# Movies: Remove the music = not so hot **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852 "2007-04-05T14:09:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/1 "2007-04-05T14:09:51Z")
_Taxi Driver_ is on the current offerings in our area On Demand and I watched it again the other night for maybe the fifth time – maybe more. A fine movie that holds up so well in every aspect. But it did get me wondering. I mostly decided to start watching it (listening to it is more like it) just for the fantastic Bernard Herrmann score. The music is so essential to the feel of that movie and works to flesh out all the unspoken things the movie seems to be about. However, I was wondering if _Taxi Driver_ would be held in as high regard as it is and has been without that music. I believe it would hold up, but with way less emotional impact. Can you think of other decent movies that would drop at least a star’s worth (in the 4-star or 5-star ranking systems) if it weren’t for the music? **Please don’t include musicals.** Being as big a fan as I was of Henry Mancini, I believe I could make the statement that I can’t name a single movie he provided the music for that would be anywhere near as watchable without his music. Here are a few candidates for way-better-than-average movies that would drop a peg or two without such fine music: **Body Heat** **Rebel Without A Cause** **The Magnificent Seven** **Psycho** and **Vertigo** (to name a couple of other Herrmann scores) **Midnight Cowboy** any of the James Bond movies ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/2 "2007-04-05T14:15:14Z")
John Carpenter says \*\*Halloween \*\* tested very badly before they added the distinctive music. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/3 "2007-04-05T14:21:17Z")
Pulp Fiction The Good, The Bad and The Ugly …and Jaws!!! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/4 "2007-04-05T14:24:30Z")
**Conan the Barbarian**. Number one on the list. The end. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/5 "2007-04-05T14:29:26Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] …and Jaws!!! [/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure I can’t think of a single John Williams score that could be removed without reducing the overall impact of the movie. He’s runner-up to Mancini for me in that respect. Other movie composers I can think of with that much power: Lalo Schifrin Jerry Goldsmith Elmer Bernstein Goldsmith reminds me that I left off **Chinatown** from my OP list! ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/6 "2007-04-05T14:38:44Z")
I’ve seen the first transformation clip form **An American Werewolf in London** with “scary music” dubbed in. The original version with Sam Cooke’s version of Blue Moon is much more chilling. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/7 "2007-04-05T15:40:42Z")
Speaking of Jerry Goldsmith, his score for **Patton** is nothing short of brilliant. It would still be an amazing movie, but next time you watch it, imagine it without the score. It would lose a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/8 "2007-04-05T15:48:57Z")
Putting aside the obvious ones, like _Singin’ in the Rain_, _Taxi Driver_ is what I would have thought of at first too. Probably Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns fall under this too. I’ve only seen the Clint Eastwood ones, but Ennio Morricone’s scores are part of what make them great. I just thought of another perfect one: _2001_. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/9 "2007-04-05T15:49:37Z")
**King Kong** 1933! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/10 "2007-04-05T15:51:35Z")
[QUOTE=Labdad] Speaking of Jerry Goldsmith, his score for **Patton** is nothing short of brilliant. It would still be an amazing movie, but next time you watch it, imagine it without the score. It would lose a lot. [/QUOTE] For no obvious reason beyond the name, I’m reminded of one of Goldsmith’s works that enhanced a movie that might drop to a star or less (if it has that many to start with). Clint Eastwood’s _The Gauntlet_ with his squeeze of the day Sondra Locke was fun for the amount of ammo expended to gun down a house! The ending scenes with the fortified bus as he “runs the gauntlet” getting to police headquarters could have been a fun thing but Goldsmith inserted some Spanish-flavored march that sounded like it was ripped off from Miles Davis’s _Sketches of Spain_ and which had the bravado of a bullfight and a cavalry charge. It got your blood boiling. For that one scene it gets at least a star. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/11 "2007-04-05T15:51:55Z")
Magnolia Blow ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/12 "2007-04-05T15:55:39Z")
The Sting ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/13 "2007-04-05T15:57:20Z")
A thousand pardons! I just checked the music credits for _The Gauntlet_ and it’s Jerry _Fielding_ and not _Goldsmith_. Comments still apply other than that. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/14 "2007-04-05T16:02:03Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] The Sting [/QUOTE] Indeed! I can’t go quite as far with _Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid_ but I do believe the music adds a level of flippancy that would not be there without it. I especially love the jazzy chorus work and, of course, _Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head_. Anachronistic but effective. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/15 "2007-04-05T16:16:00Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] Magnolia Blow [/QUOTE] What?!? Both had great music, but I would enjoy either with the sound muted and CC on. Different strokes. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/16 "2007-04-05T16:18:08Z")
_The Natural_; great instrumental score by Randy Newman, better known for songs. I think the score raises that movie at least a star. _Planet of the Apes_ – another Jerry Goldsmith score, lending an otherworldly, ominous tone to what’s a pretty darn silly story. ---
**Author:** ![Whiteknight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whiteknight/32/4962_2.png) [@Whiteknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiteknight)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/17 "2007-04-05T16:23:19Z")
Any James Horner score, though they’re all pretty much the same anyway. Ditto for John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore. When you really stop to think about it, no scored movie would really be the same without the music. I’ve always loved film score music and if I had any real talent, I’d love to be a film composer. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/18 "2007-04-05T16:25:52Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] _The Natural_; great instrumental score by Randy Newman, better known for songs. I think the score raises that movie at least a star. [/QUOTE] Don’t you just love it that when some commercial or sports show needs a lift into the epic level of significance, when the mood is to be heroic, that as often as not you’ll hear _The Natural_ theme music? Chill bump city, even when used to pump up some trivial product or barely-worth-it sports story. Another Randy Newman masterpiece is _Ragtime_. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/19 "2007-04-05T16:40:36Z")
All these posts and nobody’s mentioned _The Godfather_?! ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852/20 "2007-04-05T16:51:01Z")
Weird - thinking about this, a movie that comes to mind is **Blade Runner**. On one hand, the Vangelis score is very effective in the way the OP describes. On the other hand, his heavy hand with the synths completely time-slots this movie in its era, which is really too bad - with the visual look and feel, if the music had been more timeless it would be very tough to tell when the movie was actually made… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-remove-the-music-not-so-hot/398852.md?page=2)