MovieChat Forums > Sweet Land (2008) Discussion > Same music score used in 'Nebraska'.

Same music score used in 'Nebraska'.

posted 10 years ago by fentress
3 replies | jump to latest

So I was watching some of the last few minutes of 2014 Academy Awards. You know how each time a nominee for some award is announced they play a few seconds from the film's score. Whenever the movie Nebraska was announced for something, I couldn't believe my ears. The music was from Sweet Land! Sweet Land is one of my favorites movies and I love the soundtrack. It was almost surreal to hear it unexpectedly like that.

At the time I am writing this, I have not seen Nebraska, so I had no idea. Sure enough, a little research on imdb.com revealed that Mark Orton was the chief musician for both movies, and they took a couple of the same pieces straight from Sweet Land and used them in Nebraska.

Just curious. Is there anybody out there who has seen both Sweet Land and Nebraska and noticed this?

Here's an article about the music.

http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=12017

Nebraska was not a movie I felt moved to rush out and see. It's directed by Alexander Payne who is known for Sideways, among other movies. I am one of the very few people in America who did not love Sideways unreservedly, and Nebraska looked just enough like Sideways to put me off a bit. Sideways is a well crafted film and I found it very engrossing, but unfortunately I also found it a bit mean-spirited and indulgent.

But now I have a motivator to give Nebraska a try on DVD. I'll see what I think.

[–] fentress 10 years ago

This is the OP author again. Now I have seen Nebraska as of recently. Actually I thought it was a pretty good film, IMO. Better than I thought it might be. I wouldn't say it's in the same league of quality as Sweet Land. But then, very few movies are.

[–] Helena727 8 years ago

Thanks for this thread --I've been on the fence about seeing Nebraska but now probably won't, bc (like you) I loved Sweet Land and thought Sideways was OK but not great. (Also, I can't help feeling a little OFFENDED that some of the glorious music was lifted. Silly, I know -- I'm not the composer, he can do what he wants! -- but I do love Sweet Land, and the music fits it so beautifully, that I think it should have been linked solely to that movie. Ah well.)

Cheers.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] fentress 8 years ago

I hadn't thought in terms of the music properly belonging to Sweet Land, but interesting point now that you mention it. For better or worse, more people would have seen Nebraska. I can imagine a hypothetical scenario in which I persuade someone to watch Sweet Land and that person says "Hey, they ripped the music off of Nebraska!" Unfortunately it would probably would be hard to get them to think of it the correct way if they saw Nebraska first.