JW Gets 6 More Oscars: Which Do You Give Him?

[igger6 894]

Welcome to Maestro Madness!  John Williams gets to take home six more Oscars in total.  Which would you award him?  My original thought was to give him another five Oscars (to keep his mantle from sagging lopsidedly), but because polls are limited to 25 options, I had to split it into two questions.  I know that makes it a bit more artificial, but it's an interesting exercise to divide his nominations in half all the same—they're sort of like "pre-legend" and "legend" brackets.

 

NOTE: CE3K is excluded because he beat himself that year with Star Wars, and we're not taking away Oscars, just adding them. Valley of the Dolls, Tom Sawyer, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips are out because they weren't totally original Williams compositions.  Sorry if that's your bag.

 

Hopefully the fact that I clicked "multiple choice question" at the bottom of the box means you'll be able to choose more than one answer, but I've never done a poll like this before, so it might all be for naught.  Behave yourself and only choose three!

[Jay 37,340]

Well, this is just going to be become an "everyone pickz their three favorite scores from each era" type poll, when what we really should be judging, for each one individually, is how is compares to the other nominees of that year, but that information isn't provided and most people will just vote without looking it up

[Holko 9,516]

Geisha, Azkaban, TROS are the obvious ones to me. I guess from the first batch... Empire of the Sun, Superman, ToD.

[igger6 894]

@Jay, I'll leave that poll to someone with more time.  This occurred to me while grading research papers this weekend, and I'm just surfacing long enough to post it before submerging again for the last 13 in the pile. 

Wow.  I mainly made this poll because I was curious what I would choose, and the second half was much harder than I expected.  I never realized that Hook's score wasn't nominated.  Good grief.  I went with both Potters and TFA.  [Ducks, covers.]

[Edmilson 7,427]

My options for the first batch are the most boring as possible: Superman, Empire and Raiders. 

 

The second was a little more interesting. I voted for The Patriot (easily the best score from the nominees that year), Prisoner of Azkaban (better than that Finding Neverland crap) and TLJ (my favorite ST score).

[bruce marshall 1,315]

You left off WAR HORSE.

 

 

Many of his nominations occurred against completion that may have been better.

If you could put the winner in parenthesis it would be easier to judge

[Fabulin 3,511]

The real number of Williams best score wins (not Oscar wins) is probably somewhere around 15-20.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

JFK ,

SUPERMAN .

THE LAST CRUSADE

E.T#

Schindler#

WAR HORSE

THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE

SO five additional

best score  winners.

 

Interestingly Zimmer came in number one for two scores, so far#

 

 

ESB should have ' lost" to ALTERED STATES

[Edmilson 7,427]

8 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

A.I.

 

 

As much as I like both A.I. and Sorcerer's Stone, but Fellowship of the Ring really deserved the Oscar that year. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

I can only go by films/scores I've heard.

It's purely subjective

 

Was BEAUTIFUL MIND that year?.That would probably be my pic

[Edmilson 7,427]

Yep.

 

2001 was, in my opinion, one of the strongest years for the Original Score category at the Oscars, with all five nominees being at least great:

 

Randy Newman - Monsters Inc

John Williams - HP 1

John Williams - A.I.

James Horner - A Beautiful Mind

Howard Shore - Fellowship of the Ring

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Well, this is just going to be become an "everyone pics their three favorite scores from each era" type poll, when what we really should be judging, for each one individually, is how is compares to the other nominees of that year, but that information isn't provided and most people will just vote without looking it up

 

Not necessarily just favourites. Yes, it's a different question than actually judging each entry against the competition, but it's just a what if scenario where that's not relevant. Your version would be a massively more complex puzzle. In any case, I gave one vote to Images, which I wouldn't single out as a favourite (I very rarely listen to it), but as Williams at his most avant-garde, it's certainly worthy.

 

54 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

JFK , and SUPERMAN are obvious.

NIXON

WITCHES

SLEEPERS

A.I.

 

I didn't pick any of those.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Yep.

 

2001 was, in my opinion, one of the strongest years for the Original Score category at the Oscars, with all five nominees being at least great:

 

Randy Newman - Monsters Inc

John Williams - HP 1

John Williams - A.I.

James Horner - A Beautiful Mind

Howard Shore - Fellowship of the Ring

Thanks.

I'd pick ABM because I thought the film was better.

Both scores made my 'best of the decade" list

( click on my signature)

[Sandor 797]

Where’s Born On The Fourth Of July? 🤔

[crumbs 14,306]

Where are Tintin and War Horse? They were both nominated for Best Score in 2011.

[Thor 7,490]

IMAGES, RAIDERS and JEDI for the first.

 

A.I., AZKABAN and MUNICH for the second.

 

But yeah -- it's basically asking what your favourite score is, of his nominations where he didn't win. But I tried to put some personal favs aside, and look at the "broader" picture.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

I wanted to select them all but I'll have to just do: Superman, ESB and Raiders for the first and Azkaban, Memoirs and TFA for the second

[igger6 894]

Oy, analyzing the ways I screwed up this poll is perhaps a more interesting exercise than the original question.  It's ironic that I'd miss "Last Crusade," because listening to that score after @TownerFan referenced it in his most recent podcast is what inspired me to create this thread in the first place.  That and "War Horse" and "Tintin" are back in, but for some reason it totals 50 choices now, which doesn't make sense if JW has been nominated 52 times, won 5 (thus 47 remaining), and I removed two adaptation noms and CE3K.  Oh, well.  Work beckons.  But if anyone can figure out what the heck went wrong, I'd be curious to know.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,513]

If it was up to me, I'd award Oscars© for:

THE TOWERING INFERNO

CE3K

SUPERMAN

THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK

EMPIRE OF THE SUN

THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST

J.F.K.

PRISONER OF AZKABAN

so I guess it's a good thing that it's not up to me 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

23 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Not necessarily just favourites. Yes, it's a different question than actually judging each entry against the competition, but it's just a what if scenario where that's not relevant. Your version would be a massively more complex puzzle. In any case, I gave one vote to Images, which I wouldn't single out as a favourite (I very rarely listen to it), but as Williams at his most avant-garde, it's certainly worthy.

 

 

I didn't pick any of those.

After going thru all the polls only the first two are  number one but I added three others

[Ollie 1,059]

Superman

Raiders

Empire
 

honorable mention: BOTFJ

 

Saving Private Ryan

Memoirs of a Geisha

A.I. - although that means sacrificing Howard Shore’s well deserved win for LOTR

[Bellosh 3,403]

Superman

Empire Strikes Back

Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

----

 

Catch Me If You Can

War Horse

The Book Thief

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

"If I Were In Love" was robbed!

[Thor 7,490]

10 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

"If I Were In Love" was robbed!

 

That's a cheeseball song.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

44 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

That's a cheeseball song.

When people are in lawv, dey tend to SHOOOOOOOOOWIT

[JoeinAR 1,949]

AI absolutely does not desearve a win 

[King Mark 3,631]

Those I REALLY believe deserved oscars:

 

HPSS

Raiders

Superman

ESB

TROS

 

I included TOD as my sixth choice

[Wojo 2,453]

Raiders and Empire. That's it 

[Bespin 8,480]

I don't give him any other Oscar.

 

The only "stolen" oscar I consider, is the one Morricone lost to this stupid and unmemorable jazz score...

[gkgyver 1,645]

Would only give two. Raiders and Superman.

 

The entire second list didn’t make enough impact or were attached to shitty movies.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Why was I the only vote for LAST CRUSADE?

Must have been another JW nom that year?

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

6 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Why was I the only vote for LAST CRUSADE?

Must have been another JW nom that year?

There was Born on the Foruth of July but I think it's more because most people prefered Superman, ESB and Raiders to this one. Choosing only three among all of them is quite tricky...

[bruce marshall 1,315]

But I mean for that specific year.

Don't think anyone actually parcelled out their votes

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

•        1989 fives nominees:

The Little Mermaid by Alan Menken (Winner)

Born on the Fourth of July by John WIlliams

The Fabulous Baker Boys by Dave Grusin

Filed of Dreams by James Horner

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade by John Williams

[Edmilson 7,427]

14 hours ago, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

•        1989 fives nominees:

The Little Mermaid by Alan Menken (Winner)

Born on the Fourth of July by John WIlliams

The Fabulous Baker Boys by Dave Grusin

Filed of Dreams by James Horner

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade by John Williams

 

The Little Mermaid only won because the Academy loves giving the award to musicals with catchy songs (see also the other Menken victories for Disney and La La Land).

 

But I think Williams (whether it's for Indy 3 or BO4J) or Horner should've won that year.