Dole

I think my favorite bit of Oscar unsportsmanship is when writer/director Billy Wilder reportedly tried to trip the director of Going My Way on his way to the podium after the film shut out Wilder's Double Indemnity in every category. I think more people would watch the Oscars if this was an annual occurence. How about John Williams bodyslamming Michael Gore when Fame is announced instead of The Empire Strikes Back?

Right...well I wish we'd get away from that. The fact that John Williams is some sort of inferior/subclass composer because he writes film music instead of operas and symphonies is ridiculous. Film composers have done some more inventive music than many of the "classical" composers of the last century. And even the "classical" composers like L. Bernstein, Copland, and Prokoviev couldn't resist doing at least one film score. If Mozart, Beethoven, and Wagner were alive today, they'd all be composing film scores and music critcs would lambast their work as well. I mean, Bernstein's score for On the Waterfront has to be one of the best things he ever did, much better than his classical "Requiem" piece.

But at least what Delerue did write was lovely. And he was one of the best film composers ever. I agree with you. I'm glad Delerue got an Oscar before he died, but there's no way he deserved it in 1979 over Goldsmith's Star Trek. But again, I guess it doesn't matter much. Herrmann and Goldsmith only ever won one Oscar but at the end of the day who really cares. They'll both go down as two of the greatest composers of the 20th century.

There are so many worthy choices for least worthy... A Little Romance wouldn't even be eligible today because so much of the score is based on Vivaldi. The wins for Fame and Midnight Express make me want to I think Frida was the least worthy score for 2002 (LOTR wasn't even nominated that year!). Isn't a lot of Frida's score non-Goldenthal Mexican folk music or something? I think Menken is a fine composer, although his best score is one that didn't win; The Hunchback of Notre Dame Andthe win for Brokeback Mountain is far from the worst injustice ever done in the Best Score category. I think the music works well in the film. When you stop to consider that scores like North by Northwest, Vertigo, Batman, Psycho, Ran, Hook, Edward Scissorhands, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Topkapi, Star Trek II, Conan the Barbarian, Koyaanisqatsi, The Godfather, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly weren't even nominated...well...the Oscars don't get it right even half the time in this category. Dole's $0.02

It also might be a nod to another Disney "pirate" film. Captain Nemo plays the Bach piece on his organ in the 1954 Disney film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Hitchcock never could stick with one composer before he settled on Herrmann (and then again after he fired Herrmann). He used Williams, Waxman, Rozsa, Mancini, Tiomkin, Friedhofer, Addison, Jarre, Webb, and Herrmann among others. That's a pretty astonishing list of film music's finest. I always wondered why Hitch could never stick with one person.

Those are nice. Thanks for posting them.

Well, whatever it ends up being, the Associated Press reported a couple of weeks ago that Lucas is planning some kind of 30th Anniversary DVD release this year. AP Report

Are you serious that he didn't remember scoring The River? He got an Oscar nomination for that. You'd think that's something you'd recall. Maybe he just has so many... Still, that's kind of strange if true.

I think South Park already did. "You and I are just passing through history. This...this is improved history!"

I want wailing women (like in Munich and Minority Report) in every cue and a main theme with choir that sings the words of the Gettysburg Address in Sanskrit.

Record of the Year is awarded to the producer and performer of a single song. Song of the Year is awarded to the person who actually wrote the song. Album of the Year is for an entire CD. At least I think that's how it works. The Grammys are confusing.

I too remember reading about Lucas being the one who oversaw JP's post-production. As I recall, Spielberg (who was emotionally drained from Schindler's List as it was) was going to come back to the U.S. to oversee post-p and asked JP star and Oscar-winning director Sir Richard Attenborough (sp) to go step in and direct a few days of Schindler. But Attenborough (for some reason or another) said no and Spielberg asked Lucas to do the post-p work on JP so he could stay in Europe.

-sigh- Dole: Who remembers a time when you could start a thread congratulating John Williams without it descending into bickering and chaos.

There are like a million different categories at the Grammys. They only give a few out during the televised show. I think over 90 awards are given out at the pre-show before the television coverage even starts. Anyway, the film music categories are given out at the pre-show and Williams won for Best Original Score Soundtrack for Memoirs and Best Instrumental Composition for "Prayer for Peace." The winners that have already been announced are listed at www.grammy.com

Don't know if this has already been announced here but Williams won the Grammy for Memoirs of a Geisha and for "A Prayer for Peace" from Munich

And all the blasters will be replaced by walkie talkies.

Thanks for everything Mr. Williams and happy birthday.

First of all, your wrong, there has been a great film about Lincoln. Second the film starred the late great Henry Fonda as Abraham Lincoln, in Young Mr. Lincoln, 1939, directed by John Ford, also late, also great. There's also a great 1940 film called Abe Lincoln in Illinois starring Raymond Massey. And to reply to vaderbait, Speilberg's film is to be based on presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals" that, I think, came out just last year. It focuses on how Lincoln often picked his political enemies/opponents to be his closest advisers and how many of them became his closest friends and defenders.

Wasn't it a year-long celebration of Goldsmith's birthday that sadly turned into a memorial in the summer after he died?

I was just curious which point you didn't agree with.

I think Empire of the Sun is the only Spielberg film that has no redeeming qualities. Now that's a bit harsh... You're right. The cinematography is quite lovely and Christian Bale turns in a fine performance. I think the score (beautiful as it is at times) is kind of overbearing and inappropriate at times though. One of the few Williams scores that I think doesn't match up with the film very well.

I think Empire of the Sun is the only Spielberg film that has no redeeming qualities.

I'm going to say none of the above. Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire have fine scores and Alexander and The Bounty aren't worth Williams's time. Dole- who still wishes there were some way to get back those two hours he spent watching Alexander.

If Goldsmith is talking about something or someone he doesn't like, he has quite a four-letter-word vocabulary. Goldsmith wasn't as well-spoken as Williams but his interviews were usually more interesting. I'd love for Williams to do a Goldsmith-style interview about the Star Wars prequels so we could find out what he really felt about Lucas and company tampering with his scores.