Episode 44 - Midway

John Williams got back into the war genre with the film "Midway," writing just 32 minutes of score for a 132-minute film. In this case, most of the movie features battle scenes that producer Walter Mirisch wanted to feel very realistic, which meant the appearance of music was not appropriate -- at least for Mirisch. "Midway" was the first score Williams wrote after his landmark work on "Jaws," and a couple of months after a disastrous production of the "Thomas and the King" musical on the London stage. This score features a march that is a staple at concerts … and sounds very, very familiar to host Jeff Commings. Join him as he discusses the creation of the score and the brief musical cues that standout in a film that did well at the box office but didn't get much recognition beyond that.