There Will Be Blood: The Brilliant Score of Jonny Greenwood
In a sinful omission, composer Jonny Greenwood’s score for P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood will be missing from Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony. But more on that later. Think about the type of score you’d create for Goethe’s Faust. For Dostoyevsky. Jonny Greenwood (below) is the way to go.
His score for There Will Be Blood is maniacal, engaging, methodical. His work progresses along with the film as a whole and Daniel Plainview, the lead character played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Every note becomes entrenched with immorality, bloodlust, greed and disgust of human existence.
The opening song, the haunting “Henry Plainview,” creates a sense of a beginning. From there, each song is a re-creation, distortion or classical music piece, making the picture what it is. “Future Markets” and “Proven Lands” are great examples of character theme songs — for a character like Mephistopheles.
There Will Be Blood deals with a lot of issues: capitalism, religion, morals, ethics, family. And this soundtrack brings light — or darkness if you prefer — to these discussions.
In terms of the combination of photography and music, many have compared the opening of There Will Be Blood with Stanley Kubrick’s opening scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not a comparison to be overlooked.
In my opinion, this is the best score we’ve heard from an American film in a long time. Before seeing There Will Be Blood, I thought James Newton Howard’s Michael Clayton score was the best of the year. I was wrong. And while Mr. Howard is nominated for Best Original Score, Mr. Greenwood is not. According to Pitchfork.com, Greenwood’s score has been disqualified because “the majority of the music was not composed specifically for the film.”
I, and many other fans of the picture and score, are appalled at this lack of nomination.
If you haven’t seen There Will Be Blood, we at the Lobby highly recommend it. If you don’t plan on seeing it, we suggest listening to the soundtrack. And if you agree with our opinion, do what you can to let the Academy know of your disapproval of their blackout of Jonny Greenwood.
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