Best Original Music Score, or whatever the full name is, is always a tough one to judge. To me, it's the score that best complements a film, that does not overwhelm. I have often heard people scoffingly say of some nominated scores, "I don't even remember any themes!" which I don't think is necessarily unfair, but it is a narrow view of the how and why of the score. There are scores that I would never listen to on their own that I have nevertheless included in my own Hollmann Awards because, in context, they transform or even clarify a film's tone, theme, or meaning - I'm thinking specifically of how James Newton Howard's Nightcrawler gets us into Jake Gyllenhaal's warped mindset, or even how Son Lux's Everything Everywhere All At Once is unhummable, sure, but the movie would not work nearly as well without it.
So this is how I approach this category, and I imagine, so do many of the Academy's voters. And that, finally, is how they came to pass up Björk's Dancer in the Dark and Maurice Jarre's Sunshine in favor of Rachel Portman's Chocolat (the only female composer to be nominated in Original Score more than once), Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (the sole first-time nominee...also the sole only-time nominee), Hans Zimmer's Gladiator (though other groups also acknowledged "wailing woman" vocalist and co-composer Lisa Gerrard, the Academy gave sole credit to Zimmer), Ennio Morricone's Malèna (this same year, he received the National Board of Review's Career Achievement Award), and John Williams' The Patriot (even if the score was seventeen cats fighting on untuned pianos, Williams would have been here: in 33 years, 34 of his scores were nominated). Of these composers, only Tan and Morricone never won before...and Morricone would have to wait another decade-plus for his chance:
None of these are bad, all of them greatly boost their films, but - if I had a ballot, here's how I'd rank them:
5. Malèna
Ennio Morricone
fifth of six nominations; Golden Globe nominee for Best Score
Composers are allowed to repeat themselves - my favorite is Philip Glass, after all - but even this feels like Morricone lazily cribbing from Once Upon a Time in America and Cinema Paradiso. Oh, well.
4. Gladiator
Hans Zimmer
past winner, seventh of twelve nominations; Golden Globe winner for Best Score; BAFTA Awards nominee for Best Music
A score so good, Zimmer reused much of it for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Very big, very monumental, very appropriate.
3. The Patriot
John Williams
A score I fell in love with while watching the movie: perfectly tuned to the bigness of the story, the necessary fifes and drums of Revolutionary marches, then the full orchestral sweep of a Great American Symphony.
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Tan Dun
only Score nomination; BAFTA Awards winner for Best Music, LAFCA Awards winner for Best Music Score; Golden Globe nominee for Best Score
A score I fell in love with while watching the movie: action scenes scored with percussive thumps and krangs, romantic and tragic ones scored with stringed yearning, beauty and sadness, finality and eternity all intertwined with each other. Like being carried off into the clouds...
1. Chocolat
Rachel Portman
past winner, third of three nominations; Golden Globe nominee for Best Score
A score I fell in love with while watching the movie: fantastical, mischievous, romantic. Somehow manages to convey a wispy shawl (or red riding hood?) wrapped around your shoulders and blowing in the wind.
Back in the real world, not my fantasy one, Anthony Hopkins presented the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to Dino de Laurentiis, producer of neorealist Italian cinema and top-tier schlock. John Travolta presented the In Memoriam tribute. Finally, the tributes ended and the slugfest continued, as Juliette Binoche and Jack Valenti (!) announced that the Best Foreign Language Film was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - its nine other nominations, including Best Picture, were probably a hint to Amores Perros, Divided We Fall, Everybody's Famous!, and The Taste of Others that their chances were slim.
And then came Best Original Song: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's "A Love Before Time", Dancer in the Dark's "I've Seen It All", The Emperor's New Groove's "My Funny Friend and Me", Meet the Parents' "A Fool in Love", and Wonder Boys' "Things Have Changed." Now, I confess, I judge this category two ways: #1 is whether or not I like the song, #2 is whether it fits the film. I know that's all subjective, but there can sometimes be a gap between #1 and #2 - for instance, I wouldn't be mad if Aaliyah's "Try Again" had made it here, because I quite like the song, even if its relevance to the plot of Romeo Must Die is...well, it isn't, but sometimes good taste must prevail!
I don't think it did in this case, overall. As in, it's a very weak category this year. Anyway, Bob Dylan won for "Things Have Changed", a win not just for the generation voting on the Academy Awards but for the little-seen yet widely-admired Wonder Boys:
If I had a ballot, here's how I'd rank them:
5. "My Funny Friend and Me" from The Emperor's New Groove
music by Sting and David Hartley
lyrics by Sting
After the zany film that's just preceded it, bookended by a finger-snapping, tongue-in-cheek showstopper performed by Tom Jones, this end credits ballad is a huge comedown. I've never gotten through it. A dirge.
4. "Things Have Changed" from Wonder Boys
music and lyrics by Bob Dylan
Lyrically and stylistically, in step with the movie's shaggy protagonist. I personally think it's a terrible song, but that appears to be a minority view.
3. "I've Seen It All" from Dancer in the Dark
music by Björk
lyrics by Lars Von Trier and Sjón Sigursson
Like one of Cole Porter's list songs, but depressing. I like this movie's soundtrack, but this is, of course, my least favorite song in it.
2. "A Love Before Time" from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
music by Jorge Calandrelli and Tan Dun
lyrics by James Schamus
The chorus soars, but it makes you wait for it. It's fine.
1. "A Fool in Love" from Meet the Parents
music and lyrics by Randy Newman
A perfect complement to the film it's in and it's a good song!
The next award was for Best Actor: Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), Russell Crowe (Gladiator), Tom Hanks (Cast Away), Ed Harris (Pollock), and Geoffrey Rush (Quills). That's for tomorrow, though...
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