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Author	Topic: Oscar folly

HAL 2000 Oscar® Winner	Someone has put into words what I have thought many times about the best score Oscar. See the link. I'm sure there's at least one sentiment that you can connect with. There are many for me... #17 in particular. http://www.scorelogue.com/features/20most_lists.html
posted 03-14-2001 08:26 PM PT (US)

jonathan_little Oscar® Winner	I have never been interested in these award things. That article you found points out some interesting facts. #17 along with #4 and #5 are exactly why I just don't care about these things.
posted 03-14-2001 08:50 PM PT (US)

Eric Paddon Oscar® Winner	I have to dissent on #4 because I think "The Right Stuff" is probably one of Conti's best and to have given the award to ROTJ would have just seemed like giving another Oscar to Williams for the same kind of music he won for in SW (we experts of course know they're not totally alike but I think most lay voters would have seen it that way. That is why Williams will never win for another SW film). I do however say AMEN to #16 as the Hancock win in 1986 over not just "The Mission" but scores nominated by Goldsmith ("Hoosiers"), Horner ("Aliens") and Rosenmann ("Star Trek IV"), which ranks as either the second or third biggest travesty in Oscar history. Arguably #2 would be 1963, with "Tom Jones" beating out not only Alex North's "Cleopatra" score but also Alfred Newman's for "How The West Was Won." The ultimate travesty though, which the list incredibly missed was 1970, when the only nomination "Patton" failed to win was for Jerry Goldsmith's score, and "Love Story" won instead. If it had been Newman's swan song score for "Airport" that I could have accepted, but not "Love Story"! And I also agree that Goldsmith's lone Oscar came in a year when he should not have won. I would have given it to Herrmann for "Taxi Driver."
posted 03-15-2001 03:04 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	There's one mistake on the list ... Jerry Fielding was also nominated for a second Oscar, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. Given how few pictures he did, I'd say two nominations was actually a considerable vote of confidence on the part of his peers. Bernard Herrmann's relative dearth of nominations (only five total, I believe, and two of those posthumous) probably had more to do with his personality than his talent. Additionally, since at some point he resigned from the Academy (mailed them his torn-up membership card, in fact), the nominators might have decided, "Well, screw you too." Few other explanations seem likely for his being overlooked for such triumphs as THE GHOST & MRS. MUIR, VERTIGO and PSYCHO, among so many others Mr. Paddon, at least Herrmann won the BRITISH Academy Award for TAXI DRIVER ... [Message edited by H Rocco on 03-16-2001]
posted 03-15-2001 04:17 PM PT (US)

Eric Paddon Oscar® Winner	Thank goodness for the Brits. Fielding did a good score for "Advise And Consent" which got royally screwed in 1962 witn no nominations at all (Charles Laughton deserved one for his last role). I'm still hoping that Fielding's score for the 78 submarine thriller "Gray Lady Down" will get a legit pressing some day.
posted 03-15-2001 06:12 PM PT (US)

Lou Goldberg Oscar® Winner	What?! Herrmann's score to The Devil and Daniel Webster more than deserved the Oscar it got (admittedly 1941 was kind of a lame Oscar year with Waxman's Suspicion and Herrmann's own Citizen Kane being the only real competition). Sure one could point to later scores as worthy of the nomination, but this was the score that really put Herrmann on the map. It was the best thing he'd composed up until 1941, the Symphony and Moby Dick cantata included. Watch the film sometime and you'll see that Herrmann catches the emotional side of every scene his music is in. With this one score he told Hollywood they'd been doing it wrong for a decade. Best Years of Our Lives is Friedhofer's best score. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. What is Scorelogue talking about? North may never have won an Oscar but the Academy knew they'd slighted him and gave him an honorary award, I think the only one given to a film composer thus far.
posted 03-16-2001 02:33 AM PT (US)

Matt Perkins Oscar® Winner	They're certainly correct to point out the absurdity of John Barry's outstanding (and very high-profile, which usually impresses the Academy) work on the Bond series being ignored (in both score and song categories??!!), particularly in view of the fact that Marvin Hamlisch's cheesy disco efforts (which I must admit I quite like!) on "The Spy Who Loved Me" were (I believe) nominated for Best Score of 1977!! But of course, as we all know these things have everything to do with Hollywood politics and marketing, and very little to do with good taste and musical insight!
posted 03-16-2001 03:43 AM PT (US)

André Lux Oscar® Winner	Hanzimmer won an OSCAR (and probably will win another this year) for what? Writing 15 minutes of tunes to a cartoon?? Say no more... [Message edited by André Lux on 03-16-2001]
posted 03-16-2001 04:01 AM PT (US)

Graham Watt Oscar® Winner	Bah, awards! They mean absolutely nothing. Thank God memory is short and we all recognize true greatness despite these things. Who's better, Michael Gore or Alex North? Who got an Oscar for best score? And how many Oscars did Alfred Hitchcock get? A pox on the Oscars!
posted 03-16-2001 01:23 PM PT (US)

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