The Real Oscars

I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with the Oscar winner for Best Score.  Well, at least not for a long time.  In the spirit of that, I have constructed my own list of who should have won each year.  I am also including 5 runners-up for each year for as long as I can go back.  I tried to include a variety of scores as much as possible, especially since I’ve noticed the Academy pretty much only recognizes dramas and epics.

2011: The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams) – the return to old Williams and Spielberg

            Hugo (Howard Shore), War Horse (John Williams), There Be Dragons (Robert Folk), Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli), X-Men: First Class (Henry Jackman)

2010: How To Train Your Dragon (John Powell) – one of the best scores I’ve heard in awhile

            Alice in Wonderland (Danny Elfman), Kick-Ass (Various), The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat), The Wolfman (Danny Elfman), TRON Legacy (Daft Punk)

2009: Up (Michael Giacchino) – a fairly weak class of good, not great, scores

            The Young Victoria (Ilan Eshkeri), Terminator Salvation (Danny Elfman), Moon (Clint Mansell), The Time Traveler’s Wife (Mychael Danna), Star Trek (Michael Giacchino)

2008: The Incredible Hulk (Craig Armstrong) – I love the main Hulk theme

            The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Harry Gregson-Williams), The Dark Knight (James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer),   The Happening (James Newton Howard), Revolutionary Road (Thomas Newman), Wall-E (Thomas Newman)

2007: Atonement (Dario Marianelli) – the integration of typewriter into the score is genius

            Beowulf (Alan Silvestri), Ratatouille (Michael Giacchino),   Spider-Man 3 (Christopher Young), Transformers (Steve Jablonsky), 3:10 to Yuma (Marco Beltrami)

2006: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil) – this one was very tough because the climax to The Fountain is amazing

            The Fountain (Clint Mansell), The Holiday (Hans Zimmer), Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard), Mission: Impossible 3 (Michael Giacchino), Pan’s Labyrinth (Javier Navarrete)

2005: Kingdom of Heaven (Harry Gregson-Williams) – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to this, and it’s a pretty stacked field

            The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Harry Gregson-Williams), Cinderella Man (Thomas Newman), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Patrick Doyle), King Kong (James Newton Howard), Sin City (Robert Rodriguez and Graeme Revell)

2004: Finding Neverland (Jan A.P. Kaczmarek) – a tough call, but that piano is especially memorable

            Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jon Brion), Hellboy (Marco Beltrami), The Incredibles (Michael Giacchino), Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Thomas Newman), The Village (James Newton Howard)

2003: Love Actually (Craig Armstrong) – a bit repetitive but some really great themes

            Finding Nemo (Thomas Newman), Girl With A Pearl Earring (Alexandre Desplat), Gods and Generals (John Frizzell and Randy Edelman), Open Range (Michael Kamen), X2 (John Ottman)

           

2002: Road to Perdition (Thomas Newman) – a slightly weak field but this one really stands out

            The Bourne Identity (John Powell), Catch Me If You Can (John Williams), The Count of Monte Cristo (Edward Shearmur), Spider-Man (Danny Elfman), Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (John Williams)

2001: Black Hawk Down (Hans Zimmer) – a great eclectic modern war score

            Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Tan Dun), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Elliot Goldenthal), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice (John Williams), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore), Ocean’s Eleven (David Holmes)

2000: Dinosaur (James Newton Howard) – Gladiator is good as well, but Dinosaur is more original

            Gladiator (Hans Zimmer), Shaft (David Arnold), Thirteen Days (Trevor Jones), Unbreakable (James Newton Howard), X-Men (Michael Kamen)

1999: For Love of the Game (Basil Poledouris) – my favorite baseball score, which says a lot

            American Beauty (Thomas Newman), Galaxy Quest (David Newman), The Matrix (Don Davis), The Mummy (Jerry Goldsmith), Sleep Hollow (Danny Elfman)

1998: Saving Private Ryan (John Williams) – somewhat subdued but you cannot deny the Hymn

            Armageddon (Trevor Rabin and Harry Gregson-Williams), Godzilla (David Arnold), Rounders (Christopher Young), What Dreams May Come (Michael Kamen)

1997: Contact (Alan Silvestri) – a bit of a surprise for me in a strong grouping

            Air Force One (Jerry Goldsmith and Joel McNeely), As Good As It Gets (Hans Zimmer), Good Will Hunting (Danny Elfman), L.A. Confidential (Jerry Goldsmith), Starship Troopers (Basil Poledouris)

1996: The Ghost and the Darkness (Jerry Goldsmith) – my favorite underrated Goldsmith

            Broken Arrow (Hans Zimmer), Independence Day (David Arnold), Michael Collins (Elliot Goldenthal), Scream (Marco Beltrami), Star Trek: First Contact (Jerry Goldsmith)

1995: Braveheart (James Horner) – quite simply the greatest year for movies and scores

            Apollo 13 (James Horner), Cutthroat Island (John Debney), Rob Roy (Carter Burwell), Sense and Sensibility (Patrick Doyle), Waterworld (James Newton Howard)

1994: Legends of the Fall (James Horner) – Horner at his best

            Forrest Gump (Alan Silvestri), Maverick (Randy Newman), The Shadow (Jerry Goldsmith), Shawshank Redemption (Thomas Newman), Stargate (David Arnold)

1993: The Fugitive (James Newton Howard) – it’s hard to rate this over Schindler’s List, but it’s more memorable for me

            Jurassic Park (John Williams), Much Ado About Nothing (Patrick Doyle), Rudy (Jerry Goldsmith), Schindler’s List (John Williams), Tombstone (Bruce Broughton)

1992: The Last of the Mohicans (Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman) – slightly over played by non-scorophiles but good nonetheless

            Alien 3 (Elliot Goldenthal), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Wojciech Kilar), Far and Away (John Williams), JFK (John Williams), Patriot Games (James Horner)

1991: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Michael Kamen) – I’ve detailed before how much this score means to me

            Backdraft (Hans Zimmer), Hook (John Williams), The Rocketeer (James Horner), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Cliff Eidelman), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Brad Fiedel)

1990: Edward Scissorhands (Danny Elfman) – Elfman’s best, and possibly Burton’s as well

            Dances With Wolves (John Barry), Dick Tracy (Danny Elfman), Home Alone (John Williams), The Hunt for Red October (Basil Poledouris), Total Recall (Jerry Goldsmith)

1989: Batman (Danny Elfman) – THE Batman score, it’s influence is undeniable

            Field of Dreams (James Horner), Glory (James Horner), Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Christopher Young), Henry V (Patrick Doyle), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (John Williams)

1988: Die Hard (Michael Kamen) – the great action score for the great action movie

            Rambo III (Jerry Goldsmith), Willow (James Horner), Beetlejuice (Danny Elfman), Return to Snowy River (Bruce Rowland), Scrooged (Danny Elfman)

1987: Empire of the Sun (John Williams) – marvelous, but what do you expect?

            Lethal Weapon (Michael Kamen), The Untouchables (Ennio Morricone), Hellraiser (Christopher Young), RoboCop (Basil Poledouris), Predator (Alan Silvestri)

1986: The Mission (Ennio Morricone) – the oboe is shiver-inducing

            Highlander (Michael Kamen), Aliens (James Horner), The Fly (Howard Shore), Top Gun (Harold Faltermeyer), The Delta Force (Alan Silvestri)

1985: Silverado (Bruce Broughton) – one of the all-time great western scores

            Rocky IV (Vince DiCola), Rambo: First Blood Part II (Jerry Goldsmith), King Solomon’s Mines (Jerry Goldsmith),     Cocoon (James Horner), Back to the Future (Alan Silvestri)

1984: The Natural (Randy Newman) – simply iconic

            The River (John Williams), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (John Williams), Supergirl (Jerry Goldsmith), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (James Horner), The Last Starfighter (Craig Safan)

1983: Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (John Williams) – Williams dominates

1982: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (John Williams)

1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark (John Williams)

1980: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (John Williams)

1979: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Jerry Goldsmith) – this or Alien, either way Goldsmith wins

1978: Superman (John Williams)

1977: Star Wars (John Williams)

1976: Rocky (Bill Conti) – yes I took away Goldsmith’s only Oscar

1975: Jaws (John Williams)

1974: The Sugarland Express (John Williams) – yikes

1973: Papillon (Jerry Goldsmith)

1972: The Cowboys (John Williams)

1971: Big Jake (Elmer Bernstein)

1970: Patton (Jerry Goldsmith) – Tora! Tora! Tora! another strong Goldsmith showing

1969: True Grit (Elmer Bernstein)

1968: Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith)

1967: The Jungle Book (George Burns)

1966: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Ennio Morricone)

1965: The Agony and the Ecstasy (Alex North)

1964: The Fall of the Roman Empire (Dimitri Tiomkin)

1963: The Great Escape (Elmer Bernstein)

1962: Lawrence of Arabia (Maurice Jarre)

1961: El Cid (Miklos Rozsa)

1960: The Alamo (Dimitri Tiomkin) – almost impossible to pick between this, Spartacus, and The Magnificent Seven

1959: Ben-Hur (Miklos Rozsa) – North By Northwest deserves a mention here

1958: The Vikings (Mario Nascimbene) – yes, over Vertigo, Hitchcock’s most overrated movie

1957: The Bridge on the River Kwai (Malcolm Arnold)

1956: The Searchers (Max Steiner) – barely over The Ten Commandments

1955: To Catch a Thief (Lyn Murray)

1954: King Richard and the Crusaders (Max Steiner) – tough choice over Prince Valiant

1953: Peter Pan (Oliver Wallace)

1952: The Quiet Man (Victor Young) – very difficult choice over Scaramouche and Ivanhoe

1951: Quo Vadis (Miklos Rozsa)

1950: Rio Grande (Victor Young)

1949: Champion (Dimitri Tiomkin)

1948: Adventures of Don Juan (Max Steiner)

1947: Captain from Castile (Alfred Newman)

1946: It’s a Wonderful Life (Dimitri Tiomkin)

1945: The Bells of St. Mary’s (Robert Emmett Dolan)

1944: Going My Way (Robert Emmett Dolan)

1943: Casablanca (Max Steiner)

1942: The Black Swan (Alfred Newman)

1941: Sergeant York (Max Steiner)

1940: The Sea Hawk (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)

1939: Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Prokofiev) – much better than Gone With The Wind

1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)

1937: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Frank Churchill, Paul J Smith, and Leigh Harline)

1935: Captain Blood (Erich Wolfgang Korngold)

1933: King Kong (Max Steiner)

2011 Movie Score Awards

Below you will find my personal awards for the year in movie music, followed by a quick rundown of the pool of scores I have listened to this year.  I have more from previous years if anyone is interested in the future.

Best Score: The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams)

Best Drama Score: Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli)

Best Animated Score: The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams)

Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Score: Battle: Los Angeles (Brian Tyler)

Best Action/Adventure Score: X-Men: First Class (Henry Jackman)

Best Horror Score: The Thing (Marco Beltrami)

Best Genre Score: War Horse (John Williams)

Best Composition: Remembering Emilie, and Finale from War Horse (John Williams)

Best Theme: Angelica from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Hans Zimmer, feat. Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Best Love Theme: My Edward and I from Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli)

Best Action Sequence: World’s Worst Parking Valet from Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol (Michael Giacchino)

Best Use of Classical/Source Music: Wagner’s Siegfried’s Funeral Music in Captain America

Composer of the Year: Henry Jackman

The Scores:

The Adjustment Bureau (Thomas Newman) – Newman is never my first choice for an action score, but it works

The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams) – a little Catch Me If You Can, a little Harry Potter, worth the 3 year wait

Anonymous (Thomas Wander & Harald Kloser) – understated and not very memorable

The Artist (Ludovic Bource) – I understand where he was going with this, I just don’t think it made it there

Battle: Los Angeles (Brian Tyler) – my first favorite score of the year

The Beaver (Marcelo Zavros) – like too many scores this year, didn’t hate it but don’t really want to hear it again

A Better Life (Alexandre Desplat) – just when I think I’m loving this guy, he has some whatever scores

Captain America (Alan Silvestri) – really like the theme, but most of the rest is generic action music

Cars 2 (Michael Giacchino) – loved the British spy infusion

Conan the Barbarian (Tyler Bates) – hard not to compare it poorly to Basil Poledouris’s opus for Arnie’s version

The Conspirator (Mark Isham) – good enough, which is about the best I can ever say for Isham

Contagion (Cliff Martinez) – better than I expected, almost a John Murphy or Clint Mansell rip-off

Cowboys & Aliens (Harry Gregson-Williams) – I wanted this to be so much better than it was, not that it was bad

The Debt (Thomas Newman) – I think Newman did too much this year because it all kind of blends together

The Eagle (Atli Orvarsson) – not the best Roman score, but it’s pretty decent

Entre Lobos (Klaus Badelt) – the only foreign movie composer I actively seek out, not just because he posts his music online for free

Fast Five (Brian Tyler) – these movies have always had much better scores than the movies themselves

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) – I hated their music from last year so much that I decided to listen to the samples on iTunes, boy am I glad I didn’t do more than that, I understand wanting an atmospheric score, but how about one that isn’t atonal?

Green Lantern (James Newton Howard) – top-notch superhero score

Hanna (The Chemical Brothers) – tried to listen to it but couldn’t finish it

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Alexandre Desplat) – a solid end to the series

The Help (Thomas Newman) – Newman’s best of the year

I Am Number Four (Trevor Rabin) – Rabin still has some good notes but mostly forgettable

The Ides of March (Alexandre Desplat) – good, though not as much as The King’s Speech

Immortals (Trevor Morris) – 300 this is not, but still pretty good

In Time (Craig Armstrong) – good, but again not memorable

Ironclad (Lorne Balfe) – interesting take on Medieval movie music

Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli) – how does he not get more work?

Kung Fu Panda 2 (Hans Zimmer & John Powell) – hard to go wrong with Zimmer and Powell

Limitless (Paul Leonard-Morgan) – surprisingly good action score from an unknown (to me at least)

Mars Needs Moms (John Powell) – much better than this movie deserves

Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol (Michael Giacchino) – Giacchino is easily one of the 3 best composers right now, and the best track titlist ever (From Russia With Shove, Moreau Trouble Than She’s Worth, etc.)

Moneyball (Mychael Danna) – I wanted this to be so much better

One Day (Rachel Portman) – I’d like to hear more of this, but what there is is quite good

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Hans Zimmer) – love the Spanish addition

Priest (Christopher Young) – if I were making a horror movie, Young would be my first choice

Puss in Boots (Henry Jackman) – Jackman has rocketed up my list of “must hear” composers

Rango (Hans Zimmer) – animated movies had some of the best scores this year, Rango was just average

Real Steel (Danny Elfman) – so good it almost made me want to see the movie

Rebellion (Klaus Badelt) – so understated you can barely hear it, which is not my cup of tea

Red Riding Hood (Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes) – is this really the best they could do for this movie?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Patrick Doyle) – one of the strongest outputs of the year

The Rum Diary (Chirstopher Young) – Young’s jazzy scores are usually much better than this

Scream 4 (Marco Beltrami) – Beltrami has always been part of the reason this is one of my favorite movie series

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Hans Zimmer) – not even close to as good as the original

Source Code (Chris Bacon) – a good, driving action score, looking forward to hearing more from him

Super 8 (Michael Giacchino) – Giacchino is clearly the best young composer going

There Be Dragons (Robert Folk) – I love the Spanish aspects of this score, it’s good to hear what Folk can do when given a chance

The Thing (Marco Beltrami) – Beltrami would be my second choice for horror movie scoring

Thor (Patrick Doyle) – there were few better musical moments this year than Thor getting his armor back

The Three Musketeers (Paul Haslinger) – essentially a cheap, inferior Pirates score

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Alberto Iglesias) – decent theme, otherwise forgettable (like much of his work)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Steve Jablonsky) – pretty much exactly what you expect

The Tree of Life (Alexandre Deslpat) – it’s good but hard to get in to

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (Carter Burwell) – better than Eclipse, but that’s not saying a whole lot

Unknown (John Ottman) – I’m guessing it’s fine in the movie but not much to listen to

War Horse (John Williams) – with Tintin, Williams came close to stealing the year

Water for Elephants (James Newton Howard) – not one of his best, but I guess ok

Winnie the Pooh (Henry Jackman) – his third best this year, but still better than most

X-Men: First Class (Henry Jackman) – blew me away, my favorite of the year, especially Magneto’s theme

Your Highness (Steve Jablonsky) – don’t waste your time