John Williams Strikes Back

Somewhere near you, sometime, somehow, you may have an opportunity to watch a movie with the score played live by an orchestra. And if that score was composed by John Williams, under no circumstances are you to miss that opportunity.

I’m going to warn you, this is going to be a lot. I have been running JEM consistently for a few months now, and have waited, trying to responsibly build up a variety of content across all manner of media. But it was only a matter of time before we were set to arrive here, and here we are. I’m going to talk about Star Wars. And if you’re going to talk about Star Wars, you might as well talk about the best one.

Let me be very clear: I do not intend to parse “bests vs worsts” — we don’t do that here.

But I am of the belief that of all the things you love and enjoy, anything can be your favorite. That’s the point of favorites: it’s personal. It resonates with you in a way that puts it on another tier from anything else. Anything can be your favorite. As long as you can acknowledge what the best is.

On any given day any Star Wars may be my favorite for that day - usually it’s the one I’ve seen most recently. But I will always know, regardless of how I’m feeling on a day, that The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars.

I’m not breaking any new ground here. Most people tend to feel this way, I know that.

But what I’ve just had is the experience of seeing it with a live symphony orchestra accompanying it. And what that does - for any movie - is to make you look at the movie differently. I first had the experience a few years ago, I saw A New Hope performed live. It was phenomenal. (Obviously.)

The most impactful thing about this way of seeing a movie is how hyper aware you become of the music. And when it’s the music of the Master, you really notice not only where he used music, but where he didn’t. He has described his job as figuring out where what music goes. And it shows.

Did you know the entire Death Star Trench Run has no music until Luke is the last X-Wing? It’s just the visuals and the sound effects. Pure spectacle. Pure tension. Then elevated when the music kicks back in again. I’ve seen the movie, truly, I cannot tell you how many times. First time I ever noticed that.

Genius.

He’s a genius.

Seeing his music performed live enables you to experience that genius in a new way.

Getting to see Empire live puts the Star Wars movie which itself is on another level from all others, on a new level unto itself.

To put it elegantly, it’s transcendent.

To put it less so, John Williams COOKED.

Banger after banger. The Battle in the Snow. The Asteroid Field. Yoda and the Force. Han Solo and the Princess.

And arguably his best known piece from a career spanning now 50 years: the first appearance of The Imperial March.

That’s a fun moment of realization for everybody at some point - is this yours? - The Imperial March, Vader’s Theme, that iconic piece of music never appeared in A New Hope. The Imperial music in that one is way more a short leitmotif than a full piece of music. You know it when you hear it, but you don’t think VADER. Williams found that sound for Empire. And he let it overwhelm the score.

That music does so much. It’s not just a theme, it’s a statement. It’s the identity of Vader, of the Empire. It’s the organized power and authority of the villains. It’s the victory march of the protagonists of the movie.

Yeah. The Empire, specifically Vader, is the protagonist.

Insomuch as a traditional protagonist is the one in a story with a clearly defined goal, obstacles to overcome in their path, and are the instigator of all plot-progressing actions — that’s what Empire gives us through Vader. It’s the lesson Infinity War learned for Thanos. He’s a villain, no two ways about it. He’s evil, don’t get it wrong. But as we expect to experience a story, who’s the one who defeats their opponent and gets to do the thing they set out to do by narrowly overcoming all the odds — and all for intimately personal reasons? It’s Vader.

Mission objective, opening titles:

The evil lord Darth Vader, obsessed with finding young Skywalker, has dispatched thousands of remote probes into the far reaches of space . . .

Find Luke and the rebel base. First goal, done.

Bring me the Millennium Falcon. (No disintegrations) Done.

Test the carbon freezing chamber on a living being for use on Luke. It works.

Set a trap for Luke and pull it off perfectly, isolate him, test his strength, get him cocky, show him who’s boss and then have a chat. All accomplished flawlessly. The one thing Vader can’t control is Luke’s will to join him.  Luke escaping is the one failure. And it leaves both our protagonist, and our heroes, on a low note.

The brilliant reversal of that whole climactic escape from Bespin, Vader calling out to Luke, the jump to lightspeed — is that nobody wins. The Rebels are running away. Vader lost Luke. He has something now he hasn’t had yet - a human moment. He stares out the window, turns, then turns back. He’s more man than machine here. It’s a confirmation that he’s telling the truth: he is Luke’s father, and he didn’t want him to leave. The Empire Strikes Back is a movie where the bad guys get almost everything they want, with this one exception. The heroes are defeated, and so is the protagonist. It’s such an incredible movie. It’s such an incredible moment. And what goes under it?

A slow, mournful, defeated Imperial March. Not the declaration of power or victory it has been. The same kind of sorrow that undercuts “I am your father” is here.

Because John Williams is the Master. He made these moments what they are by knowing exactly what music goes where and in doing so he did something incredible. Through his score for The Empire Strikes Back, John Williams made Star Wars.

This is the movie where Star Wars became what we know it to be now. Before this it was a cultural phenomenon of a standalone movie. But with Empire, it transcended. It became a franchise. It became a living, continuing world with a life of its own.

And all credit to all involved, that’s down to the performances, the writing, the direction, the special effects, all of it. But none of those things hit quite as hard without the score.

Vader became who we know him to be with his Imperial theme.

Han and Leia became who we know them to be with their love theme.

Yoda was elevated beyond an odd gamble of a funny little muppet into the Jedi Master we know him to be because when he lifts that X-Wing out of the swamp, the music lifts our souls out of our bodies.

In every regard, The Empire Strikes Back is the movie that made Star Wars Star Wars, and John Williams is the one we have to thank for tying it all together with a perfect score.  It’s as if he looked at what he had done with A New Hope as a practice run, then crafted perfection to establish his place as The Composer.

That’s what he is. He’s The Composer.

In a five year span the man did Jaws, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Superman, Empire Strikes Back, and would follow it the next year with Raiders of the Lost Ark. I mean. What else can I say on top of that? That sums him up - except that it doesn’t, because he’s got another nearly 50 years of work since. He’s decades away from Harry Potter, Schindler’s List, Memoirs of a Geisha. The Prequels. The Sequels.  And in his 90s, he is still going.

The Force, it’s clear, is strong with him. Because when it comes to experiencing Star Wars, his music - he - is the Force. He is the companion, the partner, the ally that upholds everything we know it to be.

And a powerful ally he is.