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Los Angeles Film Critics' Association - They award Best Score too!

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Author	Topic: Los Angeles Film Critics' Association - They award Best Score too!

Christian Kühn Standard Userer	And they're pretty good with their choices... 1976: BERNARD HERRMANN for Taxi Driver 1977: JOHN WILLIAMS for Star Wars 1978: GIORGIO MORODER for Midnight Express 1979: CARMINE COPPOLA for The Black Stallion 1980: RY COODER for The Long Riders 1981: RANDY NEWMAN for Ragtime 1982: JAMES HORNER for 48 HRS. 1983: PHILIP GLASS for Koyaanisqatsi 1984: ENNIO MORRICONE for Once Upon a Time in America 1985: TORU TAKEMITSU for Ran 1986: HERBIE HANCOCK for Round Midnight 1987: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO, DAVID BYRNE and CONG SU for The Last Emperor 1988: MARK ISHAM for The Moderns 1989: BILL LEE for Do The Right Thing 1990: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO and RICHARD HOROWITZ for The Sheltering Sky 1991: ZBIGNIEW PREISNER for The Double Life of Veronique & At Play in the Fields of the Lord 1992: ZBIGNIEW PREISNER for Damage 1993: ZBIGNIEW PREISNER for Three Colours: Blue & The Secret Garden 1994: HOWARD SHORE for Ed Wood 1995: PATRICK DOYLE for A Little Princess 1996: HAL WILLNER for Kansas City 1997: PHILIP GLASS for Kundun 1998: ELLIOT GOLDENTHAL for The Butcher Boy 1999: MARC SHAIMAN for South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut 2000: TAN DUN for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2001: HOWARD SHORE for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2002: ELMER BERNSTEIN for Far From Heaven 2003: BENOÎT CHAREST for Belleville Rendez-Vous 2004: MICHAEL GIACCHINO for The Incredibles (Runner-up: ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for Birth) 2005: JOE HISAISHI for Howl’s Moving Castle (Runner-up: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO for Tony Takitani) 2006: ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for The Queen & The Painted Veil (Runner-up: THOMAS NEWMAN for Little Children & The Good German) Career Achievement Awards: 1991: ELMER BERNSTEIN 2001: ENNIO MORRICONE CK [Message edited by Christian Kühn on 09-14-2007]
posted 09-14-2007 04:12 AM PT (US)

nuts_score Standard Userer	Absolutely great choices! And Goldenthal being recognized for The Butcher Boy?! Wow! Good taste on these chaps. They're going to have a lot of good ones to judge come this fall.
posted 09-14-2007 10:10 AM PT (US)

sean Standard Userer	quote: Originally posted by nuts_score: Absolutely great choices! Yeah because Michael Giacchino's music for The Incredibles is so great ... Sorry I think a lot of those choices are border-line stupid. nuts, pass me what you're smoking.
posted 09-14-2007 03:22 PM PT (US)

Ellen B Edgerton Standard Userer	I've been saying for years and years, until I'm blue in the face, that the LA Film Critics are the only film music awards worth taking seriously. Look at the list, folks. They know their stuff.
posted 09-14-2007 03:38 PM PT (US)

Stargate Standard Userer	quote: 1999: MARC SHAIMAN for South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut Wtf...? EDIT: Another wtf: quote: 1982: JAMES HORNER for 48 HRS. [Message edited by Stargate on 09-14-2007]
posted 09-14-2007 03:48 PM PT (US)

Squiddybop Standard Userer	Ragtime??? Whatever other problems I might have with that list, they did get 2005 absolutely right. NP: Gattaca (Michael Nyman)
posted 09-14-2007 03:48 PM PT (US)

PeterK FishChip	...and 1995! But you can see where they may have had a terrible influence on the Academy..... There's Midnight Express again!
posted 09-14-2007 04:02 PM PT (US)

Ellen B Edgerton Standard Userer	I don't have a problem with any of these choices really... they are all very credible choices, and it's clear this organization, or whoever has been picking the awards within the organization, has a good grasp of what makes film music award-worthy: a combination of... --musical quality --importance to the film (did it have a compelling effect on the film experience?) --unusualness Traditional orchestral scores seem neither overly emphasized, nor completely ignored. All genres, from electronic to jazz to ethnic to traditional orchestral, seem to be honored. These are a great set of awards. They are consistently honoring the best composers of the day (although I think they went a little overboard with Preisner back in the '90s), and not only that, but genuinely good examples of their work too. (I think the only one that seems really dodgy is Carmine Coppola for THE BLACK STALLION.) And I don't feel MIDNIGHT EXPRESS was a bad choice in this context. It certainly fits the second criterion. If the LAFCA film music award has an "agenda," it seems to fall slightly on the side of jazz and scores with nontraditional elements... but as you can see by Shore's award for LOTR, they aren't above noticing the traditional sweeping epic orchestral thing. (They're not snobs: Horner's TITANIC was the runner-up to Glass' KUNDUN.) In any case, whenever I hear what LAFCA has chosen for the year, unlike the Oscars, I'm never going "What the F---?" It's usually like, "Damn, good choice." [Message edited by Ellen B Edgerton on 09-14-2007]
posted 09-14-2007 04:23 PM PT (US)

sean Standard Userer	Those choices are B.S. No Star Trek: The Motion Picture, no Empire Strikes Back, no Raiders Of The Lost Ark, etc. etc. Tan Dun gets one!? 1991, 1992, 1993 winner(s) are outrageous. Do The Right Thing only wins because the movie was affective and for no other reason! Ran!? Come on! James Horner wins for 48 Hrs. but not for Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan in the same frickin' year!? This list is dumb and is easy to rip apart regardless of what one person has been "saying for years and years" (keep saying it 'til that blue turns to white) ... No one should take ANY awards seriously, especially these. They don't their stuff, Ellen B Edgerton. [Message edited by sean on 09-15-2007]
posted 09-15-2007 01:36 AM PT (US)

franz_conrad Standard Userer	Would kind of agree re: Horner and 48 HOURS... but honestly, if Oscar had even nominated some of the titles in that list, it's history would have been more impressive. Preisner's hat-trick (a bit excessive to give it for DAMAGE, but VERONIQUE and the trilogy both mark heights in film music of the 90s), KOYAANISQATSI and Takemitsu's RAN are titles that Oscar would normally be too conservative about. I like that they're inclusive of all styles of film and music... It means there's a few wtf's?! (But then imagine - yes, creative thoughts! - KANZAS CITY without its music - it wouldn't have been worth watching.) And if you still don't like it, think of all the things that aren't there: - 50 awards for Alan Menken - Gustavo Santaolalla times 2 - 'My Heart will Go On, the instrumental album' - The Lion King (I'll stand up for ED WOOD over that, but I would have stood up for LITTLE WOMEN over Shore's score) - The Killing Fields (Once Upon a Time in America gets the award it deserves) - A Passage to India (an Oscar Maurice Jarre didn't need) - Fame (!)
posted 09-15-2007 02:22 AM PT (US)

Camillu Standard Userer	Maybe we can all agree that, while being far from an ideal list reflecting who we think should have won, it's a much better list than that of those who have received an Oscar
posted 09-15-2007 03:09 AM PT (US)

Ellen B Edgerton Standard Userer	Did STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN really matter to its film's storytelling? (WAS the film successful? Wasn't this sort of music something we had heard before anyway. enjoyable though it might be?) It's all debatable, but I appreciate that someone in LAFCA seems to be asking these questions.
posted 09-15-2007 06:09 AM PT (US)

sean Standard Userer	quote: Originally posted by Ellen B Edgerton: Did STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN really matter to its film's storytelling? (WAS the film successful? Wasn't this sort of music something we had heard before anyway. enjoyable though it might be?) WHAT!!?? YES. YES. AND NO. Star Trek II is still Horner's greatest work, he's never been able to top it, and although it doesn't outclass Goldsmith's Star Trek: The Motion Picture it certainly holds it's own in the Star Trek cannon. That film, too, is far and away the BEST of the Star Trek movie outings. This score has some tremendous action music that is expertly mixed LOUD into the film (the way a good score should be treated!), especially for the powerhouse "Surprise Attack" sequence (Horner does great work here countering Khan's aggressive and powerful theme with Kirk's swashbuckling heroism), and the incredible "Battle In The Mutara Nebula / Genesis Countdown" FINALE! WOW! You think 48 Hrs. is more deserving? Perhaps you should have chosen a different year on that ridiculous list to counter my points. ... And Michael, the Oscars are even worse. They shouldn't even merit our attention; but they're unfortunate popularity seems to drag us all into a discussion about the more-often-than-not outrageous nominees and winners.
posted 09-15-2007 12:40 PM PT (US)

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