Composing Greatness: #7. "A Beautiful Mind" (2001)

Scene from A Beautiful Mind

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.

Composing Greatness' Next Subject Is... James Horner!

Scene from Titanic

After a longer than expected hiatus, it's time for the return of Composing Greatness. The column recognizes the best in movie music composition by analyzing the work of greats through their Oscar-nominated work. Past subjects have included such figures as John Williams, Rachel Portman, and Thomas Newman. In the latest installment, I thought that I would shift focus to someone whose work holds a significant place in pop culture in a different way. This Oscar-nominated composer not only received nominations for three Best Picture winners but also worked on two of the highest grossing movies in box office history. Who is this amazing talent? Read on to find out!

Nothing But the Best: "A Beautiful Mind" (2001)

Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind

Welcome to the series Nothing But the Best in which I chronicle all of the Academy Award Best Picture winners as they celebrate their anniversaries. Instead of going in chronological order, this series will be presented on each film's anniversary and will feature personal opinions as well as facts regarding its legacy and behind the scenes information. The goal is to create an in depth essay for each film while looking not only how the medium progressed, but how the film is integral to pop culture. In some cases, it will be easy. Others not so much. Without further ado, let's start the show.

Check This Out: The Academy Remembers 9/11

Tom Cruise

On this date in 2001, a major tragedy struck America in which two planes flew into The Twin Towers. From there, uncertainty arose and the future didn't look as optimistic as it once did. For many, it was a question as to when we could laugh and enjoy ourselves again. For the state of New York especially, the involvement of Mayor Giuliani was crucial and the weeks and months surrounding that day was bleak. Thankfully, with his involvement on a Saturday Night Live episode, the world was able to persevere. Even The Oscars had that same question arise when it came to their 2002 ceremony: should they continue? They did, with a few surprising, moving tributes to film and the state in general.

R.I.P. James Horner (1953-2015)

On Monday, June 22, film composer James Horner died in a plane crash around Los Padres National Forest in California. He was an advocate for aviation and was one of many who owned personal planes. In a way, it was like the music that he composed for various epics with their soaring, enchanting beauty that took us someplace unexpected. His prolific output made him a household name and his collaborations with director James Cameron meant that he scored the two highest grossing films in history: Titanic and Avatar. What the legendary composer leaves behind is an impressive body of work that redefined how music was used in film and how it could impact our emotional responses. 

R.I.P. John Forbes Nash (1928-2015)

John Forbes Nash

This past Saturday, mathematician John Forbes Nash and his wife for close to 60 years Alicia died in a car crash. With an impressive career that earned him a Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, he influenced the the math world with his radical new ways of thinking with Game Theory. It even came to be that he earned the nickname of The Phantom of Fine Hall for his desires to scribble arcane equations in the middle of the night (a reference that made it into Rebecca Goldstein's "The Mind-Body Problem"). For a man with such a storied career going back to the 50's with a published paper on non-cooperative games, he left a valuable mark on the world that would be hard to properly summarize. This is largely because despite an amazing career with a lot of revolutionary ideas, he also developed mental illness - a notion that makes his achievements all the more interesting.

Review: "Rush" is Stuck in Second Gear

Left to right: Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl

It is an exciting time in movies, largely because we are officially in Oscar Buzz season. While we had some early trails in August, director Ron Howard's Rush kicks off endless weeks of new contenders and some that are still to surprise us. None would seem more surprising to be in the race than a Formula One Racing film that pits two rivals against each other and turns the tale of the need for speed into becoming competitive soul mates. While the automotives may make this seem like just an average racing movie, it has more going for it. 

Is "Rush" Capable of Putting Race Cars Into the Best Picture Category?

Daniel Bruhl

While I initially claimed that Oscar season began with The Butler back in August, it has seemed like a long, pointless gap between that film and the current stream of traffic. While I feel that Lee Daniel's look at American history will benefit from the earlier release, we are officially in the time when week-to-week, I will attempt to cover a lot more work than I normally do. As my predictions would imply the next few months starting this Friday will be a nonstop quest to catch them all and then speculate who will come out on top. It does seem poignant then that we begin season two of The Oscar Buzz properly with a Formula One racing movie: director Ron Howard's Rush.