Memo to the Music Branch of the Academy 2004
By Cary Wong
With no clear front-runner in this year's Oscar race, studios are
scrambling to make their movies heard and seen. So while it's still
months away before ballots are due, the music branch of the Academy can
never start too early to listen to those "For Your Consideration" CDs
piling in their mail box. Don't be surprised that many of the composers
being bandied about are not the usual suspects, but ones with a more
international flair. While I haven't heard some of the scores for the
Christmas releases, there are PLENTY of great scores out there, and
here are the ones you (as well as casual film score fans) should pay
close attention:
The Top 5
The Alamo
(Carter Burwell)
Alexander
(Vangelis)
The House of
Flying Daggers (Shigeru Umebayashi)
The Terminal
(John Williams)
The Village
(James Newton Howard)
The most accomplished and exciting score of the year has to be James
Newton Howard's score to The Village.
Rarely has a composer sounded less like himself and yet still has
mastered the new sound. Nearby is Carter Burwell's best score of his
career, The Alamo as well as
the "Japanese Danny Elfman," 80's pop star turned film composer Shigeru
Umebayashi's operatic score for Flying
Daggers. Of course, no Oscar score race can be complete without
a John Williams score (The Terminal)
or an epic one (Alexander),
and both scores are pretty deserving of recommendation.
The Second Tier
Finding Neverland
(Jan A.P. Kaczmarek)
The Incredibles
(Michael Giacchino)
The Passion of the
Christ (John Debney)
Sky Captain and
the World of Tomorrow (Ed Shearmur)
Sideways
(Rolfe Kent)
No other movie had more people talking in the Spring than The Passion of the Christ, and one
of the major asset the film was John Debney's haunting score. The Incredibles blasted onto
screens in November and the score shouldn't be discounted even with
newcomer Michael Giacchino taking over duties from Pixar regular Randy
Newman. The most exciting comic book score came from Ed Shearmur for
the technically brilliant Sky Captain.
And two of the bigger adult fares may yield score nominations for Kent
and Kaczmarek. Kent's retro-'70s score is particularly worthy.
Long-shots
Bad Education
(Alberto Iglesias)
Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban (John Williams)
A Home at the End
of the World (Duncan Sheik)
Undertow
(Philip Glass)
Vanity Fair
(Mychael Danna)
Iglesias' homage to Bernard Herrmann, Sheik's gentle guitar strummings,
Glass's eerie music, and Danna's most melodic score since Ride With The Devil are some of
the best scores of the year. So, please take a chance on them. As for
Williams' latest score for the Harry
Potter franchise, forget the fact that it's a sequel and just
listen to the most complex and exciting scores of the year.
Over-rated but not to be discounted
Birth
(Alexandre Desplat)
The Motorcycle
Diaries (Gustavo Santaolalla)
The Notebook
(Aaron Zigman)
Ray (Craig
Armstrong)
Troy
(James Horner)
The jury is split on whether Desplat's score is brilliant or out of
place in the spooky drama, Birth,
but I found the somewhat upbeat sections jarring, taking me out of the
movie -- although on CD, the score is quite nice. Santaololla's score
may be swept in with the film's many supporters, but the score was too
slight for my taste. Never to be called slight, James Horner's Troy may be an epic score worthy of
Oscar attention, but not only does Horner recycles his standard
repertoire, there's also the whole business about Gabriel Yared's
rejected and superior score.
Unknown Quantities
The Aviator (Howard
Shore)
Kinsey
(Carter Burwell)
Lemony Snicket's
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Thomas Newman)
Spanglish (Hans
Zimmer)
A Very Long
Engagement (Angelo Badalamenti)
With their past pedigrees, these composers who have major movies in
December should not be discounted, especially Thomas Newman (who has
been neglected by the Academy for too long) and Howard Shore, who
should get some attention for his first post-"The Lord of the Rings"
score.
Songs
"Believe" -- The
Polar Express
"Learn to be Lonely" -- The Phantom of the Opera
"Lovers" -- The
House of Flying Daggers
"Old Habits Die Hard" -- Alfie
"Remember" -- Troy
Except for the one new song from The
Phantom of the Opera and the haunting love theme from The House of Flying Daggers, there
are no other sure things in this category.
Question Mark Song Score
The SpongeBob
Squarepants Movie (Gregor Narholz)
Teacher's Pet
(Stephen James Taylor)
The Polar Express
(Alan Silvestri)
Home on the Range
(Alan Menken)
Team America
(Harry Gregson-Williams)
Not sure if this will be a category this year, but these movies all
have song scores, and it would be a shame if one of the best animated
musicals of the year (Teacher's Pet)
and one of best animated scores of the year (The Polar Express) get overlooked
because of technicalities, which is the case with Andrew Lloyd Webber's
score to The Phantom of the Opera.
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