Disney+ doc celebrates the music & magic of John Williams

At 92, composer-conductor John Williams is more than worthy of an admiring documentary portrait like the just-released “Music by John Williams.”

But as director Laurent Bouzereau notes, “The hardest aspect was to get John to say, ‘Yes.’ It took a while. I’ve known John 30 years, and I’ve been trying to do this film for 30 years.”

It was only with the help of Steven Spielberg (who has had Williams score all but five of his movies) “were we able to get there.

“So that was the biggest challenge. The next challenge was to tell an inspiring story. One that would speak to people who obviously grew up on John’s music and love him. But also inspire young generations who may not know him. They will know the music, of course, but not know who he was and his story, which I felt was of a timeless nature.

“Because John is someone who constantly looks forward,” Bouzereau noted, “one of the challenges was to convince him to look back and talk about it.

“But I didn’t want this to feel like a hit parade of all the great tunes by John. I wanted stories and drama and have this really feel like a film. I hope I succeeded.”

Williams ranks as among our most honored musicians with 26 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmys and four Golden Globes. He ranks only behind Walt Disney with 54 Oscar nominations as the Academy’s second-most nominated person. At 92, he is the oldest Oscar nominee in any category.

Among his most indelible film scores: “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” perhaps the most famous film score of all time, and “Superman.”

Among the film’s surprises was discovering how Williams’ hugely successful career in film had been preceded, starting in the late 50s, by his playing jazz and making arrangements. Movies were never a goal.

“His journey was not planned,” Bouzereau, 62, said. “He just loved music and grabbed opportunities as they came. But they were all somewhat accidental. To put that in perspective, he backed it up with talent. His collaborations with Steven, George (Lucas) and other filmmakers is also part of his talent.

“When you look at the history of relationships between composers and directors, the famous, iconic one is, of course, Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann” – with “Psycho,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “The Birds” and “North by Northwest.”

“Also, he’s an eternal student. He studies music. He is a reader of theories about music. That started very, very young; literally, he grew up in music. So none of it is a coincidence, even though he says that it is.

“The opportunities may be a coincidence, but his talent is not.”

“Music by John Williams” streams on Disney+ from Nov. 1