Composing Greatness: #13. Thomas Newman - "1917" (2019)

Scene from 1917 (2019)

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: Is also running as part of the Oscars 2020 Edition series

Series Composer: Thomas Newman

Entry: 1917 (2019)

Collaborators (If Available): N/A

Nomination: Best Original Score

Other Nominees:
-Joker (Hildur Guonadottir)
-Marriage Story (Randy Newman)
-Little Women (Alexandre Desplat)
-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (John Williams)

Track List

1. "1917"

2. "Up the Down Trench"

3. "Gehenna"

4. "A Scrap of Ribbon"

5. "The Night Window"

6. "The Boche"

7. "Tripwire"

8. "A Bit of Tin"

9. "Lockhouse"

10. "Blake and Schofield"

11. "Milk"

12. "Ecoust-Saint-Mein"

13. "Les Arbres"

14. "Englander"

15. "The Rapids"

16. "Croisilles Wood"

17. "Sixteen Hundred Men"

18. "Mentions in Dispatches"

19. "Come Back to Us"

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?

With a career, this storied, Thomas Newman keeps finding new ways to outdo himself. In this case, a lot of credit can be given to how he tracks Sam Mendes' one-take approach that forces Newman to be more precise in his melodic structure. Even then, his strings swell better than ever, his intensity puts the viewer on edge, and it creates the atmosphere so grandiose that this ranks among his best work. Who could not be in awe when listening to this score as if seeing just how big the world around 1917's characters is? No film nominated here even comes close to the wonder that he puts into this atmosphere, making something so big at times and emotionally intimate at others that capture what makes him one of the greatest overlooked composers of the past 30 years.

What's So Bad About It?

What's so bad is if Thomas Newman manages to go another year without winning this award. It feels overdue by a considerable margin. This year would be especially offensive given that almost every other nominee feels like it has a handicap of sorts that is trying to make this the year of 1917 and Newman winning. Here is arguably the only score to fluctuate and grow with each scene, made all the more impressive by how he times it to Sam Mendes' camera work, adding and subtracting tempo while having the most interesting use of instrumentation by any one nominee. 

Did This Deserve an Oscar Nomination?:
Yes

If the world was just, this will be Thomas Newman's overdue win. It does feel ironic that it took until someone else doing a Little Women score for him to breakthrough, but that's just coincidental. What he does with a war score here is to mix the melancholic woes of Saving Private Ryan with the raw intensity of Dunkirk and gives the listener a powerful experience and the viewer something even richer. There hasn't really been a war score that captivates and expands with as much awe as this. Considering how weak the competition is this year, one could hope that this is the year where things go Newman's way. It would be more than a legacy win. It would be one exemplifying his best work in many years (and even nominations) and reflects the film score in all of its best and proper forms. 

Up Next: Hildur Guonadottir - Joker for Best Original Score

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. "1917" - 1917 (2019)
5. "Rock Island, 1931" - Road to Perdition (2002)
6. "Shawshank Prison (Stoic Theme)" - The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
7. "Grand Bazaar, Istanbul" - Skyfall (2012)
8. "2815 A.D." - WALL-E (2008)
9. "Travers Goff" - Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
10. "Unrecht Oder Recht (Main Titles)" - The Good German (2006)
11. "The Bad Beginning" - A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)
12. "The Starship Avalon - Main Titles" - Passengers (2006)
13. "End Titles" - Unstrung Heroes (1995)

Best Song

A ranking of all songs composed by Thomas Newman.

1. "Down to Earth" - WALL-E (2008)

Rank the Nominees

1. Thomas Newman - 1917
2. Alexandre Desplat - Little Women
3. Randy Newman - Marriage Story
4. John Williams - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker