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Movies & Music: Best soundtracks
Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I don’t always notice the soundtracks of movies I watch. Of course, I can think of plenty of movies with standout soundtracks–Chariots of Fire, Star Wars (the older movies), and Gone with the Wind come to mind. But generally, at the end of a movie I don’t think, “Wow, I really loved the music.” One recent exception was Juno, which has one of the most unique soundtracks I think I’ve ever heard.
Everyone seems to have their own opinions on the best movie soundtrack(s). What’s yours?
Topic: Entertainment, WorldMagBlog
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back to top23 Comments to “Movies & Music: Best soundtracks”
Fellowship of the Ring.
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And Titanic.
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The Straight Story (Angelo Badalamenti)
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Clockwork Orange.
The music was thoroughly woven into the story – essentially, Beethoven’s music was a co-star to Malcom McDowell.
It also featured the pioneering work of Walter/Wendy Carlos – one of the earliest pioneers of synthesizers.
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For an older sort, Erich Korngold’s scores for the Errol Flynn movies are also standouts, especially that for The Seahawk.
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Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
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Sometimes the soundtrack draws me to the movie. “The way we were” (for the treacle), 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Dr. Zhivago. I love a great musical, like “The Sound of Music”, and the soundtrack of “To Kill a Mockingbird” fits the drama perfectly. Of course, I generally don’t like sad movies so when – in my distant youth – I would hear the opening whistle of “Lassie”, I’d quickly get up to change the channel.
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“Little Women” (the more recent version with Susan Sarandon as Marmee) has a great soundtrack. I play it often when housecleaning.
“Juno” caught my attention too, as did “P.S. I love you.” The latter I’m getting for sure.
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“Somewhere in Time”
It’s the most romantic soundtrack one can imagine.
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JJ’s list of his fave movie soundtracks:
A) Chriots of Fire – Vangelis
B) Titanic
C) American Graffiti
D) The Man Who Fell to Earth – David Bowie
E) everything else
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The movie ‘Once’.
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The Mission (If you have not seen this, I highly recommend it)
Henry V (Brannaugh version)
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The Hunt for Red October.
High Society
Sleepless in Seattle (I finally realized what I liked about this movie was the music. The story line is actually full of lies and duplicity).
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Not a soundtrack, exactly (because it includes music from more than one show), but I have a CD of the Charlie Brown music by Vince Guaraldi.
One my husband and I both enjoy (despite our differing tastes in music) is the soundtrack from the anime show Witchhunter Robin. I don’t get into the show, but I really like the music.
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When Sydney Pollack died this week I kept thinking about one of my favorites of his films,Out of Africa. I loved the way he used John Barry’s lovely score [and David Watkin's beautiful cinematography] in this film.
I must admit, though, I usually forget the score of a film as soon as I leave the theater. While many scores “make” the film, they are so much a part of it that I don’t remember them separately.
Exceptions are those films that use popular hit recordings, but only when they really make a difference to the film [or my youthful memories]. The best of those are The Big Chill and Dirty Dancing.
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“The Last of the Mohicans” latest version
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Kayvee, I forgot about Out of Africa. Excellent. The only disappointment to the soundtrack when purchased is the absence of the Swahili coral pieces in the film.
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The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe(2005).
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I would second O, Brother, Where Art Thou?”
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LOTR, Pirates of the Caribbean I, early Star Wars, and Fiddler on the Roof (the last is a musical, but the violin playing is awesome, and most of the songs follow the story well.
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By Mrs. Frank’s telling, the “Extended Versions” of the three LOTR films are in a class unto themselves, and I can’t say’s I disagree. They each include tons of music that never even made it into the “Director’s Cut” versions of the films — each one is more a symphony than a sound track.
As far as the rest of the “merely mortal” STs go, some of our faves (in no particular order) are:
• The Girl With the Pearl Earring
• Kingdom of Heaven
• October Sky
• Braveheart
• The Last Samurai
• The Man From Snowy River
And although we do love the O Brother sound track — it’s a family road-trip standard — we don’t consider it to be so much a “real” sound track as a great compilation of bluegrass and folk songs — some already extant, some original for the film — from a favorite movie.
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I loved Star Wars when it came out, most of the John Williams Soundtracks are good music.
I agree with Peter L – Isaac Strarns’ playing on Fidler on the Roof is excellent.
T-Bone Burnett collects some interesting music, much of it with it’s roots in Gospel for the soundtracks he compiles – O Brother Where Art Thou, The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood and Cold Mountain come to mind.
I fell in love withthe Henry V (Brannaugh version) when I saw Paul Wylie skate to it in the 1990 Olympics.
Gladiator has some of the best music. My favorite is the Gladiator Waltz.
Bein partial to Celtic music, I like Braveheart, Rob Roy and Last of the Mohicans.
I listened to my parents’ Victory at Sea when I was a kid and loved it.
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“Walkabout” has a terrific score by Karlheinz Stockhausen to go with a visionary adventure story.
Korngold was one of the best composers who worked in Hollywood, but I don’t think his Hollywood music was much above the other Hollywood music, and the “Robin Hood” score has always sounded over-done, to me.
The Guardian is dead accurate about Psycho and Bernard Herrmann but I’m surprised the writer didn’t mention the non plus ultra Citizen Kane.
The zither in the Third Man is hard to listen to repeatedly, which for me detracts from this irresistible movie. On the other hand, the sitar in the Apu movies, Pather Panchali et. al. is as fresh as fruit in the orchard.
I’m baffled by the recommendation of “Lift To The Scaffold” in which Miles Davis goes through the motions of sounding like Gil Evans one last time before moving on to more interesting music. If that was still “cool” it was the death of the cool.
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