The opening line to the Star Trek film and television series is "Space the final Frontier." As I watched
the reboot of the original Star Trek series, from JJ Abrams last night, it made think about how films provide a beautiful escape to new unexplored worlds for viewers. For me films like Star Trek are great because they provide an escape to a place that I may never be able to explore myself, or experience a made up world.
Throughout this past week I have been watching a lot about the exploration of space. Last weekend I watched every Star Wars film starting with episode I and ending with episode VI. On a film level this reminded me how Phantom Menace was not awful, Attack of the Clones is the worst, and the original series is untouchable.
Star Wars like Star Trek has made it apparent that we are anxious to follow through with the goals of Republican Presidential hopeful New Gingrich, we want a base on the moon that will help start exploring the final frontier. The problem with this statement or this ideology is that there are more pressing matters on earth that deserve our attention. This is where movies, television and books fill the void.
While space exploration is cool (and they are talking about it on Bill Maher as I am typing this ironically) at the moment we must depend on the escapism from film, television and books. Together these three mediums have helped people to explore new worlds for many years. Each conduit has also shown that there is more than space, there is Middle Earth, Narnia, Westeross, and many many more.
The power of these different mediums is that they can provide an escape to a galaxy far far away or to the final frontier, and using your imagination the viewer can be part of an incredible adventure. As a young child I remember people encouraging me to use my imagination while playing. As I grew up and became an adult no one told me to stop, but people looked at me as though I was different when I kept using my imagination for different things. Movies, television, and books have provided me with an escape from the real world for my entire life. I want to keep using these methods to escape my hectic life and be able to journey to a far away land where people have light sabers, or there may be dragons. Entering new worlds through your imagination takes away the stress of life, and provides a fun escape.
Picking my favorite technical category is a Sophie's Choice for me. I love the imagery captured by the cinematography, the way the editing cuts to capture things at the right moment or helps narrate the focus of the story, and then there is always the visual effects and how they can create a brand new world. There is one more category I left out, and it may be my favorite, but it depends on the day, and that is the original score.
Throughout the years the music or score for a film tends to be the glue to that holds the film together, or launches memories of film experience. There are many films scores that are infamous, and have not only left an indelible mark on my film experience, but even fans who are not fans of these films can recognize the scores from certain films. Here are a few examples:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Godfather (1972)
Star Wars (1977)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Lion King-Hans Zimmer (1994)
Titanic-James Horner (1997)
These are just 6 scores that come to mind as incredibly memorable by the masses. The music in them can illicit fan boy gasps (Star Wars) or bring tears (Titanic). Music has a powerful hold on people, thus explaining why a film's score can be one of the most important elements of a film.
Throughout the years this category has looked incredibly different at the Academy Awards, the name of this category has changed, the people who were nominated has changed, the category was broken between musicals and other films, and at one point between dramas and comedies.
When this category began in 1934 the music director not the composer was honored with the award for best music scoring (from 1934-1937). From 1937 through 1945 every film that submitted in this category was considered a nominee. There were years during this period where there were anywhere from 14 to 11 nominees. From 1946 through 1961 the category was broken down into two categories, score of a dramatic or comedy picture and scoring for a musical picture. From 1962 through 1967 the two categories were original music score, and scoring of a music adaptation or treatment. These little changes went back and forth incorporating adapted scores, musical scores etc until 1984. In 1985 the category took on the title Best Original Score. There was only one more short period of delineation from 1995-1998 when the category was broken down into best dramatic score and best score for a musical or comedy. This changed back to the category that started in 1985 Best Original Score.
This award has evolved as music has evolved throughout film history. When musicals and adapted scores were in high use this category changed to honor scores that represented the best in music. During the 1960s and 1970s when musical films and adapted music was prominently used the Academy started to change the category around as they saw fit. Recently they have done this with the Best Picture category, their adjustments for this have not worked, and they need to go back to the drawing board. I think this category needs a good reboot or update as well.
In recent years many scores have been ruled ineligible, partly because many scores rely heavily on pre-existing material in their score. One example from this year is Drive, which is the best score of 2011. Last year four films did not make the cut: Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids are Alright, and True Grit. The Black Swan and True Grit were both scores and should have been considered for this category. 2009 saw another one of the best score black balled. Where the Wild Things Are was one of the best most unique scores of the decade and the Oscars ruling seems to raise a series of red flags. I noticed this pattern start two happen when two more great scores were ruled ineligible in 2007. Johnny Greenwood did the breathtaking score for There will be Blood and Eddie Vedder did the haunting score for Into the Wild. These snubs are unacceptable, and the Academy needs to take note of the scores that are being left behind by these rulings. A lot of the rulings for ineligibility seemed to be associated with non traditional music composers.
Film scores are evolving. One of the trends happening here is that former successful musicians are breaking out from their traditional form of music and creating music for films that is not only creating an evolution for scoring, but for the emotional context of films. Last year Trent Reznor won for scoring The Social Network with Atticus Ross. This year the duo did the score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and were snubbed. I feel as though this branch is feeling a bit protective and becoming a bit snobby.
With several impressive score missing from this year, and in recent years this category has become boring. Here are the nominees for Best Original Score this year:
The Adventures of Tinitin-John Williams
The Artist-Ludovic Bource
Hugo-Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy-Alberto Iglesias
War Horse-John Williams
(The clip below is a compilation of all this years scores)
Honestly there is no much debate about this years best score winner. This is one award in the technical categories that will easily go to The Artist, the only spoiler could be Howard Shore's Hugo. While I do not want to take anything away from these men there were numerous scores snubbed because they do not fit within the norm. I think it's time for the Academy to make a change and adapt this category.
Today there is one thing that bring audiences to the movies more than famous actors, and that is the visual effects. From the creation of new lands like in Avatar to giant robots trying to save the world in the Transformers series, movie goers are drawn into films because of amazing visual effects.
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away this category had a different name at the Academy Awards. From 1939 to 1962 the award was called Best Special Effects and was shared with the Sound Effects nominations. This may explain why the famous burning scene did not clinch this award for Gone with the Wind in 1939, but I still am baffled as to how this film lost this award. I digress. In 1963 the award was called Best Special Effects, and from 1964 through 1971 the award was called Best Special Visual Effects. Ironically in 1972 the category received the name it has today Best Visual Effects. From 1972-1997 the visual effects award was a special achievement award, but in 1977 the award also was formed to be what it we know today
What film helped launch this category to what it is today? In 1977 George Lucas brought to life the visual masterpiece (at the time) Star Wars. When audiences saw what Lucas had done with these visual effects creating a whole new galaxy filled with a death star, tie fighters, wookies, light sabers and so much more the world was blown away. Audiences lined up and made this film a phenomenon. Star Wars changed the landscape for visual effects and made audiences, and people continue to push the boundaries further and further. Lucas took audiences to a new galaxy in a way that was never done before, and this made film makers who had an interest in working with this technology push studios to spend more money to make films that not only explosions but made the extraordinary possible.
Star Wars was the first winner of the Best Visual Effects Academy Award (award with that title), and that is fitting. in the following years the award went to Superman (1978), Alien (1979), Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. (1982), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) Jurassic Park (1993), Titanic (1997), The Matrix (1999), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003), Avatar (2009), and Inception (2010).
Each of these films listed above is pretty impressive. These films are also some of the highest grossing films of all time. Audiences love visual effects and if you look at this category today the 5 films in this category for 2012 have almost doubled the gross of the 9 Best Picture nominees. So the big questions are, is Hollywood missing something and where is the disconnect? Since 1977 when the category became what it is today 13 of the winners have been Best Picture nominees. 13 out of the the last 35 years. Sure there have also been Best Picture nominees that have been in this category that did not win, but usually when a Best Picture nominee was in this category it won.
I feel as though this problem speaks to a much larger disconnect within the Academy. Awardsdaily.com released statistics of the Academy voters and it was no surprise that most of the voters were old white men who had not been nominated or won an award themselves. How does this effect this category? Most of the films that fit within this category would be cited as genre films, like Rise of the Planet of the Apes or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Beyond Lord of the Rings the Academy has proven to avoid genre films like the plague. Voters go for films centered around the Holocaust or wars rather than the earth being overrun by apes or a boy wizard because they think this means people will take them more seriously. the problem with this logic is that people, the American public would rather see them nominate/honor films like this years Apes and Harry Potter not The Artist. I hope the Academy takes a look at this delineation and does something about this problem. Note: The solution is not to create genre awards like at the Broadcast Film Critics Awards, but to realize that genre films have a place in the film time capsule.
Onto this year's nominees in this category, and here they are:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformer: Dark of the Moon
Logically the winner will be Hugo. Since 1977 there has been no film that was nominated for Best Picture and did not win this award. Hugo would be the first to lose. Before I tackle who I think will win, I am going to rule out the obvious. Real Steel is the first to get crossed off, this has no shot. Transformers is out too, if neither of the first two films could win, the third film is out. This leaves three. I would pick Potter, but bloggers and journalist seem to have a strong yearning for Apes. Based on history I am going to go with Hugo and Apes as a very close second.
Prediction: Hugo
Very Close Second: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Spoiler: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
The opening line to the Star Trek film and television series is "Space the final Frontier." As I watched
