This year’s Academy Award nominations are yet another indication that Hollywood is becoming out of touch with the movie-going public. Not to suggest that the movie-going public is this rational, logical animus. But there is definitely an air of superficial arrogance that separates the Hollywood elite from the rest of us. And it all becomes apparent at the Oscars. I’m not referring to all the banal skirmishes, waged by both sides, over social issues that the nominated movies foist or don’t.

I’m referring to some pretty darn good movies that have hardly been given a mere Oscar nod. They include, among others, Batman Begins, Star Wars III, King Kong, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (ironically, these are all sequels or remakes, but that’s another story). Yes, they’re all blockbusters, and all have huge budgets. But that doesn’t detract from their artistic values. For all their flaws, they’re beautiful, captivating films. They might not be as complex and deep as others, but then the Best Screenplay category covers that.

But rather than diving into a lengthy diatribe about the Oscar spaceship, I’ll address one category where this haughtiness is clearly evident and which I’m really passionate about: filmscores. This year’s nominations for Best Original Score are:

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Gustavo Santaolalla)
THE CONSTANT GARDENER (Alberto Iglesias)
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (John Williams)
MUNICH (John Williams)
PRIDE & PREJUDICE (Dario Marianelli)

I own both of the John Williams scores, and they’re wonderful. I only heard excerpts of the other 3 and they’re just flat-out boring (you too can give them a listen at Amazon). The Brokeback Mountain nomination was obviously the Academy’s jumping on the Brokeback Bandwagon, as the score itself is repetitive and unimaginative. As are the other two.

But more to the point, there is a whole slew of great scores from 2005 that should have been considered instead. The superb scores to the blockbusters mentioned earlier are a few examples.

My favorite score of 2005 is Hans Zimmer’s and James Newton Howard’s collaboration on Batman Begins, which got some flak for lacking a main theme. In my opinion, it’s the absence of a theme that makes this score stand out above the others. It’s minimalist, fresh, and unique. I listen to it constantly.

As for Star Wars: Episode III, it is by far my favorite of the six Star Wars scores: emotionally charged, powerful, dark, and mature. Episodes IV, V, and VI have all gotten nominations (Williams won an Oscar for The Empire Strikes Back). But this one, nada. How is it even possible to consider any of this year’s pitiful, non-Williams, nominations over Star Wars???

I just don’t get it. There are many other great scores from 2005 that could have made it, including Danny Elfman’s The Corpse Bride, Harry Gregson-Williams’ The Chronicles of Narnia and Kingdom of Heaven, and Julian Nott’s Wallace and Gromit. Snubbing these scores just indicates that the nominators have some sort of ulterior agenda, and that quality of score and its relevance to the film aren’t factors in their decisions. The nominations are more a nod to non-traditional scores by independent composers. But it stems from an uneducated, elitist conceit that in fact pervades the rest of the Hollywood establishment.

As a note, Dan Goldwasser at Soundtrack.net discusses this on his podcast.

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