Favorite Movie Score

[SimonDoom]

I am very shocked no one has mentioned the GOAT: Blues Brothers.

That soundtrack had the best entertainers of the 70s backed by the best studio musicians of the 60s and 70s supporting the Queen of Soul. There’s nothing better.

Except maybe Marvin Hamlisch’s The Sting for which he won both an Oscar and a Grammy.

Change my mind!

I'm not going to try to change your mind, because it's an excellent soundtrack, but I think of soundtrack and score as different. Score is original music written specifically for a movie, whereas a soundtrack is a collection of previously existing songs, like Blues Brothers.

I love the scene where they play Rawhide and Stand By Your Man over and over again in the redneck bar to mollify the crowd.

 

[32aa]

Pretty much everything with Clannad is excellent. The theme from the old Robin Hood series was hauntingly perfect.

Have you seen their video perfoming that score? if not here it is.

 

[Writer61]

I'm not sure that I have a favourite favourite, but anything by Michael Nyman or Ennio Morricone is usually worth a listen.

Agree with both.

Nyman's score for The Draughtsman's Contract (which introduced me to Peter Greenaway) springs to mind.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I'm not going to try to change your mind, because it's an excellent soundtrack, but I think of soundtrack and score as different. Score is original music written specifically for a movie, whereas a soundtrack is a collection of previously existing songs, like Blues Brothers.

I love the scene where they play Rawhide and Stand By Your Man over and over again in the redneck bar to mollify the crowd.

Here at Bob's Country Bunker we play both kinds of music.
Country AND Western.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Sometimes a movie doesn't even need a score. Dog Day Afternoon has the Elton John song at the beginning and it turns out to be playing on the radio of the car Al Pacino is in as he is driven up to the bank. Then that's it. I think the song is there to comment on the love affair between the Sonny character and Leon, but that is just a guess.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'm not going to try to change your mind, because it's an excellent soundtrack, but I think of soundtrack and score as different. Score is original music written specifically for a movie, whereas a soundtrack is a collection of previously existing songs, like Blues Brothers.

I love the scene where they play Rawhide and Stand By Your Man over and over again in the redneck bar to mollify the crowd.

At some point movie scores/soundtracks became another commodity to sell as a CD (albums originally). That resulted in a lot of songs being thrown in just to pad the album. The Blues Brothers was one of the few where it was justified.

At least the movie gave jobs to some dancers. (The ones on the street appear to be professionals. The ones on the el station may be amateurs who were either there already or rounded up for the shot.)

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

AKIRA

Full soundtrack

 

[gunhilltrain]

The score on the opening credits of Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

Bernard Hermann's last score; he died at the end of 1975. The closing credits are pretty good too. It was not a perfect movie, but it had a great sense of what New York was like in that era. I like how it goes from the saxophone to the ominous music heard at the beginning. It seems to be about Travis's downhill mood after he sees Betsy for the last time.

By the way, I drove a taxi in that era (I was married at the time), and women like her didn't go for cab drivers.

 

[Jeb56]

Bernard Hermann's last score; he died at the end of 1975. The closing credits are pretty good too. It was not a perfect movie, but it had a great sense of what New York was like in that era. I like how it goes from the saxophone to the ominous music heard at the beginning. It seems to be about Travis's downhill mood after he sees Betsy for the last time.

By the way, I drove a taxi in that era (I was married at the time), and women like her didn't go for cab drivers.

Thanks for posting the clip. The cinematography is brilliant too.

 

[Comshaw]

There are way too many great themes to choose from so I can't really pick just one. Here are a few I love.

Maybe it's my time in the military but one of my all-time favorite themes is from "Patton".

And way back as a youngster I fell in love with this one: A Summer Place

And who can't be moved by the Rocky theme?

And anyone who has ever watched "Grease" knows it starts like this, Franky Valli and the 4 Seasons:

And last but not least my guilty pleasure, Smokey and the Bandit, Eastbound and Down:

Comshaw

 

[Zenwick]

A lot of pieces of music came to mind for this! I can't really choose, but I guess for some movies, individual tracks stand out most. For example Hans Zimmer's main themes for Inception: "Time." And for Interstellar: "S.T.A.Y."

The main themes for Blade Runner, and the opening track for Blade Runner 2049, which I think is just called "2049."

I think, though, when it comes to a whole OST, I've always enjoyed Ennio Morricone's score for Once Upon A Time In America. I just find it so evocative.

 

[jehoram]

I don't think the Lawrence of Arabia score by Maurice Jarre has been mentioned yet. That is probably my favourite.

To which you could add his masterful score for Doctor Zhivago.

Those were old-school scores, from the great epic movies of the 1960s. I guess I could put in a good word for Miklós Rózsa, whose scores for Ben Hur and King of Kings set a new benchmark for ochestral scores.

And I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Nino Rota's score for The Godfather. The only reason it wasn't nominated for an Oscar was that the main theme had already been used in an earlier movie.