-The Oscars is infamously behind the curve, so I noticed a lot of great composers winning awards years after their prime, and often for Oscar-bait movies.
-Oscar-bait movies tend to have rather generic sad violin/piano scores, and apparently the Academy apparently loves that stuff.
-The Academy almost exclusively nominates the scores of critically acclaimed movies. That a mediocre movie might have a great score is a concept that seems alien to the Academy.
-It seems that the Academy makes a good call at least once a decade, and the 70's had four consecutive wins that I agree with.
-Ennio Morricone won an Honorary Oscar, which is the Academy's way of saying, "Sorry, our bad." He got nominations, though, but not for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
-Danny Elman has yet to win an Oscar.
-Clint Mansell, John Murphy, Harry Gregson-Williams and Basil Freakin' Poledouris have never even gotten nominated.
1959
Winner: Miklos Rozsa - Ben-Hur
Miklos Rozsa won the award for Ben-Hur, and I think that was a good call.
1960
Winner: Ernest Gold - Exodus
My Choice: Bernard Herrmann - Psycho
Ernest Gold's score to Exodus won the award for this year while The Alamo (Dmitri Tiomkin), Elmer Gantry (Andre Previn), The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein) and Spartacus (Alex North) were nominated. While The Alamo was deserving, I personally feel that Bernard Herrmann's suspenseful and iconic score to Psycho deserved it about as much as Freud, but it wasn't even nominated.
1961
Winner: Maurice Jarre - Lawrence of Arabia
My Choice: Monty Norman/John Barry - Dr. No or Jerry Goldsmith - Freud
The winner was Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia, but I think that Jerry Goldsmith's score for Freud was more deserving. Elmer Bernstein's To Kill a Mockingbird was also very good. Without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it's understandable why Monty Norman and John Barry's Dr. No didn't win, but you'd think that one of the most distinctive and iconic themes would have at least been nominated. Also nominated were Bronislau Caper's Mutiny on the Bounty, Franz Waxman's Taras Bulba.
1963
The Winner: John Addison - Tom Jones
My Choice: Elmer Bernstein - The Great Escape
John Addison's Tom Jones won, with Cleopatra (Alex North), 55 Days at Peking (Dmitri Tiomkin), How the West Was Won (Alfred Newman, Ken Darby) and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Ernest Gold) were all nominated. Elmer Bernstein's Great Escape wasn't even nominated, but It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was equally deserving.
While looking at the musical scores George Burn's score to Sword in the Stone was good, but this nomination sounds awful.
1965
Winner: Mauric Jarre - Doctor Zhivago
Maurice Jarre's score for Doctor Zhivago won, which is good because it's a very memorable theme, even if it is mostly used for cartoon characters about to lose their balance.
1966
Winner: John Barry - Born Free
My Choice: Ennio Morricone - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
John Barry's Born Free is a classic score, but it also deservedly won the Best Song Oscar making this award absurdly redundant. Meanwhile, Ennio Morricone's iconic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly wasn't even nominated. Nominations included The Bible (Toshiro Mayazumi), Hawaii (Elmer Bernstein), The Sand Pebbles (Jerry Goldsmith) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Alex North).
1969
Winner: Kurt Bacharach - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
My Choice: John Barry - On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The winner was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Kurt Bacharach) with the nominations being Anne of a Thousand Days (Georges Delerue), The Reivers (John Williams), The Secret of Santa Vittoria (Ernest Gold) and The Wild Bunch (Jerry Fielding). Of course, my choice (On Her Majesty's Secret Service by John Barry) wasn't even nominated.
Though I mentioned that I'm normally not addressing the subcategory for best musical/comedy score, this year's entries were pretty good.
1970
Winner: Francis Lai - Love Story
I'm actually pretty split between the winner, which was Love Story (Francis Lai), and Patton (Jerry Goldsmith), which at least got nominated.
1972
Winner: Charlie Chaplin - Limelight
My Choice: Nino Rota - The Godfather
While The Godfather (Nino Rota) deserved the award more than Charlie Chaplin's posthumous award for Limelight, at least the Oscars gave it to Godfather, Part II, which was pretty much the same score.
1974
The Winner: Nino Rota - The Godfather, Pt. II
Godfather, Part II definitely deserved its award.
1975
The Winner: John Williams - Jaws
The winner was John Williams for Jaws, and I have no complaint.
1976
The Winner: Jerry Goldsmith - The Omen
Jerry Goldsmith won with The Omen. Once again, good call. But I think Rocky deserved a nomination.
1977
The Winner: John Williams - Star Wars
John Williams' score for Star Wars won deservedly.
1978
The Winner: Giorgio Moroder - Midnight Express
My Choice: John Williams - Superman
Giorgio Moroder's score for Midnight Express is a classic, but as classic as John William's Superman theme? No. Oh well, it was a good four-year streak for this award.
1980
The Winner: Michael Gore - Fame
My Choice: John Williams - Empire Strikes Back
I was wondering what would beat the score to Empire Strikes Back, and when I looked found something more appropriate to the Best Song category.
1981
The Winner: Vangelis - Chariots of Fire
My Choice: Klaus Doldinger - Das Boot
The best score went to Vangelis for Chariots of Fire, which is understandable because it was a very inspiring theme. Raiders of the Lost Ark also had some very good songs. Other nominations included Randy Newman for Ragtime, Alex North for Dragonslayer and Dave Grusin for On Golden Pond, which were all good. My choice for the Award snub is Klaus Doldinger for Das Boot.
1982
The Winner: John Williams - E.T.
My Choice: Vangelis - Blade Runner
Though John Williams' theme to E.T was good, I though the score to Gandhi was better as well as An Officer and a Gentleman's score and Poltergeist's score. Sophie's Choice was also nominated. The snubs were Vangelis' Blade Runner and Ennio Morricone's The Thing, which maddeningly "won" a Razzie. Phillip Glass' Koyaanisqatsi was also a blantant snub.
1983
The Winner: Bill Conti - The Right Stuff
My Choice: John Williams - Return of the Jedi
Out of the nominations, I would have given it to John Williams for Return of the Jedi. I also think Giorgio Moroder could have been nominated for Scarface.
1984
The Winner: Maurice Jarre - Passage to India
My Choice: Toto/Brian Eno - Dune or Brad Fiedel - Terminator
Out of the nominees, I would say Passage to India and Natural were the best, but no recognition for Brad Fiedel or Toto/Brian Eno for Terminator or Dune?
1985
The Winner: John Barry - Out of Africa
The nominees seem fair, but I would argue that Alan Silvestri deserved a nomination for Back to the Future.
1986
The Winner: Herbie Hancock - Round Midnight
My Choice: Howard Shore - The Fly
Out of the nominees, I think The Mission was the most deserving. I would argue against Aliens, since James Horner evidently recycled motifs from previous movies for it. My pick for the snub of that year was Howard Shore for The Fly.
1987
The Winner: Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Cong Su - The Last Emperor
My Choice: Basil Poledouris - RoboCop
This one pisses me off. While most of the nominees were good, they didn't even nominate Basil Poledouris for RoboCop!
1988
The Winner: Dave Grusin - The Milagro Beanfield War
My Choice: James Horner - The Land Before Time
None of the nominations, except maybe Rain Man, can hold a candle next to the scores for Land Before Time, Beetlejuice and Scrooged (Danny Elfman).
1989
The Winner: Alan Menken - The Little Mermaid
My Choice: Danny Elfman - Batman
Wow. Just wow. They did not nominate Danny Elfman for Batman?! HOW?!
1990
The Winner: John Barry - Dances with Wolves
My Choice: Danny Elfman - Edward Scissorhands
Of the nominees, I found that Avalon and Havana were the only ones that seemed deserving. My choices would have been Edward Scissorhands (Danny Elfman), Hunt for the Red October (Basil Poledouris) and Days of Thunder (Hans Zimmer).
1991
The Winner: Alan Menken - Beauty and the Beast
My Choice: Cliff Eidelman - Star Trek VI or Howard Shore - Silence of the Lambs
I found the nominees to be mostly forgettable. My choices would have been Star Trek VI, Silence of the Lambs, and Terminator 2 (Brad Fiedel).
1992
The Winner: Alan Menkin - Aladdin
My Choice: Danny Elfman - Batman Returns or Trevor Jones/Randy Edelman - Last of the Mohicans
Most of the nominees were good, but not good enough to compensate for the massive failure of not even nominating Batman Returns or Last of the Mohicans. I would have replaced Chaplin and A River Runs Through It.
1993
The Winner: John Williams - Schindler's List
As for the nominees, I actually agree with Schindler's List, as it was a tearjerker. The Fugitive was okay, too. My choices for the nomination snubs would be Tombstone (Bruce Broughton), Army of Darkness (Danny Elfman) and Jurassic Park (John Williams).
1994
The Winner: Hans Zimmer - The Lion King
My Choice - Mark Mancina - Speed
Actually, a relatively good group this year. I would think that Forrest Gump (Alan Silvestri) might have deserved the award more than Lion King, but not as much as Speed (Mark Mancina)
1995
The Winner: Luis Bacalov - The Postman
My Choice - James Horner - Braveheart
A surprisingly good collection this year. My choice was nominated, Apollo 13's (Jame Horner) is good and I was surprised how much I liked John William's Nixon score even though I never saw the movie. I would have replaced the other two with the scores for Batman Forever (Elliot Goldenthal) and Han's Zimmer's Crimson Tide (which would have been a close second to Braveheart). The best musical score nominations were mostly good, too. While I don't think it should qualify Michael Kamen did a pretty good cover in Die Hard with a Vengeance.
1996
The Winner: Gabriel Yared - The English Patient
My Choice: Danny Elfman - Mars Attacks!
These were also surprisingly good scores, although the nominees deserved it more than the winner. My choice would have been Mars Attacks! The score to The Rock was also deserving of a nomination. I would probably give the Musical/Comedy nominations a mention mostly because of Hunchback of Notre Dame.
1997
The Winner: James Horner - Titanic
My Choice: Basil Poledouris - Starship Troopers
Out of these I liked Titanic (James Horner), Good Will Hunting (Danny Elfman) and Kundun (Philip Glass), but I still stand by choice. It makes me wonder why the Academy never nominated Basil Poledouris. Maybe he won a fight with one of them in the schoolyard. Anastasia (Stephen Flaherty, David Newman) had a great score too.
1998
The Winner: Nicola Piovani - Life is Beautiful
My Choice: Trevor Rabin - Armageddon
Mostly good choices, but I would have awarded Armageddon (Trevor Rabin), a score so good it single-handedly rendered an awful movie watchable. Hans Zimmer seems to have liked his score for Thin Red Line as it seems to be a Oscar-bait score he comes back to from time to time. As for the Musical/Comedy awards, I liked the scores to Prince of Egypt (Hans Zimmer) and Mulan (Jerry Goldsmith).
1999
The Winner: John Corigliano - The Red Violin
My Choice: John Williams - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Though the winner in this group was good, I would have definitely nominated different scores,
including Fight Club (The Dust Brothers), The Matrix (Don Davis), Sleepy Hollow (Danny Elfman) and For Love of the Game (Basil Poledouris)
2000
The Winner:Tan Dun - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
My Choice: Clint Mansell - Requiem for a Dream or Hans Zimmer - Gladiator
Gladiator's score is one of my all-time favorites and it at least got a well-deserved nomination. Equally deserving was the snubbed Requiem for a Dream (Clint Mansell), which if anything would have gotten an extra point for originality. Chicken Run (John Powell) and X-Men (Michael Kamen) also had good scores.
2001
The Winner: Howard Shore - Howard Shore - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
LOTR's win and the nominations of A Beautiful Mind (James Horner) and Harry Potter (John Williams) make this a rare success, but I'm a bit upset that Shrek's score wasn't nominated. It was a close second to that of Lord of the Rings, which had more variety. Maybe Pearl Harbor's score (Hans Zimmer) should have gotten a nomination, too.
2002
The Winner: Elliot Goldenthal - Frida
My Choice: Klaus Badelt - Equilibrium
Well, this is disappointing. None of the nominees are nearly as memorable as what else came out this year. Equilibrium's score is one of my favorites, and the 28 Days Later theme (John Murphy) is a close second for this year. I also liked the themes to Resident Evil (Marilyn Manson/Marco Beltrami) and Spider-Man (Danny Elfman). Definitely a blatant snub year.
2003
The Winner: Howard Shore - Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
My Choice: Don Davis - The Matrix Revolutions
Because the award already went to the score for Fellowship, I think nominating Return of the King's soundtrack, which I don't think distinguished itself from the previous movies enough, was redundant. And yet they didn't nominate Don Davis for producing one of the most epic movie scores of all time. Matrix Reloaded also had some great music, too. Terminator 3 (Marco Beltrami) and Pirates of the Caribbean (Klaus Badelt/Hans Zimmer) also had very deserving scores.
2004
Winner: Jan A.P. Kaczmarek - Finding Neverland
My Choice: Marco Beltrami - I, Robot
Out of the nominees, Harry Potter 3 and The Village seem relatively deserving. I would have chosen I, Robot, The Bourne Supremacy (John Powell) and Team America: World Police (Harry Gregson-Williams).
2005
Winner: Gustavo Santaolalla - Brokeback Mountain
My Choice: Graeme Revell - Aeon Flux
None of the nominees sound particularly memorable to me except Brokeback Mountain, which has mostly been appropriated into parody. I liked the score for Aeon Flux, with Batman Begins being a close second. My other choices would be Chronicles of Narnia (Harry Gregson-Williams), Sin City (Graeme Revell), Revenge of the Sith (John Williams) and The Island (Steve Jablonsky). Actually, all of those scores are pretty damn good.
2006
Winner: Gustavo Santaolalla - Babel
My Choice: Hans Zimmer - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Out of the nominees, I liked The Good German, Pan's Labyrinth and Notes on a Scandal. I still prefer Pirates of the Carribean 2, V for Vendetta (Dario Marianelli) and The Fountain (Clint Mansell)
2007
Winner: Dario Marianelli - Atonement
My Choice: Clint Mansell- Smokin' Aces
The nominees have some okay pieces, but there were better scores out there. My choice would have been Clint Mansell for some of his best work in Smokin' Aces with Sunshine (John Murphy) as a close second. Live Free or Die Hard (Marco Beltrami) also had the best score of the series, and I also liked the score to Mr. Brooks (Ramin (Djawadi) and Beowulf (Alan Silvestri) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Hans Zimmer) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Nicholas Hooper) also had their moments.
2008
Winner: A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
Another winner I actually agree with. Wall-E (Thomas Newman) was also a deserving nomination. Michael Giacchino and David Arnold both did good work for Speed Racer and Quantum of Solace, but those movies were a bit too dependent on pre-existing scores. I rare year for which I have no complaint.
2009
Winner: Michael Giacchino - Up
My Choice: Christopher Young - Drag Me to Hell
Most of the nominations were actually pretty good choices with the exception of Avatar. The only thing I found memorable about that score was that at least once James Horner used that four-note motif he puts in every other damn movie he scores. That alone should be an automatic disqualification. Up (Michael Giacchino) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (Alexandre Desplat) were also good choices (I liked Fox better, though) Christopher Young's score to Drag Me to Hell was great, and that is one of the few positive things I can say about that abortion. Clint Mansell's Moon was also good and so was Richard Marvin's Surrogates (all minute of it anyway)
2010
Winner: Trent Reznor - The Social Network
My Choice: Joseph Trapanes/Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy
Not a bad group (Hans Zimmer's Inception was the most deserving of the nominees), but I was too busy being pissed off at Tron: Legacy's snub to care. It's so distinctive and iconic that I actually expect to hear it when I watch the original Tron.
2011
Winner: Lucovic Bource - The Artist
My Choice: Henry Jackman - X-Men: First Class
Not a bad choice this year. The Artist and Tintin (John Williams) both had very enjoyable scores, but I would've like to see the score for X-Men: First Class (Henry Jackman) at least get nominated.
2012
Winner: Mychael Danna - Life of Pi
My Choice: Dario Marianelli - Anna Kerinina
Good choices this year. Skyfall (Thomas Newman) had its moments, but if you're going to give a Bond score an Oscar, it should have been Dr. No. Avengers (Alan Silvestri) had a good score, and The Amazing Spider-Man (James Horner) had its moments.
2013
Winner: Steven Price - Gravity
My Choice: Hans Zimmer - Man of Steel
Out of these Gravity was very good, but I still can't belive they ignored Hans Zimmer's excellent score for Man of Steel. Other snubs included Only God Forgives (Cliff Martinez), Trance (Rick Smith) and Pacific Rim (Ramin Djawadi)
2014
Winner: TBA
My Choice: Steven Price - Fury
A surprisingly good group despite couple bad snubs. Alexandre Desplat’s score for Grand Budapest Hotel has a nice folk charm. His score for The Imitation Game is also very good. I'm rooting for him to win out of the nominees. Hans Zimmer’s score for Interstellar is awesome, but suspiciously familiar at times. Johann Johannson’s score for The Theory of Everything seems to be the weakest of the bunch. Mr. Turner (Gary Yershon) is okay. The frustrating snubs of the year in this category are Steven Price’s excellent work for Fury, which I think is even better than his Oscar-winning score for Gravity, Disasterpiece's It Follows and Clint Mansell's score for Noah.
And here's a short list of the winners I agree with.
1959: Miklos Rozsa – Ben-Hur
1965: Maurice Jarre – Doctor
Zhivago
1974: Nino Rota – The
Godfther, Pt. II
1975: John Williams – Jaws
1976: Jerry Goldsmith – The Omen
1977: John Williams – Star
Wars
1985: John Barry – Out
of Africa
1993: John Williams – Schindler’s
List
2001: Howard Shore – The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2008: A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
2008: A.R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
No comments:
Post a Comment