Newman Rules
Vanity Fair's Julian Sancton has assembled a jukebox sampler of 11 movie-music clips, and after listening to most of them (I refuse to sample David Hirtschfelder's Australia music) it finally hit me why I've been so taken with Revolutionary Road all this time. Thomas Newman's score is so moving in its sadness and simplicity, so finely woven into the mood of the film (and vice versa) that it's like a character unto itself.
The other films and their composers sampled in Sancton's piece: Che (Alberto Iglesias), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Alexandre Desplat), The Dark Knight (Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard), Defiance (Joshua Bell), Frost/Nixon (Hans Zimmer ), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ( John Williams), The Reader (Nico Muhly), Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Rahman) and WALL*E (Thomas Newman again).
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 22, 2008 at 7:40 PM
comment #1
knightrider76
says ...
Here's what's gonna get nominated:
Benjamin Button
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Wall E
Slumdog
Posted by knightrider76
at December 22, 2008 9:30 PM
comment #2
berg
says ...
Thomas Newman's best score is Oscar & Lucinda ... most of his work sounds like a re-hash of his The Player score ... Currently most impressive is the score for Happy-Go-Lucky, the way the oboe flits about announcing the femme's theme ...
Posted by berg
at December 22, 2008 10:08 PM
comment #3
K. Bowen
says ...
Add The Duchess and Changeling.
But last year was the year of the great score. Assassination of Jesse James. There Will Be Blood. Michael Clayton. Atonement. All good.
Posted by K. Bowen
at December 22, 2008 10:44 PM
comment #4
NDH
says ...
Thomas Newman will be nominated, but for Wall-E, not Revolutionary Road. I have a feeling Revolutionary Road will be completely dismissed at the ceremony (minus a nom for Winslet).
The nominees for score will be:
Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Posted by NDH
at December 22, 2008 11:17 PM
comment #5
lawnorder
says ...
Benjamin Button should win. Desplat's score is a masterpiece and I guarantee you will be hearing it in hundreds of trailers over the years to come.
Posted by lawnorder
at December 23, 2008 12:31 AM
comment #6
LexG
says ...
Too bad John Barry doesn't work anymore; Barry's the greatest composer ever, and when you mention something like ATONEMENT or BEN BUTTON, I can't help but think -- no offense to their respective composers -- that they'd be infinitely improved by the lush Barry brass sound.
Again, due respect to these current maestros, I can't think of one of them who can take a middling movie like ENIGMA or INDECENT PROPOSAL and make it seem like the most beautiful and profound journey ever just via their lush, romantic sound.
Maybe his style is just considered antiquated in this ironic era, but I don't think anyone even TRIES to sound like Barry these days (Didn't Newman replace him on HORSE WHISPERER? The early Horse Whisperer trailers had Barry music and I got choked up just hearing that sound; The actual movie and Newman's tinkly score, I don't remember a THING about.)
Even David Arnold, explicitly taking over on Bond and using Barry motifs, doesn't really evoke much of his predecessor's work, except maybe a few stray somber bits in CASINO ROYALE.
More on topic, did SLUMDOG really have much in the way of original score???
I remember that annoying, droning, maudlin LATIKA HUMMING, which I assumed was pre-existing, plus it's vocals; The rest seemed to be Hindi pop songs, chorus vocalizations, and canned music by pop artists like MIA. Where was the scored music in MILLIONAIRE?
(Also, the new backdrop here ISN'T ANNOYING AT ALL, Jeff.)
Posted by LexG
at December 23, 2008 12:49 AM
comment #7
D.Z.
says ...
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i8cb71d29182efee63124bbd7deda8967
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news08/081222e.php
http://movies.msn.com/movies/hotgossip/12-17-08/?GT1=28101
Posted by D.Z.
at December 23, 2008 2:11 AM
comment #8
Deathtongue_Groupie
says ...
This is why you can't be an ass the rest of the year and then put on the serious hat for one day: no one cares.
Really, LexG, who gives a shit when you basically moon the internet for 364 days and then want to be taken seriously for 1?
D.Z. I think I speak for everyone when I say "up the dosage"
Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie
at December 23, 2008 3:36 AM
comment #9
JaySmack
says ...
Thomas Newman absolutely "rules." He's my favorite composer, next to Harry Gregson-Williams.
And for the record The Shawshank Redemption is his best work.
Posted by JaySmack
at December 23, 2008 7:46 AM
comment #10
Hardy
says ...
The Rev Road score blends in so perfectly with the film, and that track is beautiful.
Posted by Hardy
at December 23, 2008 8:27 AM
comment #11
arturobandini2
says ...
The only movie music that really impressed me this year was Jean-Louis Aubert's solo electric guitar score for I've Loved You So Long. Mirroring the lead performance, it was remarkably subdued -- sometimes all a scene needed was a single note or chord. I hate a big score that constantly announces itself with strings and horns and timpani ... even when it's appropriate.
Posted by arturobandini2
at December 23, 2008 11:42 AM
comment #12
lawnorder
says ...
Lex, I too think Barry would have been a great choice for Benjamin, but the man has zero temperament for working in the business anymore - which is a huge shame. He would have brought his patented, melancholic sound (so missed) to the film that he always brought to these kind of projects (Somewhere in Time, Out of Africa, Frances, etc.) But in defense of Desplat, his score is very Barry inspired. It thematically gets under the skin and lingers there. It really is one of the most beautiful scores I've heard in a long, long time. And if you want to enjoy another knockout score by Desplat, get your hands on BIRTH immediately.
Posted by lawnorder
at December 23, 2008 3:11 PM
comment #13
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 19, 2011 5:27 AM