Presidents Day is on the way.
Over the course of his 60-year career, John Williams has had the opportunity to score just about every kind of film. Not surprisingly, this would include several fictionalized accounts of American presidents. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll sample music from four of them.
“JFK” (1991) was one of three collaborations between Williams and director Oliver Stone. The film had more to do with conspiracy theories surrounding Kennedy’s assassination than anything to do with his presidency. A controversial feature, no doubt – still, a compelling piece of cinema. It certainly inspired an effective score.
Kevin Costner plays New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison; Sissy Spacek, his wife; Gary Oldman, Lee Harvey Oswald; Tommy Lee Jones and Joe Pesci are unforgettable as a pair of outlandish conspirators; and Donald Sutherland is a government whistleblower who identifies himself merely as “X.”
Williams and Stone had previously worked together on “Born on the Fourth of July.” Later, they would team on a second presidential collaboration, a character study of Richard Milhous Nixon, called – well, “Nixon” (1995). Anthony Hopkins played the president, heading an impressive cast, which included Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, E.G. Marshall, David Hyde Pierce, Paul Sorvino, Mary Steenburgen and James Woods.
Williams also wrote the music for Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” (1997). The film, about a mutiny on board a slave ship in 1839, and subsequent courtroom drama, featured two American presidents: Nigel Hawthorne plays Martin van Buren, the sitting president; and again, Anthony Hopkins appears, in a memorable supporting turn, as aging former president John Quincy Adams. Adams argues the defense of the Africans who took part in the mutiny.
Daniel Day-Lewis plays the nation’s 16th president, in Spielberg’s “Lincoln” (2012). He’s lent able support by Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, David Strathairn as Secretary of State William Steward and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens.
It’s a bold assessment, but Day-Lewis elevates “Lincoln,” the film, to greatness, with arguably one of the most amazing performances in cinematic history. Day-Lewis’ gentle – but shrewd – Man of Destiny would go to any lengths to hold the country together. Williams tapped into America’s proud musical heritage, clearly influenced by Copland and Ives, to create a score of stirring nobility. BTW – In case you missed it, today is Lincoln’s birthday.
I hope you’ll join me, as John Williams does the presidents, on “Picture Perfect,” tonight at 6 ET, with a repeat tomorrow morning at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.
PHOTOS: (clockwise from left) Day-Lewis as Lincoln; Hopkins as Nixon; poster for “JFK;” Hopkins as John Quincy Adams
