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Slightly OT: Best Movie Scores Ever


ElectricPuppy

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Also from Shawshank, when Andy breaks out...that buildup is incredible.


It's hard to beat the Imperial March from Star Wars. My two little sons are duelling around the house with their toy sabers trying to sing that all the time
:D

 

 

Quite possibly one of the best stories ever told. And one of the only SK books that translated well to the big screen.

 

SK has been doing a lot of graphic novels lately. I'll have to pick a few up.

 

I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

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Probably my most favorite film score (and you're all going to laugh, but I'm serious):

 

Big Trouble in Little China

-I do love me some 80's synths when John Carpenter is playing them.

 

Also followed closely by:

 

Poltergeist

-Say what you will about John Williams (indeed, a brilliant composer) but I think Jerry Goldsmith is about a notch ahead of him.

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I am not a movie buff and out of date when it comes to knowing what movies are out. Many times I noticed movie scores when people talked about them after the fact and I payed attention the next time around, like "Blade Runner". Occasionally I went to see a movie specifically because musicians that I like were in the movie and did the score, like "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" or "The Wall". I liked the jazz music in some of Woody Allen's films, but I can't actually name what tune went with what film. I guess that outside some of the biggies from my childhood like 2001, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T., and films for which my mom had the music like Sound of Music and Saturday Night Fever, I am a total loser when it comes to knowing about movies or scores. Oh yeah, and there were some of the 80's movies like Breakfast Club that had songs which dominated the radio waves when I was in college (and I even saw Simple Minds in concert at some point back then).

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My favourite movie scores are...

 

Inseminoid - John Scott

Trancers - Mark Ryder and Phil Davies

Escape from New York - John Carpenter

Legend - Tangerine Dream

Bladerunner - Vangelis

The Bounty - Vangelis

The Mothman Prophecies - Tomandandy

Creep - The Insects

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Many times I noticed movie scores when people talked about them after the fact and I payed attention the next time around, like "Blade Runner".

 

 

That's frankly one of the few synthesizer based scores that I would rank alongside the orchestral scores of the silver and golden age. Something like Tangerine Dream's "Thief" for instance works well with the movie, but the score is instantly 80s. Some of the best scores do have electronic elements, ranging from a simple Theremin (eg Miklos Rozsa's film noir work) to a *lot* of synthetic elements (the unfortunately overlooked Trevor Jones score to The Dark Crystal), but the orchestral element seems to be something I prefer.

 

It's probably just my sensibilities or something, but the Hans Zimmer style synthetic action score that's the norm today just doesn't seem to be as memorable. Nothing instantly recognizable it seems like John Williams' work (Star Wars, ET, Schindler's List, etc.) or even the big hitters of some of the others (eg Alan Silvestri's Back to the Future; Basil Poledoris's Conan the Barbarian; Danny Elfman's Edward Scissorhands; etc.). Maybe it's not just me and those older composers were more handy with leitmotif or something...

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Susperia- best horror music EVER

Star Wars 4 &5

The Godfather

(original)Planet Of The Apes ( makes the movie)

(Original) King Kong

Iron Man ( fiercely original)

Cinema Paradiso ( Morricone tear jerker)

Jaws

Akira Kurasawa's Dreams

The Last Emperor

Traffic

Blade Runner

PLanet Terror ( spot on retro synth

 

 

Favorite uses of pre-recorded/pre published music

2001 Space Odyssey

Pulp Fiction

The Shining

Kill Bill ( both vols)

Saturday Night Fever

Shrek 1 & 2

 

Favorite Musical movies

Wizard of Oz

Grease

The Sound of Music

Moulin Rouge ( 2001)

West Side Story

All That Jazz

Pink Floyd- The Wall

Purple Rain

Little Shop of Horrors

The BLues Brothers

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Sorcerer- Tangerine Dream 1977

[video=youtube;UMof5PuQF7w]

Terrific movie and incredible soundtrack.

 

The Last Temptation of Christ- 1988 Peter Gabriel

[video=youtube;uTAaKAVpOOM]

This soundtrack changed my life and the way I viewed world music.

 

Plunkett & Macleane 1999- Craig Armstrong

[video=youtube;3H98Zs0vXTU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H98Zs0vXTU&feature=related

The pre cursor to ridiculous over the top Michael Bay inspired Orgasma-estras.

 

Conan The Barbarian Basil Poledoruis -1982

[video=youtube;5ZY2mRG5mzg]

When I was 22 I would go to the gym and bench negative sets with this in my trusty Walkman cassette! Crush your enemies! BARRRRHHH!!!!

 

Star Trek II- Wrath of KHAAAAN James horner-1982

[video=youtube;Mv8dl9jCn58]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv8dl9jCn58

Love Jerry Goldsmiths original score but this one really connects with me as it's a departure from the original Star Trek motif.

 

Brainstorm-James Horner-1983

[video=youtube;mTYRH3xpt44]

Another that touched me... incredibly underrated and amazing sci-fi... the music and sounddesign are integral to the story.

 

 

Goldfinger-1965 John Barry

[video=youtube;HNGBi4K5nys]

Tough to choose as I love everything John Barry related. Goldfinger is perhaps my favorite choice!

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One of the most underrated SciFi movies ever as wel..

 

Of all these listed, many of them outstanding, the Clockwork Orange by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos to me stands as the corner stone of synth soundtrack work, and the Blade Runner soundtrack as the modern measuring stick. Think of what Carlos had to work with back them....pieced together, homeade, wires, patches, potentiometers....a nightmare from a functional standpoint...

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