The role of John Williams’ music in Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan

Abstract

It can be said that music is an essential part of a film, and a good commercial film has good music to render it to a large extent. There are three levels of music appreciation in film: analyzing the music itself, incorporating the music into the film world, and describing the audience experience. The Second World War is unprecedented in human history, and the film industry has made a variety of films to commemorate and reflect on this war, so that future generations will never have to repeat the mistakes. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, for example, both presented the tragic history of the Second World War to audiences in documentary form. This article will critically analyze the role of music in these two films.