There are few others who have influenced cinema as much as John Williams. The 90-year-old composer has scored some of the most memorable movie themes ever, including Jaws, Star Wars, and the Indiana Jones films.
In a recent interview with AP News, Williams shared that the project he is currently working on—Indiana Jones 5—might be the last film he scores. That doesn’t mean, however, that he’s retiring from composing altogether.
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“At the moment I’m working on Indiana Jones 5, which Harrison Ford—who’s quite a bit younger than I am—I think has announced will be his last film,” Williams says. “So, I thought: If Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also.”
For the record, Ford hasn’t announced that the fifth Indiana Jones film would be his last—and Williams admits he isn’t 100 percent sure that it will be his last film either. “I don’t want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity,” he added. “I can’t play tennis, but I like to be able to believe that maybe one day I will.”
He did, however, tell AP News that the six-months required for scoring a film is at this point in his live, a “long commitment.” And he’s also working on other projects, most recently a piano concerto for Emanuel Ax.
The article goes on to talk about Williams’ long and impressive career. It also has the legendary composer reflecting on his own work and what music has meant to him.
“It’s given me the ability to breathe, the ability to live and understand that there’s more to corporal life,” Williams said about the impact music has had on his life. “Without being religious, which I’m not especially, there is a spiritual life, an artistic life, a realm that’s above the mundanities of everyday realities. Music can raise one’s thinking to the level of poetry. We can reflect on how necessary music has been for humanity. I always like to speculate that music is older than language, that we were probably beating drums and blowing on reeds before we could speak. So it’s an essential part of our humanity.”
“It’s given me my life.”
You can read the article in its entirety here. And we can hear Williams’ last film score (potentially) when Indiana Jones 5 premieres June 30, 2023.
