How about a word or two for William Walton’s Henry V music (1944) or the music he wrote forThe First of The Fewand theBattle of Britain (even if the producers dumped it from the movie).
And then there’s Vaughan Williams’s score for Scott of the Antarctic.
Or look wider afield - Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky
Nah. A Fistful of Dollars.
Honorable mention for Two Mules for Sister Sara.
Anvil of Crom is a good introduction for the movie, but Riders of Doom is the best part.
Not to mention other Hitchcock classics along with “Taxi Driver” and “Cape Fear”. I have this album which showcases his tremendous talent.
These are the pieces I associate with The Battle of Britain (1969):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNVVoH9-QH0To be honest, I much prefer the second (now usually referred to as “The Luftwaffe March”).
More from the pen of the ubertalented Ron Goodwin: Where Eagles Dare.
Oh, man, I always forget how perfect this score is.
Didja notice that the first several bars are a total lift (okay, homage) of the opening of Bernie Herrmann’s opening theme for North by Northwest? Of course, Frontiere takes it in a completely different direction.
Not as distinguished as many of the other musics mentioned, but I’ve always loved the Burt Bacharach/Herb Alpert score to the 1967 Casino Royale. Like the movie itself, a glorious segue from the “cool” Ratpack Playboy-Philosophy James Bond early 60s to the “hot” psychedelic surreal LSD late 60s.
I have to give credit to Robert Russell Bennett as well, who composed and orchestrated a great deal of the music along with Rogers.
Which he reworked and turned into his seventh symphony, the Sinfonia Antarctica. One of the few scores to call for wind machines.
The British have done some of the most sweeping, atmospheric cinematic music ever, especially stuff depicting the sea and epic historical events. Right now I happen to be listening to Sir Arthur Bliss’s incidental music for Alexander Korda’s 1936 Things to Come.
A few more, now that it’s not 2 in the morning…
Maximus’s death in Gladiator
According to lore this opening theme elicited cheers when the film premiered
I thought the soundtrack to the first Chronicles of Narnia film made it special
Evacuating London (opening)
Ending scene
Anything by Bernard Hermann.
Schindler’s List - The Girl in Red.
My Bodyguard - One of my favorites when I was a kid (one that got me to study film scoring)
Jaws
The Godfather
Airplane! - Elmer Bernstein and all his other works. Airplane theme was the perfect setup for slapstick. Knowing it’s a comedy and listening to the dramatic score made it even funnier. Loved how he mimicked Jaws then swells into an “Airport”-type score. Even he got to make some laughs throughout the film.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037008/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1 is another movie with a great score, centered on the title character’s theme, which became a jazz standard. David Raksin wrote the music (with lyrics by Johnny Mercer that weren’t used in the film), and many recorded it, including Erroll Garner, Frank Sinatra, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Tony Bennett, and Bill Evans.
The song almost didn’t get written. Otto Preminger, who directed Laura, wanted to use Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Lady. Raksin told Preminger he thought it wasn’t right for the character. Preminger told him on Friday to come back on Monday with something better, or they would go with Sophisticated Lady. Raksin struggled all weekend trying to come up with something, but couldn’t get anywhere. Finally, he used a trick he had used when younger, where he would improvise at the piano while focusing on something other than music. There was a letter from his wife that he had been avoiding, so he placed it on the piano and started reading. It was a breakup note—his wife was leaving him. When he realized what the letter was, the dam broke and the theme from Laura came flowing out.
Most of my many “favorites” have been mentioned, but I need to give a plus one to:
Alexander Nevsky
Conan the Barbarian
Lawrence of Arabia
I’ll also add one I haven’t seen mentioned:
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.
The composer for that was Miklos Rozsa. That guy did tons of movies, and had rather a recognizable style. When I saw TGVOS in the theater, and heard the music start, I thought “That sounds like…” and looked for the credits. Sure enough it was him. He got an Oscar for the score of the 1959 Ben-Hur.
Maurice Jarre: “Building the Barn” from Witness.
I feel like this thread has had enough replies to the OP’s request for “movie” music that maybe we can stretch a little into series music.
I feel like Max Richter’s music for The Leftovers and Ramin Djawadi’s music for Game Of Thrones deserve some respect.
Came here to say Flash Gordon, but I see that was covered early on. But also, while it may not be feature length, I’d still consider it a movie…
Metalocalypse: Doomstar Requiem
Here is just about every Star Trek theme you can think of. Thankfully, they used the outro for ***Enterprise *** instead of that gawdawful opening theme. This perfomance really blew me away:
Rosza also did the score for El Cid; Jarre did Doctor Zhivago.
Bit of a soft spot for the John Dunbar Theme from Dances With Wolves.
I’ve said here before that I like the soundtrack of the first True Grit by Elmer Bernstein and that I think parts of it appear in other films, as well.
You guys have taken all the good ones sooo…
The Bounty i sweat just hearing it.