At the risk of sounding like I’m about to present a minor category at the Academy Awards, film scores can make or break a movie. They can lift our spirits or make us cry. They can have us punching the air during the climactic final fight or… you get the idea where I’m going with this and I’m pretty sure the importance of music to film is not a hard sell. Many of the greatest films would not have become so iconic or memorable had they not featured such stirring or moving soundtracks. Some movies you could arguably enjoy just as much as a an extended music video for their soundtrack. In fact there’s one film in this list that’s definitely better seen that way (no prizes for guessing which).
We asked our writers to make a case for their favourite bits of movie music and the following is what they came up with. And the result is a bit of a John Williams love-in, with no less than four of the great man’s scores singled out for praise by our team – with Jaws, E.T., Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park making the cut ahead of such stone-cold classics as Star Wars, Close Encounters, Indiana Jones and Superman (blimey, he really does have a great CV).
Two of my favourite scores/composers of recent times – both from Paul Thomas Anderson films, incidentally – don’t even get a mention, so I’ll honour them here: Jon Brion’s woozy and tense yet lyrical score for Punch-Drunk Love, with it’s tenderly romantic central theme (below), and Jonny Greenwood’s similarly edgy and unsettling work on There Will Be Blood.
So, in no particular order, you can read about – and listen to – the choices of some of our writers over the coming pages…
Want to write about the stuff you're passionate about and have your work read by an audience of over 10 million a month? Click here to become a contributor.
18 Comments
Great list and reasons why they’ve been chosen. My personal all time favourite soundtrack is Morricone’s Once Upon A Time In America – both beautiful and tragic, you feel a real yearning of lost time, friendship and love listening to it.
Great list, although, I feel it could have used some additions:
-Sunshine
-Shutter Island
-Star Wars
-Indiana Jones
-Dragonheart
Really enjoyed the list and explanations.
I’d throw my hat in the ring for Amadeus. Quite powerful.
I went E.T. but was borderline going to include The Fountain as well.
Great work Rob. Hats off to all!
Reply function not working. To Matthew: Ultimately I chose Blade Runner with no hesitation whatsoever, but there were many others I considered – OUATIA being one of them. The use of the flute especially was just amazing. It’s such a shame that Morricone’s work here was unable to nab a well deserved Oscar on a damn technicality!
Anyway, as I said – no doubt in my mind that Vangelis’ score for ‘Blade Runner’ is a masterpiece (like the film itself) and one of the greatest.
All others here were brilliant choices, particularly TGTBATU, Taxi Driver and Drive – all of which I adore.
Some others I love -
Heat – Elliot Goldenthal & others
Mulholland Drive – Angelo Badalamenti
Blue Velvet – Angelo Badalamenti
Lost Highway – Angelo Badalamenti
Moon – Clint Mansell
Drive – Various
In Bruges – Carter Burwell
Amadeus – Mozart/Salieri
Watchmen – Tyler Bates & others
The Wrestler – Clint Mansell
Black Swan – Clint Mansell
Metropolis – Gottfried Huppertz
The Road – Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Chungking Express – Frankie Chan & Roel A. Garcia
Double Indemnity – Miklos Rozsa
Star Wars I-VI – John Williams
Inception – Hans Zimmer
Romeo + Juliet – Craig Armstrong
O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Various
Also, I bought the Prometheus soundtrack today. It’s ace!
I don’t think you’ve understood what a film score is… Pulp Fiction, for example, doesn’t have one.
The film score for Moon By Clint Mansell must be included; it’s was made Moon such an atmospheric and brilliant film, also the score for Black Hawk Down is brilliant and truly emotional.
Man…so many missing. My list would include these:
Batman: Danny Elfman
Superman: John Williams
LOTR Trilogy: Howard Shore
Pirates of the Caribbean: Klaus Badelt
The Godfather: Nino Rota
There’s tons. I think as this list is everyone’s fave it lacks a wider look at some amazing music which is a shame.
The list is made up of just 15 peoples opinions at the end of the day, to get what everyone considers the best in a list of 15 is impossible. For the record, of your list I completely agree on Batman, LOTR and The Godfather.
@ Andy: The title could me misleading I suppose. This list is in fact for both ‘score’ and ‘soundtrack’.
@ Ben: Agreed. I seriously considered Moon but couldn’t look past Blade Runner.
I would suggest you must include Badlands (Karl Orff – Gassenhauer) , Bladerunner (Vangelis), The Killing Fields (Mike Oldfield), Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence ( Ryuichi Sakamoto), Missing (Vangelis), Silent Running ( Peter Shickele with two absolutely beautiful songs by Joan Baez/Shikele – Rejoice in the Sun and Silent Running), Edward Scissorhands (Danny Elfman), Schindlers List (John Barry), Solaris (1972) (Johann Sebastian Bach and main score by Eduard Artemyev),
I love most of those in the list but obviously Jaws stands out. I would say there has never been a film score that so perfectly fits the on screen visuals as Jaws.
Even though the main theme is easily the most famous and recognizable movie themes ever, it’s all the other stuff that really makes the film. The Promenade/Tourists On The Menu cue is brilliant, as is the search for Ben Gardner’s boat. Of course, it goes without saying that the whole barrel chase music is just amazing. John Williams’ mother-load from when Brody says “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” to when the barrel sounds under the ocean 5 minutes later is pure genius. I’ve never heard any music in any other film match what is happening on screen as well as that. It’s as if John Williams was on the boat himself reacting to every bob and weave of the Orca.
Jaws = brilliant.
The 1933 King Kong score by Max Steiner should also be on the list. It was probably the first true film score as we known them today. Extremely important and influential especially Steiner’s recurring leitmotifs.
No Godfather or Chinatown. What is going on?
no mention of batman theme by danny elfman?? shame on you
I despise Danny Elfman, but “Batman” was great. “Pulp Fiction” and “Drive” shouldn’t be on the list at all. They both have great music, especially “Pulp Fiction,” but they aren’t scores. They’re soundtracks. Scores are original music composed for the film. “LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring” should be on here and at least one Batman by Hans Zimmer.