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Composing for Gold: A Look at Best Score
Posted on February 16, 2009, 4:28 pm, by admin, under
Best Original Score.
Five
accomplished musicians are looking for their first Oscar in a
competitive field for Best Original Score. Noted concert oboeist Adam
Spunberg examines these unique sheets of music and offers clarity on
this exciting, yet difficult-to-predict category.
By Adam Spunberg
It’s hardly a coincidence that the Oscar nominations for Best
Original Score tend to come from acclaimed films also nominated in
other major categories. There are three inferences we can make from
this:
1. Good soundtracks make for good movies
2. The best filmmakers hire the best composers
or more likely…
3. There are superior scores out there, scorching in obscurity, collecting the
glitzy sawdust of better-known pictures.
While this unfortunate occurrence detracts from the legitimacy of
the award, the Academy is still pretty accurate in nailing some
schmaltzy choices. As such, let’s examine the five candidates for this
year’s golden statue:
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.) - Alexandre
Desplat
This is the second nomination for Monsieur Desplat (The Queen,
2006), which makes him a toddler among centenarians. Fortunately, the
Academy does not discriminate by age, and the good-natured Frenchman
has a wonderful shot at turning back time.
Desplat’s eerie concoction is particularly effective in capturing
the befuddlement of Benjamin Button’s backwards condition. The music
assumes an almost Dali-esque persona, presenting a theme as distorted
in its cadences as it is rigid in its clockwork. Gustav Holst’s
“Saturn” from The Planets comes to mind, with a little
unconventionality thrown in.
“Defiance” (Paramount Vantage) - James Newton Howard
This marks Howard’s sixth nomination for Best Original Score and
eighth overall. His other five nominations were for The Prince of Tides
(1991), The Fugitive (1993), My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), The
Village (2004), and Michael Clayton (2007).
Howard definitely deserved this nomination, but – like his other
five attempts – he will almost certainly come up short. The music is
strong in its exposition, but it lacks that key ingredient, that
magical element necessary to win. The texture bears some similarity to
John Williams’ Schindler’s List theme, and for that it ought to be
praised, but it also needs to be a bit more memorable. A worthy
nomination effort…nothing more.
“Milk” (Focus Features) - Danny Elfman
Elfman is well known in the industry but has not received that many
nominations. Like Desplat and Howard, he is still waiting for the
ultimate call. Men In Black, Good Will Hunting, and Big Fish were all
poignant efforts, and Elfman has slight reason to believe this could be
his turn.
There is something extraordinarily exciting about the Milk
soundtrack. Elfman really gets your heart going, introducing an
adrenaline-thumping rhythmic dictation in the strings. Then enter
choir, which metamorphoses the daintiness into something far more
sublime. Quite simply, I like it a lot, and I think the Academy will
too…just not enough.
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight) - A.R. Rahman
Every once in a while, something unorthodox slips its way into the
Oscar equation. Rahman’s invigorating, pulse-pounding, cross-cultural,
tour de force score is a dangerous contender, perhaps even the
prohibitive favorite.
The fate of Rahman (pictured) may very well be tied to the fate of
Slumdog Millionaire, and based on preliminary findings, that’s probably
good news. There is something sorrowfully human within this score, and
yet a hope whispers uncompromisingly from within. The use of unusual
instruments and nontraditional tonalities should only help his
candidacy. Either way, Rahman is on the fast track to becoming a
millionaire in his own right.
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney) - Thomas Newman
Thomas Newman is probably the most famous among this group,
garnering eight prior nominations. The rub? He also has never won.
Newman’s excursions to the Oscars are starting to resemble
prostate-diseased trips to the can. When, oh when, will Mr. Newman win?
WALL-E is not Newman’s best work, although it comes pretty close. In
2002, he was inexplicably stood up, robbed, and left bleeding in a
Compton corner when Road to Perdition was disregarded. I want to say
his comeuppance has come, but I just don’t think WALL-E will trump
Slumdog Millionaire or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Tags: Academy Awards, Adam Spunberg,
Best Original Score, Defiance, Milk, Oscars, Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button, Wall-E
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