The Boston Pops has had a prominent role in the validation of film music as a legitimaterepertoire for concert programs, particularly during John Williams’s tenure (1980–1993).The paper focuses on the orchestra’s approach to film music, demonstrating that the present-day acknowledgment of the film-music repertoire as a legitimate source of concert pieces islargely the result of Williams’s policy and example during his Boston years. The diffuse useof illustrative film montages in film-music concerts today or the recent phenomenon of entirefilms with live orchestral accompaniment are also consequences of Williams’s successfulaudio-visual presentations with the Boston Pops.