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7/10
Interesting look at a famous collaboration...
Doylenf30 December 2012
Although I'm impressed by how well Steven Spielberg and John Williams have gotten along throughout the years on their collaboration as producer/director and musician, respectively, I'm surprised that the choices they made for film clips are not ones I would have chosen.

What I mean is, the background scores for all of those clips were not the film's strongest moments--with the exception of "Vertigo" which, of course, was a Hitchcock film with Bernard Herrmann's score.

The highlight chosen from "ET" for example, is the ride against the bright moon--but much more tender moments were written (score-wise) for the Henry Thomas/ET moments of good-bye with the surging score when the craft takes off. That's the moment when the score reaches its zenith.

And likewise, "Catch Me If You Can" was an uninspired choice.

But when the two answer questions about their collaboration, or simply sit and talk about their first encounter and the many films that followed, the documentary is on the right track.

Summing up: Especially interesting for film fans who pay a lot of attention to film music and have a high regard for film soundtracks.

Most amusing moment: When Spielberg talks about hearing Williams' score for "Jaws" for the first time.
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Nice Interview with the Two Legends
Michael_Elliott22 November 2011
AFI's Master Class: The Art of Collaboration (Steven Spielberg and John Williams) (2011)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This first entry in Turner Classic Movies collaboration with the American Film Institute has director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams sitting down to explain why they work so well together. This 50-minute interview has the two masters explaining some of their favorite music score from other artists, themselves and they then go into detail on why certain decisions were made. Towards the end of the interview they open up for questions from the students. This is a very entertaining documentary for a number of reasons but some of the best moments happen when the two are talking about the film's that have influenced them the most. It's strange to hear but Williams says he doesn't go to the movies a lot but he then talks about ON THE WATERFRONT and VERTIGO. Spielberg picks SPARTACUS as the score he most enjoys. Hearing the two discuss the reasons these scores work was very fascinating as was when they start talking about their own films together. Of course you have them discussing JAWS and how Spielberg thought the first time he heard the score. The Indiana Jones series is discussed as is E.T., CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and even CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. It seems that both consider SCHINDLER'S LIST to be the best of their collaboration and considering the subject matter it's easy to see why. At just 50-minutes they never go into great detail about anything but I think they give you a clear vision of how they work together, the changes they've made over the years and how they go into the process of making a movie.
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