Not the strongest of years, 2017 passed without any
momentous, spectacularly new scores for a fresh concept despite many
solid efforts by some of the industry's stalwarts. In Filmtracks' 2016
awards, it was mentioned that no film score from that year could have
competed with John Williams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens from
2015, and the same can be said of all scores in 2017 as well. Nothing
from this year will be recalled in the future as a true "classic."
Like 2016, multiple four-star scores are represented in the top five
overall this year, and the selections are weighted towards the genre of
historical drama. While Williams' enduring productivity is no longer as
widely awarded (or even acclaimed in the mainstream) as it once was, he
dominates the Filmtracks awards in 2017. Casual listeners may take his
continuing presence for granted, but the maestro's ability to exercise
precise emotional responses in his music remains unmatched by the
younger generations of composers.
Only rarely does one composer sweep all three of Filmtracks' award
categories, but Williams' impressive duo of Star Wars: The Last
Jedi and Dear Basketball earn him that challenging task.
Williams leads the field with five nominations, followed closely by two
composers with impressive years; both Benjamin Wallfisch and Patrick
Doyle are rewarded with four nominations. In a breakthrough year, George
Kallis receives three nominations, and Alan Menken, A.R. Rahman, and
Michael Giacchino follow with two apiece.
Critics and mainstream audiences varied considerably
in their determinations about the best film music of 2017, though
Alexandre Desplat's
The Shape of Water and Jonny Greenwood's
Phantom Thread received the bulk of such recognition. In the
fantasy and science fiction realms, Desplat's
Valerian and the City
of a Thousand Planets and Williams'
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
were widely applauded by film music collectors. Sadly ignored was an incredible
score re-envisioning for Disney's
Beauty and the Beast, perhaps in part
due to its release early in the year.
At Filmtracks, the top 2017 award was only a two-horse race,
Star
Wars: The Last Jedi and
Beauty and the Beast battling in a
game of nostalgia that the latter soundtrack lost, not due to the
magnificently mature evolution of Menken's score, but because of the
questionable vocal casting that nearly ruined some of the inextricably
accompanying songs. Williams' mastery of the "Star Wars" genre, despite
many misgivings we might have about the film itself, is nearly
unassailable, his music superior and exhilarating beyond all
reasonable expectations.
In third and fourth place, respectively, come Rahman's heartbreaking
Viceroy's House and Wallfisch's respectful
Bitter Harvest,
both thoughtful, melodic, and engaging ethnic dramas overachieving their
productions. Rounding out the top five is Doyle's superbly intelligent
Murder on the Orient Express, one of the best musical narratives
of any score in recent times. Just missing the cut is the sadly
underappreciated
The Mummy by Brian Tyler, a true romp of an
adventure score that wears its rambunctious heart on its sleeve without
hesitation.
While some listeners will disqualify Williams'
Dear Basketball
because it exists for an animated short film, no other score of 2017
elicits as much raw emotion as this brief work. Behind it in the
remaining top ten are Kallis' raucously entertaining
The Last
Warrior, Desplat's highly textured and wildly eclectic
Valerian
and the City of a Thousand Planets, and, bringing up the rear,
Theodore Shapiro's extremely amusing
Captain Underpants: The First
Epic Movie, a heroic endeavor complete with choral accents not
easily forgotten even if you wish to.
In 2011, Patrick Doyle and John Williams were
entangled in a race for the "Top Composer" award at Filmtracks up until
the very end, and 2017 reprised that matchup. This time, however,
Williams prevails, earning the award for the first time since his
semi-retirement after 2005. Though Doyle's
The Emoji Movie and
A United Kingdom, the latter arguably a 2016 film, are strong
entries to consider alongside
Murder on the Orient Express, one
simply cannot dismiss the impressive reliability of Williams' continued
output at his age.
A trio of mainstream successes for Michael Giacchino afford him a
much-deserved nomination, his music for
Coco an especially
difficult and rewarding assignment and
War for the Planet of the
Apes no less an intellectual challenge despite its more accessible
payoff at the end. Benjamin Wallfisch and George Kallis both experienced
breakthrough years with significant quantities of interesting music.
Wallfisch overcomes some poor collaborative work with Hans Zimmer to
achieve a nomination due to the strengths of
Bitter Harvest and
A Cure For Wellness while Kallis impresses with the accomplished
international trio of
The Last Warrior,
Albion: The Enchanted
Stallion, and
The Black Prince.
In restricting this category to twenty choices, three
or four outstanding cues were struck from the list in final survey of
the year. As per usual in recent years, the top twenty "Top Film Cue"
selections are supplemented by five top runner-ups and over a dozen
other cues that were considered up until the very end of the campaign.
For the second year in a row, no single score produced two cues on the
list of nominees.
Despite no personal interest in basketball, the Los Angeles Lakers, or
star Kobe Bryant and his retirement, John Williams provided in just a
few minutes of recordings for
Dear Basketball a universal
expression of aspiration, appreciation, and gratitude. The animated
short film is beautifully rendered, and Williams' music can reduce you
to tears with its vintage orchestral mastery. The lack of sufficient
critical recognition in 2017 and 2018 for this beautiful, albeit brief
score is tragic, and its single cue prior to the end credits prevails
here with ease.
The other most competitive cues for this category in 2017 are Conrad
Pope's "Love" from
The Boss Baby, a romantic "guest cue" by the
veteran orchestrator to an otherwise average score, Alan Menken's
massively evolved "Wolves Attack Belle" from
Beauty and the
Beast, Williams' extremely memorable "The Spark" from
Star Wars:
The Last Jedi, Naoki Sato's utterly gorgeous "Main Theme" from
Honnouji Hotel, and Mark Mothersbaugh's ridiculously fun
"Ragnarok Suite" from
Thor: Ragnarok, one of the most ballsy film
score arrangements of the decade.
In the second tier of this category are Michael Giacchino's highly
impactful "Crossing the Marigold Bridge" from
Coco, Benjamin
Wallfisch's devastating "Elegy For Ukraine" from
Bitter Harvest,
Don Davis' resoundingly melodic "The Kaneki Metamorphosis" from
Tokyo
Ghoul, Theodore Shapiro's hilariously victorious "Saving the Day"
from
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, and a pair of
assembled suites that, on album, represent the listening highlights from
their scores: "The Mummy End Title Suite" from Brian Tyler's
The
Mummy and "Orient Express Suite" summarizing the brighter elements
of Patrick Doyle's
Murder on the Orient Express.
Rounding out the "Top Film Cue" nominees in 2017 are A.R. Rahman's
optimistically buoyant "Swearing In" from
Viceroy's House, Marc
Shaiman's propulsive and stately "Writing the Speech" from
LBJ,
Wallfisch's eerily alluring "Actually I'm Feeling Much Better" from
A
Cure For Wellness, Doyle's keen synthetic/symphonic blend in "Gene
Saves Textopolis" from
The Emoji Movie, Williams' nervous
anticipation in "The Presses Roll" from
The Post, Alexandre
Desplat's stylish "Medusa" from
Valerian and the City of a Thousand
Planets, and a pair of George Kallis' fantasy and adventure cues
from the year: "A Wonderful Place of Nature" from
Albion: The
Enchanted Stallion and "The Battle for the Crystal" from
The Last
Warrior.
Barely missing the cut in this category are two remarkable runner-up
cues from best score nominees: Menken's "Wolf Chase" from
Beauty and
the Beast (its sibling cue nominated above) and Williams' "Holdo's
Resolve" for the extraordinary suicide ramming scene of
Star Wars:
The Last Jedi (worked into the end credits arrangement on album).
Also in contention were Michael Giacchino's redemptive "Paradise Found"
from
War for the Planet of the Apes, Nicholas Britell's ebullient
"Victory" from
Battle of the Sexes, and Andrew Lockington's
inspirational melodic highlight, "Biplane," from
The Space Between
Us.
Although eliminated earlier in the selection process, the following cues
(listed alphabetically by film title) were short-listed for
consideration: Nigel Westlake's tasteful ethnic blend in "Train Station
Wedding" from
Ali's Wedding, Menken's poignantly summarizing
"Overture" from
Beauty and the Beast, Wallfisch's stoic but
pretty regional theme in "Rusalka" from
Bitter Harvest, Kallis'
impressively layered "Death and Coronation" from
The Black
Prince, Christopher Willis' humorously pompous "Let the People Come"
from
The Death of Stalin, Rolfe Kent's bright and airy "The World
is Amazed" from
Downsizing, and Doyle's agonizingly effective
"Justice" from
Murder on the Orient Express, a cue that could
have enjoyed a nomination without much controversy.
Also falling out of the top 25 cues were Diego Navarro's string and
piano melodicism in "Passage to Dawn Main Theme" from
Passage to
Dawn, Gabriel Yared's feathery and ethereal "Farewell" from
The
Prophet, Akira Senju's vocalized lyricism in "Reminiscence (End
Theme)" from
Reminiscence, Williams' exciting "Escape" from
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Desplat's awe-inspiring "Pearls Power"
from
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, and Rupert
Gregson-Williams and Thomas Farnon's heroic attitude in "Lightning
Strikes" from
Wonder Woman.
