Vangelis wins the Oscar for Music (Original Score) for Chariots of Fire. Kathleen Turner and William Hurt present and accept the award; featuring a performance by Liberace. Watch more of the 1982 Oscars: • 1982 Oscars
Rest in Eternal Peace, Vangelis. Thank you for sharing your musical soul with humanity. Your work will touch the hearts and minds of generations forever.
deserved win for Vangelis, pretty forward thinking stuff for the Academy circa 1981. The theme is one of the most recognized compositions of the last 40 years
@@ClassicalMusic2002 indiana jones is very recognizable and memorabe music, but is also because of the hugely popular and commercial movie, which is played again and again. Chariots of Fire is to a great degree because of the piece.
@@innosanto I watched COF with my wife for the first time even though as a pianist I've played the theme many times at events. The score didn't really work. It was corny and incongruous-electric piano and peri celeste noodling. The main theme is pretty flawed harmonically- but the echoiing ostinato effect sold the piece. Still, a disappointment in both the film and score. Most critics loved the film. I wonder if they would still praise it revisiting it now? Doubtful. It was slow and not too insightful.
So happy that Vangelis won the Oscar for this beautiful, emotional and groundbreaking score. He proved to the general public that electronic music can be taken seriously as an art form just as much as a full piece orchestra. His music changed my life and I am forever grateful.
Everything about him is extravagant and over-the-top, I absolutely love it! The sparkles and sequins and flare, you just do not see that anymore and probably won't again! Absolutely a one-of-a-kind entertainer!
He was famously nice to all kinds of people. Early in his career he had sellout NY appearances and vicious newspaper reviews - when asked about those reviews he said "I cried all the way to the ban."
He trained with rings that had more weight on them, So the rings he used for perfomances are like feathers compared to what he used to learn on the piano
I now own the piece of jewelry he wore that night as he played. It is a star in diamonds and a little gold Oscar in the middle. A treasure i would not part with. Long live Lee.
I will never forget watching this in 1982. an absolute perfect moment for Liberace and the Academy Awards...long before the Awards became political and movement oriented. I love the " Sincerely Yours" intro. Beautiful, sentimental and the way I want to remember Liberace.
Lee was a real human being....a top notch professional musician and pianist who had a lifelong love affair with his audiences. They adored him and he was fulfilled with their love. 💞
Carlos Mejido No, media reports the time stated that Vangelis was actually at his home in London. He was awakened in the middle of the night with a phone call telling him that he had won the Academy Award for best score.
Vangelis changed film music for all time with that score which was revolutionary at its time (ordinarily it would have been a 'period' score for a 'period' movie.
@@reinadegrillos I want to tell everyone Scott thorson was18 not 16 when met Liberace Scott says so in his his book he is now pretending he was 16 to give lee a bad name he pretended lee got him into drugs biglie lee
@@pollard068 they say that everything's gone wrong since Canada came along...they're not even a real country anyway! What ridiculous lyrics, I loved that soundtrack. Chocolate Salty Balls was a good one, too.
Truly a music genius. May he Rest In Eternal Peace, knowing how much he gave to us. True enjoyment, true pleasure and happiness. Thank you for a lifetime of love.
This is when Oscars had class and actually put on a show. Now they just rush through the awards and turned it into nothing more than social media hashtag crap. Also, why don't they ever have some classic enters presenting oscars. John Travolta can't even say people's names right.
Great seeing a live orchestra at the awards show. I don’t think they utilize live musicians anymore these days. All the music is digital and pre-recorded.
Blade Runner should have also won and not just one theme, the opening theme - haunting, the love theme - romantic, the ending theme - exciting. I listen to it almost ever single day.
Liberace: "And HIS name is.... Irving Wallace!.." Audience: Silence. Liberace: Looks around at the audience as if to expect an applause. Audience: More awkward silence and then.... a couple of claps... then a few more... then a few more claps when they realize how embarrassed poor Liberace is probably feeling! I am SHOCKED that nobody else here commented on that. I laughed so hard I nearly shit myself. I watched that part about 15 times!!
@@olivelane7903 Okay, calm down. I wasn't laughing at him. I was laughing at the audiences reaction. I like Liberace and I always felt bad for him because lots of people made fun of him, but I am not one of those people. I hope that clears up some of your confusion.
I remember watching this in my dorm room at Michigan State on a tiny black and white TV. My boyfriend was there and we were having an argument. It's weird what you remember when something reminds you of it.
Well this was 37 years ago Vsngelis deserved it... But vs Williams since...no, noway. And I almost feel sorry for Lee. He really wanted to be a movie star... but I'm 46 and grew up with him..turned into a Musician myself...so he's always been my star. .
It couldn't have been terribly expensive because I didn't earn much, but gladly paid to see him twice in Adelaide, Australia. Still a wonderful memory.
Wow, watching this brings back such memories. Myself and my friends were so broke we couldn't even afford a color TV set. We all piled into a Dodge Duster, picked up some Chinese and cheap champagne and headed to a friends mothers apartment in an elderly complex (she wasn't home). The one girl in our group kept going into the old ladies bedroom and trying on her clothes and modelling for them as we got drunk and watched the show. The highlights of the night were this, Bette Midler's outrageous presentation, Diane Keaton watching Warren Beatty winning Best Director and the shock that we all felt when "Chariots of Fire" won Best Picture.
Very tough competition for "Chariots of Fire" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark." They are both excellent film scores and they both deserved to win. I think it should have been a tie
John Williams is phenomenal, but Star Wars, Superman theme, Riders Of The Lost Ark all have the same feel, which is not the case with Chariots Of Fire. It's a simple melody, not so grandiose and symphonic, and there it lies the genius of Vangelis. If you listen to the rest of his work, you find that he is so various and always different, with melody, tone, atmosphere, feel and the emotion, and all that with synthesizers and pianos and occasional choirs.
Roswell New Mexico John Williams definitely deserved to win Best Original Score for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler’s List. Schindler’s List is one of the very best scores he’s ever done because it doesn’t have that traditional John Williams-esque sound, it sounds very different from what you’d typically expect from him and that mostly has to do with the use of the violin.
Vangelis deserved it more for Blade Runner and basically everything he scores...I would give it to John Williams in 1981 and to Vangelis in 1982 for Blade Runner for which he wasn’t even nominated WTF??
Constantine XI he deserved it for this film just as much as well because it’s iconic-sounding. I’m glad they at least awarded him with an Oscar anyway, even if it’s not for Blade Runner.
The "problem" with Bladerunner was that, while all the moody incidental music Vangelis created was great, the very best part of the score was the theme played during the end credits (!!!) which, at the time, no one in the theatre actually bothered to stay to hear. It's like deciding to put the Chariots of Fire anthem only in the trailers. Crazy! After that, of course, people found it on the video and when they bought the album. But honestly, one of the greatest pieces of film music ever made being wasted on the exit stampede? Lunacy. Anyway, I think that's why it didn't get the Oscar and Chariots (rightly) did.
The Academy Awards are more political than anything. Blade Runner wasn't a major studio release, it was a box office bomb, and didn't even get an official soundtrack release until 12 years later.
Vangelis strength is really opening and closing themes. They're often the only parts of his scores that get released. The rest of Bladerunner is mostly ambient sound design, still brilliant though. His ability to paint with sound is second to none. Chariots though mostly comprises of gilbert and sullivan songs. Vangelis contribution is very minimal indeed
" Ive seen things , you people wouldnt believe , hmmm . attack ships on fire off the shoulder of orion . Ive watched c deams glitter in the dark near the tannhauser gate. All those moments , will be lost in time like tears in rain . TIME TO DIE 😿😫😥 I always cry when I watch this scene, it gives me goosebumps 😿😭😣😞😫😥 RIP VANGELIS (29.03.1943 - 17.05.2022 ) RIP RUTGER HAUER ( 23.01.1944 - 19.07.2019 ) ( As well as in loving memory to William Hurt who accepted the Vangelis award on his behalf.)
The Chariots of Fire score recording hit #1 on the Billboard album charts and the main theme hit #1 on the singles chart. That probably had a lot to do with Vangelis winning the Oscar. I'm not saying it wasn't deserved, just that the popularity helped.
They didn't my dear. Everybody knew he was as gay as they come. He just couldn't publicly say he was gay for political reasons. That poor guy remained so far in the closet, he was finding Christmas lights!
Nancy LaMott and Peter Zapp in their beautiful home at New York, June 16, 1991: Chariots of Fire has Vangelis' great music score for which he won an 1982 Academy Award.
Saved the best for last. "Raiders" should have won, not "Chariots of Fire". Ironically, Vangelis didn't even get a nod the next year for his ground-breaking score for "Blade Runner" or "The Bounty" in 1985. No wonder everybody hates the Academy Awards. A popularity contest and nothing more.
Randy Newmans score for RAGTIME was the best of 1981. Interestingly the following year Vangelis had two brilliant scores for Blade Runner and Missing, but neither were nominated.
Van Jellis should have at least shown up. Nice theme but best score should have been RAIDERS and Johnny Williams. Grusin's ON GOLDEN POND is beautiful and touching. Liberace really lit up the stage. Great stuff.
