With regard to the OP, I think Superman is especially good given how the heroic music isn’t really in play after he reassuringly catches Lois falling from the Daily Planet building – but then starts back up with a vengeance right after the helicopter starts plummeting and the big guy accelerates slightly to catch it just as easily.
Oh hell yeah. I agree with just about everything in this thread, and will offer Hermann’s North by Northwest in addition.
Craig Armstrong’s Love Actually was brilliant as well. Without the score, the stories were really pretty thin. The score conveyed emotions that the script could not.
Also used to very good effect during the Dr. Manhattan flashback scene in Watchmen.
I like Peter Gabriel’s Passion, compositions and arrangements for The Last Temptation of Christ. The combination of score and film elevated the power of both.
Love that movie. Love the soundtrack. Heavily influenced the type of music I like and create.
Yep thats it, superb film, and a superb soundtrack, didn’t like the second much and have still yet to see the third.
Have noticed parts of the music on many other televisual works .
Thanks for reminding me of the name, it bugs me forgetting it but, its not a name that sticks in the memory easily, well for me anyway.
Yes. Sometimes I put the Dvd in and just jump to this scene. It makes me well up just thinking about it; the music and Branagh’s performance are a powerful combo.
Also, I second the Star Trek II score. Many of the Trek movies have good scores (IV is also very good), but II is the best.
I recently watched Mirrormask for the first time and really loved the music.
You can hear a short snippet of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apq_2hNQ4ew&feature=related
A great scene, but it’s stolen directly from The Right Stuff. There’s even a thank you to Philip Kaufman (director of TRS) in the closing credits.
Excellent use of period music in Pleasantville.
For original music, though, I just don’t think it gets any better than Morricone’s The Ecstasy of Gold while Tuco is running through the cemetery in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The fact that no one has mentioned The Good , the Bad and the Ugly is making my teeth hurt.
Best soundtrack ever. It’s practically a character.
ETA: except for the post right above mine. And yes, Ecstasy of Gold is the best piece.
I’d nominate *Easy Rider *and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
I really liked the low-key style of The Last Picture Show. There’s a lot of music in that film, but it’s all in the background being played on radios and jukeboxes. The music sounds more natural and makes the scenes more immersive.
Most of my favourites have been mentioned already. But a recent one I really liked was Suckerpunch. I know a lot of people don’t rate it as a movie in its own right (I liked it) but the soundtrack for it was just fantastic.
Some of the score from from Schindlers List, really added to the atmosphere at times there as well.
I don’t know about whole movie soundtracks, but some key scenes in some movies always resonate for me like Adagio for Strings in Platoon over Sgt Elias’s death scene.
And it’s a Hopi word.
If you like Koyaanisquatsi, check out Baraka. Made by Koyaa’s cinematographer.
:smack: I can’t believe I never made that connection before! The Right Stuff is my favorite movie and I love that scene–the astronauts silently sharing that moment at the barbeque as the fan dancer performs.
An even earlier movie that really poured on the Debussy was A Portrait of Jenny, (which was arranged by Dimitry Tiomkin, whose own scores for Giant and The Guns of Navarrone are as different from that as can be).
Another vote for Vangelis’s soundtrack to Blade Runner. Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ was another good call.
How about some love for Thomas Newman’s score for *Shawshank Redemption *and Morricone’s work on Once Upon a Time In America?
The soundtrack to Martin Scorsese’s movie Kundun was also quite striking.
And, perhaps obvious, but the music from The Piano was integral to the film as well as very listenable in its own right. (I actually bought the soundtrack CD.)
You have excellent taste, The Right Stuff is my favorite, too. (And Ocean’s 11 would be close to the top ten, as well.) I didn’t notice the connection myself, though; I think it’s mentioned in the DVD commentary on Ocean’s.
I want to get one of those watches that running on clockwork plays a tune that goes on and on with an incredible volume, and STILL fits in your pocket.
I half expected one of the characters at the end to say “for gods sake hurry it up”, that or when its tune actually finishes everyones drifted off into a reverie and nothing happens.
Still enjoyed the movie though.