The OSCAR Thread

[Richard Penna 3,685]

I'm listening to Slumdog now.

I count 4 score cues on this album, and granted, one is actually really good (Latika's theme - on about my 5th listen now, I'm buying this track ), but the other 3 are just some weird techno/dance music. Now if the entire rest of the score is in the same emotional vein as Latika's Theme, it might actually be a commendable score in parts, but I largely suspect it isn't.

Just need to hear Milk, and for once I'll have heard all the nominees.

[Henry B 50]

I'm listening to Slumdog now.

I count 4 score cues on this album, and granted, one is actually really good (Latika's theme - on about my 5th listen now, I'm buying this track ), but the other 3 are just some weird techno/dance music. Now if the entire rest of the score is in the same emotional vein as Latika's Theme, it might actually be a commendable score in parts, but I largely suspect it isn't.

Only four score cues? I believe it's all score, with the exception of "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. and the remix.

[Richard Penna 3,685]

Well everything else has singing, and that doesn't count as score in my book.

[Hlao-roo 389]

Well everything else has singing, and that doesn't count as score in my book.

[John Crichton 4]

Well, I can remain on a shoe free diet.

[Henry B 50]

Well everything else has singing, and that doesn't count as score in my book.

Score = music written to film.

[Richard Penna 3,685]

So... when does singing turn score into a song? Serious question.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

One thing that really and utterly pisses me off. The song nominations. The whole reason they cut the amount from 5 to 3 was that multiple songs from a single film wouldn't be nominated. Then they go ahead and nominate the 2 songs from Slumdog Millionaire. Bruce Springsteen got snubbed.

Rich, there are 2 original songs in Slumdog Millionaire. 3 unoriginal songs. The rest is score with vocals.

[Richard Penna 3,685]

Then I don't much like this score apart from the track I mentioned.

[MissPadmé 17]

Man, if walle doesn't win the score oscar, I hope it does win for song.

but like I know the academy, slumdog will get two musical oscars!!!

[King Mark 3,631]

A.R. Rahman is the next Gustavo Santaollala!

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

His score was pretty good though, I thought. It may not be everyone's cup of tea apart from the film, but it worked well within and is certainly one of the more unique scores this year.

[Henry B 50]

A.R. Rahman is the next Gustavo Santaollala!

No, he isn't.

[Josh500 1,615]

I hoped JW would get nominataed--just on general damned principles--but this time around I'm not so disappointed. If Jurassic Park, Far and Away, and Hook didn't get nominated for Best Score, why should Crystal Skull, right?

That said, I fervently hoped that Dark Knight would NOT get nominated. I don't like that score at all...

But I hope James Newton Howard wins... for DEFIANCE!

But we all know who WILL win, right? It's the guy with the unpronounceable name.

Hey, I hope nobody minds if I jinx it. Nominations are announced in 40 minutes but I'm pretty sure I won't have to change the title of this thread

Damn, you jinxed it!

[Neimoidian 14]

A.R. Rahman is the next Gustavo Santaollala!

No, he isn't.

At least Gustavo didn't sing in his Oscar-winning scores.

[Bowie 45]

I can't believe how much pooh-poohing of the KOTCS score is being passed around in here.

It's definitely nowhere near my favorite scores, but it IS loaded with new material, and a testament to Williams' fit-the-scene-like-a-glove versatility and adeptness.

Fair enough if you can as objectively as possible think of five scores from last year that were superior (I thought last year's films all stank in the score department or were just pointless fanfares and random twinkling and stringpulling -- and KOTCS admittedly wasn't much of an outclassing, but it still was), but don't let your disappointment in or distaste for Williams' new style of writing cloud your perception of which scores were the GREATEST.

Two Crystal Skull themes, a heroic theme for Mutt, a sinister jazz theme for Irina, all brilliantly rendered and weaved together with Mariachi band music, and all sorts of dramatic cues and suspensful flair.

I care more about the dismissal of this score by fellow JWFans than I do about the Academy's.

[Josh500 1,615]

I can't believe how much pooh-poohing of the KOTCS score is being passed around in here.

It's definitely nowhere near my favorite scores, but it IS loaded with new material, and a testament to Williams' fit-the-scene-like-a-glove versatility and adeptness.

Fair enough if you can as objectively as possible think of five scores from last year that were superior (I thought last year's films all stank in the score department or were just pointless fanfares and random twinkling and stringpulling -- and KOTCS admittedly wasn't much of an outclassing, but it still was), but don't let your disappointment in or distaste for Williams' new style of writing cloud your perception of which scores were the GREATEST.

Two Crystal Skull themes, a heroic theme for Mutt, a sinister jazz theme for Irina, all brilliantly rendered and weaved together with Mariachi band music, and all sorts of dramatic cues and suspensful flair.

I care more about the dismissal of this score by fellow JWFans than I do about the Academy's.

You're right.

Judging from this thread alone, it wouldn't be apparent that this is a John Williams Fan Network....

That said, I love the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal score. It's not JW's all-time best, but it still contains some amazing and breathtaking pieces.

[Morlock 11]

A.R. Rahman is the next Gustavo Santaollala!

No, he isn't.

I know almost nothing about him, but he is indeed a serious composer. Richard Corliss of Time says there's a good case to make for him being the most successful composer now working, with his very popular Bollywood films.

[Bowie 45]

Hey, I hope nobody minds if I jinx it. Nominations are announced in 40 minutes but I'm pretty sure I won't have to change the title of this thread

Damn, you jinxed it!

By the way, by jinxing it, I meant jinxing his failing to get a nod so that he WOULD get a nod in case anyone was dubious of my intent. It didn't work, though :,(

[Josh500 1,615]

Hey, I hope nobody minds if I jinx it. Nominations are announced in 40 minutes but I'm pretty sure I won't have to change the title of this thread

Damn, you jinxed it!

By the way, by jinxing it, I meant jinxing his failing to get a nod so that he WOULD get a nod in case anyone was dubious of my intent. It didn't work, though :,(

WTF?!

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

You're right.

Judging from this thread alone, it wouldn't be apparent that this is a John Williams Fan Network....

Or if Williams is still relevant at all...

[Henry B 50]

A.R. Rahman is the next Gustavo Santaollala!

No, he isn't.

At least Gustavo didn't sing in his Oscar-winning scores.

Ehmm, come again? I wasn't aware that the human voice = bad music. There's also a difference between assimilating a multitude of genres into a pulse-pounding, emotional score with a high degree of technicality, orchestration and electronic design and strumming plaintively on a guitar for ten minutes.

[Neimoidian 14]

A.R. Rahman is the next Gustavo Santaollala!

No, he isn't.

At least Gustavo didn't sing in his Oscar-winning scores.

Ehmm, come again? I wasn't aware that the human voice = bad music. There's also a difference between assimilating a multitude of genres into a pulse-pounding, emotional score with a high degree of technicality, orchestration and electronic design and strumming plaintively on a guitar for ten minutes.

I wasn't aware that short and restrained solo guitar music = bad music

[Henry B 50]

Let me elaborate. Santaolalla doesn't know how to read music. All he does is improvise extremely simple, diatonic chord progressions. Compare this to Rahman, who is well versed in many instruments and musical styles. Seriously, what's your problem with vocals?

[Josh500 1,615]

Hey, one day later, I'm a little disappointed.

Am I even gonna watch the Oscars this year? Probably not. I'll just come here to see who got the Best Score award.

BTW, when was the last time JW had gotten no nomination in a year when he wrote at least 1 score?

[Neimoidian 14]

Let me elaborate. Santaolalla doesn't know how to read music. All he does is improvise extremely simple, diatonic chord progressions. Compare this to Rahman, who is well versed in many instruments and musical styles. Seriously, what's your problem with vocals?

I'll put it this way.

I generally don't like songs and I generally don't listen to popular music (in its broad term, including hiphop, rock, techno and so on). There are exceptions, but few and far between. It's more a question of preference, not snobbery, at least in most of the cases.

I don't claim Rahman is a bad composer, since I don't know his works, except that one and some Bollywood songs I found on YT. On the other hand, what matters to me is the result and I don't care whether the composer was classically educated or achieved it by improvising. In this case, I prefer soft and simple guitar melodies of Santaolalla to Slumdog's techno - hip-hop fusion songs (or whatever that style is called) that sound like many things I can (but don't want to ) listen to in contemporary music tv. It's a matter of preference again though.

What frustrates me so much is not even Rahman's work itself, which I believe is very appropriate for the movie, but the fact all the Academies call this (possibly enjoyable, if one likes such stuff) pop/techno/hip-hopish extravaganza, which sounds like it was taken straight from any disco club, the best film music of the year, while there are so many scores of much higher artistic value, in my humble opinion of course. if it was only about the Best Song category, I wouldn't care, but the thought of picking it up over such jewels like Milk or Button gets on my nerves, probably more than it should.

Apparently the only "academy" that didn't nominate Rahman's score for any category was International Film Music Critics Association - supposedly the only bunch of people in the business, which is really interested in film music, listens to most of it and - as I presume - has the best knowledge of it. Is it a coincidence?

[Henry B 50]

Let me elaborate. Santaolalla doesn't know how to read music. All he does is improvise extremely simple, diatonic chord progressions. Compare this to Rahman, who is well versed in many instruments and musical styles. Seriously, what's your problem with vocals?

I'll put it this way.

I generally don't like songs and I generally don't listen to popular music (in its broad term, including hiphop, rock, techno and so on). There are exceptions, but few and far between. It's more a question of preference, not snobbery, at least in most of the cases.

I don't claim Rahman is a bad composer, since I don't know his works, except that one and some Bollywood songs I found on YT. On the other hand, what matters to me is the result and I don't care whether the composer was classically educated or achieved it by improvising. In this case, I prefer soft and simple guitar melodies of Santaolalla to Slumdog's techno - hip-hop fusion songs (or whatever that style is called) that sound like many things I can (but don't want to ) listen to in contemporary music tv. It's a matter of preference again though.

What frustrates me so much is not even Rahman's work itself, which I believe is very appropriate for the movie, but the fact all the Academies call this (possibly enjoyable, if one likes such stuff) pop/techno/hip-hopish extravaganza, which sounds like it was taken straight from any disco club, the best film music of the year, while there are so many scores of much higher artistic value, in my humble opinion of course. if it was only about the Best Song category, I wouldn't care, but the thought of picking it up over such jewels like Milk or Button gets on my nerves, probably more than it should.

Apparently the only "academy" that didn't nominate Rahman's score for any category was International Film Music Critics Association - supposedly the only bunch of people in the business, which is really interested in film music, listens to most of it and - as I presume - has the best knowledge of it. Is it a coincidence?

I'm not going to dismiss hip-hop/club music in general - some of it is insanely catchy and mood-setting - but Rahman's score is not that. It's a dramatic score with hip-hop influences. Kind of like "Setting the Trap" from Home Alone is dramatic underscore with rock influences. There's also plenty of western tonality (e.g. "Liquid Dance," "Latika's Theme" and "Millionaire"). The prevailing style, however, is of course native Indian. I think it's easily confused with the modern hip-hop stuff because Western pop artists like to incorporate stereotypical ethnic styles into their music.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

A.R. Rahman is the next Gustavo Santaollala!

No, he isn't.

At least Gustavo didn't sing in his Oscar-winning scores.

A.R. Rahman doesn't sing.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

The single worst nomination is for Best Film Editing for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one of the most universal comments made by those of us who dislike this movie, and those that like the movie is its way too long.

[Morlock 11]

Length has little to do with the editor. The question is if the film flows well. Although, really, as Sidney Lumet says, the only people who really know if a film is edited well are the director and the editor. The rest of us don't really know what the editor was working with.

[Henry B 50]

The single worst nomination is for Best Film Editing for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one of the most universal comments made by those of us who dislike this movie, and those that like the movie is its way too long.

Do you believe that the film was too long because it didn't make effective use of the time, or because all movies should arbitrarily be under a certain length? If it's the former that's not a problem with the time itself but with the content that fills that time.

[Richard Penna 3,685]

I'm with Morlock, I've always judged the director to be the person who decides what to cut and how the film should flow overall. I consider the editor's role to be to realise the director's wishes from lots of separate shots and make individual scenes fit together properly.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

The single worst nomination is for Best Film Editing for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one of the most universal comments made by those of us who dislike this movie, and those that like the movie is its way too long.

Do you believe that the film was too long because it didn't make effective use of the time, or because all movies should arbitrarily be under a certain length? If it's the former that's not a problem with the time itself but with the content that fills that time.

a story should be as long as it needs to be, in this case Benjamin Button should have been trimmed considerably. I'm not talking entire scenes, but scenes that go on too long, which was most scenes in this movie. I've sat in movies much longer and never looked a the time. The Dark Knight was virtually the same lenght and yet I never noticed.

[Richard Penna 3,685]

Yes, but again, I don't think a scene going on too long is the editor's fault - that's the director deciding what they want in their movie.

Remember that in DVD features, during delete/extended scenes, it's always the director saying 'we took this bit out because... <some creative/story reason>'.

This does ask an interesting question I think though; at what point does the decision process pass from director to another crew member and it truly becomes 'their' work that we're watching/hearing?

[JoeinAR 1,949]

thats a valid point. at what moment does a film editor stop being a craftsmans or artist(choke) and simply become a technition who simply splices sequences together. I think many directors allow their film editors to make choices, to challenge a director who needs to hear NO. Then there are the others who don't have a clue.

[Henry B 50]

Right, I feel like length itself isn't to blame. Directors cut scenes for a reason: because they don't believe they serve the film. It's not purely a time consideration (which is different from a pacing consideration, by the way). For example, say nothing was cut from Raiders of the Lost Ark. That would make the film about fifteen minutes longer, from what I remember reading. Would Raiders be a weaker movie because it was fifteen minutes longer? No, it would be a weaker movie because the surprise of the Ark is spoiled, irrelevant asides are included (I'd still love to see that supposedly incredible scene with the German soldier extra though) and because of uninteresting transition shots (e.g. Indy riding the submarine).

[JoeinAR 1,949]

sort of like Star Wars is near perfect, but Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope is not because of bad pacing, and extraneous sequences..

Button needed to be trimmed here and there, strictly for pacing. I do believe in there is a good movie, but there are needless scenes. The whole backward clock sequence could be gone and it would not be missed.

[Henry B 50]

sort of like Star Wars is near perfect, but Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope is not because of bad pacing, and extraneous sequences..

Definitely.

Button needed to be trimmed here and there, strictly for pacing. I do believe in there is a good movie, but there are needless scenes. The whole backward clock sequence could be gone and it would not be missed.

I thought it added a lot of artistic flair to the film and was valuable as an explanation of the reverse aging. Without this background I feel it would have come off as a silly gimmick no different from Yes Man or something.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

for me the problem is the whole movie is a gimmick. If Benjamin had not aged backwards, his story would be tedious at best, it was certainly not curious, nor interesting.

the clock sequence reminded me why Back to the Future is a good film.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

So, we all doing the live chat thing on Sunday?

[JoeinAR 1,949]

we've been discussing that in our current chat

[King Mark 3,631]

I only join the chat once a year,at the Oscars. I just realized it's in 2 days.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Uh, sure? I had no idea that was coming....

-Listening to "Luke and Leia" ( and does not think that it is boring)

[Richard Penna 3,685]

I only join the chat once a year,at the Oscars. I just realized it's in 2 days.

Me too. Except most of you will be having dinner. I'll be half asleep.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

So, what time is it being held?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

When the Oscars start I think it's 8pm on the East coast, so 5pm for you.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Oh, alright.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=12179

Hmm, it claims Defiance for best score. We'll see.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Howard deserves an Oscar, but not for Defiance.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

I wanted TDK to win more than 3 Oscars. I hope this is fake.