Oscar Predictions: Original Score and Original Song
Will 'Slumdog' sweep these two categories?
Another day and another batch of predictions as this time we take a look at the musical side of things. You can take a look at my current predictions for Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and the Supporting categories right here and yesterday's predictions for Adapted and Original Screenplay right here.
Before we do any predicting let us first have the nominees please…
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
- Defiance, James Newton Howard
- Milk, Danny Elfman
- Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
- WALL•E, Thomas Newman
- "Down to Earth" from WALL-E (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
- "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar
- "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
First we will look at original score, a category I believe is missing one important contender, which would be the James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer Grammy Award winning score for The Dark Knight. Yet, what's good for the Grammys is not good for the Oscars as the score for The Dark Knight had to fight just to get into contention only to be overlooked in the end. However, the BAFTAs did nominate The Dark Knight, but felt it wasn't worthy of the win as A. R. Rahman's score for Slumdog Millionaire won and I have a sneaking suspicion it will do the same at the Oscars.
Looking at the list of nominees it is an interesting batch. In terms of quality of score alone I would say Howard's score for Defiance should win hands down, but in terms of adding to the overall quality of the film Thomas Newman's score for WALL•E is as perfect as they come. The one thing that interests me the most about the WALL•E score is that I can't stand it on its own. Outside of the film I just can't listen to it, but inside the film it adds so much. To me that is the sign of a great score, and is actually one reason I believe The Dark Knight score was a definite snub. Because The Dark Knight is not nearly as impressive without that score and on top of that it is something I actually enjoy listening to outside the film. It can bat from both sides!
With all that said, what do you predict? Desplat's score for Benjamin Button was beautiful, but it wasn't exactly his best (I reserve Lust, Caution for that title) and Danny Elfman's score for Milk isn't even on my radar. I don't think it will be a Slumdog sweep at the Oscars this year and I think this is one category that will break up the flow so between WALL•E and Defiance I am going to go with Defiance just to be different — at least for now.
However, I am going to run with the pack in the Original Song category and make this quick as I believe "Jai Ho" has this one in the bag. To tell you the truth, "Down to Earth" from WALL•E was forgettable in my opinion. I know the lyrics to "Jai Ho" and "O Saya" better than I know those for "Down to Earth"… then again, the titles help me cheat.
You tell me, will Slumdog sweep? Is my Defiance pick crazy talk?
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