Like the cycles of the Moon....

Hoo-boy. Anyone who peruses the FilmScoreMonthly message boards on a regular basis knows that every so often a bout of idolatry centered on composer Jerry Goldsmith erupts. It's almost always of one of two forms: generic griping that Goldsmith only won a single Oscar in his entire career (a legitimate beef, really, if one takes the Oscars at all seriously -- but then, Cary Grant never won one, and Ernie Banks never got to the World Series, and so on), or of the "Hey I just listened to [Goldsmith score for some film that nobody remembers outside of Goldsmith freaks], and it just proves how wonderful he was, Jerry we miss you!!!" variety. This wouldn't be worth commenting, really, except for the fact that the outbreak of the Goldsmith Cult almost always elicits response from its self-appointed high priest, the Objectivist Weirdo.

Here are some representative quotes from the current thread:

Something to re-emphasize on my part is that the "Best Score" category is inherently designed, logically, to honor the superlative dramatist--not the superlative composer as such, per se.

This is why Jerry rightfully said in 1983 that he had deserved to win nearly every Oscar race he'd ever lost; it's also why--conservatively speaking--he should have garnished at least a dozen statues for his mantle over the years.

After Jerry died last year, our own "Timmer" wrote the following at another music board: "Though Jerry Goldsmith was not my favourite...composer...no one before or since...better [wed] music to film!"

That, my friends, is the very least that rationally must be said of Jerry Goldsmith, and it is why his story is the greatest travesty in the history of the Academy Awards. [Emphasis in original]

Well...OK. That's just opinion, but OK.

Then someone says that Ennio Morricone's score to The Mission deserved its win over Goldsmith's score to Hoosiers. Now, you gotta understand, for reasons I've never entirely grasped Hoosiers is utterly beloved by Goldsmith fans. To me, it's nice, but it's not remotely as good as Goldsmith's work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Chinatown, Legend, or LA Confidential. But anyway, our Objectivist Hero responds thusly:

Hoosiers was [much] more dramatically effective and potent.

Why he puts "much" in brackets is beyond me. Again, a simple statement of opinion, but OK. (Except that, as we'll quickly discover, our Objectivist Hero doesn't believe this to be opinion.)

An interlocutor responds:

Errr...that would be a big "No" from me, Dan. I agree with you that JG wrote a slew of great scores, but SOMETIMES he did NOT write the best score of the year...

But it's your opinion, so I'll respect it.

Now, I've never been terribly excited by the work of Morricone, but I absolutely believe that The Mission is a better score than Hoosiers. The former has a far more interesting sound-world and its melodies go far beyond the latter's mere Americana. But anyway, our O.H. responds:

I agree that sometimes someone else wrote the best score of the year, as in--I'd contend--1975 or 1985 or 1994, for instance. [OK, I guess. -Ed.]

I'd also contend that it is not my opinion that Hoosiers was the best of the score nominees that year, but a matter of philosophically-demonstrable fact. It's simply inconceivable that The Mission is as communicatively pregnant and important as Hoosiers is. [Emphasis added. Here we go. -Ed.]

This assertion will certainly upset you, and although that's not my hope, it's not ultimately my concern for a number of reasons, either. As the old saying goes, opinions are like ass holes; if there's no quantifying the value of film scores, then there's really no point in analyzing them at all, much less bestowing them with awards. [He's off to the races now. -Ed.]

So someone else, who has a lot of experience in talking with O.H., interjects:

I often disagree with you, but have come to accept that doing so simply makes me wrong. That doesn't however stop me from having the stirrings of admiration for your single-mindedness.

I can't wait until someone invents a cure for the common cold or achieves world peace and then you somehow prove beyond all reasonable doubt that it was thanks to Jerry.

This post isn't meant to be provocative, and if anyone thinks it is, I can completely disprove it.

"Stirrings of admiration" for his single-mindedness? I've never found it anything other than supremely creepy. But to each his own, I suppose. The bit about world peace is pretty funny, because our O.H.'s history is precisely that: he elevates Jerry Goldsmith to demi-god status, at least in the realm of musical drama is concerned.

But here comes the really [unintentionally] funny response:

Actually, a way to achieve world peace has already been discovered, and it is thanks, not to Jerry, but to Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, the United States' framers, and Ayn Rand, among others perhaps. [Holy Crap, what a grab-bag that is. Ayn Rand as the prophet of world peace. Yup. -Ed.]

Dan

P.S: Note that sarcasm is invalid as argument, and that it does not impress me in this context. [BURN! or maybe not. -Ed.]

P.P.S: Pursue your values; accept no contradictions. [For some reason he's always trotting these two admonitions out. They're basically some kind of Objectivist speak, and rarely have any bearing on anything at all.]

Now, if you're wondering what "communicatively pregnant" means above, it's really not important. It all goes back to our O.H.'s attempts to concoct a full-blown philosophical theory of film scoring, from a standpoint that is totally devoid of understanding of how music works. Pay it no mind. Just bask in the pomposity of our would-be modern day Aristotle.