its legacy to nostalgia rather than intrinsic musical substance. He remarked, “Film music, however good it can be—and it usually isn’t… I just think the music isn’t there.”
Yet, Williams’s legacy is anything but superficial. With 54 Oscar nominations (the most for any living composer), five Academy Awards, 26 Grammys, and leadership roles including principal conductor of the Boston Pops (1980–1993), he fortified the bridge between cinematic scoring and musical artistry.
Biographer Tim Greiving notes that Williams’s editorial distance from film music is a consistent thread, not self-parody. Williams described his film compositions as “just a job”—yet ones done with singular dedication. Greiving observed: “He clearly took the job of composing music for films as seriously as anyone in history ever has.”
As part of embracing his broader musical canon, Williams has thrown his support behind John Williams Reimagined: a chamber reinterpretation of his greatest themes, set to debut this October in London. The concert will feature re-arranged versions of iconic scores for instruments like flute, cello, and piano—highlighting Williams’s commitment to musical evolution.
