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It would be a tossup between "Goldfinger" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" for Best Score and "We Have All The Time In The World" for Best Song.
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Posted: |
Oct 5, 2012 - 4:11 PM
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By: |
bdm
(Member)
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It would depend on the competition for one. Which Bond score deserved a nomination at least? Again, depends on the competition, but FRWL is a great score; GOLDFINGER set the tone and is a great score; THUNDERBALL at tad to repetitive in the later half (my fave, but it can drag); YOL2X falls into the THUNDERBALL category or repetiive; OHMSS plays/sounds differently, but works very well, and as many consider it the best story...; DAF is fun, and I tend to play that one the most, but that film is not going to move the Academy; MWTGG - now this is a great score, and definately worthy; MOONRAKER is one I like, but not Oscar worthy IMHO - lovely space music, but we have heard it all before by now; OCTOPUSSY is another great score, better than MR IMHO...
From here on in the Barry Bonds fall into the MOONRAKER "we've heard it before" category.
So Oscar noms could have gone to:
FRWL, Goldfinger, OHMSS, MWTGG, Octopussy.
Oscars could have gone to... well, depending on the competition that year...hmmmmm. Well, the debate is ongoing; perhaps if the films came out in a different year?
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THESE 3 FROM Urs Lesse ARE WORTH REPEATING:
If you went by which Barry Bond score has had the biggest and most lasting impact in the public mind, then GOLDFINGER would be the inevitable choice. It's not among my own top 3 Bond scores, but I think it is undeniably the one Bond soundtrack that the most people would be able to name (if they can name any at all) and would probably almost see as synonymous with "Bond music". OK, maybe among those my age or older. 
And in addition, I think GOLDFINGER is the one that set the tone for Barry's following Bond scores.
If it was about which Barry Bond score was artistically best, I would tend towards YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.
Hell, the YOLT guitar alone deserves an Oscar in my book!
Hell, the YOLT guitar alone deserves an Oscar in my book!
I am not sure if I am the best judge for the FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE score, given I have always ranked it in my personal third tier of Barry's Bond scores. Out of shere coincidence, I only watched the movie less than a week ago, and after neotrinity's encouragement, I gave the CD a fresh spin last night and took some notes. Be prepared that my interpretation is quite a grim one.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE 1963
Score composed and conducted by John Barry
Song composed by Lionel Bart
If I characterized the score in a few adjectives and associations, they would be:
cold, hard, merciless, no nonsense, no way out
To me, the thrust of Barry's FRWL were never the folksy pieces or Monro's nostalgic ballad, but the bare bones action and underscore tracks. Among my 2-3 most memorable tracks, Meeting in St. Sophia (as does Spectre Island) sets a first mark with just a few unforgiving, cold and grey church bell* bars that evoke a feeling of loneliness and an air of grim inevitability, almost like an irrevokable verdict being spoken. Barry's "own" 007 adds a "precise clockwork" dimension to its interpretation of the Bond character. Death of Grant culminates in musical "punches" which almost seem to mickey-mouse the on-screen action - remotely reminiscent of the orchestra "stings" that accompany Bond killing the tarantula in DR. NO. Stalking features similar brutal stings. Eventually, 007 Takes the Lektor drives the action with an air of inevitability again.
Consistent with the original score, Barry's take on The James Bond Theme in FRWL (James Bond with Bongos) is what I regard as the most twangy and most pure rendition of the theme ever. The few bars featuring the bongos playing a mere skeleton of the theme represent the leanest and meanest take on it ever.
The gipsy music and even the "romantic" From Russia with Love melody display a comparative distance to the inevitable folksy sounds usually connected with such a setting. Girl Trouble features hard brass punches very much aligned with the action tracks characterized before. Even the "Guitar Lament" conveys an air of inevitability and finality rather than solace.
Against this background – or my subjective take on it –, From Russia with Love superficially appears as a kind of humane and comforting island in this remarkably grey and cold portrayal of Istanbul (Side note: As a youngster, I believed for years that the action was set in Moscow, not Istanbul. Just compare the cold Istanbul picture the movie presents with the steamy sceneries of DR. NO and you might understand what contributed to that impression). However, I have always perceived the song as nostalgic rather than comforting – it evokes memories of a beautiful and nice past with no chance of a revival in the present, an impression further underlined by the thousands of miles between Moscow and Istanbul: Sweetness is gone and far away. Unlike the calypso sounds of DR. NO, the FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE score has no lightness nor beauty "in the moment".
To me, Barry's score for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE shows Bond very much alone in the world – at times the movie does that, too: Bond seems almost shy and insecure being the sole stranger in the gypsy camp.
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* It's probably a different instrument, but I guess it's clear which sounds I mean.
I second that. And besides, "You Only Live Twice" is my all-time-favourite song. Ever. Pop and all other music included.
But also DIAMONDS and OHMSS are musically nearly on par with YOLT.
I did not explicitly add that OHMSS is still my favourite Bond soundtrack of them all. Today I thought about how to characterize the difference between the YOLT and OHMSS scores, and the comparison that I ended up at was this:
YOLT is more like a grand Hieronymus Bosch painting with all its hundreds of amazing details, and incredibly bandwidth of colour tones and full of big drama, sometimes bordering the surreal world, while OHMSS is more like an expressionist Van Gogh painting, dealing with down to earth sceneries, usually simplified, but yet incredibly rich, bold and powerful in its moods and unsurpassable in intensity.
From Ron: The Man wrote sooooooooooo many masterpieces, and we are the beneficiaries of them!
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