Jump to content

Honorary Oscar for JW.


Josh500

Do you think JW will get an Honorary Oscar?  

19 members have voted

  1. 1.

    • Yes.
      7
    • No.
      12


Recommended Posts

After 42 Oscar nominations and 5 wins, I think it's high time. But then again, has any film composer EVER received an Honorary Oscar? If not JW should be the first ever.

Maybe next year, when he wraps up the new Star Wars-trilogy, War of the Worlds, and Memoirs of a Geisha (which should be, to my mind, the perfect candidate for Best Picture as well as Best Score).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 47
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Um - shame, but I'm going to have to answer "No" too.....

It's not that I don't think he deserves one, but there are others around who also deserve one and - as Steef said, they tend to be given to peopl who's careers are over.

So, sadly, a big No to that one, bu I would hope that a posthumous one for Jerry Goldsmith (it wouldn't be the first posthumous one) would be in for consideration...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Are you sure? Steven Spielberg got an Honorary Oscar in 1987.

Spielberg was indeed an exception, but when it's time for the "Lifetime Achievement Oscar" to be awarded generally it's some half-senile old coot who's last work is years or decades behind him.

Usually this person dies not long after recieving the award. :nono:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spielberg was indeed an exception, but when it's time for the "Lifetime Achievement Oscar" to be awarded generally it's some half-senile old coot who's last work is years or decades behind him.

Usually this person dies not long after recieving the award. :thumbup:

Then let's hope that day never comes.

On the other hand, if Spielberg is an exception, then Williams should be too. :nono:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No. Williams as been awarded beyond most peoples imagination, and I'm sure, even his own. He do not need an honorary award.

There are musicians deserving it more, eiterh becasue they never did get an Oscar or becasue they have out done them sleves in other fields -- like the late Michael Kamen who spend many time and energy with his Mr. Holland Opus organization.

A very fitting award would in fact be for Mr. Goldsmith, even more becasue the first and only honorary Oscar for a composer was for his mentor Alex North.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

P.S. It's Memoirs of Geisha, not Memoirs of a Geisha.

You are incorrect, foreign kid in the tight slacks who wears too much cologne.

Wasn't it the Thalberg that Spielberg recieved and not the Oscar?  His first Oscar came for Schindler's List.l

Indeed it was. I think they figured they had to give him something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A very fitting award would in fact be for Mr. Goldsmith, even more becasue the first and only honorary Oscar for a composer was for his mentor Alex North.

Indeed. I would not give one to Williams before Goldsmith gets one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honorary Oscars are most often given to people who have never won one (Sidney Poitier being the only recent exception).

Peter O'Toole, Antonioni, Kurosawa, Cary Grant all received honorary Oscars, mostly because they never won a competitive won.

If WIlliams was to be awarded with one, it would be an odd decision.

Ennio Morricone deserves one more than Williams at this point.

Jeff -- who has been waiting for a Morricone Oscar for about five years

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff actually has a point, Williams has 5 Oscars, a lot more then most others.

The Academy should give a postumous Oscar to Jerry Goldsmith, to be collected by his wife, together with a official apology from the whole Academy for not reconizing his brilliance when he still walked this earth. :music:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If Lucas has one, he really deserves it, because he and his companies have made significant contributions to various technical aspects of film making.

Also, whateverr has come afterwards he IS the person behind one of the famous and most loved films ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lucas got one too, right?

Yes, he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1992, and received a Life Time Achievement Award from the American Film Institute earlier this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the time Spielberg was awarded the Thalberg recognition, I felt part of the reason was that he hadn't won any Oscars despite his critical acclaim and that he probably wouldn't win any Oscars in the forseeable future. At one point I was even concerned that the Academy might a Henry Fonda on him (i.e., give him an Oscar just when he's sick and dying, like it was an afterthought).

As for Williams, he's pretty much accomplished a lot and has a few Oscars already. It really should go to someone who was respected but underappreciated like Alex North in 1986...so I would be inclined that Goldsmith get that honor instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Williams needs an Oscar for Prisoner of Azcaban,to honor his involvement in the three Harry Potter films.It appears to be is most important work along with the Indy Trilogy and Star Wars series.

K.M.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMO, the years Goldsmith should have won:

Mulan - arguable

L.A. Confidential - arguable

Basic Instinct

Hoosiers - arguable

Star Trek: TMP

Papillon

Planet of The Apes

The Blue Max - arguable

And IMO JW should have won about 5-6 more than he did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Raiders, Superman, ESB, Empire of the Sun, Amistad, Angela's Ashes and A.I are the most flagrant oscar losses IMHO (although concering Angela's Ashes, the Red Violin was also fantastic).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alien could've/should've won in '80. So what if it used parts of Freud? The theme itself is excuse enough to make it win.

TROF--who thinks Oscars don't get detailed enough when it comes to scores; there should a Best Original Theme category. If not the Oscars, the Jerrys (the annual award given to the year's best scores.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alien is a great score, but Star Trek:TMP is easily the best score of 1979 IMO.

Ones IMO JW should have gotten in addition to his current ones-

Angela's Ashes

Amistad - arguable

JFK - arguable

Home Alone

The Last Crusade

Empire of The Sun or Witches of Eastwick

The Temple of Doom

Return of The Jedi

Raiders of The Lost Ark

The Empire Strikes Back

Superman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

P.S. It's Memoirs of Geisha, not Memoirs of a Geisha.

You are incorrect, foreign kid in the tight slacks who wears too much cologne.

My mistake. Everyone here misses the "a" so I just assumed.

And I don't wear slacks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Goldsmith was a master, granted, but to my mind he can't be a match for John Williams. How many Oscar nominations did Jerry Goldsmith get in his lifetime? 10? 15?

John Williams has 42 nominations and he received only 5. He received as many Oscars as John Barry did, and that is, to my mind, a travesty. I've come around to believe that JW probably will NOT receive an honorary Oscar, but he certainly deserves one for the Harry Potter series (I still can't fathom that he didn't get one for the Indiana Jones-trilogy). How many did Alfred Newman and Max Steiner get throughout their careers? 10? 12? And JW, the absolute greatest film composer ever, has only 5. Now, if that's not what you'd call a bit OFF, I don't know what is.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How many did Alfred Newman and Max Steiner get throughout their careers? 10? 12? And JW, the absolute greatest film composer ever, has only 5. Now, if that's not what you'd call a bit OFF, I don't know what is.

I'm sure there will be someone here to correct me if I'm not entirely accurate, but I believe Alfred Newman was the head of the music department at Fox and in the early days of the Oscar, it was the music head that got the Oscar and not the actual composer, which would explain why he had so many.

Neil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, in newman's time, that was the way things worked. The head of the department got the oscar, not the man himself, just like the studio got the oscar, and not the producer. With Zimmer, he chooses to work that way (and what he does is not glory hogging, but that's another matter).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He, in all his goodness, allows someone to learn the craft by writing music for a film he'd never get the opportunity to score otherwise, in order to develop them to a level when they'll be ready to spread their proverbial wings and do their own scores in their own names. He's lending his name to them, and so far, I'd say the system works- we've got Harry Gregson-Willaims and John Powel, two legendary MV students, who now have made a name for themselves and are in some ways even more popular than Hans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Harry Gregson-Williams has broken out of the MV mold. Just listen to the Shrek scores, and especially Sinbad. Truly great, thematic, orchestral stuff.

Ray Barnsbury

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Harry Gregson Williams?

His action music from Shrek sounds vintage Zimmer... Same for Klaus Badelt...

Actually, in Shrek , it sounds like Trevor Rabin. That's a fun score. But Shrek 2 has real charm and personality, Sinbad is a fantastic score, except for one cue not at all MV, and his and John Powel's wonderful Chicken Run is not the least bit MV. Veronica Guerin was not MV (and very good). Hopefully, Kingdom of Heaven and the Narnia movies should solidify his break from MV (Narnia especialy).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to clear a couple of things up:

First, Alfred Newman won nine Oscars for scoring (I think) starting in 1938 with Alexander's Ragtime Band. That was the first year the Academy started giving the award to the composer rather than the studio's music dept. head. Newman never won as the head of Fox's music dept. because no Fox film score won the Oscar between 1934 and 1937. Newman won so many Oscars because they had two scoring categories for most of his life and he won in the musical category often for adapting scores for films like The King and I and Camelot.

However, I think that Williams, with a couple more nominations, will surpass Newman to become the #2 most nominated person in history and the #1 most nominated person for individual creative acheivement since Walt Disney (who's the most nominated with 60-some nods) got most of his for producing animated shorts. I think that will be a MAJOR accomplishment and Whoopi Goldberg or Billy Crystal or whoever it is damn well better mention it at the Awards telecast the night it happens.

Second, the Thalberg award is given to producers for excellence in producing. So technically Spielberg and Lucas were being recognized for their producing credits not their directing etc.

Finally, let's keep this whole thing in perspective shall we... It may be a travesty that Williams only has five Oscars and Goldsmith only ever won 1, but Bernard Herrmann only was ever even nominated 4 times in his life and two of those nominations were posthumous. I think that says more about the genius and righteousness of the Academy's music branch than anything else.

People will remember the losing "Raider's March" and not-even-nominated shower music from Psycho long after they've forgotten that winning films like Il Postino and 'Round Midnight even exist.

The Oscars are wothless in the long run. That's just my 2 cents.

Dole

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let us not forget mr raskin and kamen. rather than an honorary oscar for wiliams, i think they will have a memoir thing for 3 brilliant composers, like a mini tribute.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How many did Alfred Newman and Max Steiner get throughout their careers? 10? 12? And JW, the absolute greatest film composer ever, has only 5. Now, if that's not what you'd call a bit OFF, I don't know what is.

I'm sure there will be someone here to correct me if I'm not entirely accurate, but I believe Alfred Newman was the head of the music department at Fox and in the early days of the Oscar, it was the music head that got the Oscar and not the actual composer, which would explain why he had so many.

Neil

And many of those were also for musical direction -- like Williams with Fiddler on the Roof.

By the way, if i remember the story coorectly, Newman didn't even liked to write music. He rather enjoyed conduct.

As for Steiner, I don't know his actual Oscar count, but I think he didn't win as many Oscars as Williams.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff actually has a point, Williams has 5 Oscars, a lot more then most others.

The Academy should give a postumous Oscar to Jerry Goldsmith, to be collected by his wife, together with a official apology from the whole Academy for not reconizing his brilliance when he still walked this earth.  8O

I totally agree.

and what about Michael Kamen ?

I think they should give an oscar to Ennio Morricone, THE MISSION deserved it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and what about Michael Kamen ?.

With all due respect to Mr Kamen (and there's a lot of it), there was only once that he maybe should've won the oscar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.