The way I see it this explanation of yours does delve into the subtleties, but fails on various points. This post is not intended to belittle everything you said and I will try to address a few points here.
By the way you are looking for the most idealistic score. Of course my friend, the best is yet to be and scores of that nature are indeed rare in a lifetime. Coming back to the key points that you had mentioned, Thematic Development & Cohesiveness - This has less to do with the composer and more to do with the screenplay. In my opinion, SdM did not offer much for a Thematic Development as you had mentioned. If you want theme, listen to "Bose". I would say that is one soundtrack album that "works as advertised". Toying around with ideas - Seriously, of the last 8 Oscars, probably Atonement's score had it. Catch me if you can was there, but it didn't make it to the top. On a different note, if you are saying that Rahman doesn't do that I have to say you are kidding and dude, you need to start watching some of his movies. Other great works this year - I did listen to them as you said, and I agree that some of them are good, but that doesn't necessarily mean that SdM's soundtrack is inferior to it. Of course not all of them are going to get nominated. For crying out loud, we do not even know if SdM will make it, but here is the news flash. Judging a song's greatness also lies with the beholder (a twist there) and unfortunately, how it makes the Oscar cut is definitely going to be dependent upon the other major critic picks. Unfortunately for you SdM has had its fair share of successes among the critics' circle. So if SdM makes it to the nomination list, I would love to see you eat your own words. I like listening to Hans Zimmer, James Howard, Don Davis, John Williams & Alan Silvestri. I have been listening to their scores for a while now. Obviously I have been listening to Rahman's score too. Just because these folks score good music doesn't mean that Rahman's can be discounted. SdM offers its own complexity. The movie screams "Indian", which obviously calls for score which does the same. The very nature of the movie which traverses back and forth, that too between unrelated scenes, does very little in helping the composer maintain the cohesiveness that you are looking for. If you had read the main article on which this thread was started, you would get where I am going with this. Do keep in mind that Rahman did not have the luxury that a typical Hollywood composer has - to sit on the screenplay for a while the theme is developed. 3 Weeks is not a lot of time, given the fact that Rahman is not known to work like that. I would say "Give the credit where it is due". Rahman is new to this whole "Hollywood" style composition. The whole premise on which the Indian films operate is quite different from that of Hollywood. Given that, what he has done for SdM is quite remarkable. As stated earlier, the soundtracks of SdM are no way inferior and would hold on its own in its own right. It lacks the grandeur that a full fledged orchestral arrangement would bring in - the one that you might define as Oscar worthy. But as much as you would like to keep your eyes closed on other genres of film composition that do exist and might be "Oscar worthy", there are many a critic that would be interested in these soundtracks - the ones that are not stereo-types with horns blowing and cymbals crashing. As always, I am keeping my fingers crossed waiting for that day to come Hopefully by January :). --- In [email protected], Ramesh R <triscod...@...> wrote: > > ARR's effort in SdM works great as a combination of songs and score. Evaluated for just the music score there's not much that stands out for me. For sure, it supports the movie and the action on screen but does it go beyond that? And I think I've mentioned this earlier-- there's little or no thematic development (and that's something I could say for a lot of ARR scores in general). It looks like he's just scoring the scene. But where is he really connecting the dots? > > I'd like to think that a good score is something that, in addition to supporting the movie, introduces certain ideas, toys with them, and develops them. Cohesiveness is another attribute that I'm looking for. A good score can provide a subtext or commentary not just on what's happening on screen, but also on what might happen or where is this going. > > I'm not saying that SdM is a bad score. It's a good soundtrack, and a real departure for ARR. Latika's theme is lovely-- it represents Jamal's love and longing and was used to good effect in the end with a summary of the journey. The action theme (Escape) was another that was put to good use in the chase sequences. > > I just think that there's not much in it to make the cut for best score when the field is already rich with some great works this year. Alexandre Desplat has been in great form this year with strong scores for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button & Largo Wench. Danny Elfman has Milk & Standard Operating Procedure. James Newton Howard has The Happening & Defiance. Zbigniew Priesner has Anonyma. Thomas Newman has WALL-E. Adrian Johnston has Brideshead Revisited. I'm not just blindly putting these names out. There are a number of sites (Itunes, Youtube, Amazon) where you can listen to free clips. > > Anyone remember the Oscar-winning scores of Brokeback Mountain or Babel? Both were by Gustavo Santaolalla. Both of those were very minimalistic and sparse with little or no themes. Perhaps the recent trend is that if you have a wildly popular film, it will just drive the critics and voters into having a favorable opinion of it for the sub-categories too (yes, I do think that ARR's score for SdM is riding the crest of the movie's massive popularity). Or perhaps the critics really do believe in the 'less is more' philosophy. How else would you explain bewildering decisions like nominating Clint Eastwood for Best Score for Changeling, or James Newton Howard's dronish score for Michael Clayton for last year's Oscar? If it's really a trend then I don't like it one bit and perhaps I'm in the minority here. > > As a parting thought I'll link to the youtube clip of what I consider as signs of brilliant scoring in recent times. Check out the opening scene to Birth scored by Alexandre Desplat. It's a beauty of construction. There's a delicate repeating motif with flute followed by the celeste (a Desplat favorite), drones, bass strings, tympani, romantic violins, horns and a lot more. It does way more than just scoring the jogging scene. It's proof of why Desplat is rated so high today. > > RR >
