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Composer: Thomas Newman
By Danny
West
Is this the year that
Newman gets his due?
This will be the first in a short series of articles dedicated to
uplifting some of the most important off-screen stars around: composers.
Their very involvement in film is a paradox. Their goal is to be present
enough to create mood and atmosphere that’s striking, but invisible to
the point that the viewer’s emotion and expectation aren’t even aware
that they’re privy to the graceful ever-drifting hand of the composer.
It’s hard to start anywhere else. Thomas Newman
is largely unknown to the casual movie goer, but is near the top of the
list in terms of important Hollywood players. Newman was born into his
role. He was birthed right in Los Angeles and received his degree from
Yale. His father was a nine-time Oscar winning composer and his uncle
won a single Oscar for 1969’s Hello, Dolly! Astoundingly, Newman
himself has been given a call eight times, but has yet to win.
Some of his most famous work includes the mostly
conventional, but appropriate arrangements behind Andy and Red in The
Shawshank Redemption, the stressful perilous movements throughout
Finding Nemo and perhaps most notably, his bizarre and catchy
percussion dropped throughout American Beauty. This project
garnered him a Grammy award as well as some hardware from BAFTA. The
clingy pots and pans vibe that accompanied the film is perhaps the best
exhibition of good aural formalism onscreen and in ears in recent
memory. Newman has also been credited with television themes, such as
the recent hit show, “Six Feet Under.”
Credibility must be lent to AMPAS, at least in the music
department, for their ears-on-alert attitude towards Newman and other
composers in the industry. Several times, a film has gone completely by
the wayside, but the musical contributions by Newman were praised and
acclaimed. 1995’s Unstrung Heroes made a relatively minimal
splash, but Newman was nominated for the Oscar. Other examples of this
his work on 2006’s The Good German as well as the soundtrack to
the entertaining kid’s romp Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate
Events.
In 1994, Newman was the only dual-nominee at The Academy
Awards. There’s a decent chance, that in 2008 the same will occur.
Newman’s scores this year will include Wall-E, another
collaboration with Pixar and also Revolutionary Road. If
you’re a follower of the awards circuit, but not a follower of the Best
Original Score category due to a lack of someone to pull for, look no
further.
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