A Quick, Largely Ill-informed Oscar Bitch

Another year, another wholly predictable win for best score (and best song) for AR Rahman's score to Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. I had intended to write on the back of having just seen the film, sadly the nano-plex was full so this failed. While total ignorance doesn't stop plenty of critics (and I mean that in a general sense, rather than just the reviewer sense) carping about something, I shan't do that apart from to say that Bollywood style music is not really to my cup of lapsang souchong and descriptions of Slumdog's score to do not entice me out to grab a copy. I'm also secretly glad to have missed the film. Even films that are somehow "genuinely" uplifting rather send me toward the vomit bucket.

I have, to be fair, rather given up on the Oscars and the music category in particular. If you look back 30/40/50 years, one could honestly say that the best Hollywood had to offer were winning and those scores are still remembered today. Much past 1980 and it starts to get a bit hit and miss (Round Midnight, The Milagro Beanfield War, Fame etc.) but past 2000, there's almost nothing that is likely to stand the test of time (save for the two Lord of the Rings scores). Even the films for which they are written aren't going to stick out as classics. Perhaps the worst to date could be Gustavo Santaolalla's woefully simplistic score for Brokeback Mountain and his subsequent win for Babel. Are either of them going to be remembered in 10 years, let alone 50? I doubt it somehow. Naturally, both scores support their respective films and are entirely suitable, but for me, that simply isn't enough. One could argue that most of Trevor Rabin's scores are absolutely 100% perfect for the films they are written for. Is he going to be nominated for an Oscar? Not a chance.

For my money, the music should actually be - shock, horror - exceptional in its own right, as well as exceptional in the film. Of course it's all subjective, but frankly anyone could have written Brokeback Mountain. A few guitar picks and you're done. It really is that lame a composition. I have no doubt that Santaolalla is a decent enough musical dramatist and for that, can't be faulted. However, musically he just isn't all that. Again. Is the music being good in the film enough? No bloody way. The best score just usually goes to the most worthy film, as with most of the nominees.

It must be pretty galling for today's finest Hollywood composers - Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard, Patrick Doyle, Alan Silvestri, Micahael Giacchino Christopher Young et al who have won nothing. On top of them, let us not forget, the great Ennio Morricone whose honorary Oscar strikes me as a "shit, we forget you are one of the most creative, inspiring and popular film composers and should have a dozen or so wins by now" move by the Academy. It's only fit to also mention the late Michael Kamen and Basil Poledouris, neither of whom got anything (not even sure they were ever nominated, but I could stand corrected on that), not to mention the golden age composers who only ended up with one; Herrmann, Bernstein, Goldsmith and, well, Alex North got nothing.

And another thing! Double nominations and splitting the vote. There really needs to be some rule change on multiple nominations for the same category. Almost never does a double nomination result in a win because the vote is almost always split and so someone else wins. James Horner's Braveheart is a far superior score to Titanic - indeed I would rate it as one of his finest - yet it was nominated with Apollo 13. Split vote. No win. True, sometimes a double nomination can get you a win; Close Encounters could so easily have been a winner were Star Wars not the 1977 soundtrack juggernaut. Having said that, I'd lay money on it costing him some more recent wins when he ended up with two nominations. Ok, he's won plenty so hardly a great crime, but then again, Williams is often so far ahead of the game in terms of the quality of his music, he could win a dozen and they'd all be more than worthy winners.

I have no real point other than to say that I shan't ever be updating the Oscars page at Soundtrack Express ever again, so low in my esteem have these tiresome awards become. Hopefully, one brief and perfectly timed rant will keep me happily ignoring them until something worthwhile comes along. Which it won't. Probably.