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I'm no music expert, so I'm only going by what I like personally.

Ennio Morricone - Once Upon a Time in the West
Bernard Herrmann - Taxi Driver
Lennie Niehaus - Unforgiven
Vangelis - Blade Runner
David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Su Cong - The Last Emperor

Anything by John Williams is out (except for Star Wars). James Horner is total shit.

― Anthony (Anthony F), Saturday, 17 January 2004 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I was kind of captivated by the main theme of Gangs of New York. and some of the other music in the movie.

Vertigo's music is key to the greatness of the film, i think.

Gods and Monsters is great reading music.

― ryan (ryan), Saturday, 17 January 2004 04:30 (twenty-two years ago)

oh and i kind of liked that melancholy little motif in Mystic River, tho i guess it was a but portentious.

― ryan (ryan), Saturday, 17 January 2004 04:31 (twenty-two years ago)

for scores in general, i find it like it best when the same short piece of music is used as a kind of leitmotif that is used again and again. it builds a relationship to the story and characters that goes beyond just background music.

In the Mood for Love did this really well i think.

― ryan (ryan), Saturday, 17 January 2004 04:34 (twenty-two years ago)

A score that I remember being better than the movie was "9mm". That one has some great music.

― earlnash, Saturday, 17 January 2004 05:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Ravenous had the best score I've heard in the last half-decade, probably.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 17 January 2004 05:57 (twenty-two years ago)

That's what I like about Unforgiven.

Oh yeah, and the score for Ravenous is awesome.

― Anthony (Anthony F), Saturday, 17 January 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

What I said about Unforgiven, I'm refering to Ryan's post about In the Mood for Love.

― Anthony (Anthony F), Saturday, 17 January 2004 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Thread over.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 17 January 2004 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Although Batman was good, too. Elfman at his peak was untouchable. I thought he was on his way to becoming a Morricone figure until I saw Spiderman, which had a score so bad, it was almost inexplicable.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 17 January 2004 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Excalibur, with its All-Wagner score.

― Dave Gilbert, Monday, 19 January 2004 02:22 (twenty-two years ago)

ummmmm.
The Virgin Suicides - Air
Fight Club - The Dust Brothers
Angels of the Universe - Hilmarr orn Hilmarson & Sigur Ros
And I Can't remember who does it but the score for Requiem for A Dream is pretty good

― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Monday, 19 January 2004 02:58 (twenty-two years ago)

"Requiem" is Clint Mansell, with the Kronos quartet performing. I went to a Kronos concert a couple of years ago & they played the main Requiem theme--incredible.

Also agree with Air's "Virgin Suicides" soundtrack. I've never heard of Angels of the Universe, but I'm a big Sigur Ros fan so I'll have to look for it.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Monday, 19 January 2004 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Requiem has a great score. Other great scores: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (main theme and the "Ecstasy of Gold" are great), The Magnificent Seven (it's fun), Kafka (Martinez at his best), Get Carter (funky).

― Barton Fink (bartonf), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 12:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh wow... And I forgot "The Godfather."

― Barton Fink (bartonf), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

The Sandells:
Endless Summer (i bet $100 that morricone based TGB&TU on this)

Henry Mancini:
CRAZY FAMOUS THEMES (Peter Gunn, Pink Panther, etc.)
BUT also very amazing scores (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Experiment in Terror (truly awesome as @d@ml has heard time and time again)
AND not to mention my favorite (?) song ever: "Moon River" from The Brotherhood.

More modern:

Muriel's Wedding - The symphonic Eno-ization of Abba's Dancing Queen is like Ave Maria to me.

LOTR-FOTR was really nice, the other two films can't really compare, maybe I'm a big Enya sap.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Goblin's score to Suspiria needs to be mentioned, obv.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

gygax! even the mighty Reel of Berkeley does not seem to have Experiment In Terror. I tried.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

it's a west bay thing, you wouldn't understand...

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I also like Mancini's main themes to Arabesque and Charade (the rest of the scores can get shlocky but those main themes are ace) and the theremin theme from Spellbound by Miklos Rozsa.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000005BBL.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

death wish 2 anyone? </crickets>

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

it's a west bay thing, you wouldn't understand...

Your words make no sense to me.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

"Fancy"!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Edward Artemiev's electro-acoustic scores for Tarkovski's films are absolutely beautiful. IIRC Electroshock records in Moscow has the CD in print at the moment. I had a cassette of a score he did for a film called "Urga", and that was loveley as well, but I've lost it, and it doesn't appear to be on CD.

Florian Fricke/Popol Vuh's scores for Werner Herzog films are some of my favourite music ever.

John Barry's srore for "Dances with Wolves" is VV good too. It's like a little western symphony.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Carter Burwell, who's done most (all?) of the Coen Bros. films. He also did a very good score for The Spanish Prisoner.

Probably obvious, but Herrmann for Vertigo and Psycho.

Or how about the Rosemary's Baby theme by Kryzsztof Komeda -- as referenced in a recent ILM thread?

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Film Music - Mood and Meaning (Mainstream Narrative Cinema)
Prof: Fred Frith
Mills College
Tue/Thu - 11am - 12:15pm

I will be auditing this class two times this semester.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 22 January 2004 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Lucky bastard!

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 22 January 2004 06:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I just bought the Sneakers score. I really like it; I listened to it before my DVD of the film arrived, and the score was very dramatic to me - I could picture what was happening from the music itself.

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 22 January 2004 10:06 (twenty-two years ago)

two weeks pass...

i'd go for krzysztof komeda's soundtrack for the hugely underated "the fearless vampire killers"

― chris browning (commonswings), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 13:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"Trans" had a great soundtrack now that I think of it. So did "Lost Book Found".

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the moviescore of Coppolas "Rumblefish" (Steward Copeland) and Leones"once upon an time in America (Morricone). Also Tan Duns music in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
Sonic Youth's Kool thing in Hal Hartleys "Simple Men".
And of course "Death in Venice" (Gustav Mahler)

― arnout, Thursday, 12 February 2004 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

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