Steven Spielberg and John Williams on the Power and Patriotism of the ‘Saving Private Ryan’ Score (Exclusive)
Steven Spielberg has a number of weapons in his artistic arsenal that have contributed to his four-decades-and-counting career in the upper echelon of Hollywood directors. But the one he consistently deploys the most skillfully is a John Williams score.
The fruitful collaboration between the 70-year-old filmmaker and the 85-year-old composer dates all the way back to 1974, when Spielberg graduated from television to feature filmmaking with The Sugarland Express. Classic themes for Jaws, E.T., and Schindler’s List all followed and are featured among the many tracks on the new four-disc boxed set John Williams & Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection. Available March 17, this collection spans Sugarland to The BFG, with everything from 1941 to Amistad in between, and also includes a DVD of Spielberg and Williams discussing the unusual longevity of their artistic relationship. (Watch an exclusive clip above, and listen to a recording below of Saving Private Ryan‘s “Hymn to the Fallen.”)
While the first two discs feature music that Williams previously conducted with the Boston Pops in 1991 and 1995, respectively, the selections on the third disc — including “Hymn to the Fallen,” as well as “Marion’s Theme” from Raiders of the Lost Ark and “A New Beginning” from Minority Report — were recorded with the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles in 2016.
Speaking to Saving Private Ryan‘s score, Spielberg praises the “noble sobriety” that Williams brought to both that film and another story from the pages of American history, Lincoln: “Those beautiful American themes … that instill all of us with a great sense of belonging to a great country.”
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