Composing Greatness: #12. Thomas Newman - "Passengers" (2016)

Scene from Passengers

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.

Series Composer: Thomas Newman

Entry: Passengers (2016)

Collaborators (If Available): N/A

Nomination: Best Original Score 

Did He Win: No

Other Nominees:
-La LaLand (Justin Hurwitz)*winner
-Lion (Hauschka & Dustin O'Halloran)
-Jackie (Mika Levi)
-Moonlight (Nicholas Britell)

Additional Information

This is to help provide perspective of where each composer is in their Oscar-nominated life as it related to the current entry.

Oscar Nomination: 13

Oscar Wins: 0

Track List

1. "The Starship Avalon - Main Title"
2. "Hibernation Pod 1625"
3. "Command Ring"
4. "Rate 2 Mechanic"
5. "Awake for 7 Days"
6. "Crystalline"
7. "Precious Metals"
8. "Aurora"
9. "Robot Questions"
10. "The Sleeping Girl"
11. "Build a House and Live In It"
12. "I Tried Not To..."
13. "Spacewalk"
14. "Passengers"
15. "50% of Light Speed"
16. "CascadeFailure"
17. "Zero-Gravity"
18. "Never Happy Here"
19. "Red Giant"
20. "Looking for Wrong"
21. "Chrysler Bldg."
22. "Untethered"
23. "You Brought Me Back"
24. "Starlit"
25. "Accidental Happiness"
26. "Sugarcoat The Galaxy"

Note: Listen to 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.

Theme Exploration:

"The Starship Avalon - Main Theme"

The most interesting thing about this series on Thomas Newman has been the general diversity by which his scores seem to be. There's no distinct style sometimes that defines his nominations, and this feels like even more of a departure. Even if you could argue that the ambient quality is reminiscent of American Beauty, it's still more ethereal than that, managing to capture an atmospheric build as it dives into something more meditative, driven by chimes in a way that allows the listener to hear something in between the notes. It's not one of his more interesting main themes, but it definitely is different from the competition surrounding this nomination.

Interesting Standout:

"Starlit"

As a whole, the score is generally more ambient and driven by a spacial sound. Here we get one of the tracks that is stripped down, almost absent of less orchestral instruments. It is mostly a piano this time around and, like the best of Thomas Newman, manages to capture some deeper emotion as the melody plays out. It's more noticeable given that it comes towards the end of the score in a period where most of the music is loud, aggressive, and chaotic. There's power in the piano's quietness that elevates this above other album standouts, mostly in terms of building and instrumental selections. It's not an incredibly iconic track by any imagination, but it's still in the vein of Newman's signatures, which is good enough.

Best Moment:

"Looking for Wrong"

While most of the score seems to be lacking in a nice balance of instrumentation, this particular track pushes everything into an exciting direction. The melodies can be intense at times, relying on harpsichord as well as strings to create this whirlwind of sound that is vintage Thomas Newman. You're left wondering what this score would sound like if it had more personality, if it was allowed to pursue such an oddball structure. This track is so much fun and evidence that outer space doesn't need to be simply spectral. It can be so much more if you're allowed to produce instrumentation and melodies that sound like they may contradict, but actually go very well together.

Did This Deserve an Oscar Nomination?:
No

It is a tough call, especially given that the latter half is a fairly solid exploration of Thomas Newman's style. He makes the most of it melodically and the soundtrack as a whole is another solid experience. However, there isn't too much here that's necessarily exciting or new from the composer. He has played with atmosphere better before, and he's even done instrumental layering with more interesting results than he does here. It's a decent score, but it falls short of any of his best work, unfortunately. It probably compliments the movie very well but as a standalone score, it leaves a lot to be desired. There's moments that work beautifully, but the rest is kind of filler, especially given how many other 2016 films probably had better scores up for contention.

Best Theme

A ranking of all themes composed by Thomas Newman.
1. "Dead Already" - American Beauty (1999)
2. "Wow" - Finding Nemo (2003)
3. "Orchard House" - Little Women (1994)
4. "Rock Island, 1931" - Road to Perdition (2002)
5. "Shawshank Prison (Stoic Theme)" - The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
6. "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul" - Skyfall (2012)
7. "2815 A.D." - WALL-E (2008)
8. "Travers Goff" - Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
9. "Unrecht Oder Recht (Main Titles)" - The Good German (2006)
10. "The Bad Beginning" - A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
11. "The Starship Avalon - Main Titles" - Passengers (2006)
12. "End Titles" - Unstrung Heroes (1995)

Best Song

A ranking of all songs composed by Thomas Newman.

1. "Down to Earth" - WALL-E (2008)

Conclusion

I chose Thomas Newman for this entry for a few reason. The most noteworthy is because I wanted to find someone that was the opposite of John Williams. Basically, who has been nominated a lot but hasn't won. Most of all, I wanted to understand what the appeal was for Newman and why he was considered one of our greatest living composers. It's safe to say that I generally have enjoyed his compositions and very few of his scores were anything below fine. I definitely think that he had more than enough quality work to deserve a win somewhere down the line, though I don't know where. I'm thinking that American Beauty or Finding Nemo would qualify as the two I would've given him bigger consideration for. Now that I know his style, I am hoping that he comes out with more Oscar-nominated material soon so that I can cover him yet again, because I do believe that he has to win for something. He's just so good at his job and I love what he does with instrumentation and layering. He's a lot more interesting than some composers, I'd even argue modern John Williams at times. 

Up Next

While Composing Greatness will be coming back, there will be a bit of a hiatus. Now that the series on Thomas Newman has reached completion, I am going to take some time off to focus on other content, such as A24 A-to-Z and Legitimate Theater. I plan to return with the column sometime in February to do a series on the five Oscar-nominated scores. When I return with a full length series, I hope to be covering a composer of some significance from further back in history, though I don't know who specifically yet. An announcement will be made when I figure that out. I don't know what they are at this moment, but I do hope they include First Man (Justin Hurwitz) and If Beale Street Could Talk (Nicholas Britell). Until then, I hope you have had a great year and I look forward to continuing my Oscar coverage in 2019.