OVP: Best Original Score (2010)
The Nominees Were...
John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer, Inception
Alexandre Desplat, The King's Speech
A.R. Rahman, 127 Hours
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network
My Thoughts: All right, we'll move on from the other rather shoddy musical lineup to a far more impressive collection of nominees here. In one of those rare years that John Wiliams didn't make any contributions to the cinema (he's generally a gimme nominee when he is), we are treated to two Oscar-winning composers, a five-time Oscar nominee, a hardworking musician finally getting his due, and a pair of rock icons.
Two years after he picked up a pair of Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman once again was back in a Danny Boyle film for both Best Song and Best Score. And, I have to admit, like Best Song, I wasn't riveted by this score. The problem is partially that the film doesn't work for me on a larger scale, a factor that affects music more than it affects most categories (since music, and a successful score, needs to not only stand on its own but also interact with the cinema in a way that Sound Editing or Makeup don't). The film unsuccessfully tries to be a mystical journey and also include elements from multiple different styles. The problem is that this isn't a film about multiple different people-it's a film about one person, and that person is stationary for almost the entire movie. There should be more repetition, more despair, and the score is the only one of the bunch that completely falls flat as a result.
John Powell has been doing the non-Disney animated scoring gig thing for a while now, being the man behind the baton in such films as Antz, Chicken Run, Shrek, and Robots, but this is his first nomination (if you look closely, only Pixar and Disney are successful in getting their music nominated as a whole amongst the animated features). Powell gets a better film than he's used to with this movie, and does uplift well with the Alan Menken meets James Horner stylings of his more sweeping, ride-the-dragons sequences, but loses me when he gets to the new age, marimba-fueled music of some of the softer moments. Also, he doesn't quite catch the Celtic spirit in the same way that, say, Patrick Doyle does two years later with Pixar's Brave. Overall, though, this is a step-up from Rahman's work, and connects better with the film.
Alexandre Desplat, after years of falling by the wayside within the filmic community has become an Oscar staple in the past decade. If he'd actually win a couple of trophies you could call him the next John Williams, but Williams made more distinctive, iconic scores earlier on in his career than Desplat. The film trills and floats along at a steady speed, but there's no truly standout moment for Desplat's music. There is a great, soft lyrical piece that accompanies the title scene, though it's not by Desplat, but instead by Ludwig van Beethoven. Even though it's tough to beat an icon, as the best musical moment of the film was by someone else, I have to dismiss Desplat from winning the trophy.
That leaves me with another very difficult decision-the race between the two best scores of 2010: Inception and The Social Network. Inception has that richness that you expect from a movie-it pulses, it knows the exact moments to bring in the drums, the winds, the strings. It's a score that you expect from someone as ominous as Christopher Nolan-the man nows how to use music as a weapon in his cinematic arsenal, and when you listen to the crescendos in a piece like "Time," you see why people occasionally compare Zimmer to Williams (if you can't already tell, for me Williams is the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones pun intended, of cinematic composers). Though he has in the past gone into indulgent flourishes and maddening swings of the tempo, here he remains rock steady, strong and well-aiding the atmosphere.
The Social Network, on the other hand, gives us something very different. Inception is working within the lines of what a great score is supposed to do. It's a great piece of music outside of the film, a better piece of music than The Social Network. But while Zimmer's score is stronger on its own, The Social Network does really magical things with its score, aiding the technological aspect of the script by filling the score with sharp staccatos and a synthesized feel. The film is about our move to live on the internet, so it's fitting that Reznor and Ross (pioneering members of the rock band Nine Inch Nails) make the music sound like it's coming out of a computer, out of a video game. And while the music isn't as good as Zimmer's (with the possible exception of the now iconic "Hand Covers Bruise"), it feels more at home within the film.
Two years after he picked up a pair of Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman once again was back in a Danny Boyle film for both Best Song and Best Score. And, I have to admit, like Best Song, I wasn't riveted by this score. The problem is partially that the film doesn't work for me on a larger scale, a factor that affects music more than it affects most categories (since music, and a successful score, needs to not only stand on its own but also interact with the cinema in a way that Sound Editing or Makeup don't). The film unsuccessfully tries to be a mystical journey and also include elements from multiple different styles. The problem is that this isn't a film about multiple different people-it's a film about one person, and that person is stationary for almost the entire movie. There should be more repetition, more despair, and the score is the only one of the bunch that completely falls flat as a result.
John Powell has been doing the non-Disney animated scoring gig thing for a while now, being the man behind the baton in such films as Antz, Chicken Run, Shrek, and Robots, but this is his first nomination (if you look closely, only Pixar and Disney are successful in getting their music nominated as a whole amongst the animated features). Powell gets a better film than he's used to with this movie, and does uplift well with the Alan Menken meets James Horner stylings of his more sweeping, ride-the-dragons sequences, but loses me when he gets to the new age, marimba-fueled music of some of the softer moments. Also, he doesn't quite catch the Celtic spirit in the same way that, say, Patrick Doyle does two years later with Pixar's Brave. Overall, though, this is a step-up from Rahman's work, and connects better with the film.
Alexandre Desplat, after years of falling by the wayside within the filmic community has become an Oscar staple in the past decade. If he'd actually win a couple of trophies you could call him the next John Williams, but Williams made more distinctive, iconic scores earlier on in his career than Desplat. The film trills and floats along at a steady speed, but there's no truly standout moment for Desplat's music. There is a great, soft lyrical piece that accompanies the title scene, though it's not by Desplat, but instead by Ludwig van Beethoven. Even though it's tough to beat an icon, as the best musical moment of the film was by someone else, I have to dismiss Desplat from winning the trophy.
That leaves me with another very difficult decision-the race between the two best scores of 2010: Inception and The Social Network. Inception has that richness that you expect from a movie-it pulses, it knows the exact moments to bring in the drums, the winds, the strings. It's a score that you expect from someone as ominous as Christopher Nolan-the man nows how to use music as a weapon in his cinematic arsenal, and when you listen to the crescendos in a piece like "Time," you see why people occasionally compare Zimmer to Williams (if you can't already tell, for me Williams is the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones pun intended, of cinematic composers). Though he has in the past gone into indulgent flourishes and maddening swings of the tempo, here he remains rock steady, strong and well-aiding the atmosphere.
The Social Network, on the other hand, gives us something very different. Inception is working within the lines of what a great score is supposed to do. It's a great piece of music outside of the film, a better piece of music than The Social Network. But while Zimmer's score is stronger on its own, The Social Network does really magical things with its score, aiding the technological aspect of the script by filling the score with sharp staccatos and a synthesized feel. The film is about our move to live on the internet, so it's fitting that Reznor and Ross (pioneering members of the rock band Nine Inch Nails) make the music sound like it's coming out of a computer, out of a video game. And while the music isn't as good as Zimmer's (with the possible exception of the now iconic "Hand Covers Bruise"), it feels more at home within the film.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with The Social Network for their top trophy, with Danny Elfman's Alice in Wonderland replacing How to Train Your Dragon. The BAFTA Awards also found room for Elfman (who has never won an Oscar despite a quartet of nominations and a likely sixth place here), this time throwing out The Social Network. In a moment of patriotism, the BAFTA's honored their own The King's Speech (though as a result it went to a French composer over the British John Powell).
Films I Would Have Nominated: In a category that consistently ignores women, it's sad that one of the few women who has actually broken the glass ceiling, Oscar-winner Rachel Portman, has had to wait so long for a fourth nomination (in most categories, three nominations would be incredible, but for the super clique-y composer's branch, three is a dime-a-dozen). Her beautiful work in Never Let Me Go added layers and beautiful melancholy to an already touching and difficult film. Also, Alexandre Desplat would have been far better off if they had nominated him for Harry Potter. His best score of the year, A Prophet, was ineligible due to some odd Academy rules.
Oscar's Choice: Though it was relatively predicted at the time, we'll likely look back at the victory of Reznor and Ross as a bit of an upset considering Desplat or Zimmer were far more in the Academy's traditional wheelhouse.
My Choice: Despite the write-up making it look like I'm going strongly one way, I've wrestled between Zimmer or Reznor/Ross, and I'm going to have to go with the Academy's decision. Reznor/Ross may not be the greatest composers of the bunch, but they created something beautiful and iconic with their score that instantly tags onto the film it accompanies, and Zimmer just doesn't hit that for me. He takes the silver, with Powell on the bronze, followed by Desplat and Rahman.
And now, I'll turn it over to you and your iTunes accounts. What did you think of the nominees of 2010, and were Reznor/Ross the right choice? When do you think Rachel Portman will return? And will Alexandre Desplat ever get an Oscar or is he bound to be in the camp of Thomas Newman?
Also in 2010: Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2010
Past Best Score Contests: 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment