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After honoring names outside of Hollywood's mainstream in 2013, the top choices
for 2014 move back into more familiar territory, though the top nominees include scores for
films produced in countries all around the planet. This year witnessed the end of the long
saga of Middle Earth music from Howard Shore and an influx of other music from ancient times,
often related to biblical and mythological heroes.
Indeed, it was a strong year for historical epics and fairy tales, some of the most mammoth
scores of the year proving to be its best. Also unlike 2013 was the balance between
four-star scores with five-star moments and the alternative, 2014 opting for more five-star
scores of distinguished but not necessarily classic accomplishment throughout their lengths.
Thus, while there were plenty of great scores to honor this year, there were fewer truly
outstanding singular moments considered for the "Best Cue" category.
There is no doubt anywhere in the film music industry that 2014 was one of immense achievement
for French composer Alexandre Desplat, who breezed through major awards ceremonies and most
fans' and film music critics' choices with ease. While Desplat may not have received a "Top
Film Score" nomination from Filmtracks this year, his win as "Best Composer" is
unquestionable, joined by a pair of "Best Cue" nominations. John Powell also received three
nominations, followed by David Newman, Howard Shore, Naoki Sato, and Christopher Young with
two each. Despite Desplat's domination of the year, however, it is James Newton Howard who
wins the total nomination count, with a rare five in one year.
There had never before been a tie for "Top Film Score" at Filmtracks, but
after weeks of deliberation, there was no other solution to the dilemma posed by 2014's top
two scores. Powell's intelligently frenetic How to Train Your Dragon 2 was originally
slated to win this category, but Newman's surprisingly solid Tarzan could not be
discounted. Both barely edged Howard's occasionally beautiful Maleficent, the three
making for an excellent trio of orchestral and choral majesty. In the second tier are Shore's
still immense The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Young's less known (and
initially unreleased) but truly impressive guilty pleasure, The Monkey King.
The composers nominated for this award in 2014 have all been there before, Shore and Howard
most frequently. Both are prior winners as well. This is Young's third top nomination is the
last six years and Powell's first since the original How to Train Your Dragon. Newman's
nomination follows his last for 2001's The Affair of the Necklace. The year represents
the first wins for Powell and Newman, though Powell had previously taken home the award for
"Best Composer" in 2010. The runner-up in 2014 is Tuomas Kantelinen for The Legend of
Hercules, a badly underrated score harmed by its mix and album presentation. The honorable
mentions rounding out the year are Desplat's accomplished The Imitation Game, Danny Elfman's
deviously clever The Unknown Known, Gustavo Dudamel's impressive film music foray in
The Liberator, Alberto Iglesias and others' combined efforts for the epic Exodus:
Gods and Kings, and Joel McNeely's humorous parody, A Million Ways to Die in the
West.
Like Brian Tyler in 2013, Desplat managed to combine both quality and
quantity over many entries 2014, with the combination of five solid scores yielding no
classics but an undeniable plethora of effective work. He has been nominated in this category
numerous times before and won the same award in 2007. Coming in second place is James Newton
Howard, also no stranger to this category, with a strong pair of blockbuster fantasy efforts.
Other nominees this year include Naoki Sato, who produced a wide variety of entertaining
scores in 2014, Marco Beltrami, who took the more somber and respectable route to his success
this year, and Joel McNeely, who not only returned once again to the affable Tinker
Bell franchise but conjured one of the best parody scores in recent times for A Million
Ways to Die in the West. Sato and Beltrami had been nominated before in this category.
This field was easier to select that 2013's, with fewer standout cues
competing for inclusion in the standard maximum of twenty nominated cues in the category. Only
How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Maleficent placed two cues in the final nominees,
with the former almost earning a third placement. Ultimately, the cues best vying for the
award were "Ironfoot" from The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (the extended
version), "Niu Mo Wang, the Buffalo Demon King" from The Monkey King, and the duo of
"Dragon Racing" and "Hiccup the Chief/Drago's Coming" from How to Train Your Dragon 2.
In the end, it was difficult to argue with the immensity, length, and clash of cultural sounds
in Young's "Niu Mo Wang, the Buffalo Demon King" from The Monkey King.
In the second tier of competition in this category for 2014 was the lovely "Quien Puede
Detener la Lluvia?" from Dudamel's The Liberator, the awkwardly spliced but still
fantastic "To War" from Kantelinen's The Legend of Hercules, the pair of "Maleficent
Flies" and Maleficent Suite" from Maleficent, the infectiously optimistic "Growing Up"
from Newman's Tarzan, and the precise, characteristically "Elfmanesque" skewering in
"Two Sides" from The Unknown Known. Off in its own area due to its combination with
song material is Howard and company's "The Hanging Tree" from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part
1. Cues from other mainstream hits include "First Flight" from Henry Jackman's Big Hero
6, "Back to the Ocean" from Desplat's Godzilla, and "The Ahkmnerah Expedition" from
Silvestri's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
The less heralded cues to make list in 2014 are "The Confession" from Arnau Bataller's The
Brotherhood, "U-Boats" from Desplat's The Imitation Game, "Ryan, Mr. President"
from Patrick Doyle's Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, "Cotton Aberration" from Jo
Yeong-Wook's Kundo: Age of the Rampant, "Sortie d'ecole" from Philippe Rombi's The
New Girlfriend, and "Flame Demise" from Sato's Rurouni Kenshin: Densetsu No Saigo
Hen. That last one represents the second cue nominated from Sato's stylish Rurouni
Kenshin franchise music.
Just missing the cut in 2014 are "Moses' Camp" by Alberto Iglesias and Federico Jusid for
Exodus: Gods and Kings, Clint Mansell's "Make Thee an Ark" for Noah, Fernando
Velazquez's "Arrival at Lord Cotys' City" for Hercules, and three cues from scores with
at least one cue already nominated: "Battle of the Bewilderbeast" from Powell's How to
Train Your Dragon 2, "The Fall of Argos" from Kantelinen's The Legend of Hercules,
and "Detainees" from Elfman's The Unknown Known.
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