Golden Globe Bag

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

The 1999 Golden Globe nominees were announced yesterday -- with a few surprises both in what was chosen and what was not. Here are the first words out of fans' mouths:

From: Rang41@aol.com

Speaking from an admittedly biased perspective, I was happy to see John Williams nominated for ANGELA'S ASHES. THE PHANTOM MENACE still remains one of the better efforts of 1999, but Williams even topped that excellent achievement with his moving score for Alan Parker's highly anticipated film. I was also very pleased to see Thomas Newman receive a nod for his familiar but still entertaining score to AMERICAN BEAUTY. Both of these scores are well deserving of their respective nominations.

I have not heard any of the remaining seven scores, so I will not pass judgment on them. However, there were a few absences that I would have liked to see get recognized, principally Danny Elfman's SLEEPY HOLLOW, Jerry Goldsmith's THE MUMMY, and Don Davis' THE MATRIX, all memorable scores (especially in Elfman's case, where the score was the highlight of a somewhat entertaining but disappointingly uneven film).

From: "Sean Zikman" <seanzik@total.net>

What about Star Wars-Episode 1, The Haunting or 13th Warrior by Goldsmith, and For Love of the Game by Basil Poledouris, among my faves for '99? Eyes Wide Shut is indeed a strange selection.

It's been a long time since big budget "action" or blockbuster scores were routinely nominated for these awards.

From: Michael Schuermann <mschuermann@yahoo.com>

Upon seeing Eyes Wide Shut and Jocelyn Pook nominated for Best Original Score by the Golden Globes, I got to thinking about its Oscar considerations. Given the disqualification of South Park and Tarzan for having "too many songs", although all original, that could lead to voter confusion, how does the Academy feel about Eyes Wide Shut. It's well known to those of us in the film-score fan community that almost all of the music in the film is not original to it (in fact most isn't film music at all). How can the Academy consider it fair that "too many (original) songs" be deemed unworthy for honoring (I know they are both eligible for best song-score though), yet Eyes Wide Shut, with it's mixing of Shostakovich, Ligeti, etc., no matter how effective it was in the film, is perfectly eligible. Seems like a terrible double-standard to me. Just a thought. Perhaps you could address it in a milbag column.

From: "Terry Brown" <tbrown@mabts.edu>

What, nothing here for The Phantom Menace? Where in the world is something for Goldsmith, considering in 1999 he gave us both The Mummy and 13th Warrior? Oh, well, the normal omissions from the ignorant!

From: "tnealbrown" <tnealbrown@email.msn.com>

I'm a little disgusted about the Golden Globe nominations for this year. I mean "Eyes Wide Shut," "The Talented Mr. Ripley," and "The End of the Affair"---WHO CARES?? I'm sorry but "The Phantom Menace" and "The Mummy" should have been nominated instead of some of this JUNK!! Even "Toy Story 2," or "Tarzan" (which I don't think the score to that is even that good) probably deserved a nomination before this stupid stuff. I am glad though that Williams was at least nominated for something this year. I also think that the song list is not that bad---except for "Beautiful Stranger" from "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," and "Save Me" from "Magnolia." You couldn't pay me to listen to that TRASH!!!

From: Nathan Nedeau <vascadia@yahoo.com>

Hmm, some fair nominations. But, alas, where is Goldsmith's the 13th Warrior? Or Elfman's Sleepy Hollow? Or maybe . . Williams' Star Wars? Oh well, maybe the Oscars will be more forgiving. We'll see .

From: KBusby2256@aol.com

I'm surprised The Great Beyond by REM from "Man on the Moon" didn't get a nominaton for best song. That song is wonderful, and is a perfect companion to a film about Andy Kaufman.

The song was written independently of the film several years ago, so it is ineligible for the award.

From: Randall Derchan <DSPY007@aol.com>

Jocelyn Pook is the reason why you can't take these awards seriously. Some of those are deserving, but I haven't seen them all. In fact I haven't seen most of them so I have to pass judgment.

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