Music in the movie

[Hillman, Lee]

I was watching Amistad the other day, and it struck me at several points how
Williams *did* hold back on the music, made it very subtle, very
understated, during certain scenes.

With all the controversy over Williams here, I think that there are two
major reasons the score is a little disappointing. I do like the overall
themes, and I happen to really like Williams's unmistakable style, for the
most part, but here's what I think it comes down to:

1. He blew this thing off. He was asked, accepted it among a bunch of other
projects (such as this year's Olympic theme, which is also ho-hum), and just
knocked it off in a weekend or two. He really didn't put a lot of thought or
care into the work, unlike his earlier films or projects he really wanted to
be associated with.

2. Chris Columbus. I would not be surprised if Chris had been a little timid
about going to John and saying, "can we pull that back a bit?" the way that
I'm sure Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas or any number of directors who've
worked with Williams a lot are able to do. It's not that Williams is
necessarily all that intimidating (though he may be, I don't know), but
Columbus may be a little worried about expecting too much from a fabulously
important composer who really doesn't want to expend any more effort on the
project than necessary. And he may also be aware that he doesn't have the
relationship with John that other filmmakers have.

Of course, I could just be fabricating all this. But it makes sense to me.

Gwen