OVP: Best Original Score (2012)
The Nominees Were...
Alexandre Desplat, Argo
Mychael Danna, Life of Pi
The music of the movies is an odd sort of situation. Whereas with most categories, you cannot separate the performance or the sound or the editing from the film, you can quite easily distinguish the music, and this sometimes means you get the wrong interpretation of the excellence of what's playing on the screen when you simply listen to clips from the movies. It's why the music of, say, Phillip Glass plays so well in an orchestra pit (roaring, shooting for the heights), but doesn't work when it's overshadowing Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench (I know that I've gone to Notes on a Scandal as a go-to before for this analogy, but it's so apt I'm not getting a new one until we hit 2006).
This is why I'm going to start out with Mychael Danna's work in Life of Pi, which won this category at the Oscars, but I felt was a bit too overpowering within the movie to aid the film. The music of the movie relies heavily on Indian influences, and like all of Lee's music, feels authentic in parts of the film. Unlike, say, Sense and Sensibility or Brokeback Mountain, where the music completely matches the personalities of the characters, I never felt like the music in this film lined up with Pi. It seemed to be a bit more generic in its approach to the film, with the requisite single piano notes and the way that the music swelled in all of the right places, giving us false emotions that weren't earned by the script. Maybe I'm bitter about the ending, where the movie relies heavily on the score with an emotionally-manipulative moment that plays at the heart strings but rings false to the wonder that we've just encountered. Either way, Danna's not high on my list, despite the music playing fairly well on a CD.
With Skyfall, Thomas Newman is a bit tied at the ankles with his score. He's got to find a way to incorporate the famous John Barry theme with the Adele title song while still creating his own spin on the movie. That's a lot of balls to juggle, and in an action-adventure, which already is heavily reliant on percussion and possibly electrically-charge instruments, he has cliches to avoid. And yet, he does rather well with the movie. Think of how distinctive the opening music on the Grand Bazaar is, with the hot, sharp tempo that manages to be completely "Bond" without being completely "Barry." Later in the film, when the characters descend on Skyfall, we get an appropriately mythic response, as this is the place where it all began. Newman waits to bring out those familiar strings and what sounds like a french horn or oboe to instill magic in the audience.
The film doesn't quite hit a home run every time. The film veers into Hans Zimmer-esque playfulness a bit too much for such a serious movie, and I am never a huge fan of when the composer makes his music playful by getting all syncopated (except for in a Pixar film), but considering the handicaps he started with, Newman did a fine job.
Despite the fact that his Oscar career is less than a decade old, it's hard to imagine a time before Alexandre Desplat took over this category, and while he's now descended into Newman-level territory in regards to his lack of wins, that doesn't mean we shouldn't pay him heed over his "default nomination." It always helps to compose the Best Picture winner, and there are elements of Argo worth celebrating. So sweeping and in-tune with the film's ultimate ending and redemption is a piece like "The Mission," that you forget that the rest of the film is filled with a good deal of cliches. Middle Eastern influences in an Iranian movie? How original. Heightened strings in a chase scene? Very unique.
Dario Marianelli's elegant, but occasionally thin score to Anna Karenina accomplishes far more than the previous three films. I love the "Overture," which gives us an almost circus-like atmosphere in the music. You almost expect it to swell into a huge balcony of strings, but instead it gives you something a little more solitary. The music acts as a great proxy for Anna and Vronsky, their love elegant but occasionally ersatz, an empty vase to make their lives feel more full. Even the final suicide scene doesn't quite give away that strong soloist, always making someone (Anna), walk alone amidst the music.
The final film is of course the John Williams entry, and as I have admitted before, I'm a big Williams enthusiast. The reason I love Williams, aside from his absolutely beautiful compositions, is that he knows how to create big moments with his equally epic directors (typically, Spielberg and Lucas). He starts the film out with "The People's House," a grand, stately banner for the film, and one to recall later in the movie as we move through this historical context. Williams is never at his best when he's, say, on-the-run (a piece like "The Race to the House" seems a little bit tongue-in-cheek for him), but he simply knows the way to aid his films, adding richness and context to the films. Some may say he leers into bombast on occasion (and may call me a hypocrite for arguing that Glass or Danna do this more frequently than Williams), but I disagree-you have to know your director's vision, and Williams knows that the epics his directors are enthralling us with are in fact in need of the big strings, the big brass, the big stanzas that few can equal him in achieving.
This is why I'm going to start out with Mychael Danna's work in Life of Pi, which won this category at the Oscars, but I felt was a bit too overpowering within the movie to aid the film. The music of the movie relies heavily on Indian influences, and like all of Lee's music, feels authentic in parts of the film. Unlike, say, Sense and Sensibility or Brokeback Mountain, where the music completely matches the personalities of the characters, I never felt like the music in this film lined up with Pi. It seemed to be a bit more generic in its approach to the film, with the requisite single piano notes and the way that the music swelled in all of the right places, giving us false emotions that weren't earned by the script. Maybe I'm bitter about the ending, where the movie relies heavily on the score with an emotionally-manipulative moment that plays at the heart strings but rings false to the wonder that we've just encountered. Either way, Danna's not high on my list, despite the music playing fairly well on a CD.
With Skyfall, Thomas Newman is a bit tied at the ankles with his score. He's got to find a way to incorporate the famous John Barry theme with the Adele title song while still creating his own spin on the movie. That's a lot of balls to juggle, and in an action-adventure, which already is heavily reliant on percussion and possibly electrically-charge instruments, he has cliches to avoid. And yet, he does rather well with the movie. Think of how distinctive the opening music on the Grand Bazaar is, with the hot, sharp tempo that manages to be completely "Bond" without being completely "Barry." Later in the film, when the characters descend on Skyfall, we get an appropriately mythic response, as this is the place where it all began. Newman waits to bring out those familiar strings and what sounds like a french horn or oboe to instill magic in the audience.
The film doesn't quite hit a home run every time. The film veers into Hans Zimmer-esque playfulness a bit too much for such a serious movie, and I am never a huge fan of when the composer makes his music playful by getting all syncopated (except for in a Pixar film), but considering the handicaps he started with, Newman did a fine job.
Despite the fact that his Oscar career is less than a decade old, it's hard to imagine a time before Alexandre Desplat took over this category, and while he's now descended into Newman-level territory in regards to his lack of wins, that doesn't mean we shouldn't pay him heed over his "default nomination." It always helps to compose the Best Picture winner, and there are elements of Argo worth celebrating. So sweeping and in-tune with the film's ultimate ending and redemption is a piece like "The Mission," that you forget that the rest of the film is filled with a good deal of cliches. Middle Eastern influences in an Iranian movie? How original. Heightened strings in a chase scene? Very unique.
Dario Marianelli's elegant, but occasionally thin score to Anna Karenina accomplishes far more than the previous three films. I love the "Overture," which gives us an almost circus-like atmosphere in the music. You almost expect it to swell into a huge balcony of strings, but instead it gives you something a little more solitary. The music acts as a great proxy for Anna and Vronsky, their love elegant but occasionally ersatz, an empty vase to make their lives feel more full. Even the final suicide scene doesn't quite give away that strong soloist, always making someone (Anna), walk alone amidst the music.
The final film is of course the John Williams entry, and as I have admitted before, I'm a big Williams enthusiast. The reason I love Williams, aside from his absolutely beautiful compositions, is that he knows how to create big moments with his equally epic directors (typically, Spielberg and Lucas). He starts the film out with "The People's House," a grand, stately banner for the film, and one to recall later in the movie as we move through this historical context. Williams is never at his best when he's, say, on-the-run (a piece like "The Race to the House" seems a little bit tongue-in-cheek for him), but he simply knows the way to aid his films, adding richness and context to the films. Some may say he leers into bombast on occasion (and may call me a hypocrite for arguing that Glass or Danna do this more frequently than Williams), but I disagree-you have to know your director's vision, and Williams knows that the epics his directors are enthralling us with are in fact in need of the big strings, the big brass, the big stanzas that few can equal him in achieving.
Other Precursor Contenders: The BAFTA Awards oddly matched this category verbatim (the music categories, considering how frequently Oscar has favorites rarely completely match), though they gave the neglected Thomas Newman his second BAFTA for Skyfall (he's lost eleven times with the Oscars, and has oddly lost only once with BAFTA). The Globes, always reliably odd with their music categories, kept Newman out of the running and inserted the trio behind Cloud Atlas as the fifth nominees (Danna won). It's hard to tell who was in sixth place, honestly, with such little variance in the nominees, though I kind of wonder if it wasn't Snow White and the Huntsman (by James Newton Howard), who is an Academy mainstay and can get nominated for anything.
Songs I Would Have Nominated: As you might be able to tell, I wasn't super thrilled with any of these five nominees-none hit the "iconic" nature that this category sometimes reaches. Instead, I would have much preferred something like The Master's Jonny Greenwood, who created a completely lush, devestating piece of music to go with that lush, devestating motion picture. He's hands-down the best entry in the entire field last year, and deserved the trophy.
Oscar’s Choice: Oscar likes a first-timer in this category (pity those who don't win on their first nomination) and Danna fits that bill, and so Life of Pi makes it another loss for Desplat and Newman.
My Choice: It's clearly between Marianelli and Williams, isn't it? I'm going to side, therefore, with Marianelli, who has a slightly more difficult task and also a more inventive score. Lincoln follows, with Argo, Skyfall, and Life of Pi behind.
Songs I Would Have Nominated: As you might be able to tell, I wasn't super thrilled with any of these five nominees-none hit the "iconic" nature that this category sometimes reaches. Instead, I would have much preferred something like The Master's Jonny Greenwood, who created a completely lush, devestating piece of music to go with that lush, devestating motion picture. He's hands-down the best entry in the entire field last year, and deserved the trophy.
Oscar’s Choice: Oscar likes a first-timer in this category (pity those who don't win on their first nomination) and Danna fits that bill, and so Life of Pi makes it another loss for Desplat and Newman.
My Choice: It's clearly between Marianelli and Williams, isn't it? I'm going to side, therefore, with Marianelli, who has a slightly more difficult task and also a more inventive score. Lincoln follows, with Argo, Skyfall, and Life of Pi behind.
And what are your thoughts? Did you favor Anna like myself, Life of Pi like the Academy, or one of the other remaining three? Do you think Desplat or Newman will ever win? And what was the best overall score of 2012?
Also in 2012: Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Previously in 2012
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