Newman has been nominated for 15 Academy Awards and 4 Golden Globes, and has won 2 BAFTAs, 6 Grammys and an Emmy Award. Newman was honored with the Richard Kirk award at the 2000 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.
Born in Los Angeles, California, he is the youngest son of Martha Louis Montgomery (1920–2005) and composer Alfred Newman (1900–1970), who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score nine times. He is a member of a film-scoring dynasty in Hollywood that includes his father Alfred, brother David Newman, sister Maria Newman, uncles Lionel Newman and Emil Newman, cousin Randy Newman (also known as a singer and songwriter), and his first cousin, once removed, Joey Newman. His paternal grandparents were Russian immigrants, and his mother was from Mississippi.
During their upbringing, Martha herded her sons into violin lessons in the San Fernando Valley every weekend. Newman later studied composition and orchestration for two years at the University of Southern California, before transferring to Yale University, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1977 and a Master of Music in 1978. While at Yale, he met composer Stephen Sondheim, who became an early mentor.
Newman and his wife, Ann Marie, have three children. They reside in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
At first, Newman was more interested in musical theater than in film composition, working with Sondheim in Broadway plays. Lionel, who succeeded Alfred as music director for 20th Century Fox, gave Thomas his first scoring assignment on a 1979 episode of the series The Paper Chase. In 1983, John Williams, who was a friend of both Alfred and Lionel, invited Newman to work on Return of the Jedi, orchestrating the scene where Darth Vader dies. Afterwards Newman met in New York producer Scott Rudin, who invited him to compose the score for Reckless (1984). Newman said that he thought "it was a tough job, at first" for requiring him to "develop vocabularies and a sense of procedure", only getting comfortable with writing scores "and not fraudulent in my efforts" after 8 years.
In 1992, Newman composed the score to Martin Brest's film Scent of a Woman.
In 1994, he got his first Academy Award nominations with the scores to The Shawshank Redemption and Little Women. He also scored the film The War. In 1996, he scored Diane Keaton's Unstrung Heroes, receiving yet another Oscar nomination. In 1998, he scored Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer as well as Meet Joe Black. In 1999, Newman composed the score to Sam Mendes' first feature film American Beauty, created using mainly percussion instruments. Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of the script, saying "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve that." This was his first collaboration with Mendes, and he would go on to score all of the director's subsequent films except for the comedy-drama Away We Go, which featured songs instead of a score. He received a fourth Oscar nomination for this score, and although he lost again (to John Corigliano for The Red Violin), he did receive a Grammy and a BAFTA.
His critical and commercial success has continued in the following years with his scores for films such as Meet Joe Black, The Green Mile, Erin Brockovich, In the Bedroom and The Salton Sea. He was nominated consecutively for a further three Academy Awards, for Road to Perdition (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004). However, he lost on each occasion to Elliot Goldenthal (for Frida), Howard Shore (for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), and Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (for Finding Neverland) respectively.
He was again nominated for an Oscar for scoring Steven Soderbergh's The Good German (2006). At the Oscar ceremony, he appeared in the opening segment by Errol Morris, who jokingly stated that Newman had been nominated for and failed to win an Oscar eight times. Newman replied: "No, I've failed seven but this will be my eighth", and indeed, he again lost, this time to Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel.
His first score since The Good German was for the 2008 animated film WALL-E, collaborating for the second time with director Andrew Stanton (with the first collaboration being Finding Nemo). The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (as had Nemo). Newman received two Oscar nominations: one for Best Original Score, and another for Best Original Song for "Down to Earth", which he co-wrote with Peter Gabriel. He was nominated in the Original Score category with two other veteran composers, James Newton-Howard and Danny Elfman, both of whom have also been nominated for several Oscars but each time unsuccessfully. Newman lost both the score and song nominations to A R Rahman for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. He and Peter Gabriel did however win a Grammy for "Down to Earth".
In 2008, Newman scored Towelhead and Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road and in 2009 he scored Brothers. In 2011 he scored The Help, The Debt, The Iron Lady, and The Adjustment Bureau.
In 2012, Newman scored The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. He also scored the 23rd James Bond movie Skyfall, directed by his longtime collaborator Sam Mendes, which celebrates the film franchise's 50th anniversary. His work on this film earned him his eleventh Oscar nomination and a second BAFTA win. During 2013, he scored Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects and Saving Mr. Banks. The latter score was very well received by film music critics, earning Newman BAFTA and Oscar nominations for the second consecutive year, both of which he lost to Steven Price for Gravity.
Newman's 2014 projects included The Judge and Get on Up. He scored 2015's The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, marking the first time Newman has scored a sequel to a film he also wrote the score for.
In 2016, Newman scored the motion picture Passengers starring Andy Garcia, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt.
Newman likes to vary the instrumentation in his scores, ranging from full orchestra to percussion-only music. He is also fond of incorporating unusual instruments such as the zither, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery and hammered dulcimer, or unexpected sounds, like Aboriginal chants and the chirping of cicadas. The composer declared that he has "an interest in mundane experimentation."
Down to Earth
Thomas Newman Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well, come on down
All these rules don't apply
When you're high in the sky
Come on down
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
To hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Did you think you'd escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
You're always afraid of the change
You've got a lot on your chest
Well, you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
We learned to climb up a tree
Then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
Oh, when we messed up our homeland
And set sail for the sky
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
We're coming down
Comin' down to earth
Like babies at birth
Comin' down to earth
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
To find on earth
Comin' down, comin' down
Comin' down, comin' down
Comin' down, comin' down
Comin' down, comin' down
The song Down to Earth by Thomas Newman seems to be about humanity's journey from living in nature to the modern age of technology. The first stanza talks about feeling trapped by the rules of nature and gravity, but that these rules do not apply when we're high up in the sky. This could mean that we have evolved to be able to control our environment more than any other species.
The second stanza talks about how no one can escape routine, despite how much we try to change our lives. We're always afraid of change, even if we've made a lot of progress in our lives. The singer then invites someone to come down to earth as his guest, which could be interpreted as extending an invitation to rediscover our roots in nature.
The third stanza talks about how humans evolved from being fish in the ocean and learning to live off the land. However, we eventually became dissatisfied with the land and set sail for the sky. The singer then talks about how we should redefine our priorities and recognize the extraordinary qualities that we can find on earth.
Overall, this song seems to be a commentary on humanity's relationship with nature and technology. While we've made a lot of progress in terms of controlling our environment, we shouldn't forget our roots and the importance of preserving nature.
Line by Line Meaning
Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Do you believe that you are limited to what the force of gravity holds you down to?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Do you feel like your future didn't turn out the way you thought it would?
Well, come on down
Join us in returning to reality
All these rules don't apply
When you're high in the sky
The limitations set by gravity no longer matter when you're in the air
So come on down
Come on down
Return back to earth, where the rules of gravity apply
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below
Earth is the perfect destination, with its diverse landscape of snow-covered mountains and flowing rivers
To hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
We can enjoy the beauty of nature and help preserve it by planting seeds and taking care of the earth
Did you think you'd escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
You're always afraid of the change
Did you think you could escape the monotony of life by making changes only to realize that change itself is scary?
You've got a lot on your chest
Well, you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down
If you're feeling burdened, feel free to join us in returning back to reality
Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
We learned to climb up a tree
Then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
Oh, when we messed up our homeland
And set sail for the sky
We evolved from sea creatures to land dwellers and then to upright walkers, but we still longed for the ability to fly, leading us to leave our damaged earth and explore the skies
Comin' down to earth
Like babies at birth
Returning to earth is like being reborn, starting fresh
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
We should reevaluate our priorities and recognize the exceptional qualities that earth has to offer
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@SpiderBubblegumvideos
There are movies like Minions that I would consider entertainment: they do not look so deep but they are funny.
But, there are animated films that speak of darker themes and a poetic way very moving (that's why I've only seen the movie " Up" once, think about it makes me want to burst into tears).
Wall-e is for me one of these movies than I would to name as movies with a philosophical, metaphysical, futurological sense .... very deep. I considered them more like a work of art than a
friendly entertainment movie (but I love them too).
I think that Wall-e has touched me the most because it's a film with a very fatalistic mind (peculiar to one of my ways of thinking) but with the possibillity of a rebirth.
I like your last sentence, it's sarcastic and fatalistic and true, not all the humanity is wake up.
Notice than humanity could end like in Axiom if they didn't wake up, well you know what I am talking about.
@PurpleStar671
First half of this movie: Fallout
Second half of this movie: Portal
@loreslaed5061
Wes is best
@PurpleStar671
When dead
@loreslaed5061
Wilson 671 agreed
@xelnar5780
PurpleStar671 1 Falltal
@PurpleStar671
@Maison Kaleb B O T
@Jadama0
The BEST Pixar film! How 90% of the film has no words but all tells a story by emotion.
@fierylatinasarvente681
+James Daniel Massey (Jadama) and when they talk liek the captain it was incredibly inspiring
@turtleperson3538
THEY NEED TO MAKE A SEQUEL.
@fierylatinasarvente681
Turtle Person what vcould they base it on though which is a problem