Bridge of Spies - Upcoming Tom Hanks/Spielberg about 1960 U-2 Incident

quote:

---

Note: This will be only the second Spielberg movie without a John Williams score. Sad.

---

John is probably putting all his energy into Star Wars. Hes 83. I believe hes working with a guy that will likely take over to complete the new trilogy if John passes before its completion.

I hope that history remembers Williams as fondly as it does other great composers. His music has been ingrained in many parts of pop culture in our society for the last 40 years.

Looks interesting. Definitely will redbox it.

quote:

---

I hope that history remembers Williams as fondly as it does other great composers.

---

And, lest we forget, until they were "rediscovered" by the long-haired, high-brow crowd, Beethoven and Mozart, particularly, were very popular and wrote music for the popular audiences of their day (which happened to be more in the upper classes, but still) - Williams' popularity and ubuiquity shouldn't be held against him (althouth it probably will be).

And I will say, I believe he was over-used over the past 40 years, especially for big-budget, epic films, but I don't begrudge him for making money or film directors going with the safe/comfortable choice. But, Mozart was prolific, too.

quote:

---

It is about the Gary Powers U-2 Incident

---

Interesting dovetail of his story with Lee Harvey Oswald

Oswald defected to the USSR in October 1959. Oswald had worked as a radar operator (USMC) on U-2 bases during his time in the U.S. military. Some have found this coincidental timing to be convenient.

And, just as with Oswald and JFK, there are innumerable crackpot theories from the CIA sabotaging the plane (to test a theory if detente could be pursued between Ike and Khruschev) - to Powers crashlanding the plane himself to give it to the Soviets and everything in between. It was a strange time in history to have 2 technologically advanced nations, so recently allies, then metaphorically at each other's throats (or so it seemed) for almost half a century.

Think of the fodder for Hollywood produced by just the espionage related portion of that conflcit (fiction and non-fiction), not to mention the defense-related and space race films/television since then.

quote:

---

John is probably putting all his energy into Star Wars. Hes 83. I believe hes working with a guy that will likely take over to complete the new trilogy if John passes before its completion.

---

Living with John Williams

I really want to see a movie about Kelly Johnson. You could argue that he basically fought the first half of the Cold War by himself (Or at least his machines did). Just the stuff on the A-12/SR-71 would be worth a watch, like the simulators hidden in the back of a CIA operated grocery store.

Yeah Ace I'd like to see a feature film. I think there's an epic story there. Just on the A12 alone, working for the CIA, flight testing, keeping everything secret out at Area 51. Johnson was one of the greatest engineers of the 20th century and no one knew about it until many years later.

Slightly related, but I read an article a little while back about a guy that was an optics designer for spy satellites back in the 70s. His wife didn't find out what he did until a few years ago when it was declassified and they went to a function. She thought he worked at a camera store.