How the Star Wars Prequels Fared at the Oscars
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2024
- Although the original trilogy did well at the Academy Awards, the Star Wars prequels sadly crashed and burned. In this video, Andrew Campbell joins me for a discussion of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, and why all three ultimately flopped at the Oscars. #oscars #academyawards #starwars #theawardscontender
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WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY BRIAN ROWE
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I really think the Phantom Menace should have got into score, makeup and costume. I'm ok with Ep 2 getting just one nom, though Across the Stars (Love Theme) should have got John Williams another nomination IMO. But Ep. 3 should have got at least nominations for score, visual effects, costume and maybe sound or something, in addition to makeup.
I still find it confusing that all of the sequel trilogy got into Score, while there are some good themes in those movies, they do not come close to something like Duel of the Fates or Across the Stars...
Awesome topic! Great discussion :)
2011, a year with no Star Wars films or television series the franchise earned in merchandising sales the equal of what Rise of Skywalker (2019) earned through merchandise sales.Let that one sink in!
Also, another bit about the effects: the finalists lists.
Episode II only appeared in Visual Effects, but it didn’t get into the finalists for Sound Effects or Makeup.
Episode III, however, appeared in all three finalist lists, but by 2005, the tech categories proved that Star Wars wasn’t the technical milestone that the original trilogy was.
It made it in for Sound Effects, but was also in the running with the first Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, Walk the Line, King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha, & War of the Worlds, the latter three taking the three nominations (in the final year for three Sound Effects nominees).
Also, the finalists are a pretty good indicator of how the Sound Mixing category is going to look, and all three Sound Effects nominees got in for Sound Mixing, with the other two sound nominees going to Chronicles of Narnia & Walk the Line. Walk the Line was in, which we’d see with it winning the Cinema Audio Society award, but Narnia just had the full force of the Disney machine behind it’s nominations (and win for Makeup).
Visual Effects…even tougher. The other finalists it was up against were Batman Begins, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong, & War of the Worlds (the latter three getting the three nomination slots).
But 2005 makeup was pretty weak among the other finalists: A History of Violence, The Libertine, Mrs. Henderson Presents, & The New World.
That none - not a single one - of the prequels were nominated for an original score Oscar is simply absurd. It's some of Williams' best work!
The original trilogy films laid the groundwork but the prequels are a gold mine with more depth, nuance, and the added bonus of John Williams playing the role of time-travelling archaeologist, going back and setting up the scores he'd write nearly two decades before (examples of this are the Imperial March in Anakin's Theme, The Emperor's theme being present in Augie's Great Municipal Band, Across the Stars being a half step removed melodically from the Imperial March). The work he put in was immense for these scores, too, for example with Duel of the Fates it's based on a fragment of the epic Celtic poem _Cad Goddeu_ which was then translated back into it's original Celtic, into Greek, and then into the ancient - and now dead - language of Sanskrit, which he used for the purity of its vowels (it's essentially why Italian sounds better at the opera than English). Duel of the Fates is a banger, Across the Stars is arguably one of the greatest love themes EVER put to film - and yes, I think it hurt it that the romance it was there to support didn't carry it's own weight - and Revenge of the Sith is, arguably, the single greatest Star Wars soundtrack, obviously taking advantage of the work The Maestro put into the OT and earlier PT films: Battles of the Heroes/Anakin vs Obi-Wan, Anakin's Dark Deeds, Padmé's Ruminations, Anakin's Betrayal, The Immolation Scene, heck even General Grievous gets a banger of a theme in that film when he arrives on Utapau.
That every Star Wars film in the Skywalker Saga EXCEPT all three of the prequels landed at least nominations in the original score category is wild to me - even as someone who ADORES the soundtracks of the sequels, the prequels far surpass those scores in almost every way, despite having some obvious great tracks and themes themselves.
And this is just considering the music. Don't get me started on Ben Burtt's seismic charge from AOTC not getting a nom, Revenge of the Sith not getting anything for Best Visual Effects - I watched it again just the other day and the overwhelming majority of the film's visuals still look great, the close-up on Grievous (and honestly just Grievous in general) comes to mind.
The irony there is that while John Williams didn't get nominated for Original Score for any of the prequels, he did manage to get in for Angela's Ashes (1999), Catch Me If You Can (2002), & Memoirs of a Geisha/Munich (2005).
Academy punishment of the franchise. They're scumbags sometimes
I totally agree with you, prequels work are John Williams at it's prime, the grandiouse, the power of the chorus in Qui-Gon's funeral, or the gungan submarine City, Duel of the Fates, Battle of the Heroes and most of the pieces from Revenge of the Sith. I agree John Williams carried the sequels, when the plot wasn't generally the best.
I'm still confused why the Phantom Menace did not get anything for costumes.
It's astonishing that none of the prequels won the Best VFX Oscar, and Episode III wasn't even nominated! Quite a change from the original trilogy.
Those movies are so boring 🥱
It’s probably because the lotr triology was released at the same time
@@ramjaber2026 Not quite...Only "The Two Towers" was released the same year as one of the prequels.
@@Chadsolderbrotherbrad1111 Yeah, they could've been directed with a lot more zest.
Even if they're revolutionary, they're hideous movies. Just ugly to look at.
I genuintely don't know how it's score got ignored? For Duel of the Fates alone!
Next video - why Return of the King wasn't even nominated for best cinematography and sound editing if get so many awards.😮
I LOVE ALL THE STAR WARS MOVIES BIG FAN & GREAT VIDEO MAN I ALSO LOVE THAT ALL 11 STAR WARS FILMS HAVE BEEN NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR
For makeup category in 2005, Revenge of the Sith probably would’ve been second to win there. But it didn’t seem like it was going to win over The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe for Makeup. As that film had more going for it than Episode 3 in terms of awards and nominations that year, as Narina also gained nominations for Visual Effects and Sound Mixing.
Although if the 2005 Oscar race for Best Makeup was taking place today, it's possible CINDERELLA MAN would win given that it was the most Oscar baity film in contention.
@@jeffreykare it’s possible regarding a nomination today, but maybe not a strong win. As that film wouldn’t be quite as beneficial as certain films and winners that have won victories for acting and makeup!!
@@alexanderminchin6094 Then again, films like VICE, BOMBSHELL, and MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM all managed to still win Makeup without an acting prize.
@@jeffreykare either way, it still wouldn’t be an obvious choice as a Best Makeup winner, especially in comparison to the three films you pointed out.
I recently heard that due to an unforeseen buzz with the digital film that was used in Episode 2 the film's entire dialogue had to be redone in post-production. If true, it might explain the why the dialogue feels so wooden.
It is odd that none of the John Williams scores for the prequels received a nomination while all three of the sequel trilogy did. However, something to consider, is that Williams most likely knocked himself out during the prequel run, because he was so prominent in the volume of work he did in that period. For 1999, while Phantom Menace didn't get a nomination, Angela's Ashes did. In 2002, Attack of the Clones was pushed aside for Catch Me If You Can. That same year Williams also did Minority Report. This heavy load is why William Ross did most of the heavy lifting on the Chamber of Secrets score. In addition to Revenge of the Sith, 2005 featured War of the Worlds, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Munich, with the latter two receiving nominations.
By the 2010s, Williams had slowed in pace considerably. His only score in 2015 was The Force Awakens. In 2017, in addition to The Last Jedi, he only did The Post and the short film Dear Basketball as well. And in 2019 his only score was The Rise of Skywalker.
Keep in mind also that between 1997 and 2005 Williams usually scored between 2 and 4 films a year, with exceptions being 2000 (one) and 2003 (none). Since 2006 he's only done two features in a year twice (2011, 2017). Every other year has been one (2008, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023) or none (2006, 2007, 2009 2010, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2021).
I will also note that since 1969, the year Williams received his first nomination for Original Score (he'd been nominated for Adapted Score two years earlier), the only years in which Williams composed at least one original score and did not earn at least one Oscar nomination for score are 1970, 1976, 1979, 1986, 1992, 2008, and 2016.
I don't think you can say the prequels flopped at the Oscars. They were never supposed to be awards contenders.
Star Wars '77 shouldve won Best Picture.
The Prequels were not very good but you can tell they had a lot of passion behind them. The Disney Star Wars movies are terrible. TPM is sooooo boring.
TPM maybe deserved score. Its John Williams best work. I'm ok with TPM losing to The Matrix in everything else. Jar Jar Binks was incredibly annoying but we dont get Gollum, The '99 Mummy, Avatar, The new Apes movies or Thanos without the breakthrough of Jar Jar Binks technology.
I still have VHS letterbox copies of episodes 4-6 before Lucas redid the special editions. I need to rewatch those.
Cendirella Man had extraordinary makeup. Common misconception is to think that if the make up is not drAmatically transformative then is not a hard and difficlt accomplishment. Russell Crowe looks so different in this movie, ears and nose, and the hairstyle of all the cast and the faces of the depression era. It was absolutely worthy a nomination.
Fascinating video! Revenge Of The Sith is definitely the best movie of the 3. I always find the discourse of the 3 prequels fascinating from both fanatics and the general public. It's always a polarizing mixture of hate and love 😂 Thanks, Brian!
The fact none of the films won VFX Academy Award is quite surprising. I think one of them should have won something at the very least. John Williams should have been nominated for one of the Prequels for the score. I know many themes from the OT were reused, but there is a good amount of original material he composed that I think is a shame he wasn’t nominated, especially when the next trilogy of films under Disney’s ownership comes out and he’s nominated in all three films. It’s quite odd. I also think Ewan McGregor could have gotten an Oscar nomination for Revenge of the Sith for Best Supporting Actor. Not sure how high his chances of winning would have been, especially if you look at the nominees and having to try to substitute him with one of the other nominees. Of course I’m just surprised McGregor has never been nominated for an Academy Award after all these years of giving excellent performances. Thank you for looking at these films, the years they came out, what they were up against and examine how they didn’t win any Oscar they were up for and I know I’m a day late on this, though today is my birthday and since Star Wars is my favorite film of all time, I wanted to wait for my birthday to watch this. Take care Brian!
One nomination that I wished this trilogy got was Best Supporting Actor for Ian McDiramid in Revenge of the Sith. He was already a standout in the previous movies he was in but in Revenge he’s on a whole other level. It’s a performance that’s entertaining but also menacing without it leaning too far in either direction. I also think the line up wasn’t particularly that strong that I think he could’ve replaced Matt Dillon in Crash or hell, even the inevitable winner George Clooney in Syriana.
He and Ewan McGregor were the only standout performers from these movies, I swear to God. Somehow these movies made Samuel L. Jackson boring. At least you can tell Ian McDiarmid’s having an absolute ball.
The biggest complain I have is that John Williams didn't get any Oscar Nomination for his brilliant music for the Prequel Trilogy. He created such Iconic themes like "Duel of the Fates", "Across the Stars" & "Battle of the Heroes" for the Prequels that should've been recognised by the Academy, even though he received a nomination for every film in the Original Trilogy and winning for the 1977's Star Wars.
It frustrates me even more that he even received nominations for all three of the films from the Sequel Trilogy. His Score in Ep. VII was great, it deserved the nomination but Ep. VIII & IX were just honorary nomination and nothing else. Put Dial of Destiny in there too if you want.
I couldn’t believe it when The Matrix beat Phantom Menace for VFX. Matrix may have been the “cooler” movie for some, but there’s no way it had better effects than Phantom Menace!
I've become a huge fan of the prequel trilogy following many years of not liking them. They really grew on me and only get better upon subsequent viewings. The Phantom Menace in particular was worthy of a Cinematography nomination. I would have loved to have seen Ewan McGregor nominated for his performance in Revenge of the Sith.
Prequels never do as well at the Oscars:
Star Wars
The Hobbit
Prometheus
Hunger Games
Minions
& I don’t think Furiosa will do well either
The thing about getting nominated is that you need to campaign for it. You need to get your name out there. It's not just word of mouth. It's all those "For Your consideration" ads in publications and stuff. And Lucas kind of was really not into it or the Academy in general, since the Academy told him that Frank Oz will not be nominated for Yoda in Empire Strikes Back which he tried really hard get for him. That's why John Williams didn't get it for the prequels, while Disney pushed for him for the sequels. And frankly the sequels scores are nothing compared to the prequels. Lucas wasn't gonna spend money on kissing ass. ILM got the noms cause CGI was the new thing and they were selling this new product. There was a ton of practical effects to the prequels cause the CPU power and storage was nowhere near capable for full CGI stuff like today, but there's nothing groundbreaking about miniatures so it was rarely talked about in the promo stuff and BTS videos. ILM was for the longest time the most if not only active part of LucasFilm and the main income generator so pushing for those Oscars made sense from a business perspective cause in the changing market they needed to re-establish itself as a front-runner (and they kind of did, cause ILM did get noms for other movies as well). Costume Design not so much, even though it's obvious that Padme's dresses deserve the nomination more than Talented Mr. Ripley.
I agree that Episode II is one of the weaker Star Wars films, but I tend to like it a bit better than Episode VII or IX.
Hayden Christensen❤😍
Yoda deserves an Oscar, he basically invented a new way of speaking.
I'm with you, Brian. Attack of the Clones has the most awful, cringy, (emotionally) illogical romance I've ever seen in a film. I think Clones and The Rise of Skywalker are the only two Star Wars films I've never been able to rewatch. I would still rank Clones above Rise though, because at least it had a coherent plot. My Star Wars ranking: 5, 4, 6, RO, 3, 7, 1, 8, Solo, 2, 9.
Now, you guys have to come back to discuss the sequel trilogy's nominations.
All three Star Wars prequels won Worst Supporting Actor at the Razzies. Episodes I and II also got into the Worst Picture category in their respective years- and II won Worst Screenplay for George Lucas…
Meanwhile none of the Disney movies were even nominated.
@@LinkMarioSamus which is extremely unfortunate… Rise of Skywalker deserved to be nominated for a ton of Razzies - it was my second worst film of 2019 (after Endgame) and I think I would have nominated it for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Remake/Ripoff/Sequel, and the special Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property Award… but then that year’s lineup for Worst Picture is hard to argue against- Cats, The Fanatic, The Haunting of Sharon Tate, A Madea Family Funeral, and Rambo: Last Blood…
@@k-203_DV Did you not see many movies released in 2019 or something?
@@LinkMarioSamus Endgame was crap - first class crap... I actually avoid watching too many bad movies, even though I watched a lot that year - I saw 64 new releases that year to be exact.
@@k-203_DV See, it’s a fan service-heavy movie and I felt it worked on that level, but yeah I always thought it could be picked apart every bit as much as The Last Jedi.
Oddly enough I liked the prequels more. For me the new trilogy was really uninspired and lacking creativity. Like The Force Awakens was literally A new Hope with a gender swap. At least the prequel although flawed felt unique in retrospective.
Whose name did Natalie Wood say? Am I missing something?
25 years and people are still dissing the prequels...
Star Wars A New Hope lost Best Picture to Annie Hall. I was 9 when both came out. 😅
Ep 1 did have redeeming Qualites
And their was pratical effects
It does annoy me when people ignore all the Practical effects in the Prequel Trilogy and pretend that there was none again until the Sequel Trilogy.
Upvote Quagsire plush
Shame John Wiliams didn't have at least 1 nomination of best soundtrack with the prequels.
Also the disney era movies has a lot of nominations and 0 wins.
Perhaps because it was only the first movie that actually performed well at the Oscars. Even Empire lost Score & Art Direction, while getting snubbed everywhere else.
Jedi did worse, only “winning” a Special Achievement Oscar for Visual Effects, and losing all of its other competitive award (Score, Art Direction, Sound, & Sound FX).
So there’s still that genre bias, even all the way back then.
Narnia is miles above the Star Wars prequels
They were ok but they are a mixed bag, some good and a lot of bad
And the reason the prequels get bashed cause of Geroge lucas Story.
The prequel films each turned a profit. The Disney sequels lost Disney/LucasFilm USD$2 billion dollars.
Flat out false. Star Wars has generated $12 billion for Disney, including $4.5 billion from the sequels.
I just hope Michelle Yeoh's Star Trek Section31vam get nominated on the Oscars through its streaming franchise. Can i
They sucks, but it doesn't mean it t was some worthy nominations like score,costumes etc...
I hate AOTC too!
Because they were horrible movies that were completely upstaged on the technical and design level by the Lord of the Rings and the Matrix.
Brian I gotta be honest pal. I expected more out of this video bud.
I haven't had the courage to go see phantom menace again in the theater. I remember trying to watch it in '99 and it was so boring. Maybe one of the worst movies I've seen at the theater.
Oscar’s are bullshit. The prequels score is a joke
Brian - you're right. Attack of the Clones is a truly dreadful film. It's so poorly made. The graphics look horrible. The music is the ONLY saving grace.
Then again, it's not worse of the 'nine' for me, because there are only six Star Wars movies in my world.
Rewatched the prequels last year and wow, these movies have not aged well at all. There’s some good qualities there (score, Ewan McGregor, Ian McDiarmid) but this trilogy I found to be either incredibly boring (like The Phantom Menace probably the most unnecessary Star Wars movie) or just poor. Look, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is my favourite film of all time. That being said, George Lucas really isn’t much of a director or a screenwriter. His dialogue is cheap and his staging/camera work rather average. He’s great at story, but overall George Lucas is a far better producer than he is an artist, and all that would be fine if he weren’t writing and directing all of these films seemingly without any other influence. Episode IV and the Original trilogy were creations of collaboration. This is a pretty average filmmaker given too much power.
I don’t even like Episode III that much. It has so many problems, not the least of which it spoils every plot twist in the Original trilogy.
Keep making a fool out of yourself. Duh Revenge of the Sith spoils the plot twists of the OT The acting and dialogue in the OT is the same fyi. Star Wars has been always made for a younger audience. Cope. Don't act as if you can accomplish anything or own your own film company. Mediocre people are always the first to criticize
first
I have only seen 1 star wars film, the revenge of the sith.
Well, it’s most likely that the Star Wars Prequels were overshadowed by other films that managed to win like The Matrix and The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers.
Don't care for LOTR, I grew to appreciate the Matrix films
I thought Episode 7 was a huge improvement over the Prequels and Return of the Jedi and brought the series back to the level of 4 and 5. I did not see 8 and 9, but I suspect the standard of 7 was not maintained.
Across the Stars in Episode 2 was a memorable aria (pity they did not put lyrics to it and have a vocal studio version for the soundtrack). Still I do not think the score of Attack of the Clones was up to the standards of William's best work in the 1970s - particularly New Hope, Towering Inferno and Superman, and later in 1982 ET.
I like Force Awakens, but I vehemently disagree that Return of the Jedi is inferior. If anything, the only SW film I’d rank close to the original trilogy is Rogue One.
@@HugoSoup57 I have to admit when I watched ROJ as a young teenager I loved it. When I watched it decades later I found it lacked the irony, depth and humour of the 4 and 5. Too much cheese and cute teddybears. 1 2 and 3 I also enjoyed, but I have to admit I do understand what a lot of the critics said about them: too much cheese and kitsch. I do not think I could watch 1 and 2 again. Lucas did not like the Force Awakens because it was a "retro movie". I disagree. There were some fantastic historical and geopolitical references in that movie- someone really did their research, and it was very contemporary in that it made some pertinent warnings about the present. I also thought the score was excellent. Williams wrote them all, but the orchestrations seemed better - less mawkish, more clarity in the instrumental parts. I don't think he did the orchestration.
I fell asleep in the theater
These movies were so boring 😴
spoiler alert: they aren’t good movies
I honestly don't know if anyone can trust your opinions on film again if you unironically think that AOC is worse than the sequels