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Ten favorite film scores

31K views 120 replies 78 participants last post by  ProgRomantik 
#1 · (Edited)
What are your ten favorite film scores? Here are mine, not in particular order:

The Adventures of Robin Hood - Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Hook - John Williams
The Land Before Time - James Horner
Jurassic Park - John Williams
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - John Williams
Taxi Driver - Bernard Herrmann
The Russia House - Jerry Goldsmith
How to Train Your Dragon - John Powell
Ben-Hur - Miklos Rozsa
The Lord of the Rings trilogy - Howard Shore
 
#2 ·
I don't have a top ten list, because I have no top 10 best movies list. Even though, I like LOtR soundtracks, the Alien quadrilogy soundtracks and Friday the 13th soundtracks.
 
#3 ·
Fellini 8 1/2 - Nino Rota
Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann
The Mission - Ennio Morricone
Psycho - Bernard Herrmann
Edward Scissorhands - Danny Elfman
Amarcord - Nino Rota
The Godfather - Nino Rota
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - John Williams
Schindler's List - John Williams
Cinema Paradiso - Ennio Morricone

In no particular order, although my preference goes to Nino Rota's music.
 
#4 · (Edited)
While not my favourite cinematic genre, 2 westerns top my list because their scores present music so organic and intrinsically characteristic to milieu and evolving plot that they're like co-lead actors themselves!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone)
How the West was Won (Newman)

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...I'd have to consider the balance!

Edit: "not my favourite...", that being said, I think the genre produces (or has produced - not much being turned out anymore) a greater ratio of truly remarkable films to poor (i.e., great/crap = x) than any other, with comedy churning out the lowest (because it's hard to nail that elusive mix of humour and drama)...this rambling is of course, as Justice Holmes would've said, "mere dicta"!!
 
#10 ·
A good soundtrack should match the intrinsic qualities of the film, imo.
I like John Williams because, in general, his music perfectly fits the films for which it has been composed.
Let's take ET (the film). It's quite sentimental, isn't it? JW's music is just perfect for it.

Anyway, in case of films, my first choice goes to the film, not to the soundtrack, with relevant exceptions.

Yes, in my list I would have added Prokofiev and Eisenstein, thank you FleshRobot for reminding me that :tiphat:
 
#9 ·
I'm not a film expert and certainly not an expert of scores, but a couple not mentioned so far that I really like are
Lawrence of Arabia Maurice Jarre
Murder on the Orient Express (70's) by someone I can't name.

At the time the music to Star Wars was thrilling, but I was 12 when it was released. Also Chariots of Fire I really liked at the time, but now not so much. Tastes change over time.
 
#12 ·
1. FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE (1970) by Richard Rodney Bennett (no soundtrack album exists)
2. WOMAN IN THE DUNES (1964) by Toru Takemitsu (no soundtrack)
3. HOUR OF THE WOLF (1968) by Lars Johan Werle (no soundtrack)
4. THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD (1975) by Jerry Goldsmith (no soundtrack)
5. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN (1969) by Jerry Goldsmith (soundtrack on FSM CD)
6. L'IMPRECATEUR (1977) by Richard Rodney Bennett (soundtrack on French LP and CD)
7. DANTON (1983) by Jean Prodromides (soundtrack on LP & CD)
8. FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966) by Leonard Rosenman (soundtrack on CD)
9. THE MECHANIC (1972) by Jerry Fielding (soundtrack on CD)
10. ONIBABA (1964) by Hikaru Hayashi (no soundtrack)
 
#13 ·
some favorites, although I don't know (or remember) that many soundtracks

Blade Runner (Vangelis)
The Bounty (Vangelis)
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Ennio Morricone)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Ennio Morricone)
Once Upon a Time in America (Ennio Morricone)
The Mission (Ennio Morricone)
Princess Mononoke (Joe Hisaishi)
Koyaanisqatsi (Philip Glass)
Jurassic Park (John Williams)
Star Trek: First Contact (Jerry Goldsmith)
 
#16 ·
My top ten, in no particular order
Powaqqatsi - Philip Glass
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen - Michael Kamen
Akira - Geinoh Yamashiro
Quo Vadis - Miklós Rózsa
Remains of the Day - Richard Robbins
Shadowlands - George Fenton
Princess Mononoke - Joe Hisaishi
Antartica - Vangelis Papathanassiou
Atlantis - Eric Serra
and of course
Alexander Nevsky - Sergei Prokofiev
 
#17 ·
In order from least to greatest...

10-Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - Miles Goodman
9- What About Bob - Miles Goodman
8- North by Northwest - Bernard Herrmann
7- E.T. - John Williams
6- The Social Network (U.S.A) - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
5- Brahm Stoker's Dracula - Wojciech Kilar
4- There will be Blood - Jonny Greenwood
3- Raiders of the Lost Ark - John Williams
2- Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann
1- Star Wars - John Williams

John Williams has scored some of the greatest movies around so of course he's got a few on my list as does Herrmann, who was also the man. I sincerely hope Jonny Greenwood continues his work in film, his music is astounding, I really wanted to include the score to "The Master" but to be fair I listen to what I listed more. Same goes for Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, love "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" score a lot but alas only 10 slots. Miles Goodman wrote some great scores, I don't know why I love him but I do.. and I mean his scores he died sometime ago I'm afraid, he also did "Muppet Christmas Carol" (the best entry IMO), it's also got a fabulous brassy score.
 
#18 · (Edited)
I can't believe the lack of interest in the Golden Age composers. I think there were five mentions in all.

1. The Best Years Of Our Lives/Friedhofer
2. King Kong/Steiner
3. Scott of the Antarctic/Vaughan Williams
4. Hamlet/Shostakovich
5. Sunset Boulevard/Waxman
6. The Red Pony/Copland
7. Psycho/Herrmann
8. The Sea Hawk/Korngold
9. Around the World in 80 Days/Young
10. The Big Country/Moross

Really this list doesn't begin to scratch the surface as I've omitted Alfred Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, David Raksin, Andre Previn, James Newton Howard, and Thomas Newman. Maybe I'll do a second ten.
Tom
 
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#27 ·
I can't believe the lack of interest in the Golden Age composers.
This may simply be to do with familiarity. When I was a teen, I lapped up all kinds of 'golden age' movies that were on TV and got to know the main composers. However, decades and many movies have intervened and the golden age moies no longer appear anything like as often as they should (not in the UK, at any rate). This means that for my memory at least, it's easier to recall the movies - like Star Wars or Jurassic Park - that are on video, DVD and still onTV - than it is to recall Steiner, Korngold, Tiomkin, etc. For example, I've seen The Adventures of Robin Hood maybe three times. I really liked the score, though can't remember much of it now, and it's not in my top 40 movies all of which I've got on DVD.
 
#20 · (Edited)
I am not going to come up with 10, but I'll will begin with another vote for Prokofiev and Alexander Nevsky.

Also Michael Kamen's brilliant scores for Brazil (the Brazil variations) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. The scores to the first two Alien flicks were good too. Don't know who wrote them, so I will attribute them to Shostakovich, who made a large posthumous contribution ;-)
 
#21 ·
Hard one but ill try. In no particular order.

Hobson's Choice ; Malcolm Arnold

Spirited Away ; Joe Hisaishi

Forbidden Planet ;Bebe and Louis Barron

Scott of the Antarctic ; Ralph Vaughan Williams

Anatomy of a Murder ; Duke Ellington

The Big Sleep ; Max Stiener

The Day the Earth Stood Still Bernard Herrmann.

The Good The Bad and the Ugly ; Ennio Morricone

Captain Blood ; Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Blade Runner Vangelis (New American Orchestra Version)
 
#22 ·
That's a tough one, I think I'd have to go with Fellini's I Vitelloni, score by the legendary Nino Rota.
I pretty much love all the Italian film soundtracks with Rota, my Italian film collection is bigger than my classical music collection!!

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#26 ·
Tough call, especially since some of my favourite movies didn't have an OST but used other material - as previously mentioned, Kubrick was keen on this. There is also the problem that some movies have memorable 'overtures' or key themes, but much of the incidental stuff is...well, incidental! (Lawrence of Arabia, say or Harry Potter)

Still, here's a few - no particular order

Steiner - Casablanca, Gone with the Wind,
Zimmer - Gladiator, Inception
Eno - The Lovely Bones
Williams - Jurassic Park
Newton Howard - Sixth Sense
Brief Encounter (no composer credited except Rachmaninoff)
Deutsch - The Maltese Falcon
Herrmann - Psycho
Gray - The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Shore - LOTR trilogy
Shire - All the President's Men
 
#28 ·
If speaking about full scores, the following come to mind:

Hellraiser, Christopher Young
The Fly 2, Christopher Young
The Final Conflict, Jerry Goldsmith
Supergirl, Jerry Goldsmith
Vertigo, Bernard Herrmann
For a Few Dollars More, Ennio Morricone
Burn, Ennio Morricone
Zulu, John Barry
Conan the Barbarian, Basil Poledouris
The Medusa Touch, Michael J. Lewis
 
#31 ·
The Empire Strikes Back was released when I was 12. I got the 2-LP John Williams soundtrack not long after seeing the movie. It was one of the first albums I ever bought. I still have it.



Some other favorites:
- The Wizard of Oz - Harold Arlen
- Casablanca - Max Steiner
- Anatomy of a Murder - Duke Ellington
- Vertigo - Bernard Hermann
- Lawrence of Arabia - Maurice Jarre
- In The Heat Of The Night - Quincy Jones
- Bullitt - Lalo Schifrin
- Once Upon a Time in the West - Ennio Morricone
- 8 1/2 - Nino Rota
 
#39 · (Edited)
The Empire Strikes Back was released when I was 12. I got the 2-LP John Williams soundtrack not long after seeing the movie. It was one of the first albums I ever bought. I still have it.



Some other favorites:
- The Wizard of Oz - Harold Arlen
- Casablanca - Max Steiner
- Anatomy of a Murder - Duke Ellington
- Vertigo - Bernard Hermann- Lawrence of Arabia - Maurice Jarre- In The Heat Of The Night - Quincy Jones
- Bullitt - Lalo Schifrin
- Once Upon a Time in the West - Ennio Morricone
- 8 1/2 - Nino Rota
Empire?-- certainly.

But Lalo Schiffrin's score to Bullitt? A black 440 Charger R/T, yes!

But Schiffrin's jazz score? . . .
 
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