Acclaimed Music Forums

What are some of your favorite scores and soundtracks? I'd say the main theme from Psycho and "The Ecstasy of Gold" are my two favorites in terms of original music, and basically anything Tarantino has a good soundtrack. What are some of your favorites?

Easily Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo is my all-time favorite film score. It's spectacular. "Scene d'Amour" is life-affirming.

Other favorite film scores include but is not limited to:

• Gone with the Wind

• The Age of Innocence

• Bonjour Tristesse

• Contempt

• Chinatown

• A Streetcar Named Desire

• Spartacus

• On the Waterfront

• Goldfinger

• Ascenseur pour l'échafaud

My favorite film soundtracks include:

• The Big Chill

• The Wizard of Oz

• Purple Rain

• Superfly

• 2001: A Space Odyssey

I am sure I am forgetting countless others.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Back To The Future
Batman (1989)
Blade Runner
Conan The Barbarian
The Dark Knight Trilogy
Gladiator
The Godfather, Part 1 and 2
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
The Great Escape
Hamilton
The Hateful Eight
Inception
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade
Inside Out
Koyaanisqatsi
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Magnificent Seven
Once Upon A Time In The West
Pan's Labyrinth
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Requiem For A Dream
The Revenant
Rocky
Shawshank Redemption
Sicario
The Social Network
Spider-man
Spider-man 2
Star Trek (2009)
Star Wars - all of them
The Thin Red Line
Titanic
Up
WALL-E

bootsy wrote:Hamilton

I may be so out of it, but isn't Hamilton just a Broadway play?

babydoll wrote:

bootsy wrote:Hamilton

I may be so out of it, but isn't Hamilton just a Broadway play?

Yeah I bent the rules a little bit because I like the soundtrack so much. I can remove it if it doesn't fit.

bootsy wrote:

babydoll wrote:

bootsy wrote:Hamilton

I may be so out of it, but isn't Hamilton just a Broadway play?

Yeah I bent the rules a little bit because I like the soundtrack so much. I can remove it if it doesn't fit.

Honestly, I was just curious. I'm a professed film lover, but I really haven't followed movies in recent years that much. (I still haven't seen Moonlight or La La Land!) And, honestly, I didn't know if Hamilton was a film yet, though it's ripe to be adapted to the silver screen.

Some of my faves include:

Carol
American Beauty
Jackie
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Her
Gravity
Birdman

babydoll wrote:

bootsy wrote:

babydoll wrote: I may be so out of it, but isn't Hamilton just a Broadway play?

Yeah I bent the rules a little bit because I like the soundtrack so much. I can remove it if it doesn't fit.

Honestly, I was just curious. I'm a professed film lover, but I really haven't followed movies in recent years that much. (I still haven't seen Moonlight or La La Land!) And, honestly, I didn't know if Hamilton was a film yet, though it's ripe to be adapted to the silver screen.

It is definitely a prime candidate to be adapted into a film but I'm wondering how that would look, how they would pull that off with the subject matter.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is extremely underrated IMO

notbrianeno wrote:The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is extremely underrated IMO

Yes definitely forgot to mention that one but that's a good one.

Bernard Herrmann - Vertigo
Bernard Herrmann - Psycho
Nino Rota - The Godfather
Nino Rota - Amarcord
Henry Mancini - Breakfast at Tiffany's
Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther
Max Steiner - Gone with the Wind
Ennio Morricone - Cinema Paradiso
John Williams - Jaws
Maurice Jarre - Lawrence of Arabia
Charlie Chaplin - Modern Times
Anton Karas - The Third Man
Monty Norman - Dr. No
Zbigniew Preisner - La Double Vie de Véronique
Miles Davis - Ascenseur pour l'échaffaud
Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever
Alan Silvestri - The Bodyguard
Prince - Purple Rain
Jerome Kern - Swing Time
George Gershwin - Shall We Dance

Another personal favorite is Herrmann's score to Taxi Driver. That man knew how to compose music.

Listyguy wrote:Another personal favorite is Herrmann's score to Taxi Driver. That man knew how to compose music.

Dangit another one I forgot. Thanks Listyguy.

Just today I noticed some of my favorite songs that come from soundtracks like (500) Days of Summer and About a Boy are not available on Spotify and ITunes so go figure I don't know if there are any other hard to find soundtracks out there but at least we have YouTube and tor....you know. I'm afraid to even say the word but I'm not judging how you get music as long as you find a way to get your music I'm fine with that. Just an observation.

Film Scores:
Hans Zimmer / Klaus Badelt - Pirates of the Caribbean
John Williams - Harry Potter
John Williams - Star Wars
John Williams - Indiana Jones
Hans Zimmer - Interstellar
Howard Shore - Lord of the Rings
Joe Hisaishi - My Neighbor Totoro
Joe Hisaishi - Kiki's Delivery Service
Joe Hisaishi - Princess Mononoke
Joe Hisaishi - Spirited Away
Joe Hisaishi - Howl's Moving Castle
Hans Zimmer - Inception

Film Soundtracks:
Grease
The Sound of Music
Phantom of the Opera
...a few Disney movies (I'll admit)

TV / anime / video game soundtracks:
The Simpsons
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Cowboy Bebop
Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright
Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

I used to listen to a compilation of John Williams scores and the soundtracks of the two Fantasia movies whenever I studied, so I have fond memories of those.

And, of course, Purple Rain. I also love anything from the Muppet movies or John Hughes movies.

I'm pretty sure there is already enough Rota in this thread, but one of his lesser known work for Fellini is my favorite:



Another interesting listen is La Planète Sauvage:




If we include musicals: Rocky Horror, Cabaret.

From the film The Great Beauty. Just an amazing song.

Oddly enough, no mention as of yet of the three standouts in the standout career of Ennio Morricone:

Once Upon a Time in the West

Music doesn't get better for me than this. Should rank high on any album list, but usually doesn't, because it is a score.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Well, at least Ecstacy of Gold already got a mention here. That's the standout track to one of the most thrilling, visceral film scores ever produced. More immediate than Once Upon a Time in the West (though not as deep), it is no surprise that this one has remained popular through the years.

The Mission

Not a particularly good movie, but well-received at the time. Perhaps because the music gave the impression it had more spiritual depth than it has. Outside of Once Upon a Time in the West and the scores to The Lord of the Rings (a favorite in my teenage years) probably the soundtrack I have heard the most. There are times when I simply need its spiritual calm. It was an entry by me of Moderately Acclaimed two years ago, but sadly, that went nowhere.

God, I could go on about this topic, but I don't have the time. Many suggestions above here are great and still much is missing, including obvious picks. Good news: The Passion by Peter Gabriel, written for The Last Temptation of Christ is present in Moderately Acclaimed this week and I would rank it among the best film scores available (and I haven't even seen the film yet, one of the very few Scorsese's I've missed). Listen to it and be inspired!

I do want to share two of the most weird scores of recent years though.

Berberian Sound Studio

A movie about sound got a soundtrack that challenges you to listen. Unique.

Under the Skin

Few films deserve the description "otherworldly" as much as Under the Skin and a large part of that is due to the soundtrack by Mica Levi, which is something else. Herr recent work on Jackie was great too, but because Under the Skin is such an unusual picture, the soundtrack can't help but be equally weird.

I rarely listen to soundtrack compilations for films all that much, and consider them something else than scoring. Still, one film floored me recently with its song selections, namely American Honey:

It's a very varied selection, among many genres, but everything finds its place. Also, refreshingly, no song is obvious, unless it's needs to be. Heck, even if I only learned about God's Whisper from this album I would be eternally grateful. Listen to the soundtrack and see the film! It should become a textbook on how to select music for films, as much as Scorsese's and Tarantino's work.