# Movies with the most moving soundtrack / background music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2013, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928 "2013-01-03T06:25:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![anontanijat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@anontanijat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anontanijat)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/21 "2013-01-03T19:53:29Z")
I really liked the music from One Hour Photo, especially Sy’s Theme. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/22 "2013-01-03T21:00:10Z")
I know a lot of people found it heavy handed overkill but Hans Zimmer’s work on Nolan’s Batman trilogy is powerful stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/23 "2013-01-03T21:52:21Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > I know a lot of people found it heavy handed overkill but Hans Zimmer’s work on Nolan’s Batman trilogy is powerful stuff. Maybe it’s because I just watched the pair of them again, last week, but I found the scores for both of the _Sherlocke Holmes_ films with **Robert Downey Jr.** absolutely perfect, also by **Zimmer**. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/24 "2013-01-03T22:05:59Z")
The scores for **Road to Perdition** and **Friday Night Lights** (the original movie) were quite moving. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/25 "2013-01-03T22:06:19Z")
How did I forget “Edward Scissorhands?!” So poignant, poetic and wistful. LOVE Danny Elfman. ---
**Author:** ![jerseymule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jerseymule/32/3155_2.png) [@jerseymule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerseymule)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/26 "2013-01-03T22:15:14Z")
_There Will Be Blood_ _Amadeus_, especially the Requiem when Mozart’s body is tossed into a grave in his shroud. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/27 "2013-01-03T22:37:26Z")
This one’s a bit odd: I’ve never seen the movie but I absolutely adore Thomas Newman’s score for “The Horse Whisperer.” ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/28 "2013-01-03T22:47:16Z")
**The Fountain** is probably the worst movie with the [best soundtrack](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihF_aXi-Huk&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9Aq4uDqFFXQDvZXCH_RZo_w) that I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/29 "2013-01-03T23:21:31Z")
The Apartment - both the Best Movie ever and the Best Soundtrack ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/30 "2013-01-04T03:12:38Z")
Conan the Barbarian, 80’s version. The soundtrack is mind blowing. Really. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/31 "2013-01-04T03:26:08Z")
I watched the _Star Wars_ original trilogy over vacation. Still extremely powerful stuff. Watched _Indiana Jones_ too - also powerful. And I remember being blown away by the new stuff in _Episode 1_. So…all of John Williams’ stuff. I also watched _The Muppet Movie_ (now streaming on Netflix!) Fantastic music for just some kids’ film. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/32 "2013-01-04T03:38:56Z")
Silly movie, but “Somewhere In Time.” Echoing “Dances With Wolves” and “Glory” ---
**Author:** ![grodinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/57b2e6/32.png) [@grodinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grodinsky)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/33 "2013-01-04T06:53:31Z")
twin peaks the pilot was released as a self contained movie plus there is the (pretty terrible) firewalk with me movie which uses the same themes and motifs. get the soundtrack immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/34 "2013-01-04T09:17:54Z")
+1 for _Dances With Wolves_ and _Excalibur_, and also for John Williams’ works in the original _Star Wars_ trilogy. Williams created two other good soundtracks, for _Jaws_ and _E.T._ Can I nominate one piece and not necessarily the entire soundtrack? I’m not a big opera fan but in _The Shawshank Redemption_, [the two sopranos singing Mozart’s Sull 'Aria from The Marriage of Figaro](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NXkkAANnvJI) was uplifting and inspiring. I’ll quote from Morgan Freeman’s character, narrating while they sang: _“I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/35 "2013-01-04T14:20:10Z")
_Superman_ (composed by John Williams) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/36 "2013-01-04T14:22:50Z")
> [@grodinsky](#): > > twin peaks > > the pilot was released as a self contained movie plus there is the (pretty terrible) firewalk with me movie which uses the same themes and motifs. get the soundtrack immediately. I was going to say this- both TV show & movie. Any Julee Cruise song & the final instrumental for FWWM can reduce me to tears. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/37 "2013-01-04T15:44:02Z")
_Beauty and the Beast_ (1991), Howard Ashman and Alan Menken is my favorite soundtrack of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Gesturing\_Mildly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@Gesturing\_Mildly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gesturing_Mildly)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/38 "2013-01-04T18:19:52Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > **Friday Night Lights** This. Even though it hadn’t been what I would have considered “get you pumped up” music, Explosions in the Sky are now and forever my go-to band for doing anything even remotely athletic. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/39 "2013-01-04T18:40:27Z")
The soundtrack for The Descendants is a recent favorite. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928/40 "2013-01-04T19:04:06Z")
> [@jerseymule](#): > > _Amadeus_, especially the Requiem when Mozart’s body is tossed into a grave in his shroud. Who wrote the score for that? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-the-most-moving-soundtrack-background-music/645928.md?page=3)