I think Fargo has a great soundtrack, which really enhances the experience of watching the movie.
Surprised that no one has mentioned Wes Anderson’s movies. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are two movies that come to mind when I think of great use of music.
Le Roi Danse: Le roi danse (2000) - Plot - IMDb has pretty stunningly dramatic French baroque and ballet. There are some scenes on Youtube.
Basil Poledouris score for the 1982 Conan the Barbarian.
Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
Luc Besson’s The Big Blue and the 5th Element, particularly the Operatic Kung Fu scene
Can’t believe no one’s brought up Chariots of Fire!
Seriously, though.
Empire Records is definitely a bad movie, but the soundtrack is definitely what makes it entertaining as a bad movie, a slice of Gen-X ridiculousness with an appropriate soundtrack. Kids is another good example - without the Folk Implosion and Slint the imagery of that film would nearly have been as powerful. There’s also an anime called Tekkonkinkreet that everyone should see, not only because it’s beautiful but because the music is done by a British electronic group called Plaid, and while very unusual stuff for a film score, it’s amazing and compliments the film perfectly.
On the Waterfront
Hated the movie. Loved the music. It’s one of the top playlists on my iPod.
I must second The Third Man. One of the most strikingly original and hauting scores ever produced.
While I would agree with most of these, I’d like to nominate the soundtrack for The Incredibles. The music definitely set the tone for the movie overall and was well used. I think Pixar generally does a good job overall.