# Best Dramatic Film Score - 1996



## HansZimmer

This poll is for the first part of the competition Talkclassical best film score award.

Between 1996 and 1999 the Academy Award "Best original score" was splitted in two parts:

Best original dramatic score
Best original musical or comedy score

If you want to know the reasons of the splitting click here.

This poll is for the first award.

You simply have to vote your favourite score between the five that were nominated in 1996 for "Best original dramatic score".
Here below you find five videos (or, in the case of "The Postman", a youtube playlist) containing the best parts of each suite, together with images from the film.

The typical structure of a video (or playlist) is the following:

Main theme
Secondary themes
Final reprise of the main theme with climax

If you want to listen to the full suites click the "details links".


*Il Postino: The Postman (Oscar winner, composed by Luis Bacalov)*

Go here for more details

The structure of the playlist:

Il Postino (Trio Version) (main theme)
Metafore
Loved by Women
Madreselva
Il Postino (Titoli) (final reprise of the main theme)
Click here to open a youtube playlist with the best parts of the suite


*Apollo 13 (composed and conducted by James Horner)*

Click here for more details

The structure of the video:
00:00 The Launch (the departure of the rakete)
10:15 Master Alarm (the scene of "Huston, we have a problem")
13:23 Re-Entry & Splashdown (the dangerous re-entry in the earth)







*Braveheart (composed and conducted by James Horner)*

Click here for more details

The structure of the video:
00:00 Wallace Courts Murron (main theme)
04:26 Freedom' / The Execution / Bannockburn
11:51 End Credits (final reprise of the main theme with climax)

I know that the video is blocked in the USA, so the american users can use this youtube playlist, which is structured in the same exact way as the video.







*Nixon (composed and conducted by John Williams)*

Go here for more details

The structure of the video:
00:00 Growing Up In Whittier (main theme)
02:42 The 1960's: The Turbulent Years
07:45 Making A Comeback
10:10 The Meeting With Mao
13:21 The Miami Convention
16:38 The Farewell Scene (final reprise of the main theme)







*Sense and Sensibility (composed by Patrick Doyle and Tony Hymas)*

Go here for more details

The structure of the video:
00:00 My Father's Favourite (composed by Tony Hymas)
05:27 Willoughby
07:07 Weep You No More Sad Fountains
10:13 Combe Magna
13:13 Miss Grey
15:35 Leaving London
17:48 The Dreame
20:20 Throw The Coins (final climax)


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## pianozach

Well, listened to *Il Postino* and *Apollo 13*, and between the two *Apollo 13* _clobbers_ *Il Postino*.


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## pianozach

pianozach said:


> Well, listened to *Il Postino* and *Apollo 13*, and between the two *Apollo 13* _clobbers_ *Il Postino*.


As Paramount has blocked your *Braveheart* Suite, I made my own from randomly selected tracks from the soundtrack:

*Main Title*
_*Gift of a Thistle
Attack on Murron*_
*Murron's Burial*, and 
*The Battle of Stirling*






















Considering that both *Apollo 13* and *Braveheart* are composed by *James Horner*, I was surprised at how predictable and derivative the score from *Braveheart* is. Harp, pipes, drums, Celtec scales. Obviously these tracks are not the ones you put together, and perhaps I chose the worst of the 18 available tracks. 

Apollo 13 > Braveheart 
Apollo 13 > Il Postino


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## pianozach

pianozach said:


> Considering that both *Apollo 13* and *Braveheart* are composed by *James Horner*, I was surprised at how predictable and derivative the score from *Braveheart* is. Harp, pipes, drums, Celtec scales. Obviously these tracks are not the ones you put together, and perhaps I chose the worst of the 18 available tracks.
> 
> *Apollo 13 > Braveheart
> Apollo 13 > Il Postino*


Just finished up listening to the *John Williams* suite from *Nixon*. Damn. Williams is really good. So much nuance and depth.

*Nixon > Apollo 13*

In retrospect, it's almost as if the scores for *Apollo 13* and *Braveheart* AREN'T from the same composer. Almost as if he'd farmed out the work for *Braveheart* to an intern or something. If they'd given Braveheart to me to compose, I'd have come up with very similar choices, practical choices, predictable choice. Not so with *Apollo 13*, for which both the composing and orchestrations are excellent. And *Williams's* score for *Nixon* is astonishingly good; only in my dreams could I compose anything close.


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## pianozach

Ah, so, just listened to *Sense and Sensibility*. Well, a very good job at creating fake Classical Music, but strangely not quite right. Like, alternate reality Classical Music. If you're not listening closely it could pass . . . but I guess I was listening too closely. Has all the hooks and trappings. In some ways it sounded like a respectful parody of Classical Music. 

The first part sounded like *Beethoven* and *Chopin* bumped into each other on the sidewalk; _"Hey, you got peanut butter on my chocolate!" "Hey! You got chocolate in my peanut butter!"_ Yeah, but the piano part sounded like 'simple' Chopin, and the Orchestral part sounded kinda generic. Almost unsettling how smoothly it was pretending to be Classical. 

And I'm a real fan of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, and I _am_ impressed with how well he did. But it didn't really pass muster for me.

*Apollo 13 > Braveheart
Apollo 13 > Il Postino
Apollo 13 > Sense and Sensibility
Nixon > Apollo 13*

I guess if I had to rank 'em I'd go with

*Nixon
Apollo 13
Braveheart
Il Postino
Sense and Sensibility*


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## HansZimmer

pianozach said:


> As Paramount has blocked your *Braveheart* Suite, I made my own from randomly selected tracks from the soundtrack:
> 
> *Main Title*
> _*Gift of a Thistle
> Attack on Murron*_
> *Murron's Burial*, and
> *The Battle of Stirling*
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> Considering that both *Apollo 13* and *Braveheart* are composed by *James Horner*, I was surprised at how predictable and derivative the score from *Braveheart* is. Harp, pipes, drums, Celtec scales. Obviously these tracks are not the ones you put together, and perhaps I chose the worst of the 18 available tracks.
> 
> Apollo 13 > Braveheart
> Apollo 13 > Il Postino


Yes, sorry. I forgot that the video of Braveheart is blocked in the USA. The american users can use this youtube playlist, which is structured in the same exact way as the video.

I don't know if your opinion will change with my selection.


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## HansZimmer

pianozach said:


> Ah, so, just listened to *Sense and Sensibility*. Well, a very good job at creating fake Classical Music, but strangely not quite right. Like, alternate reality Classical Music. If you're not listening closely it could pass . . . but I guess I was listening too closely. Has all the hooks and trappings. In some ways it sounded like a respectful parody of Classical Music.
> 
> The first part sounded like *Beethoven* and *Chopin* bumped into each other on the sidewalk; _"Hey, you got peanut butter on my chocolate!" "Hey! You got chocolate in my peanut butter!"_ Yeah, but the piano part sounded like 'simple' Chopin, and the Orchestral part sounded kinda generic. Almost unsettling how smoothly it was pretending to be Classical.
> 
> And I'm a real fan of Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras, and I _am_ impressed with how well he did. But it didn't really pass muster for me.
> 
> *Apollo 13 > Braveheart
> Apollo 13 > Il Postino
> Apollo 13 > Sense and Sensibility
> Nixon > Apollo 13*
> 
> I guess if I had to rank 'em I'd go with
> 
> *Nixon
> Apollo 13
> Braveheart
> Il Postino
> Sense and Sensibility*


It seems that you have clear ideas of what you like and what you don't like, while I have to say that this time it won't be an easy choice for me.

I'm undecided between Apollo 13, Braveheart and Sense and Sensibility.


Like you wrote, some pieces in the suite of Sense and Sensibility look like pastiches of Mozart's music. You say that they are good, but still not good.
The problem is that if you compose music in the Mozart's stile the persons will inevitably start to make a comparison between Mozart and you and it's easy that you will lose the fight.

In my opinion

05:27 Willoughby and
13:13 Miss Grey

sounds basically like an Allegro of Mozart, but there are not his compositional skills.

However,

00:00 My Father's Favourite

which sounds like a Mozart's Adagio... I think that there is a better pen in this piece. It's beatiful and well done IMO.

The rest is just normal film music and I think it's good in it's style.







Braveheart: what do you mean when you write that it's predictable? If what you want to say is that it's exactly the kind of music that you would expect in a film like that one, I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing. In reality this is basically what a soundtrack composer must be able to do: create music that works well in the context.
In films like that it's quite logic to copy at least a little bit the folk music of the time and place.

In the score of Apollo 13, James Horner had to be more inventive because he couldn't take inspiration from folk music.

That said, Braveheart is often used as an example of an excellent film score (you can easily find it in the lists of "Best film music") and someone has already voted for it in this poll. I don't know if I'll join him/her, but I consider "Breaveheart" as a possible candidate.


Finally, the theme of Postman is beatiful IMO, but I've listened to full suite and so I know that the main theme has been used to built the full suite. It's not so creative.
If I had to reward creativity, there wouldn't be any doubt that I had to vote Sense and Sensibility: 21 pieces with different melodies. No repetition at all. The composers have objectively worked hard there.


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## pianozach

So . . . In these sorts of subjective competitions, one must choose. I give my offhand reasons based on my impressions. 

It's wise to consider that everyone values different aspects of art, and I respect other educated opinions as to their own rankings. I can see value in all of these. I fully understand Horner's choices for *Braveheart*; his instrumentation choices resonate deeply with many people. As I pointed out, I'd have attempted something similar had I been asked to score the film. The classical vibe of *Sense and Sensibility* is quite good. The interesting diverse choices in *Il Postino* are invigorating. 

Sometimes it's quite difficult to choose one over others without pointing out negatives in the ones you do NOT choose. Being critical always seems to embrace picking apart someone's work, even if it's brilliant.

*The scores for all five of these films are quite good*, in spite of me being able to point out subjectively perceived flaws.


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## pianozach

_Duplicate post_


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## RobertJTh

There's that one Uzbekistanian movie about a blind goatherd, forgot the title, that had a soundtrack played by the late great nose harp virtuoso Zakhritdin Gavkharshadbegum.
That would be my first choice for 1996, shame on OP for not including it.


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## HansZimmer

RobertJTh said:


> There's that one Uzbekistanian movie about a blind goatherd, forgot the title, that had a soundtrack played by the late great nose harp virtuoso Zakhritdin Gavkharshadbegum.
> That would be my first choice for 1996, shame on OP for not including it.


Because the game is about the Oscar nominations, not about all the film scores. By the way the films are of 1995 (the Oscars of 1996 are for films of 1995).


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## RobertJTh

Yeah, it was kind of a joke. Not a very good one, I guess


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## HansZimmer

I have extended the expiration of the poll by 10 days. Maybe other votes will come. The poll will close on December 27.


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## HansZimmer

Closed. Nixon (John Williams) and Braveheart (James Horner) are qualified for the second part of this competition.


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