Composing Greatness: #15. The Freshman Class of the 2010's - "BlacKkKlansman" (2017)

Scene from BlacKkKlansman

Welcome to Composing Greatness: a column dedicated to exploring the work of film composers. This will specifically focus on the films that earned them Oscar nominations while exploring what makes it so special. This will be broken down into a look at the overall style, interesting moments within the composition, and what made the score worth nominating in the first place. This will also include various subcategories where I will rank the themes of each film along with any time that the composer actually wins. This is a column meant to explore a side of film that doesn't get enough credit while hopefully introducing audiences to an enriched view of more prolific composers' work. This will only cover scores/songs that are compiled in an easily accessible format (so no extended scores will be considered). Join me every Sunday as I cover these talents that if you don't know by name, you recognize by sound.

*NOTE: Originally ran as part of Oscars 2018 Edition coverage

Series Composer: Terence Blanchard

Entry: BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Collaborators (If Available): N/A

Nomination: Best Original Score

Other Nominees:
-Black Panther (Ludwig Goransson)
-If Beale Street Could Talk (Nicholas Brittell)
-Isle of Dogs (Alexandre Desplat)
-Mary Poppins Returns (Marc Shaiman)

Note: Listen to the score here.

Exploring the Music

The area of the column where I will explore the music in as much detail as I see fit for each entry.

What's So Great About It?

The whole existence of BlacKkKlansman as an Oscar nominee feels like one of those great Trojan horses. Not only is Spike Lee overdue for a nomination (and, to editorialize, a win), but so is the oven more overlooked composer Terence Blanchard. What he does with this score is a rather incredible achievement that goes beyond great melodies. What he does here is expand upon Lee's text with music that deconstructs the 20th century's relation between music and cultural identity. Seeing as the films Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind are films described as promoting racism, the choice to use Max Steiner-esque strings subversively is very smart. As the album progresses and Ron infiltrates the Klan, funk of the 70's (like Shaft) begins to fall into the score and it becomes something bigger. In that way, it's one of the most ambitiously original scores of the year. It works if you don't have any basis for what it's skewering, but it works even better if you do.

What's So Bad About It?

My general gripe with scores that borrow from other scores is that it has disqualified so many great scores from ever getting nominations (see: The Godfather, There Will Be Blood) and it's a hard sticking point to see John Williams get nominated for five Star Wars scores. While I'm more forgiving of a score that borrows from Americana, it still is a sticking point. What Blanchard does with the music is essential and I think is itself an original concept. In fact, it makes the movie easily better by mixing history and melodrama in equal measure. This is a score that is made better if you understand its history, which is both a good and bad thing if you're calling it "original."

Did This Deserve an Oscar Nomination?:
Yes

There's a good chance that one would've thought as early as last January that Blanchard would never be an Oscar nominee. It's a bit of a travesty when you think about his lengthy career with Lee, though it adds a beautiful irony to see them go down together. That is why it feels encouraging to see them complimenting each other in the best ways possible, producing a score that is piercing in all of the best ways, managing to skewer classic cinema and 70's funk in equal measure while never feeling novelty. It's an accomplished piece of work and one of the few that will likely cause audiences to question how music impacts us on a subliminal level throughout history. It's a soundtrack that earns every beat, especially during the three part track where Blanchard is allowed to ruminate in darkness in a way that is haunting and powerful. Here's hoping that whatever he does next will not go unseen like his previous work at the Oscars.

Up Next: Nicholas Britell - If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) for Best Original Score

Best Theme

A ranking of all themes composed by The Freshman Class of the 2010's.

1. Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross: "Hand Covers Bruise" - The Social Network (2010)
2. John Powell: "This is Berk" - How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
3. Mica Levi: "Intro" - Jackie (2016)
4. Jonny Greenwood - Phantom Thread (2017)
5. Johan Johannsson: "Cambridge, 1963" - The Theory of Everything (2014)
6. Mychael Danna: "Piscine Molitar Patel" - Life of Pi (2012)
7. Will Butler & Owen Pallett: "Sleepwalker" - Her (2013)
8. Gary Yershon: "Mr. Turner" - Mr. Turner (2014)
9. Ludovic Bource: "The Artist Overture" - The Artist (2011)
10. Justin Hurwitz: "Mia Gets Home" - La La Land (2016)
11. Johan Johannsson: "The Armored Vehicle" - Sicario (2015)
12. Terrence Blanchard: "Gone With the Wind" - BlacKkKlansman (2018)
13. Nicholas Britell: "Little's Theme" - Moonlight (2016)
14. Hauschka & Dustin O'Halloran: "Train" - Lion (2016)
15. Steven Price: "Above Earth" - Gravity (2013)