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Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:11 pm
by criddic3
I'd like to see either Powell or Zimmer win this one. The other scores are good, but I think these two enhanced their films, as well as sounding great on their own.
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:01 pm
by OscarGuy
I found Zimmer's work in Inception to be the best of the year. Social Network's is good and so are a number of other scores, but Inception's pounding score is an integral part of the film, used as a narrative force. I don't think it will win as I think Desplat is considered due for his "career" Oscar at this point and what better vehicle than a surefire Best Picture winner and film that's bound to win the most Oscars of the night.
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:42 am
by Franz Ferdinand
I feel like I'm going to vote for Desplat, only to relive the nightmare of 2003: voting for U2, then Babs says "and the Oscar goes to....EMINEM." Then I will shake my head and rip up my ballot as one of my musical heroes and his collaborator accept the award for a groundbreaking score that was the (second) best thing about a great movie.
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:32 am
by Damien
For the life of me, I don't remember two notes of the Inception score. And when I see a clip from the film on awards show, the music just sounds like generic Hans Zimmer.
The Reznor/Ross score works beautifully in Social Network and is one of the few things I genuinely like about the picture. But there was a link I saw on some Internet film site, and if older/more staid Academy members listen to it out of context, just as music, there's no way they would vote for it. It's too monochromatic and too electronic/industrial. (And one of the pieces in the score is entitled "Cocksucker.")
Desplat'sscore is pretty, it is emotionally tinged and helps set the mood of The King's Speech. It's a nice but minor work from a great composer, but it seems the most Oscar-friendly of the nominees.
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:03 am
by Sabin
(anonymous @ Feb. 21 2011,10:47)
Sabin, I personally loved the Inception score and I listen to it in my iPoD constantly. Sorry.
Apology accepted.
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:47 pm
by anonymous1980
I think it's a three-way race between Desplat, Reznor/Ross and Zimmer.
Alexandre Desplat's score is for a Best Picture front-runner, add to that the fact that a lot of people see him as due and he's had a couple of other scores in films this year.
Hans Zimmer is probably the most recognizable score of the bunch. The BWOONG-BWOOONG motif of Inception is already almost iconic. Yes, his only win has been for The Lion King so he could be seen as due for a second Oscar. Sabin, I personally loved the Inception score and I listen to it in my iPoD constantly. Sorry.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score has the most critically acclaimed score in the bunch. Also, arguably along with Zimmer, also pretty damn recognizable with that six-note motif on top of a seemingly sinister electronic sound. The point against is that it's not typically the type of score that wins in this category which favors traditional orchestral bombast.
I haven't made my mind up on what I'm predicting.
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:03 pm
by Sabin
No idea either. But a very good batch of nominees on the whole.
I hate Hans Zimmer's score for Inception. It's just a matter of personal taste. That whole film is so fucking loud. It's not a bad composition necessarily but I found it insufferably irritating. I don't think he will win for this, or has much of a chance. It's not a pretty score by any means.
A.R. Rahman does some very interesting work in 127 Hours. It's kind of a shame that it wasn't nominated for Sound Mixing or Sound Effects. The film is an incredibly aural achievement. There is some very interesting work done. I don't think he has much of a chance though.
John Powell's score is gorgeous. I don't know why I didn't predict its inclusion, but it's a grand, stirring piece of music that gets you incredibly swept up in the adventure. I have no idea where John Powell came from. I see that he's been doing roughly five film scores a year. This one is something else.
Really though it's between Desplat and Reznor/Ross. More so than most years, I have no idea what the Academy will think is best. I really don't. Alexandre Desplat is a wonderful composer, and I think I like his score for The King's Speech more than most here. It's a lovely piece of work that does a lot of heavy lifting. And if the branch didn't care about how much of the music in Babel was reused, then why should they care about this? Then again, Santaollala and Desplat are worlds apart in music theory and execution.
I think we all know what the Academy thinks of Alexandre Desplat's score. The real question is how they will react to the music in The Social Network. It was arguably the most praised soundtrack this past year, a truly exciting piece of work that has literally no precedent for a win in recent Oscar history. Today I'm thinking Desplat. Tomorrow, who knows?
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:28 pm
by Mister Tee
The nominees:
How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
Inception (Hans Zimmer)
The King's Speech (Alexandre Desplat)
127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
The Social Network (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
If you ask me which sounds most like a classic Oscar-wnning score, I'd honestly have to say How to Train Your Dragon -- big, swooping, romantic melodies. I don't rule it out for the wild upset.
The Social Network score -- like the film itself -- is the clear critics' choice, but the people might be cooler. It feels like breakthroughs for such music are coming to have to come in stages. There Will Be Blood couldn't even manage a nomination; Social Network got past that barrier, but a win may have to wait for the next pioneer. I'd be happy to be wrong.
ON EDIT: My Freudian: I somehow left out A. R. Rahman. I don't see him having much shot. Even beyond the work (and the fact that so many people tell me they just couldn't put themselves through it)...Rahman won two Oscars year before last, and has a legitimate shot at best song this year. I don't think voters are looking to create an Alan Menken for the new millenium.
Am I misremembering, or is Hans Zimmer's only Oscar the one for Lion King -- one I'd imagine he feels was piggybacked on Elton John & Tim Rice's work? Inception is perfectly within the range of scores that win Oscars, and I give him a perfectly good shot at winning.
Alexandre Desplat seems the favorite, both for his association with a broadly likable film and his in-kind contribution to it. I don't think it's unfair to criticize the film for its use of long-established classical work -- though the blame for that is on Hooper, not Desplat. A writing teacher told me long ago that, if you as a writer describe a woman as Rubens-esque, you're letting Rubens do half your job for you. Same with those who use Beethoven, Barber, Tchaikowsky, or, for Christ's sake, Glenn Miller: they're drawing on pre-established material to evoke responses they should be creating afresh. It's annoying that a composer -- even one as gifted and meritorious as Desplat -- should benefit from that in a competition like this. Especially when his Ghost Writer score was more memorable to begin with.
Anyway...I see Desplat as the leader, largely because of his film's stature, but I wouldn't put the rent money down on it.
Edited By Mister Tee on 1298346171