Catching up with Robert Zemeckis’s “A Christmas Carol” last night (which I absolutely adored), I noticed the film featured a tune called “God Bless Us Everyone” by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. Might we have a new contender for Best Original Song?
Each of Zemeckis’s prior performance-capture efforts included original songs — Josh Groban’s “Believe” from “The Polar Express” and Idina Menzel’s “A Hero Comes Home” from “Beowulf” — but I hadn’t yet heard of the track featured in the new film. The song is what you might expect, a festive vocal power hymn, the first cue over the closing credits and, therefore, eligible.
But not a likely nominee, I suppose. “Believe” made the cut in 2004, but that was before the new voting process. Where the track is situated will probably not prove intriguing enough to warrant serious consideration. But nevertheless, it’s a new hopeful in a category that is already more competitive than normal.
Speaking of which, we added Paul McCartney’s “(I Want To) Come Home” from “Everybody’s Fine” to the contenders list some weeks back. I’ve been reserved on considering it a serious contender because I knew it played over the closing credits, but when I saw the film at its AFI Fest gala Tuesday night, I noticed that might not prove as problematic.
The closing credits of the film are accompanied by the photos snapped by Robert De Niro’s widower on his road trip to reconnect with his children. Similar to “The Hangover,” but obviously not as…raunchy.
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” played over the credits last year and landed a nomination. But the credits of that film were designed as a sort of visual extension of the narrative, completing the story the film set out to tell. Perhaps all it takes is some visual thematic substance to make a closing credits track go over with music branch voters.
It’s a shame, though, seeing as the best original song I’ve heard this year is a no frills closing credits track, no visual accompaniment, old school.
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6 responses to “Andrea Bocelli, Paul McCartney join the race for Best Original Song”
Glad to hear that you liked A Christmas Carol. We will be having reviews of the film tomorrow, we all absolutely loved it. I certainly hope “God Bless Us Everyone” gets nominated, it’s one of my favourite songs of the year.
is “a christmas carol” better than the trailers make it out to be? because all I’ve seen about it is Jim carrey flying around and yelling. I loved “The Polar Express” but this just doesn’t look good to me, mostly for the reason I mentioned.
The Polar Express is one of my all time favourite Christmas films, and this one is right up there with it. I liked the trailers, and yes, it does exceed them. The sequences shown in the ads are actually a bit out of sequence. It’s actually quite a dark film.
Kris,
If I’m not mistaken, the usual problem with end credits songs are that even if they sum up the movie well, if the music branch doesn’t know the movie, the song won’t sell. However, I’m pretty sure that even if they don’t watch Christmas Carol, the music branch will surely know the story. Maybe “God Bless Us Everyone” has a chance.
No, that’s not specifically the issue. Not having anything visual is a real liability. The song merely plays over the credits, traditionally, so I really don’t think it will work for them, much like “The Wrestler” last year.
Wow Bocelli is an amazing artist. Having him and McCartney nominated would be truly awesome. Keep the song performances if they are for sure!