# Best use of music in a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 22, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215 "2001-01-22T04:05:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Journeyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@Journeyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Journeyman)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2001, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/81 "2001-05-30T15:03:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kilt-wearin’ man \* > \*\*Just about any movie that Basil Poledouris scores comes out 10 times better for it - Conan, The Hunt for Red October, Starship Troopers (the Klendathu landing music), Robocop (one of the best “superhero” theme songs ever), I could easily go on and on. \*\* You mean I’m not the only one who thought that sequence from Starship Troopers (the landing) sounded great? I can’t beleive no one has mentioned Gladiator yet. I love this soundtrack, and it’s use in the movie is so well done. In my opinion, that movie owed much of it’s power to the music. Princess Mononoke has a beautiful score. The theme in particular is very haunting and memorable. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/82 "2001-05-31T04:36:19Z")
**The Third Man** (with Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles) was a very good movie, made great by the oddly romantic sound of a zither, played throughout. My favorite **Goodfellas** moment is the “Layla” piano coda that coincides with the discovery of the dead man and his dead wife in their car. Call me sentimental, but I still get awed when hearing _Ave Maria_ at the end of **Fantasia.** ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/83 "2001-05-31T07:20:39Z")
The music during the scene in the disco/meat-packing plant in ‘Blade’ fit with the cinematography perfectly - I believe the song is called ‘Confusion’… ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/84 "2001-05-31T07:59:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panamajack \* > \*\*Patrick Doyle’s score to the Kenneth Branagh-directed _Henry V_ is just awesome, especially in the battle scenes. According to Simon Rattle, the Birmingham Symphony had tears in their eyes just playing it. > \*\* Yes! I especially love the long shot of the battlefield after the fighting is over, with the _Non nobis, Domine_ – that’s my all-time favorite piece of movie music. ---
**Author:** ![Raziel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Raziel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raziel)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/85 "2001-05-31T08:16:21Z")
Farking Natural Born Killers. Awesome music, integrates with the film like buttah. Now that I think of it, ANY soundtrack produces by Trent Reznor (ok, so there’s only two) sounds great. But Natural Born Killers, specifically, has some great music. “Shitlist” by L7 plays while Juliette Lewis kicks a redneck’s ass. That’s just cool. Oh, and the song that JL sings in the prison cell (“I guess I was born…naturally born…born baaaaaaaaaaad…”) was written by her. I love Juliette Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/86 "2001-05-31T23:27:34Z")
**It’s a Most Unusual Day** , heard as Cary Grant walks by the orchestra in “North by Northwest.” ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/87 "2001-06-01T00:15:11Z")
…so sue me. But the ending scene in the Season Finale of the “The West Wing” was amazing. “Brothers in Arms” was the _perfect_ song for what was going on. It was so amazing that I watched in three or four times. (My gov teacher records them every week, so I got her copy). ---
**Author:** ![exchicagoan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/0ea827/32.png) [@exchicagoan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exchicagoan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/88 "2001-06-01T07:40:54Z")
I’m surprised that the thread got this far without----- DUELING BANJOS from DELIVERENCE-----the audience broke in to applause. WOW! YEE HA! (hadn’t been played on the radio yet) Beginning sequence to RAGING BULL and ending sequence to THE GODFATHER,III—MASCAGNI’S INTERMEZZO from CAVELLERIA RUSTICANA. AND---- Would I have sobbed OUT LOUD at the end of AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER if THE SONG hadn’t been playing? I thank PULP FICTION for reminding me of RUMBLE by LINK WRAY and MISERLU by DICK DALE. Ditto to the recent PRINGLES ad–I PUT A SPELL ON YOU by SCREAMING JAY HAWKINS. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST—the gangs slo-mo stride out of the sage brush after killing the farmer, watching, circleing the little kid. MORICONNE’S BEAUTIFUL MUSIC. The “killing” gunshot sound melded with the “scream” of the train wistle. Stunning! The same piece was used for the “showdown” between FONDA and BRONSON toward the end. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/89 "2001-06-01T08:41:20Z")
Many, many good examples have already been mentioned. Let me throw in an odd one. **The Warriors** , a not-at-all deep actioner from the late seventies. Good camera-work and a clever use of the score made it an unusually compelling film for the genre. Particularly effective are the opening credits and the “Baseball Furies” sequence. Recommended ( long as you don’t expect too much ) 🙂 . Honorable mention to Tangerine Dream’s ( who I’m usually indifferent towards ) work on **Thief** with James Caan. Another recommended film. Oh and an oddball choice for an Ennio Morricone score ( though **The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly** is almost untouchable ) - John Carpenter’s **The Thing**. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Ura-Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Ura-Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ura-Maru)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/90 "2001-06-01T09:26:33Z")
That bit in _Yojimbo_ where Mifune is sitting in the bell tower and watching the two gangs try to work thier way up to actually fighting each other. Most of the rest of the film had the typical for the time overbearing score, but for that bit it worked great. And the cheesy but fun movie _Demon Knight_ had a scene where the Billy Zane (as the devil, of course) is trying to tempt the cute work-release girl, which had GREAT music. Sort of a light hip-hop thing, which normally I don’t like, but for that scene it was great. Which is odd, considering it’s not “scoring” in the usual sense, it’s just a clip from a song with the words taken out. And while it was not, technically speaking, a movie, the end movie for _Fallout,_ with the battered Vault Dweller limping off into the endless wasteland to the Inkspots’ “Maybe” is branded forever into my mind. Especially considering they used the same song for the opening, which had a totally different feel. _Planescape: Torment_ almost (but not quite) bested this in a couple of places, the start and end movies were likewise incredible, and there was a bit near the start where you run into the ghost of The Nameless One’s “lover” was unbelivable, especially considering it’s almost all done in text . . . For TV shows, the last few minutes of _Za’Ha Dum_, the season three ending for _Babylon 5_ was scored amazingly well, even by the high musical standards of the rest of the show. Anime-wise, all of Yoko Kanno’s scores are great, but she really outdid herself in a few places. That bit in Escaflowne where Van masacres the (poorly named) Dragonslayers right in front of Delandau, the flashback sequence when Spike is falling out the church window in _Cowboy Bebop_, and the whole last quarter of _Macross Plus_ (from _Information High_ onwards) In all three, the music and images just mesh perfectly . . . Though I think the winner would have to be the scene in _Perfet Blue_ (hey, that actually WAS a movie) where the guy gets icepicked to death to the bubbly idol music, with the quick cuts to the magazine pictures. Though there was a very similar scene in _Babylon 5_ that worked almost as well. (Which was based on a scene from _Caberet_ . . .) I wish I could find a soundtrack for _Eat Man '98_, perticularly the playful, vaugly gypsy-like bit in the first episode, which seemed to perfectly capture the feel for the series when mated with the bits of Bolt deliberatly getting himself arrested. And I’m amazed this has gone on this long without someone mentioning the “Sad walking away theme” from the Hulk TV show . . . though that was really the song itself that was great, not the scoring. – “Something that Hichcock would be proud of . . . his dog directing.” ---
**Author:** ![BobSchroeck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@BobSchroeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobSchroeck)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2001, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215/91 "2001-06-01T12:23:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tsugumo \* > \*\*19 and still watching cartoons…I’m so pathetic, heheh. > \*\* You think _you’re_ pathetic? I’m 39 and my cartoon collection is still growing… Seconds on “The Conversation” from **CE3K**. How about just about all the Tangerine Dream stuff from **Risky Business**? (We’ll exclude the “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll” scene from consideration while we’re at it…) – Bob [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-use-of-music-in-a-movie/51215.md?page=4)