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Music in
Films

1900 - 2000

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Music in Films
 

John Williams

John Williams, (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. With a career spanning over six decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history, including those of the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films. Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but three of his feature films. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan's Island. Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. From 1980 to 1993 he served as the Boston Pops's principal conductor, and is currently the orchestra's laureate conductor.



 

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Williams has won 24 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 51 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams's score to 1977's Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry, for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. Williams composed the score for eight of the top twenty highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office (adjusted for inflation).


Steven Allan Spielberg KBE OMRI (born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the founding pioneers of the New Hollywood era and one of the most popular directors and producers in film history.

After gaining traction in Hollywood with directing television and several minor theatrical releases, Spielberg became a household name as the director of Jaws (1975), which was critically and commercially successful, and is considered the first summer blockbuster. His subsequent releases focused typically on science fiction and adventure films, with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and the Jurassic Park series seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood escapist filmmaking. Spielberg transitioned into addressing humanistic issues in his later work via the films The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Schindler's List (1993), Amistad (1997) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). He has largely adhered to this practice during the 21st century, with Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012), Bridge of Spies (2015), and The Post (2017).

Spielberg co-founded Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Studios, where he has also served as a producer for several successful films, including the Back to the Future, Men in Black, and Transformers series. Spielberg later transitioned into producing several games within the video-game industry.

Spielberg is one of the American film industry's most critically successful filmmakers, with praise for his directing talent and versatility,[ and has won the Academy Award for Best Director twice. Some of his movies are also among the highest-grossing movies of all-time, while his total work, unadjusted for ticket-price inflation, makes him the highest-grossing film director in history. His net worth is estimated to be more than $3 billion.
 


John Williams - Film Music - I
-1- Harry Potter
1966 How to steal a million    
1967 Valley of the Dolls  
1970 Jane Eyre 
1971 Fidler on the Roof  
1972 Images 
1974 The Towering Inferno  

1987 The Witches of Eastwick 
1988 The Accidental Tourist

1990 Home Alone 
1992 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York    
1995 Sabrina 
1996 Sleepers

1999 Angela’s Ashes 
2000 The Patriot 

2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone      
2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 

2005 Memoirs of a Geisha 
2013 The Book Thief  



John Williams and Steven Spielberg - II
1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 
1979 1941
1982 E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial   
1987 Empire of the Sun 
1989 Always 
1991 Hook 
1993 Schindler’s List  
1997 Amistad   
1998 Saving Private Ryan  
2001 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence  
2002 Catch Me If You Can  
2002 Minority Report  
2004 The Terminal
2005 War of the Worlds 
2005 Munich  
2011 The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn  
2011 War Horse 
2012 Lincoln  
2016 The BFG 

2017 The Post

John Williams and Steven Spielberg - III
-2- Jaws   -3- Indiana Jones   -4-Jurassic Park
1975 Jaws 
1978 Jaws 2  
1983 Jaws 3  (Directed by Joe Alves - Music by Alan Parker)
1987 Jaws: The Revenge   (Directed by Joseph Sargent - Music by Michael Small)
1981 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark  
1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom  
1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade  
2008 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 
1993 Jurassic Park 
1997  The Lost World: Jurassic Park 
2001 Jarassic Park III  (Directed by Joe Johnston - Music by Don Davis)
2015 Jurassic World  (Directed by Colin Trevorrow - Music by Michael Giacchino)
2018 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom  (Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona - Music by Michael Giacchino)


ohn Williams - IV
-5- Star Wars
1977    Star Wars - Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope
1980   Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back
1983    Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi
1999   Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace    
2002   Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones    
2005   Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith  
2015    Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
2017    Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
2019    Star Wars. Episode IX    

 

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind 
 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana, whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO).

Close Encounters was a long-cherished project for Spielberg. In late 1973, he developed a deal with Columbia Pictures for a science fiction film. Though Spielberg received sole credit for the script, he was assisted by Paul Schrader, John Hill, David Giler, Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, and Jerry Belson, all of whom contributed to the screenplay in varying degrees. The title is derived from Ufologist J. Allen Hynek's classification of close encounters with aliens, in which the third kind denotes human observations of aliens or "animate beings". 

The film received numerous awards and nominations at the 50th Academy Awards, 32nd British Academy Film Awards, the 35th Golden Globe Awards, the 5th Saturn Awards, and has been widely acclaimed by the American Film Institute.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND - Official Trailer

JOHN WILLIAMS - Close Encounters of the Third Kind - SOUNDTRACK
00:19 Main Title And Mountain Visions 
03:35 Nocturnal Pursuit 
06:09 The Abduction Of Barry 
10:43 I Can't Believe It's Real 
14:06 Climbing Devil's Tower 
16:15 The Arrival Of Sky Harbor 
21:33 Night Seige 
27:55 The Conversation 
30:19 The Appearance Of The Visitors 
35:12 Resolution And End Title

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1941
 

1941 is a 1979 American period comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and featuring an ensemble cast including Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, and Robert Stack. The story involves a panic in the Los Angeles area after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Although not as financially or critically successful as many of Spielberg's other films, it received belated popularity after an expanded version aired on ABC and its subsequent home video reissues, raising it to cult status.

Co-writer Gale stated the plot is loosely based on what has come to be known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942 as well as the bombardment of the Ellwood oil refinery, near Santa Barbara, by a Japanese submarine. Many other events in the film were based on real incidents, including the Zoot Suit Riots and an incident in which the U.S. Army placed an anti-aircraft gun in a homeowner's yard on the Maine coast.
 

1941 - Official Trailer  - (1979)

1941 - 1979 - Soundtrack Suite -  John Williams

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E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial   
 

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, and written by Melissa Mathison. It features special effects by Carlo Rambaldi and Dennis Muren, and stars Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore and Pat Welsh. It tells the story of Elliott (Thomas), a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth. Elliott and his siblings help E.T. return to his home planet, while attempting to keep him hidden from the government.

The concept was based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents' divorce in 1960. In 1980, Spielberg met Mathison and developed a new story from the stalled sci-fi horror film project Night Skies. It was filmed from September to December 1981 in California on a budget of $10.5 million USD. Unlike most films, it was shot in rough chronological order, to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast.

Released on June 12, 1982, by Universal Pictures, E.T. was an immediate blockbuster, surpassing Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time—a record it held for eleven years until Jurassic Park, another Spielberg-directed film, surpassed it in 1993. It is one of the highest-grossing films of the 1980s.
 

E-T the Extra Terrestrial Original Trailer 1982

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Soundtrack John -Williams 

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Empire of the Sun 
 

Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American epic coming-of-age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson and Nigel Havers. The film tells the story of Jamie "Jim" Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai, to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp, during World War II.

Harold Becker and David Lean were originally to direct before Spielberg came on board, initially as a producer for Lean. Spielberg was attracted to directing the film because of a personal connection to Lean's films and World War II topics. He considers it to be his most profound work on "the loss of innocence". 
 

1941 - Official Trailer  - (1979)

Empire of the Sun  - Music by John Williams

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Always
 

Always is a 1989 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Brad Johnson and Audrey Hepburn in her final film role.

Always is a remake of the 1943 romantic drama A Guy Named Joe set during World War II. The main departure from the 1943 film is the altering of the setting from WWII to that of a modern aerial firefighting operation. The film, however, follows the same basic plot line: the spirit of a recently dead expert pilot mentors a newer pilot, while watching him fall in love with the girlfriend he left behind. The names of the four principal characters of the earlier film are all the same, with the exception of the Ted Randall character, who is called Ted Baker in the remake, and Pete's last name is Sandich instead of Sandidge.
 

Always (1989) Trailer

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Soundtrack -
John Williams 

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Hook 
 

Hook is a 1991 American fantasy adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by James V. Hart and Malia Scotch Marmo. It stars Robin Williams as Peter Banning / Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell, Bob Hoskins as Smee, Maggie Smith as Wendy, Caroline Goodall as Moira Banning, and Charlie Korsmo as Jack Banning. It acts as a sequel to J. M. Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy focusing on an adult Peter Pan who has forgotten all about his childhood. In his new life, he is known as Peter Banning, a successful but unimaginative and workaholic corporate lawyer with a wife (Wendy's granddaughter) and two children. However, when Captain Hook, the enemy of his past, kidnaps his children, he returns to Neverland in order to save them. Along the journey, he reclaims the memories of his past and becomes a better person.

Spielberg began developing the film in the early 1980s with Walt Disney Productions and Paramount Pictures, which would have followed the storyline seen in the 1924 silent film and 1953 animated film. It entered pre-production in 1985, but Spielberg abandoned the project. James V. Hart developed the script with director Nick Castle and TriStar Pictures before Spielberg decided to direct in 1989. It was shot almost entirely on sound stages at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. It received mixed reviews from critics, and while it was a commercial success, its box office take was lower than expected. It was nominated in five categories at the 64th Academy Awards. It also spawned merchandise, including video games, action figures, and comic book adaptations.
 

Hook (1991) - Trailer

Hook - Soundtrack - John Williams

Hook - Soundtrack Suite - John Williams

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Schindler's List
 

Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical period drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film follows Oskar Schindler, a Sudeten German businessman, who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories during World War II. It stars Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern.

Ideas for a film about the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews) were proposed as early as 1963. Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindlerjuden, made it his life's mission to tell the story of Schindler. Spielberg became interested in the story when executive Sidney Sheinberg sent him a book review of Schindler's Ark. Universal Pictures bought the rights to the novel, but Spielberg, unsure if he was ready to make a film about the Holocaust, tried to pass the project to several other directors before finally deciding to direct the film himself.

Principal photography took place in Kraków, Poland, over the course of 72 days in 1993. Spielberg shot the film in black and white and approached it as a documentary. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński wanted to give the film a sense of timelessness. John Williams composed the score, and violinist Itzhak Perlman performs the film's main theme.

Schindler's List premiered on November 30, 1993, in Washington, D.C. and it was released on December 15, 1993, in the United States. Often listed among the greatest films ever made, it was also a box office success, earning $322 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. It was the recipient of seven Academy Awards (out of twelve nominations), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score, as well as numerous other awards (including seven BAFTAs and three Golden Globes). In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked the film 8th on its list of the 100 best American films of all time. The Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2004.
 

John Williams - Schindler's List 
Schindler’s list full soundtrack, composed by John Williams. 

00:00 – 04:30 : Theme From Schindler’s List
04:31 – 09:10 : Jewish Town
09:11 – 14:09 : Immolation (With Our Lives, We Give Life)
14:10 – 18:44 : Remembrances
18:45 – 28:07 : Schindler’s Workforce
28:08 – 31:03 : Pripetshok und Nacht Aktion
31:04 – 37:11 : I Could Have Done More
37:12 – 41:07 : Auschwitz-Birkenau
41:08 – 45:42 : Stolen Memories
45:43 – 51:07 : Making the List
51:08 – 56:17 : Give Me Your Names
56:18 – 58:34 : Yeroushalaim Chel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold)
58:35 – 1:04:06 : Remembrances (with Itzhak Perlman)
1:04:07 – 1:07:20 : Theme From Schindler’s List (Reprise)

Schindler's List (1993) Official Trailer 

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Amistad   
 

Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the true story of the events in 1839 aboard the slave ship La Amistad, during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and the international legal battle that followed their capture by the Washington, a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.

Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Matthew McConaughey had starring roles. David Franzoni's screenplay was based on the book Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy (1987), by the historian Howard Jones.
 

Amistad - Trailer

Amistad - Soundtrack Suite - John Williams

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Saving Private Ryan
 

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II, the film is notable for its graphic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which includes a depiction of the Omaha Beach assault during the Normandy landings. It follows United States Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and a squad (Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies) as they search for a paratrooper, Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen.

Rodat wrote the script in 1994 and was eventually picked up by Paramount Pictures in 1996. Spielberg, who at the time was forming DreamWorks Pictures, came on board to direct the project and both DreamWorks and Paramount jointly produce and release the film. After the cast went through training supervised by Marine veteran Dale Dye, the film's principal photography started in June 1997 and lasted two months. The film's D-Day scenes were shot in Ballinesker Beach, Curracloe Strand, Ballinesker, just east of Curracloe, County Wexford, Ireland.

Released on July 24, 1998, the film received universal acclaim from critics and audiences; praise was given to Spielberg's directing, the performances (particularly from Hanks), historical accuracy, the battle sequences, cinematography, score, and screenplay. It was also a box office success, grossing $216.8 million domestically, making it the highest-grossing film of 1998 in the United States, and $481.8 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide. At the 71st Academy Awards, the film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Hanks and Best Original Screenplay; it won five, including Spielberg's second win for Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. Saving Private Ryan was released on home video in May 1999, earning another $44 million from sales.

Widely hailed as one of the best films ever made., the film has been frequently lauded as an influential work in the war film genre and has been credited with contributing to a resurgence in America's interest in World War II as old and new films, video games, and novels about the war enjoyed renewed popularity after its release. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Saving Private Ryan - John Williams

Performed by the Tenerife Film Orchestra conducted by Joel Mcneely during the 2nd edition of Fimucité (Tenerife International Film Music Festival), 2008 edition.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN - Official Trailer (1998) 

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A.I.: Artificial Intelligence 
 

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, also known as A.I., is a 2001 American science fiction drama film directed by Steven Spielberg. The screenplay by Spielberg and screen story by Ian Watson were based on the 1969 short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss. The film was produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Spielberg and Bonnie Curtis. It stars Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt. Set in a futuristic post-climate change society, A.I. tells the story of David (Osment), a childlike android uniquely programmed with the ability to love.

Development of A.I. originally began with producer-director Stanley Kubrick, after he acquired the rights to Aldiss' story in the early 1970s. Kubrick hired a series of writers until the mid-1990s, including Brian Aldiss, Bob Shaw, Ian Watson, and Sara Maitland. The film languished in protracted development for years, partly because Kubrick felt computer-generated imagery was not advanced enough to create the David character, whom he believed no child actor would convincingly portray. In 1995, Kubrick handed A.I. to Spielberg, but the film did not gain momentum until Kubrick's death in 1999. Spielberg remained close to Watson's film treatment for the screenplay.

The film divided critics, with the overall balance being positive, and grossed approximately $235 million. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 74th Academy Awards, for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score (by John Williams).

In a 2016 BBC poll of 177 critics around the world, Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence was voted the eighty-third greatest film since 2000. A.I. is dedicated to Stanley Kubrick.
 

A.I. Artificial Intelligence - Trailer

A.I. Artificial Intelligence - Soundtrack -
John Williams

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Catch Me If You Can
 

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Jeff Nathanson. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, and Nathalie Baye in supporting roles.

The film is based on the life of Frank Abagnale, who, before his 19th birthday, successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. His primary crime was check fraud; he became so experienced that the FBI eventually turned to him for help in catching other check forgers.

Development for the film started in 1980, but did not progress until 1997, when Spielberg's DreamWorks bought the film rights to Abagnale's book. David Fincher, Gore Verbinski, Lasse Hallström, Miloš Forman, and Cameron Crowe had all been possible candidates for director before Spielberg decided to direct. Filming took place from February to May 2002. The film was a financial and critical success.

John Williams : Catch Me if You Can,
Escapades for alto saxophone after the film music (2002)
Closing In - Reflections - Joy Ride.
Performed by  Dan Higgins (alto saxophone), Michael Valerio (double bass), Martin Grubinger (vibraphone) and the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles conducted by John Williams.

Catch Me If You Can - Trailer

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Minority Report  
 

Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia in the year 2054, where PreCrime, a specialized police department, apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge provided by three psychics called "precogs". The cast includes Tom Cruise as Chief of PreCrime John Anderton, Colin Farrell as Department of Justice agent Danny Witwer, Samantha Morton as the senior precog Agatha, and Max von Sydow as Anderton's superior Lamar Burgess.

The film combines elements of tech noir, whodunit, thriller and science fiction genres, as well as a traditional chase film, as the main protagonist is accused of a crime he has not committed and becomes a fugitive.[5] Spielberg has characterized the story as "fifty percent character and fifty percent very complicated storytelling with layers and layers of murder mystery and plot". The film's central theme is the question of free will versus determinism. It examines whether free will can exist if the future is set and known in advance. Other themes include the role of preventive government in protecting its citizenry, the role of media in a future state where technological advancements make its presence nearly boundless, the potential legality of an infallible prosecutor, and Spielberg's repeated theme of broken families.

The film was first optioned in 1992, as a sequel to another Dick adaptation, Total Recall, and started its development in 1997, after a script by Jon Cohen reached Spielberg and Cruise. Production suffered many delays due to Cruise's Mission: Impossible 2 and Spielberg's A.I. running over schedule, eventually starting in March 2001. During pre-production, Spielberg consulted numerous scientists in an attempt to present a more plausible future world than that seen in other science fiction films, and some of the technology designs in the film have proven prescient. Minority Report has a unique visual style. It uses high contrast to create dark colors and shadows, much like a film noir picture. The film's overlit shots feature desaturated colors which were achieved by bleach-bypassing the film's negative in post-production.

Minority Report was one of the best-reviewed films of 2002 and was nominated for several awards. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Editing, and eleven Saturn Award nominations, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Saturn Award for Best Music, winning Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction, Best Writing, and Best Supporting Actress.
 

Minority Report (2002) - Trailer

John Williams - A New Beginning [Minority Report] - 2002

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The Terminal
 

The Terminal is a 2004 American comedy-drama film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Stanley Tucci. The film is about an Eastern European man who becomes stuck in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport terminal when he is denied entry into the United States and at the same time cannot return to his native country because of a military coup.

The film is partially inspired by the 18-year stay of Mehran Karimi Nasseri in Terminal 1 of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, from 1988 to 2006. After finishing his previous film, Catch Me If You Can, Spielberg decided to direct The Terminal because he wanted to make another film "that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world". Due to a lack of suitable airports willing to provide their facilities for the production, an entire working set was built inside a large hangar at the LA/Palmdale Regional Airport, while most of the film's exterior shots were from the Montréal–Mirabel International Airport.
 

The Terminal - (2004) - Trailer

The Terminal - soundtrack - John Williams

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War of the Worlds 
 

War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science-fiction action horror film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp, loosely based on the 1898 novel of the same title by H. G. Wells and jointly produced and released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures. It stars Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin, Miranda Otto, and Tim Robbins, with narration by Morgan Freeman. In the film, an American dock worker is forced to look after his children, from whom he lives separately, as he struggles to protect them and reunite them with their mother when extraterrestrials invade the Earth and devastate cities with towering war machines.

The film was shot in 73 days, using five different sound stages as well as locations in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. The film was surrounded by a secrecy campaign so few details would be leaked before its release. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including Hitachi. The film was released in the United States on June 29 and in United Kingdom on July 1. The film earned three Academy Awards nominations for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.
 

War of the Worlds (2005) - Trailer

John Williams - War of the Worlds

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Munich  
 

Munich is a 2005 historical drama film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth. It is based on the book Vengeance, an account of Operation Wrath of God, the Israeli government's secret retaliation against the Palestine Liberation Organization after the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Munich received five Academy Awards nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Score. The film made $130 million worldwide but just $47 million in the United States, making it one of Spielberg's lowest-grossing films domestically. In 2017, the film was named the sixteenth "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far" by The New York Times.

Plot

At the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Palestinian terrorist group Black September kills eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team. Avner Kaufman, a Mossad agent of German-Jewish descent, is chosen to lead a mission to assassinate 11 Palestinians allegedly involved in the massacre. At the direction of his handler Ephraim, to give the Israeli government plausible deniability, Avner resigns from Mossad and operates with no official ties to Israel. His team includes four Jewish volunteers from around the world: South African driver Steve, Belgian toy-maker and explosives expert Robert, former Israeli soldier and "cleaner" Carl, and Danish document forger Hans. They are given information by a French informant, Louis.
In Rome, the team shoots and kills Wael Zwaiter, who is living as a poet. In Paris, they detonate a bomb in the home of Mahmoud Hamshari; in Cyprus, they bomb the hotel room of Hussein Abd Al Chir. With IDF commandos, they pursue three Palestinians—Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, Kamal Adwan, and Kamal Nasser—to Beirut, penetrate the Palestinians' guarded compound and kill all three.

Between hits, the assassins argue about the morality and logistics of their mission, expressing fear about their individual lack of experience, as well as ambivalence about accidentally killing innocent bystanders. Avner makes a brief visit to his wife, who has given birth to their first baby. In Athens, when they track down Zaiad Muchasi, the team finds out that Louis arranged for them to share a safe house with their rival PLO members, and the Mossad agents escape trouble by pretending to be members of foreign militant groups like ETA, IRA, ANC, and the Red Army Faction. Avner has a heartfelt conversation with PLO member Ali over their homelands and who deserves to rule over the lands; Ali is later shot by Carl while the team escapes from the hit on Muchasi.

The squad moves to London to track down Ali Hassan Salameh, who orchestrated the Munich Massacre, but the assassination attempt is interrupted by several drunken Americans. It is implied that these are agents of the CIA, which, according to Louis, protects and funds Salameh in exchange for his promise not to attack U.S. diplomats. Meanwhile, attempts are made on the assassins themselves. Carl is killed by an independent Dutch contract killer. In revenge, the team tracks her down and executes her at a houseboat in Hoorn, Netherlands. Hans is found stabbed to death on a park bench, while Robert is killed by an explosion in his workshop. Avner and Steve finally locate Salameh in Spain, but again their assassination attempt is thwarted, this time by Salameh's armed guards. It is implied that Louis has sold information on the team to the PLO.

A disillusioned Avner flies to Israel, where he is unhappy to be hailed as a hero by two young soldiers, and then to his new home in Brooklyn, where he suffers post-traumatic stress and paranoia. He is thrown out of the Israeli consulate after storming in to demand that Mossad leave his wife and child alone. Ephraim comes to ask Avner to return to Israel and Mossad, but Avner refuses.
 

Munich - (2005) - Trailer

Remembering Munich - Munich (2005) - Theme - John Williams 

Munich - Music - John Williams

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2011 The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn  
 

The Adventures of Tintin (also known as The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn outside North America) is a 2011 3D motion capture computer-animated mystery adventure film based on The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson, and written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish, the film is based on three of Hergé's albums: The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941), The Secret of the Unicorn (1943), and Red Rackham's Treasure (1944). The cast includes Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg.

Spielberg acquired rights to produce a film based on The Adventures of Tintin series following Hergé's death in 1983, and re-optioned them in 2002. Filming was due to begin in October 2008 for a 2010 release, but release was delayed to 2011 after Universal opted out of producing the film with Paramount, who provided $30 million on pre-production. Sony chose to co-produce the film. The delay resulted in Thomas Sangster, who had been originally cast as Tintin, departing from the project. Producer Peter Jackson, whose company Weta Digital provided the computer animation, intends to direct a sequel. Spielberg and Jackson also hope to co-direct a third film. The world première took place on 22 October 2011 in Brussels. The film was released in the United Kingdom and other European countries on 26 October 2011, and in the United States on 21 December 2011, in Digital 3D and IMAX.

The Adventures of Tintin grossed over $373 million, and received positive reviews from critics,[10] being compared to Spielberg's previous work Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was the first non-Pixar animated film to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Williams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. It was nominated for six Saturn Awards, including Best Animated Film, Best Director for Spielberg and Best Music for Williams.
 

The Adventures of Tintin - trailer

John Williams - THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011) - Soundtrack Score Suite

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War Horse 
 

War Horse is a 2011 war drama film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel of the same name and its 2007 play adaptation. The film's ensemble cast includes Jeremy Irvine (in his film acting debut), Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Marsan, Niels Arestrup, Toby Kebbell, David Kross, and Peter Mullan.[3][4] Set before and during World War I, it tells of the journey of Joey, a bay Thoroughbred horse raised by British teenager Albert (Irvine), as he is bought by the British Army, leading him to encounter numerous individuals and owners throughout Europe, all the while experiencing the tragedies of the war happening around him.

DreamWorks Pictures acquired the film rights to the novel in December 2009, with Spielberg announced to direct the film in May 2010. Having directed many films set during the Second World War, it was his first film to tackle the events of World War I. Long-term Spielberg collaborators Janusz Kamiński, Michael Kahn, Rick Carter, and John Williams all worked on the film as cinematographer, editor, production designer, and music composer, respectively.

Produced by DreamWorks Pictures and released worldwide by Touchstone Pictures, War Horse became a box-office success and was met with positive reviews. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, two Golden Globe Awards and five BAFTAs.
 

War Horse - Trailer - 2011

John Williams - WAR HORSE (2011) Soundtrack

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Lincoln
 

Lincoln is a 2012 American historical drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The film also features Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, and Tommy Lee Jones in supporting performances. The screenplay by Tony Kushner was loosely based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and covers the final four months of Lincoln's life, focusing on his efforts in January 1865 to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the United States House of Representatives.

The film was produced by Spielberg and frequent collaborator Kathleen Kennedy, through their respective production companies, Amblin Entertainment and the Kennedy/Marshall Company. Filming began October 17, 2011, and ended on December 19, 2011. Lincoln premiered on October 8, 2012 at the New York Film Festival. The film was co-produced by DreamWorks Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Participant Media, and released theatrically by Touchstone Pictures in North America on November 9, 2012. The film was distributed by Fox in international territories.

Lincoln received significant praise for the acting, especially Day-Lewis's performance, as well as Spielberg's direction, and production values. In December 2012, the film was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director for Spielberg and winning Best Actor (Motion Picture – Drama) for Day-Lewis. At the 85th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for twelve Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director; it won for Best Production Design and Best Actor for Day-Lewis. The film was also a commercial success, grossing over $275 million at the box office.
 

Lincoln - Official Trailer - (2012) - Steven Spielberg 

Lincoln - Soundtrack -  John Williams

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The BFG 
 

The BFG (titled onscreen as Roald Dahl's The BFG) is a 2016 American fantasy adventure film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and based on Roald Dahl’s 1982 novel of the same name. The film stars Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, and Bill Hader. In the film, an orphan human girl befriends a benevolent giant, dubbed the "Big Friendly Giant", who takes her to Giant Country, where they attempt to stop the man-eating giants that are invading the human world.

Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall began development on a live-action adaptation of The BFG back in the 1990s, and various screenwriters were hired to work on the screenplay in the subsequent years. DreamWorks acquired the screen rights to Dahl's book in September 2011, and Marshall and Sam Mercer joined as producers, Mathison as screenwriter, and Kennedy as executive producer. Spielberg was announced as director in April 2014, alongside his production company Amblin Entertainment as co-producer. Principal photography commenced in March 2015, marking Spielberg's first directorial film for Walt Disney Pictures, which co-financed the film.

The BFG premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2016, and held its North American debut at the El Capitan Theater on June 21, 2016. The film was released in the United States in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D,[9] and conventional theatrical formats on July 1, 2016, the same year of Dahl's centennial. The film received generally positive reviews from critics but was a box office disappointment, grossing only $183 million against its $140 million budget.
 

The BFG - Official Trailer - (2016)

John Williams - Suite from the BFG

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The Post
 

The Post is a 2017 American historical political thriller film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer. It stars Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee, the executive editor of The Washington Post, with Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Carrie Coon, Alison Brie, and Matthew Rhys in supporting roles. Set in 1971, The Post depicts the true story of attempts by journalists at The Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers, classified documents regarding the 30-year involvement of the United States government in the Vietnam War.

Principal photography began in New York City in May 2017. The film premiered at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on December 14, 2017, and went into limited release in the United States on December 22, 2017. It entered wide release on January 12, 2018, and grossed $179 million worldwide.

The film received positive reviews; critics praised the performances (particularly those of Streep, Hanks, and Odenkirk) and described the references and allusions to the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump. The Post was chosen by the National Board of Review as the best film of 2017 and was named as one of the top 10 films of the year by Time and the American Film Institute.

The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress (for Streep) at the 90th Academy Awards, and also received six nominations at the 75th Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Actress – Drama (for Streep), Best Actor – Drama (for Hanks), Best Screenplay and Best Original Score.

The Post - Trailer - (2017) 

The Post - 2017 - Soundtrack Suite -
John Williams

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