OVP: Best Original Score (2017)
The Nominees Were...
Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk
Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water
John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Carter Burwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
My Thoughts: Happy Sunday, and welcome to us finishing off the music-related categories at 2017's Oscars with Best Score, which pits four Best Picture nominees (and John Williams) against each other. When this category becomes dominated by Best Picture nominees, I always get a little bit nervous. Composing is a significant part of any movie (it's why it's insane to me that we wouldn't have the category during the ceremony), but when you rely primarily on the Best Picture nominees, you end up with a risk that they just clicked the films with the loudest or most obvious scores, and not necessarily the best ones.
That's the case with something like Three Billboards, which got Carter Burwell (whom the Oscars spent a good twenty years ignoring) his second nomination. Burwell's score seems misplaced in the film, and out-of-sync with McDonagh's tonally-inconsistent movie. It is too delicate, too reliant on piano, and a bad fit for the movie. For me, I think the sign of a score that has done its job is one that doesn't infiltrate or take over the film (nine times out of ten, this is a sign that the score is being used as a script crutch), but it should also recall the movie if you listen to it again. This isn't the case for Three Billboards...listening to it again, it could easily be the sound of a dozen other movies.
The Shape of Water's theme certainly recalls that movie. It's a lovely, elegant background onto the picture, and adds just the right amount of mischief. My problem is when you move beyond the theme, the rest of the score feels rudimentary it's so repetitive. This isn't necessarily a problem for the movie itself, but it is a problem if you're trying to honor the picture with an Oscar. It sometimes has the feeling of Family Guy where the same 6-7 chord progressions duplicate every single episode-it's too repetitive, and not enough originality behind that (enchanting) main theme.
Dunkirk kind of does the same thing. Hans Zimmer is a legend in the movies, and certainly has made some of the more memorable scores of the past 30 years in the movies, but I run hot-and-cold with him because his scores tend to teeter into bombastic, and that's the case with Dunkirk in its louder moments, frenetically coming at you with percussion that feels like it's gilding the lily on the action sequences, taking away from some of the strong editing & sound design that the filmmakers are bringing naturally to the movie. It's not bad music, but it's too much & doesn't aid the story.
Phantom Thread is yet another genius pairing between Jonny Greenwood & Paul Thomas Anderson. It's hard to imagine that the menacing There Will Be Blood, languid The Master, and sophisticated Phantom Thread all came from the same rock star, but that's the case here. Phantom does everything right-it instantly recalls the movies when heard out-of-context, flawlessly adds to the movie while never making it feel like it's compensating, and it's also a gorgeous bit of music, bringing a disarmingly romantic feeling through alternating piano & strings.
John Williams has a lot of roadblocks to get past in The Last Jedi. For starters, his nomination is his fifth for the series, and so not only is he John Williams (maestro of dozens of blockbusters), but he's also borrowing from himself within the Star Wars universe. Thankfully, Williams knows how to differentiate here and adapt to Rian Johnson's darker, grittier take on the franchise by not only pulling from the heavy strings of his previous movies, but also adding in some winds & new trumpet melodies to make this feel like a proper extension of the Star Wars universe. This results in his best score of the recent Star Wars sequels.
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 2018 Grammys, Dunkirk got a nomination (losing to La La Land) while the next year Blade Runner 2049, Coco, The Shape of Water, & The Last Jedi all got nominated but lost to Black Panther, meaning that between Original Song & Score, no 2017 film won a Grammy Award in the Oscar-analogous categories. The Globes don't have such a strange eligibility window, so they gave their trophy to The Shape of Water against Three Billboards, Phantom Thread, The Post, & Dunkirk while BAFTA went with The Shape of Water atop Blade Runner, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk & Phantom Thread. In terms of sixth place, I royally screwed up my predictions on this one (I only got Dunkirk and The Shape of Water right), but my guess is still that Best Picture-nominee The Post was nearly John Williams nomination, though I suspect he was competing with himself for that fifth place slot so he won/lost either way.
Films I Would Have Nominated: It is very rare that documentaries get love in this category, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't get attention when they're exceptional. That's certainly the case with Philip Glass' score for Jane. While Glass can sometimes be too much, in the case of a movie like Jane, which gets a lot of its majesty from beautiful (silent) old movies of Jane Goodall & her family, you need a score to come to life & add itself as a character to keep the audience attuned to their surroundings.
Oscar’s Choice: Desplat won his second Oscar rather easily, probably besting...Burwell? Maybe? I don't know, honestly, it feels like such a slam dunk.
My Choice: An easy choice for Greenwood here, followed by Williams-it's hard to win for a sequel, and Greenwood's so original I can't really barter with the idea of giving it to Star Wars even though it's strong. Behind them is Shape of Water, Dunkirk, and Three Billboards.
Those are my thoughts-how about yours? Are you going to stick with pretty much all of the precursors favoring The Shape of Water or do you want to join me over on Team Greenwood? Who do you think was the second place here, as it feels like Desplat took it in a walk? And any explanations how John Williams missed for a Best Picture nominee...yet still got a nomination? Share your thoughts below!
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