How pathetic. Now this bloke has more Oscars than Jerry Goldsmith, Alex North and Georges Delerue. What a shame :/

I put s... on Oscars. Within few years this award (in Best Score category) became nothing more than "consolation prize" for movies which lost their chance in other categories.

ohmss, February 26, 2007; 5:00 AM

It's yet-another-in-a-row-of-zillion-other-prooves that these awards are not to be taken too seriously.

For me this year's winner is Ennio anyway.

A praise for the Maestro !

42zaphod, February 26, 2007; 6:07 AM

I can't believe he won - El Labyrintho del fauno is a wayyyyy better score than babel....these awards are really not to be taken seriously.

philkws, February 26, 2007; 9:26 AM

Allfully good of them to give an award to one of the true inspirations and a guy who has been emulated (more now than ever) by more hacks than anyone else.

To tell you the truth, it would have been nice to see Morricone turn it down. Then again, he's probably too generous and intelligent a man to stoop to the level of pettiness.

I never watch the Academy Awards. I tuned in last night (for a few minutes) to see a rare moment.


victoravalentine, February 26, 2007; 11:21 AM

Hi,
My name is EK and as Gustavo Santaolalla I share the same nationality but I feel astonish with Gustavo's new award , not with Gustavo himself (He's a fantastic guy very modest and compleatly aware of his limitations) but with the critics or musicians which decided each year the "best" score.
Since I was a child I believed the Oscars were a classy award almost as an impossible dream come true, were the winner is a composer who fulfill a lot of remarkables characteristics such as talent, knowledge , background , etc.. but in the last twenty years and for reasons that I still don't understand the awards goes to a composers who even know what a cue means , the reason: I don't know , we can discuss for hours (Politic , marketing, etc..) but the reality hurts , we can't blame a guys like Santaolalla for this injustice or atrocity (is up to each one to decided which adjective fits better) but the structure who discredit the Oscar and his history , now the Oscar looks more like a MTV award than the most valuable award in the industry. What happend with the "Old School"? Do we have to start to consider Santaolalla in the same label as Waxman,Koorngold,Steiner,Alfred & Randy Newman,Tiomkin,Herrman,Goldsmith or even Williams? My god!! It is possible that composers like Silvestri,Thomas and David Newman,Georges Delerue,Elmer Bernstein,Rozsa,Broughton,Rosenman,etc.. receive less recognition?
In terms of "Babel" score , I can say that it have interesting ideas ,specially in the use of ethnic elements (this is one of the few things that we have to credit Santaolalla). Santaolalla have great ideas and he always expend a lot of time doing research (even when he worked for the Latin Rock Industry) but his lack of knoweledge of the lenguage is very evident , as in Brockeback mountain there's no real and concrete motif developed in any way , it's more than a brushstrokes of ideas .I believed that Santaolalla is a great composer but for other kinds or different levels of composicion , he always said that he use a "minimalistic" approach of composition but for me it's an mediocre excuse for being a self-taught composer , for me a minimalistic score could be Jerry Goldsmith's Planet of the Apes or Alex North's Dragonslayer in were they have to use a lot of traditional filmscoring techniques such as Punch & streamers or Click Sync not a bunch of chords layering in a non-sense film track.
So what's the solution? Create a new category for composer without knowledge of the lenguage? a category for Orchestrators?
Guys like Alexander Courage,Williams Ross,Arthur Morton,Herbert Spencer,Saul Chaplin,Conrad Salinger never recieved the credit for not only his work but for for his contribution in the film industry.
And we didn't see Shirley Walker at the In Memory segment , so this is the reality and we have to accepted , may be in the next years everything will back to normal as a traditional cycling process in which we will celebrated a worthy winner.


erickuche, February 26, 2007; 12:04 PM

I can't understand it!

Some of the best musical moments in BABEL are taken from previous compositions by Santaolalla. That pieces he calls "minimalistic". Their effect with the visuals is terrific, but they aren't original compositions. The original stuff is, indeed, less interesting than that of 21 GRAMS. And that score was ignored by the Academy. But now they seem to have discovered Santaolalla's guitars...

In my opinion, Ry Cooder did it before. He composed a truly remarkable guitar score for Wim Wenders' PARIS TEXAS, and nobody seemed to notice it. Cooder's score was really groundbreaking, but Santaolalla's... I can't understand why is he now considered the best film composer by the members of the Academy, when he isn't even a film composer. If minimalism is the key, Philip Glass is much better and do deserve a recognition after so many years... But Santaolalla...

I know the Oscars shouldn't be taken too seriously, but as a film music aficionado, I like to see the composers that get something important for the art of composing for the movies, being rewarded. I think Desplat, Newman, Navarrete or Glass should have that recognition before Santaolalla.

angeldibujo, February 26, 2007; 1:00 PM

The Academy Awards mean nothing in the overall scheme of things.

Just a big horseshit program to hype the new money. Anyone worth their weigh usually gives such nonsence little if any regard. Yet there are those who become obsessed with the idea of standing up on the stage to accept one of those statues (which by the way are gold plated like cheap jewelry).

They stand up there slobbering and expressing gratitute until the get off the stage theme begins playing softly in the background by a tinkering pit orchestra pianist.

How many times was Goldsmith nominated only to show up to have it given to someone else?

It's nothing. A moment of recognition and a hell of a party afterwards.

It would have been interesting to see Jack Nicholson around 2:00 AM perhaps tipping a few with Ennio Morricone.

victoravalentine, February 26, 2007; 1:04 PM

(hey angeldibujo) I'll second that nod in appreciation towards Ry Cooder and his Paris Texas score. Has been one of my favorites since first hearing it.

And a great Win Wenders film as well.

I agree with your opinion 100%.


victoravalentine, February 26, 2007; 1:15 PM

And Santaolalla ALWAYS uses that ronroco instrument, which is great, but it also always sounds the same and gets boring after the first score with it.

philkws, February 26, 2007; 5:32 PM

It'll all be just another passing fad as soon as the novelty wears off. It's sort of like last years Christmas toy everyone fought over that no one remembers this year.

Strange, seeing Ennio Morricone on American television. I always hear half ass fly by night hacks emulating his sound on things like television commercials or made for TV movies.





victoravalentine, February 27, 2007; 10:13 AM

Hi Angel!...

I need do ask you a question in regards to a soundtrack LP you have. Please email me if you wish.

serifiot@yahoo.com

Thanks!!...

~serifiot~

serifiot, March 10, 2007; 6:23 PM