OVP: Best Original Score (2006)
The Nominees Were...
Gustavo Santaolalla, Babel
Thomas Newman, The Good German
Philip Glass, Notes on a Scandal
Javier Navarrete, Pan's Labyrinth
Alexandre Desplat, The Queen
My Thoughts: We are moving into the Best Score category today, and a lineup that includes a lot of men very familiar to the Oscars (even if this category's mascot, John Williams, is nowhere to be found). Oscar went with a relatively traditional set of scores here-there's not a lot of surprise in this lineup, and only one film is getting its sole nomination. Since we are always looking for a way into the category, let's start with that movie.
The Good German is one of several times throughout history where filmmakers tried to duplicate Casablanca, perhaps the best movie ever made, and fell on their faces. The Good German is a disaster as a film, one that doesn't work on virtually any level (which is a shame considering the talent involved), but it's important with the OVP to separate the element from the film-movies occasionally have great scores but are otherwise dreadful. This, sadly, is not the case here. I know that the Academy has a crush on Thomas Newman, but this is a sporadic score, one that shows up at inopportune times and otherwise is absent in sequences where it would benefit. A big whiff on AMPAS' part.
That's also the case with Babel, which is a nomination I cannot get behind remotely. The film is heavily-reliant on a song score (I honestly am shocked that it was even eligible for the Oscar), and most of its strength derives from that score. A year after the Academy totally got it right in giving a trophy to Santaolalla, they whiffed out-the-gate here, giving him one too many Oscars for a score that is transparent, generic, & doesn't add much to the film at all.
The Queen was a big nomination at the time, even if in retrospect it seems like the type that the Academy would've gone to as a default. Alexandre Desplat took a while to get noticed by Oscar, having critically-acclaimed scores for Girl with a Pearl Earring and Birth before AMPAS was forced to acknowledge him for The Queen. This isn't as impressive of work from Desplat as he'd eventually have, but it's great, soaring stuff. I have a soft spot for classically-arranged, string-heavy scores, and that's what The Queen is-it's not breaking ground, but it's also not embarrassing anyone.
Javier Navarrete's score for Pan's Labyrinth, though, is in a class by itself here. A beautiful, enchanted composition, it's the only score of this bunch that feels like it perfectly fits into the story. It has a glorious lullaby-quality that transports like you're being read a demented bedtime story. The score is iconic, which is a good marker of a great piece of music, working both within the film & outside of it, and it never threatens to overwhelm the film. It's something you can listen to and instantly think "that's Pan's Labyrinth" without it becoming an unnecessary character in the film, which brings us to...
...Philip Glass's Notes on a Scandal. Glass as a composer has his champions & detractors, a man who has been a huge part of the classical music scene for the past few decades, and there are certainly scores of his (specifically The Hours and Jane) that I adore, and would rank amongst my favorites those different years. That being said, Notes on a Scandal is not a piece of music I can get behind. It's loud, bombastic, and while it might work in a night at the symphony, it becomes almost comical the way it is added to the actual film, which is already struggling with how to deal with occasional bouts of camp against the realism it needs to ground some of its performances. We'll get into my thoughts on the film as a whole in the coming weeks, but the score is a big miss, even if it's a miss that required some risk (I'd rather have risky-and-bad than boring-and-fine).
Other Precursor Contenders: The Grammys eligibility window for the best film score nomination is not the same as Oscar's so oftentimes you'll see films from two different years getting citations, and that's the case here. For the 2007 Grammys, we saw The Da Vinci Code and Pirates of the Caribbean 2 among the nominees, while in 2008 The Departed, Babel, Blood Diamond, Happy Feet, and Pan's Labyrinth...all lost to Ratatouille, which as a 2007 release means that no film from 2006 ultimately won the Grammy. Babel took the BAFTA Award, besting Casino Royale, Dreamgirls, Happy Feet, and The Queen, while at the Globes The Painted Veil won, here over Babel, The Da Vinci Code, The Fountain, and Nomad. Looking at this list, I am honestly flummoxed on sixth place-maybe The Da Vinci Code, though honestly it's next to impossible to tell how the Academy is going to react to Hans Zimmer in a given year.
Films I Would Have Nominated: We'll get into more of this in the My Ballot, but I'd totally upend this entire list. I'd definitely find room for The Black Dahlia, which I didn't love but thought the music was divine (see, The Good German, it's possible!), and I'd also have picked Desplat's The Painted Veil among the contenders, as I think that's the fresher of his signature scores from 2006, and a more unique spin on a classical piece.
Oscar’s Choice: Santaolalla takes it, perhaps by more than I would've guessed looking at those precursors, most likely over Pan's Labyrinth.
My Choice: It's Pan's, and it's not close. The Queen, Notes on a Scandal, The Good German, and Babel come behind it.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Are you joining Oscar/BAFTA in giving this to Babel, or will you join me in the corner with Pan's? Why do you think it took Oscar so long to fall in love with Alexandre Desplat? And what was in sixth place in such a random field? Share your thoughts below!
Also in 2006: Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2006
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