One of the worst Oscar omissions this year, by far, was Justin Hurwitz’s score for First Man. As you all know, I think First Man was, by a long way, the best film of 2018. So much of it had to do with Hurwitz’s outside-the-box (seriously, theramins!) brilliant and moving work. The collaboration between Damien Chazelle and Hurwitz is creatively inspiring but also the stuff that great movies and great movie music is made on. Hurwitz’s moon landing cue alone is one of the great score cues of this century, conveying both the majesty as well as the nerve-racking suspense depicted on screen as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin doggedly navigated their lunar module to a safe landing in the Sea of Tranquility.
Either which way, here is a pretty cool piece on the music of First Man — an AwardsDaily exclusive!
Now available on 4k, Blu-ray and Digital
The theremin is too weird an instrument to use in a serious, introspective film, but Hurwitz pulled it off. But I still think half of the album is forgettable (maybe the “tense” action beats). The piece that rI really love is “Quarantine”.
The last times someone used a theremin in a major Hollywood movie are Mars Attacks and Ed Wood, albeit for comedic effect. The theremin and Tim Burton’s quirky, offbeat style are a match made in heaven.
As this is a thread on music, do y’all prefer the old Mary Poppins songs or the new ones? Here are some pairings of songs that structurally serve a similar purpose in each film, and my choices:
Chim-Chimney vs Lovely London Sky: Chim-Chimney
The Life I Lead vs A Conversation: A Conversation
A Spoonful of Sugar vs Can You Imagine That?: A Spoonful of Sugar
Jolly Holiday vs The Royal Doulton Music Hall: The Royal Doulton Music Hall
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious vs A Cover is Not the Book: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Feed The Birds vs The Place Where Lost Things Go: Feed The Birds
I Love To Laugh vs Turning Turtle: Turning Turtle
Step in Time vs Trip a Little Light Fantastic: Trip a Little Light Fantastic
Let’s Go Fly a Kite vs Nowhere to Go But Up: Let’s Go Fly a Kite
That’s 5:4 for me. A lot more for Returns than I expected.
I think I have the same breakdown, but the five points in favor of the original over Returns are pretty much all match points for me. Feed the Birds in particular is my favorite Sherman Brothers song.
Feed the Birds is fantastic. I feel like whenever an original wins, it’s a fantastic song beating a mediocre song, and whenever Returns wins, it’s a mediocre song beating a bad song. So yes, the 5 are substantially better than the 4.
Chim-Chimney vs Lovely London Sky: Chim-Chimney
The Life I Lead vs A Conversation: The Life I Lead
A Spoonful of Sugar vs Can You Imagine That?: Can You Imagine That?
Jolly Holiday vs The Royal Doulton Music Hall: The Royal Doulton Music Hall
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious vs A Cover is Not the Book: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Feed The Birds vs The Place Where Lost Things Go: Feed The Birds
I Love To Laugh vs Turning Turtle: I Love To Laugh
Step in Time vs Trip a Little Light Fantastic: Trip a Little Light Fantastic
Let’s Go Fly a Kite vs Nowhere to Go But Up: Let’s Go Fly a Kite
I’d say chim-chimney, the life I lead, a spoonfull of sugar, jolly holiday, a cover is not the book, the place where the lost things go, turning turtle, trip a little light fantastic, let’s go fly a kite
Hopefully Beale St wins the Oscar
I had a tremendously personal reaction to this film, much more so than any film I have seen in quite sometime. A travesty that it is not up for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Score, and Best Supporting Actress. That is the very LEAST it deserved.
I just rewatched the movie for the third time and damn is it an astonishing work. Yes it is a slow burn, yes it is understated, but there is so much fire burning under the surface, it is moving in the best way a film can be moving. It’s delicate, it’s soulful, it’s touching, it’s incredibly human.
Not in my Top 10, but a very good film and I’d have nommed it for Best Picture overall on the merit of its strengths. Picture, Cinematography, Sounds, Visual Effects, SCORE. Listened to excerpts of that score again a few days ago and it is bewildering how it missed 🙁
Though FIRST MAN was not my absolute #1 film of the year I greatly respect you for having it in poll position and it is in my Top 4. I consider it an absolute masterpiece and am still disgusted it was ignored by the Academy. The score? I count it as the absolute BEST of the year, though I like a few others like Mary Poppins Returns as well. But to leave it off the nominations was an utter travesty. This is a stirring, melancholic score for the ages!!
Films with notable theremin use: The Lost Weekend, The Machinist, Ed Wood, Bartleby, Mars Attacks!, Spellbound, Hellboy, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, Ghostbusters
When I first heard the score in the context of the film it didn’t wow me. In fact, I found the Moon Landing piece to be borderline distracting. However, upon multiple listens afterward, I appreciated the score more and more. Should have been nominated (especially over Mary Poppins Returns). With that said, I’m happy Britell/Beale Street has a clearer path to the Oscar now, because that is one of the best scores of the last decade.
I had all the predictable issues with the film, but the same could be said for half the Best Picture nominees. The highlight of First Man for me was its score. I don’t get how it missed. There were six contenders jockeying for 5 spots, and often this category favors Best Picture contenders. But First Man or Mary Poppins (outside of its wordy songs) had the most melodic music. And I have nothing against Beale Street, but I didn’t think the score was particularly memorable. Are they really giving that film two Oscars?
You didn’t think Beale Street’s score was particularly memorable? Damn, I thought it was the runaway best thing in that film (same as First Man). It takes such central role, it was very unforgettable for me.
I mean, none of these, Poppins included, are earworms like the Love Story or Gone with the Wind scores. It’s rare we get a song as good as Shallow these days. I can totally see the Academy throwing a bone to the culturally significant Panther score or BlacKkKlansman’s jazzy music since the branch threw a curveball by omitting Hurwitz while Poppins isn’t a film they’re dying to reward. BAFTA won’t give us any clues since it will award A Star Is Born (Bradley, finally) in its music category.
I’m skeptical about the BAFTA awarding A Star is Born in music. It doesn’t have a score, only the songs.
I don’t consider them throwing a bone to the Panther score. It was quite deserving of that citation. The score was fresh and built around an amalgamation of influences.
“Eros” from Beale Street is just insanely beautiful.
Best piece of music of the year along with “The Landing” from First Man.
If it’s any consolation, at least the snub has been noticed by Hollywood. It is second on Variety’s list of surprising snubs:
https://variety.com/2019/film/news/oscar-nominations-the-15-biggest-snubs-and-surprises-1203113968/
1) Bradley Cooper for Directing
2) First Man in major categories, and especially the score
3) Timothee Chalamet for Supporting Actor for Beautiful Boy
4) John David Washington for Lead for BlacKkKlansman
5) Ethan Hawke for Lead for First Reformed
6) Emily Blunt for two films
7) Michael B Jordan for Supporting for Black Panther
8) Toni Collette for Lead for Hereditary
9) Nicole Kidman for two films
10) Won’t You Be My Neighbor? for Doc
11) Eighth Grade for Screenplay
12) Burning for Foreign Film
He won for La La Land, so deserved. I like him and his great scores .
The saddest thing is Jóhann Jóhannsson never lived long enough to win. Imagine if he lived to score Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and the masterpiece it would have been.
He could’ve won posthumously for Mandy this year. A shame that they overlooked him.
Mandy was ineligible due to VOD technicality, unfortunately. Still tied with Beale Street for my favorite score of the year.
Oh come on, why didn’t they read the rules 🙁 It’s so infuriating.
THIS!!!
As a movie score lover, I can tell you that I thought the score was okay, but overrated ! The 5 scores nominated perfectly deserve it more than First Man! It’s tbe first time in a while when they got it right with all 5 nominations ! My only criticism is I kind of wish they chose Vice for Brittell. First Man is like so similar to LaLa Land, I’m glad the Music Branch chose wisely !
Oooooh, I don’t agree with you at all here and I am a lifelong movie score fanatic dating back five decades. The Academy did NOT choose wisely at all, but you have your opinion. Fair enough.
Thank you, Sasha, been wracking my brain how this was ignored.
The music in the movie is solid, but maybe the music branch feel they’ve had enough of Hurwitz style? Remember the dinosaurs in AMPAS like classically trained composers and especially classically-constructed pieces. You know, following the traditional Lydian/Mexolydian . Synths? Digital? Way too much. That’s why Desplat, zimmer, williams fall right down their path. Same old, same old. When michael nyman and damon albarn did the music for “ravenous”, i can only imagine what they would have thought of a piece like that. Like, what the hell was that? It was brilliant, that’s what it was. It took Morriconne 50 years to get an oscar after the westerns in the 60s, when he was experimenting with sound. Anyway, back to hurwitz. Whiplash? We like this kid. La La Land? Yeah, it works within the movie, but it’s not that wow, is it?
First Man? Yeah… I think we’ve had enough.
“La La Land? Yeah, it works within the movie, but it’s not that wow, is it?”
“Not that wow” doesn’t usually sweep all the score awards en route to an Oscar. And First Man was poised for a similar sweep, already having won at the Globes and Critics Choice.
It’s not Singing in the Rain, though, is it? Personally, I think First Man is the best by a country mile.
Well… there 90 BP winners that are not The Godfather. This doesn’t mean I have to diminish some masterpieces like Gone With the Wind and The Silence of the Lambs because they are not as good as The Godfather.
I think La La Land’s score is the best film score in recent memory.
I can name off the back of my head five famous Zimmer cues and give the classical pieces he ripped them from
The heads of the Music and Doc branches should be forced to resign following the snubs of First Man’s score and Won’t You Be My Neighbour. A complete disservice to their own jobs.
In this case the lack of an Oscar nomination is almost a crime.
Yep, absolutely!
You had *one* job, Academy music branch.
The music was great. It deserved to be nominated