Saving Private Ryan

by John Williams (Composer)

This deluxe songbook features 9 piano solo selections from the Academy Award-winning Steven Spielberg film, including the moving "Hymn to the Fallen." Also includes full-color photos from the film, historical information and background on the making of the film, plus commentary from Steven Spielberg and cast.

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

John Towner Williams is an American composer and conductor. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scores in cinema history. He has a very distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism, and atonal music with complex orchestration. He is best known for his collaborations with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and has received numerous accolades including 26 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 54 Academy Award nominations, he is the second-most nominated person, after Walt Disney, and is the oldest Oscar nominee in any category, at 91 years old.
Williams's early work as a film composer includes Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Images (1972), and The Long Goodbye (1973). He has collaborated with Spielberg since The Sugarland Express (1974), composing music for all but five of his feature films. He received five Academy Awards for Best Original Score for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), and Schindler's List (1993). Other memorable collaborations with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones franchise (1981–2023), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022). He also scored Superman (1978), the first two Home Alone films (1990–1992), and the first three Harry Potter films (2001–2004).
Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor from 1980 to 1993 and is its laureate conductor. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia, the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan's Island. Williams announced but then rescinded his intention to retire from film score composing after the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023.
He has received numerous honors, including the Kennedy Center Honor in 2004, the National Medal of the Arts in 2009, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998, the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, and the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2004. He has composed the score for nine of the top 25 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office. In 2022, Williams was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II, "for services to film music". In 2005, the American Film Institute placed Williams's score to Star Wars first on its list AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores; his scores for Jaws and E. T. also made the list. The Library of Congress entered the Star Wars soundtrack into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saving Private Ryan takes place at the beginning on the beach when the Americans come into the beach in Europe. This book is very detailed and very entertaining. After seeing the movie witch I loved the book seem a little boring at times while reading. The mood of the book is perfect it makes you feel like your actually there. When they are in gun fights it's very interesting to read the authors point of view and what he thinks. My favorite part is when the two snipers are scoping eachother out and the American sniper shoots the other sniper through the scope through the eye I thought that was very cool and despriptive.
So after reading the book and watching the movie witch I both really like I gave it four out of five stars. I thought that at the end it just kept carrying on and on and that made me a little bored but other than that I thought it was an exceptional book.

[Joaquin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book on my way to the checkout desk of the library. At first I thought it was the book they based the movie on, but it turns out it was the other way around. I think the last time I read a book made from a screenplay was Return of the Jedi, back when I was in junior high.

I picked up the book because the movie had such a strong effect on me, and is responsible for my current 4-5 year long kick of reading about war experiences and trying to understand the way trauma in general affects people's lives.

It was a fast, gripping read that didn't suffer any from having been a movie first. I think the only main difference I noticed is that the Army Captain in the book does a lot more swearing than Tom Hanks did in the movie.

[Lucas]

this was a great book. i had already seen the movie when i read the book, but i couldnt put it down until i finished it. there was a different element i picked up from the story than of the movie. the story is about a captain and a squad of men who have been sent on a "rescue" mission, to pick up private ryan, whose 3 brothers have died in combat, therefore he is entitled to a ticket back home. the story is heart wrenching and emotional, and i recommend both the book and the movie.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I ever read from cover to cover in 1 day. Definitely the best war book I have ever read. I would recommend this to anyone even if they do not normally read war books. The movie was excellent and this only makes the movie better.

[Linda]

I bought this book on our vacation to Cape Code, MA. I was reading it while crossing over to one of the islands on the Ferry. I started crying in public.

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good WW2 book..

[Pancho.is.bayside · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is terific! I feel bad for the young human beings that were in the war.
A lot of people died, they won the war!

[Jose · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is a very good book and aswell as the movie made from such.