John Williams has hinted that “Indiana Jones 5” might be his last film. The legendary musician and Oscar-winning composer behind the scores for “Jaws” (1976), “Star Wars” (1977), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) and more teased the news in an interview with Associated Press, “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. So, I thought: If Harrison can do it, then perhaps I can, also.”
Williams, 90, pointed to the six-month commitment often required by blockbuster films. He said, “At this point in life, [it’s] a long commitment to me.” But five-time Oscar winner Williams made it clear that he wasn’t going to close the door on music. He said, “I don’t want to be seen as categorically eliminating any activity.”
Williams most recently returned to score for the Star Wars Universe writing the signature theme for the Disney Plus series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” But he says he wants to devote his time to music and concert music.
He also released the album “A Gathering of Friends,” a collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The album was recorded with the New York Philharmonic orchestra and features a new arrangement of the theme from “Schindler’s List.” Other highlights from Williams film music catalog are Yo-Yo Ma’s performance of “With Malice Toward None,” from “Lincoln,” and a guitar and cello arrangement of “A Prayer for Peace” from “Munich.”
Tonight, Williams will be at the Kennedy Center for what the National Symphony Orchestra is billing as a “90th birthday gala concert” featuring violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and longtime filmmaking partner Steven Spielberg.
For Williams, who hit the nine-decade milestone in February, “It’s given me the ability to breathe, the ability to live and understand that there’s more to corporal 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.”
He concluded, “It’s given me my life.”
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