Final Thesis - John Williams - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State ...

elationship with that first film, they teamed up again for what was later a huge
blockbuster success in 1975---Jaws. As it was only Spielberg’s second film, he was
still trying to prove himself as a young director, and he credits a large part of the
film’s success to Williams’ talent and vision with the score. The score written for
Jaws won him his first Oscar for Original Score, and soon after, Spielberg
recommended him to his friend George Lucas ("John Williams" Wiki).
The 1960s showed a decline in the earlier symphonic scores and a movement
toward synthetic film music, but John Williams was able to successfully bring them
back to center screen with critical acclaim and success. Working with George Lucas
on the score of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977 was his first real opportunity to
demonstrate the grand Hollywood Golden Age sound that had been earlier heard
with Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Waxman among others (Wheeler). This
score later became the best selling soundtrack of all time, and helped to reignite
popularity the grand and epic symphonic scores. He continued working throughout
the 80s on films such as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which also won him his third
Oscar, the three Indiana Jones films, Empire of the Sun, and Born on the Fourth of July.
He also branched out some from film composing and returned to some television
work, such as the NBC News theme “The Mission” in 1985, which he still uses to
signal the final encore in his concerts (Wheeler). He slowed down some in the 1990s
potentially in preparation for retirement, but the scores he composed, such as
Jurassic Park and the Oscar-winning score for Schindler’s List, were grand and well
received. Later, he seemed to be rethinking his lighter working load and semi-
retirement and reentered the film world with gusto with the scores for JFK, Nixon,
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