John Williams has not done a bad score. Of course,all of the Star Wars soundtracks, but paricularly Empire Strikes Back. Indiana Jones. Close Encounters. Jaws. Jurassic Park. Harry Potter. Superman. And many more. Nobody has ever done it better than John Williams. Bladerunner and Chariots of Fire - Vangelis in fine form. K-Pax. Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. The soundtrack to Inside Man. Awesome stuff. Eyes Wide Shut. Last of the Mohicans (although, in all honesty, it is basically the exact same piece of music over and over again, in various forms. At elast, until the primary composer had to leave before the soundtrack was done, and it was finished by a different person. You can definitely tell the difference when listening to it. Still, that one main theme is one of the best ever done) Then there are movies filled with music, not necessarily sound TRACKS per se.. Pulp Fiction. Kill Bill. (Tarantino always makes music a very large part of his movies. Who can forget that Crazy 88's theme, that is used for just about everything now?) And say what you want about how bad Across the Universe sucked, but the music was good. The Matrix. But you also have to look at musical then too. Too too many. Grease. Mary Poppins (one of the best of all time) Trey Parker has never really received the recognition he deserves for the music he makes. The music and lyrics for Team America are genius. Which of course elads to the greatest movie musical of all time - South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Would like to toss in a special mention to a TV soundtrack (theme music really). One of the very best theme tracks to a T series was the opening to Star Trek Voyager. Just an awesomely grand piece of music. And of course this is just a tiny scratch on the surface..
There's a little known movie from a while back that starred a very young Ethan Hawke called Explorers. It's about some kids who received a transmission from an alien spaceship during a dream, use that message to construct a space ship and travel up into space to meetin said aliens. It's a goofy movie, overall...but the music for it is ****ing outstanding. To this day it remains my favorite score.
Qatsi trilogy(embedding disabled by request) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpjXRGYVKtY&feature=related
Basil Poledouris was money, RIP. He composed the Conans of course, but I don't include them as among his best work. Les Miserables may be my favorite of his. Honorable mention to Gattaca as well. LOTR - so good I had to see the official Howard Shore-approved LOTR choir/Houston Symphony event. Unbelievably good in concert.
Oh man, how could I have forgotten one of the very best movie soundtracks EVER?? If you have not listened to the soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ, by Peter Gabriel, go and find it right now. The movie may have been a forgettable piece of nothing, but the soundtrack is so far beyond a mere movie score...
There have been quite a few votes for Gladiator. But here is Gladiator's homage to Conan the Barbarian & Basil Poledouris, layin' down the "Anvil of Crom" in the teaser trailer: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GlkbEDETBNM&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GlkbEDETBNM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Everybody's familiar with Ennio Morricone's work in the spaghetti westerns. But he did a great score for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso that culminated in delivering the coolest, most satisfying, and most appropriate movie ending of all time. Simply a movie for people who love movies. WARNING: NSFW Spoiler <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BW_-0H_u3RQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BW_-0H_u3RQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>
Indeed. A pleasure to see humans with good taste. Some other favorites of mine - Lawrence of Arabia Breakfast at Tiffany's The Fifth Element Ryan's Daughter (see below) (Maurice Jarre is a genius. Besides Lawrence of Arabia, he did Dr. Zhivago, The Man Who Would Be King, The Year of Living Dangerously (underrated flick!), A Passage to India, Witness, No Way Out, Fatal Attraction, Dead Poets Society, Gorilla's in the Mist, Ghost, and countless others. Simply amazing!)
Schindlers List, Seven Samurai A Clockwork Orange, Glory <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ueWVV_GnRIA&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ueWVV_GnRIA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CfviAmY8L6Q&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CfviAmY8L6Q&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2EgOpIlZcTs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GYMNz2xETKU&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GYMNz2xETKU&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2EgOpIlZcTs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2EgOpIlZcTs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hufGptle0Lc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hufGptle0Lc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/prZ4RWWku7Y&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/prZ4RWWku7Y&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Legends of the Fall The Lord of the Rings
Lord of The Rings Trilogy - Howard Shore Conan The Barbarian - Basil Poledouris Braveheart - James Horner Gladiator - Hans Zimmer & Anything by John Williams
The Lord of the Rings trilogy had an AMAZING score and probably my favorite of all time. Other good ones would be Gladiator, Titanic, Rocky, The Dark Knight, and Terminator 2. If and ever there's a Halo movie, and if the score is done by the same guys that have created the soundtracks for the games, I'm sure that would be amazing as well.
