I had a bad feeling Carter Burwell’s work in “True Grit” was going to get the axe from a consistently dubious music branch, and so it has. Along with three other hopefuls.
Variety is reporting that Burwell’s score and Clint Mansell’s for “Black Swan” were nixed due to being overwhelmed by pre-existing music (19th century hymns with the former, Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” with the latter). Additionally, the scores from Burwell on “The Kids Are All Right” and Michael Brook “The Fighter” got the boot because of an abundance of songs.
We’ve been expecting some kind of ruling on this year’s crop of contenders. It’s a shame, as always, that well-regarded original material has to be penalized due to rules like this, but it’s their game and they’ll play it how they want. Thursday we’ll feature an interview with Burwell and you can hear the thought process that went into the score for “True Grit.” Until then, chew on this.
[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
Comments
57 responses to “Academy DQs scores for ‘Fighter,’ ‘Grit,’ ‘Kids’ and ‘Swan’”
Such a shame. Really loved The Black Swan score.
And Carter Burwell is getting the shaft once again! Seriously, when will this guy catch a brake?
GOD DAMN IT! stupid branchh, anything else that could possibly be disqualified? i think inception wins this now easily, boo
this should help the social network, no?
“Time” from Inception, the closing track from the soundtrack (and what plays during the final scene) is heavily borrowed from “Journey to the Line” from The Thin Red Line. Both by Zimmer, obviously…but they’re pretty much the same track just slightly reconfigured.
I was expecting the Black Swan to be disqualified, but was hoping that whoever judges them would be lenient since, the arrangement and the mixing of the ballet and Mansell’s own music were so creative.
Well, no DQ for “The Social Network!” Excellent.
And they obviously hate Carter Burwell. Screw them.
Poo.
Poo, mostly for True Grit.
So the four best scores of the year are either ineligible (Black Swan, True Grit) or highly unlikely to be nominated because of the music branch bias (The Social Network, Tron Legacy). On top of that Alexandre Desplat is probably going to be nominated for one of his weaker scores (The King’s Speech) at the expense of the brilliant The Ghost Writer.
Blech.
and the nominees are…
Rachel Portman “Never Let Me Go”
John Powell “How To Train Your Dragon”
Alexandre Desplat “The King’s Speech”
Hanz Zimmer “Inception”
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross “The Social Network”
I think the Black Swan DQ is legit, but not sure about Burwell.
I thought Desplat’s score for “The King’s Speech” was lovely.
F*ck!! I hate the music branch with it’s stupid rules. Ihope these terrible omissions, which resemble a lot Jonny Greenwood’s There will be Blood ineligibility case, will force the branch to chance their damn rules, or at least they should introduce a new category for soundtracks that includes arrangements or something.
They should at least atone for this nonsense by nominating Reznor. But yeah Mansell and Burwell are the two most shat on composers in the industry.
At this rate, they might treat scores the way the do for screenplays: original and adapted.
Haha, what Dylan said …
Rachel Portman “Never Let Me Go”
John Powell “How To Train Your Dragon”
Alexandre Desplat “The King’s Speech”
Hanz Zimmer “Inception”
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross “The Social Network”
Honestly? I’m not worried about TSN getting a score nod. If there is a clear frontrunner, then usually the music branch will want a piece of the action. AR Rahman, anyone?
Nice to hear they didn’t DQ Alexandre Desplat’s score for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1… I think his score for the film is being discriminated by some…
But i feel bad for Mansell’s work for Black Swan
Mansell’s work missing out isn’t surprising, but its a shame Burwell got screwed over again.
Andrej, there actually used to be an adapted score category.
Anyway, I assume this means 127 Hours is eligible (since I noticed some library music and songs used there), as are Tron and Social Network despite the multiple composers.
Daft Punk?? :( In a perfect world…
The music branch is ridiculous stupid. As to what Andrej was saying, I thought for years they should have a “best use of licensed music”. What songs are used in a movie can make a huge difference to how the film comes off, and that way they could finally recognize the great song choices in Tarantino’s and Wes Anderson’s films.
And the nominees, in the order of their chance to win.
Hanz Zimmer “Inception”
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross “The Social Network”
A.R.Rahman “127 Hours”
Alexandre Desplat “The King’s Speech”
Danny Elfman “Alice In Wonderland”
Now that I think of it, I’m surprised TSN score was not disqualified. Many of the compositions from that score were taken from a NIN album called “Ghosts”, made by Reznor with help from Ross, not to mention that kick-ass rendition of “In the Hall of the Mountain King”.
What about Toy Story 3 score?
Didnt it have “You’ve got a friend” theme playing significantly?
This is the same music branch that awarded Slumdog Millionaire a Best Original Score Oscar two years ago, right?
Pathetic.
Ben M.:
But still, they should bring it back just to avoid all these silly disqualifications… even it makes the telecast like half an hour longer.
Patriotsfan:
Dunno about going there with the licensed music. It kinda renders the Best Original Song award a bit pointless. Regardless if it’s completely original or an adaptation, composing music is not the same as buying the rights to use a song.
I hope this means TSN takes the Oscar — I love thE score — it gives the film emotional weight it wouldn’t have without it.
Am I the only one that agrees with the Academy on the ruling but thinks there should be a Best Adapted Score category also?
As long as they don’t give it Zimmer, I’m cool. Reward a good composer for a change.
Maxim:
Like it or not, it already looks locked for Zimmer this year, unless the Academy falls into a TSN wave and decide to award everything to it.
The categories for score in the past have been kind of erratic, with a “best song score” category some years, a “best adapted score” others, best “dramatic and comedic” scores others, and it’s kind of a nuisance, but there really should be 2 categories to reward films for these types of situations.
I’d think that movies should be allowed to submit themselves for either “best original score” or something along the lines of “best use of music”, so that filmmakers whose films draw heavily on uniquely arranged precomposed music or adaptations can be rewarded for making good use of music to heighten a film’s quality.
Let’s face it, there are lots of movies that are better for, let’s say, making extensive use of adapted Tchaikovsky ballets than for composing music from scratch. I can name hundreds of movies that have awful originally composed music, but there’s always the rare movie that blends original and adapted material in a way that raises the movie and its soundtrack head and shoulders above most others.
I don’t see why people are getting so butthurt over this. Neither “True Grit” nor “Black Swan” are originally composed music. THe former is based around musical scores, and the latter is based off of classical ballet. They aren’t original, so why whine when they aren’t nominated for Best Original Score?
And to the people who say there should be a “Best Adapted Score” branch, no there shouldn’t. If nothing else, if they bring that category back, you’ll start to whine when it’s obviously given a bias towards adaptations of stage musicals.
Trent Reznor and Hans Zimmer. That’s all I have to say.
Don’t hate on Zimmer. His scores are epic, emotional, and sometimes very original (Inception, Sherlock Holmes).
I was personally hoping for Inception and Social Network’s disqualification, but I guess for now Black Swan will do.
Black Swan was indeed mainly Tchaivoksky and what little Mansell did contribute I found to be wholly unremarkable.
“I don’t see why people are getting so butthurt over this. Neither “True Grit” nor “Black Swan” are originally composed music. THe former is based around musical scores, and the latter is based off of classical ballet. They aren’t original, so why whine when they aren’t nominated for Best Original Score?”
Know what you’re talking about, please. There is plenty of original music on the True Grit score that deserves a fair shake. I agree with the ruling on Black Swan and am not surprised, but there is a lot of quality original work from Burwell and you’d know if you heard it.
Kris can you tell me if the beautiful theme that you put on Oscartalk a couple of weeks back was Burwell’s or adapted?
I knew the Black Swan thing was coming, still saddening nonetheless. But the True Grit thing really has me bummed out, since it’s not as fine a line between original material and adapted. If Inception and The Social Network can remain in qualification, especially when Inception is a sort of an adaptation/remix of the Piaf song, I’m not sure how they really separate that from what Burwell was doing. I guess the guy just can’t get arrested (to steal your phrase Kris).
I wholeheartedly agree with the DQ of BLACK SWAN. Neither THE FIGHTER nor KIDS have anything but serviceable music, so no loss there. I like Mansell – just picked up the import of his MOON cd – but, there is little doubt that his music would be conflated with Tchaikovsky’s in the voters’ minds.
The reason the academy had gotten more and more strict can be laid at the doorstep of Alan Menken. No disrespect to the deceased, but it is down right ridiculous that he won double the number of scoring Oscars (4) than the master of the craft, Bernard Herrmann ever won. And, no knowledgeable film score lover would say that Menken’s scores were anything more than ‘pleasant’. He won, because many uneducated Oscar voters liked the Songs, and hence felt they were part of the Score. Even more egregious, were Herbie Hancock’s jazz tunes winning for ‘ROUND MIDNIGHT over what many consider the greatest modern score – Morricone’s THE MISSION.
If I could trust that the voters could separate the fine work that Mansell did on BLACK SWAN with that of Tchaikovsky, I’d be all for his eligibility. But, the voters simply can’t be trusted to ignore some of the greatest (and most recognizable) ballet music ever composed.
What about Tangled?
I think everyone is not getting the main point of this. This means for the very first time and with the new rules Alan Menken is not DQ. If they had DQ him it would have been a very hard time for the Academy. Menken did a total different score compared to the songs in Tangled so the cannot DQ him. His themes have nothing to do with the songs and apparently the branch did notice.
I think we’re having Inception and TSN for the win and then King’s Speech (a minor Desplat) and some other two spots for real good scores: The Ghost Writer, Alice in Wonderland, How to Train your Dragon, Never Let Me Go.
This has been a fantastic year for music scores so even without these two there is enough for a fantastic lineup (although I’m sure the Academy will stuff it up with stuff like “The King’s Speech”, “Alice in Wonderland” and/or “Never Let Me Go”).
Any combination of “How to Train Your Dragon”, “The Illusionist”, “Inception”, “Monsters”, “Mother”, “TRON: Legacy”, “Red Hill” and “The Social Network” would be enough for this year’s lineup to rank as perhaps one of, if not the, best ever.
I’m agree with Kristopher on this.
My prediction:
Inception – H. Zimmer
Social Network – A. Ross & T. Reznor
King’s Speech – A. Desplat
How to Train Your Dragon – J. Powell
The fifth spot is wide open. My fingers are crossed for Daft Punk, because their work in Tron:Legacy is just amazing.
“What songs are used in a movie can make a huge difference to how the film comes off, and that way they could finally recognize the great song choices in Tarantino’s and Wes Anderson’s films.”
Look, I’m all for a revival of adapted score category but this is absolutely nonsense. The reason people are upset is because Burwell and Mansell actually worked around existing music. They didn’t just create playlists. Awarding people who hand picked Grammy’s are bad enough as they are. No need for the Academy to follow their footsteps.
“Don’t hate on Zimmer. His scores are epic, emotional, and sometimes very original (Inception, Sherlock Holmes).”
No, no they aren’t. And Inception is quite a different score from what Academy usually liked. At this point, I wouldn’t bet on it Winning.
“what many consider the greatest modern score – Morricone’s THE MISSION.”
I’d like to meet those people. I think that it’s fantastic soundtrack and “Gabriel’s Oboe” (“Nella Fantasia”) is a masterwork but it’s the only really real standout there. It’s not anywhere near Morricone’s best work.
And the fact is, pointing out who should have had more Oscars is a moot point. Or a frastruating one, at least. I’m listening to Herrmann as I type this. Love him as much as the next guy but, honestly Menken was a most deserving winner. Little Mermaid, Aladding, etc are amazing scores.
Kris (or whoever has seen all 3 movies or heard them now) … which Desplat score deserves the nod (The King’s Speech, Ghost Writer, HP7)? And would it be disappointing if the weaker/est one got in?
And do we know by now if The Social Network’s score is officially in the clear?
Ghost Writer is Desplat’s best work this year, IMO.
Maxim –
THE MISSION is often listed as one of the great film scores. Here are a couple of citations:
AFI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years_of_Film_Scores
Music Film Review: http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/100filmscores.htm
London’s Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3671089/100-best-movie-soundtracks.html
AMC : http://www.filmsite.org/100soundtracks.html
Etc. Etc. It’s more rare to see THE MISSION off such as list than on.
More to the point, no matter what you think of Menken’s music, you are naive if you believe that all of the Sound effects artists, 21 yr. old actresses, Documentarians etc. in the Academy put Menken’s songs ASIDE and voted strictly on the underscore. And, how many Academy voters were able to ignore all the cool jazz music that Dexter Gordon and pals played ON SCREEN and then voted on Hancock’s score?
Haven’t seen The King’s Speech yet. But of HP7 (of which I liked the score), I would say that I thought Ghost Writer’s score was better, yeah.