John Williams & Hans Zimmer - The Story of Modern Film Music 

Alex, this is a well put together short documentary. I enjoyed it. Well done. If I may offer one criticism; Hans evolved into the "epic" sound. Prior to becoming uber famous after Gladiator and many of the subsequent films that you mentioned after 2000, he had a combination of action and romantic comedies with fantastic scores like, A League of Their Own, Thelma and Louise, As Good As It Gets, Rain Man, Twister, Driving Miss Daisy, and The Lion King (among many others). In the 90's, Zimmer showed a level of diversity in orchestral and electronic music that earned him work on some of Hollywood's biggest films. I mention this because your video, while not stating it directly, may infer to uninitiated that he began a film career with that "epic" sound. It was a journey for him to get there and along that journey, he was still creating incredible work; and I think it's worth noting that he was one of Hollywood's top composers before he changed Hollywood. Keep up the good work, Alex. Cheers.

Using the clip from the Zimmer interview talking about John Williams was an excellent transition of discussion. I would say from my exploration of Hans' discography over the years that he has always utilized leitmotifs in effective ways and experimented sonically on projects that especially required and benefitted from it. In that, I would agree that 2014 marked something of a transition year for him. Altogether, well done here with this essay!

3 movies in the late 70's are considered to begin the modern sci-fi era. Star Wars (ep 4), close encounters and Superman...John Williams scored all 3 movies and won multiple Grammy's for each of them

I do not understand how a channel like yours can have so few subscribers! Keep your work up, it was a great video essay! Thanks for that :)

Your assessment of John Williams' career missed the mark by ignoring his Hollywood origins as Johnny, with jazz composition and melody the likes of which are reminiscent of Henry Mancini. I'd suggest checking out his scores for BACHELOR FLAT, NOT WITH MY WIFE YOU DON'T, A GUIDE FOR THE MARRIED MAN, PENELOPE, FITZWILLY and HOW TO STEAL A MILLION among others, along with his TV work on CHECKMATE, LOST IN SPACE, LAND OF THE GIANTS and KRAFT SUSPENSE THEATRE. Beside his Lucasfilm/Spielberg projects and return to golden-age, Hollywood-style symphonics, he also wrote contemporary scores like IMAGES, EARTHQUAKE, THE LONG GOODBYE and THE MISSOURI BREAKS and did musical adaptations for GOODBYE MR. CHIPS, TOM SAWYER and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Williams was versatile, talented and gifted. Zimmer, on the other hand, is a Hollywood hack whose work is pastiche and manufactured assembly-line stuff. He is everything that is wrong with modern film music. There's a joke about Zimmer's work: his music sounds like Judgement Day, featuring wailing funeral dirges on cue - sad, sadder and saddest.

ur too good at this its not fair for all the other video-essayists on utube

Wow man you’re great at these mini docs! Keep them coming sir!

Your video is underrated, i love the editing, hope you get the recognition you deserve.

I can't agree i've been listening in cinema since the 80 ties to zimmer score. i didn't know even back than we were just a child. IT WAS ALWAYS GREAT!

Let's mention Zimmer's early innovative work in Thelma & Louise and The Lion King with their tribal percussion!

Great video keep the great work up!

A great video. Really well done. Thank you

Awesome video! I was surprised you have so few subscribers considering how high quality this video is. I'm sure you'll get there soon enough 🙏

Waiting for someone to do this. Thank you

Great video!

Solid video... but Blade Runner 2049 was mostly composed by Benjamin Wallfisch while Zimmer was on tour in Europe.

I actually got to see Meastro William's conduct live at Tanglewood. I saw him conduct ET end theme and 5 peices from Star Wars including Imperial March and Duel of the Fates.

Thank you for making this video, I enjoyed it. I am a classically trained musician who loves film scores. You discussed Zimmer's change from his more "typical" scores written prior to "Interstellar" and "Inception", to where his writing lives now. Stating such helps us understand his growth and contributions to how film continues to evolve in all regards. Letting viewers here see his beginnings as a self-taught rock musician adds to the view of Zimmer as perhaps more global, or even plugged-in to the current art of filmmaking than Williams, a composer that shows range. I would suggest we look at Williams through a similar lens in that I think one could mistakingly think that his style has always been in the symphonic orchestral tradition as this video suggests more than once. William's early years as a pianist, jazz musician, arranger, collaborator in music styles from pop to jazz, classical to folk, as well as his studies in composition make him one of the film composers with the widest range of perhaps any, a point I think you may have neglected to make. Yes, William's style is often one of large orchestral efforts that often uses leitmotif, but not solely. His range includes scores for string quartet, piano only, jazz band, rock band, pop band, folk ensemble, organ, electronic instruments, choir, solo voice, etc. in all western traditional modes (major, minor, etc.) as well a compositions that utilize bi-tonality, atonality, musique industrielle techniques, etc. I do believe that William's record-breaking number of nominations for an Oscar (the most of anyone with 52 nominations in his lifetime. Meryle Streep has the second most with 21) over six decades has to be mentioned anytime his contributions are discussed. I do believe that while his compositions are more than note-worthy, the music sometimes was not as effective as the film compositions of his fellow nominees who won for their efforts. Both filmscore composers discussed here are extremely important to the field and both worthy of recognition and praise for many reason. A second and third viewing of your video confirmed my feeling that perhaps without intent, Zimmer is presented as the more important of the two, something I do not think that can be measured. BTW: William's latest score for "The Fablemans" is for piano and small chamber orchestra. It does not utilize leitmotif. I find it intimate, introspective, and extremely effective at supporting the emotional values of the film throughout. Again, I enjoyed your video.

In doing a video about John Williams and Hans Zimmer, it would have been great if you commented on Superman and Man of Steel and their two approaches for the same character.

Lets gooooooooooooo

I loved Zimmer in the 90's but when I found out that he has way too many co composers wirking with him in each score just made me think of him as a music producer. I mean he now gets maybe more than 10 scores every year and his team of composers is really big. In Dune all tracks are co composed by him and other people. Its no secret. In his site the names of his collaborators is shown but no average moviegoer checks so closely. They just see the name. The Brand. It is Zimmer inc. It irriatates me even more that people only know Zimmer and dont even know Goldsmith, Herrmann, Korngold, Rozsa, Poledouris, Barry.... I mean come on compare Williams with Zimmer is like comparing a fine restaurant with Macdonalds.

Using Hans’ simplicity as a critique has always bothered me. For me, if you’re able to capture and convey heavy emotion in your music then you have done your job well whether it’s with simple textures and chords or with complex counterpoint and melody. And Hans has always utilized leitmotifs in his music. Some more than others, but they’re there. It’s just that his motifs aren’t always themes and melody. Sometimes it’s just a texture or a sound. Regardless, I think both Hans and John do their jobs perfectly, just differently.

For me, both John Williams and Hans Zimmer are the greatest of all time.

Would love to hear your thoughts on johan Johansson who scored arrival

The Dune soundtracks .. ah what a masterpiece❤🤌🏻

13:80 zimmer is a master of leitmotifs. people always talk like lion king, potc, kungfu panda and all dont exist. The extensive use of leitmotifs in kungfu panda and pirates of the caribbean trilogy is enough to learn how well zimmer handles motifs. People also forget that he's a pirate is just one single motif out of load more.

Well well, no mention of the trailblazer Jerry Goldsmith? What a joke!!

Could you enable Spanish subtitles...

What is happening in film music is really exciting. Look at the scores nominated at this year's oscar, really diverse, eveything from ethnic music to jazz to avant guard/experimental. It's a period of great change and experimentation. Zimmer is usually a very good investment for filmakers. His score for the latest James Bond film I thought was the best since Bill Conti's. If anything shows how important the composer is, this is a good example. Willliams I thought was uneven, Occasionally its brilliant, soaring and inspiring. At other times its turgid and mawkish, with not always the best harmonic solutions. The problem here might have been the deadlines he was up against. Film composers rarely have the luxury of always being able to produce a perfectly tight piece of music. What is going on on the song side though is really disappointing. This year (2024)'s oscar nominations are of very poor quality. And with a few exceptions (eg.RRR and HER) they have been like that for at least several decades. Strange really. They could potentially be the musical highlight. I am also of the view that the song should be written in most cases by the composer. You mentioned Wagner and the leitmotive. Just iike operas, these movies contain the overture-fanfares and marches, what has been missing has been the dramatic aria. (Although Williams came close in Superman (1977) with the Richard Strauss inspired love theme; although this is spoken in the film with orchestral backing, not sung.) Superman I though was his finest, most perfect score.