My Favorite Movie Soundtracks (Part 3)

 After almost a year, my series focusing on the music of movies is finally at it's end! 

With this list, I'm focusing on my favorite instrumental scores not composed by the legendary John Williams, who already got his own special list last year. 

Like most of my lists, I had way too many options to consider at first - my initial list had almost 25 choices - and it was difficult to narrow it down to a Top 10. As of right now today, these are my picks: 

1) Lawrence of Arabia 

After I saw Lawrence of Arabia for the first time in the summer of 2016, I wrote a full-length review. This is what I said about the score at that time and it certainly still holds true for me.  

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I'm a listaholic. I'll make lists for just about anything movie related, but one such topic I haven't covered (yet) is my Favorite Film Scores. When I get around to compiling and publishing that list, you can bet Lawrence of Arabia will be featured, possibly near the top. Composed by Maurice Jarre over the span of six shorts weeks, the score does what the best scores aim to do - it evokes an emotional response, highlights the action on screen without overpowering it, and helps to create atmosphere. At times, Jarre's score is bombastic and powerful, but it works just as well during its quieter and more subtle moments. In addition to Jarre's original music, which earned him the first of three career Academy Awards for Best Original Score, Lawrence of Arabia also features the march The Voice of the Guns, composed by Kenneth Alford in 1917. This piece is used several times throughout the film to denote the power and breadth of the British army. It's a stirring piece, but I think it pales in comparison to the beautiful music Jarre brought to life, which is used throughout the film - including during the overture and intermission. The American Film Institute listed the score as the third best of all-time, just behind Star Wars (hard to argue against that selection) and Gone with the Wind. 

The music instantly grabbed me and even after nearly five years and only one re-watch, it's almost at the forefront of my mind when I'm thinking about movie music. 

2) The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy was a massive undertaking in just about every way, so it's no surprise that this epic fantasy series has an epic score. Howard Shore has worked on some of my favorite movies of the last 30 years - including Philadelphia, That Thing You Do!, Cop Land, The Game, and The Aviator - but his crowning achievement came when he sat down to score what would turn out to be one of the most successful trilogies of all-time. Shore's work is so varied throughout the 9-12 hours (depending on whether you're watching the theatrical or extended versions) that it's somewhat surprising that one person wrote all the pieces. There are dozens of motifs used at different points across the three films - some are repeated frequently and some are only used once or twice. The heavily used ones are, of course, the ones that stand out to me. "Concerning Hobbits" is light and whimsical, perfect for highlighting the Shire inhabitants. "Rivendell" is filled with strings, woodwinds, and choir voices and it shimmers like the water in the paradise of the elves. "Rohan", with it's epic horns balanced with fiddles, mirrors the people of Rohan - sweeping and dignified, ready for battle. The "Fellowship" theme is the most often used theme of the series and probably the closest to being it's theme song. It opens the first movie and then accompanies so much of the action that you never go too long without hearing it, at least in some slight form. "Fellowship" would be my favorite if not for the inclusion of "Uruk Hai", which is just a kickass theme for one of the best villains. All in all, Shore's score does what the best scores do - it adds to each scene and becomes so intermixed with everything that you can't imagine the movies without it.  

3) Gladiator

Gladiator immediately became one of my very favorite films when I saw it three times during its opening weekend in May of 2000. Over the last 20 plus years and probably more than a dozen subsequent viewings, it has never fallen out of my personal Top 5. There are a lot of reasons why I love the movie and while the score isn't one of the major ones, it's still a large contributor to what makes it such a special movie for me. Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrad collaborated to create a mesmerizing collection of music, using centuries old instruments like the German gamshorn, the Armenian Duduk, and the Chinese yangqin and Gerrad's own magnificent singing voice (plus a language of her own invention) to create something truly unique and interesting. The film opens with a large battle and a lot of the different musical themes can be heard throughout the ten minute running time, almost as if it's a sampler for the rest of the score. The "Earth" theme is mostly used for Russell Crowe's Maximus and is, at times, strong and resilient but then also broken and filled with despair. The final track on the soundtrack is "Now We Are Free" and it's such a beautiful piece of music that whenever I hear it, I'm left thinking about it long after the film has ended. I think what I like most about this score is that Zimmer and Gerrad used such a wide variety of styles and techniques that it's interesting throughout the long running time. It's just as effective during the rousing action scenes as it is during the quieter, more dramatic moments. Gladiator is a thinking person's action movie and the score evokes that feeling nicely. Zimmer went on to cannibalize his own work here on projects like The Pirates of the Caribbean, but he never reached these heights again, in my opinion. 

4) Back to the Future trilogy

Is there any trilogy that is as much fun, as full of memorable moments, with as many quotable lines, and with such a likable cast as Back to the Future? If there is, I can't think of it. These movies have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember and they haven't gotten any less fun or enjoyable all these years later. Alan Silvestri's score is a big part of the trilogy's success. It's light and breezy for the most part, but isn't afraid of having darker, more tense moments when the on-screen action calls for it. The main theme is instantly recognizable and something that once I hear, I'm humming it to myself for the rest of the day if not longer. Like a lot of great themes, Silvestri uses bits and pieces of the main theme at different moments throughout the film, but it shines most during the thrilling climax. For the rest of the score, the different pieces perfectly compliment whatever scenes they're paired with. Action scenes have kinetic, exciting energy and romantic scenes have dramatic, heartfelt energy. I know the instrumental score doesn't include wonderful songs like "The Power Of Love" and "Back in Time" by the criminally underrated Huey Lewis and the News or "Johnny B. Goode" by Marty McFly lip syncing Mark Campbell, but the whole soundtrack is just phenomenal.

5) Terminator 2: Judgement Day 

Another big part of my childhood, Terminator 2: Judgement Day might be the greatest action movie of all-time, or at least very high up on the list. There are so many contributing factors to consider, but the score is probably not the first thing you think about. Brad Fiedel, returning from scoring the original Terminator, puts together such an exceptional arrangement of music that it's surprising to learn that he retired in the late 1990's and hasn't worked on any films or television since. The main theme is by far the most famous piece of music from the score and was carried over from the first installment of the series. It's been used in every Terminator movie, TV series, and video game ever since and has got to be one of the most recognizable pieces of movie music around. It's got a certain militaristic feeling to it, a booming and thrilling melody that is repetitive, but never uninteresting. It fits the tone of the film perfectly and is used as a light motif throughout the film, mixed in with other tracks, sometimes in different arrangements or in softer keys. The theme alone might be enough to warrant inclusion on this list - I love it that much - but the whole score is actually very good. Some other tracks that stand out are "Sarah on the Run" (very fast paced, edgy, flighty like someone is after you), "Escape from the Hospital" (excellent, immersive and throbbing sound with horror like slashing sounds), "Sarah's Dream/Nuclear Nightmare" (an appropriately nightmarish and foreboding track), and "I'll Be Back" (a plaintive, touching, and almost sad piece). As a whole, Fiedel's work here makes me wish he had continued working for the last couple of decades, but I guess it's easy to retire when you've got those sweet Terminator royalty checks rolling in every month. 

6) The Social Network

The Social Network has so much going on - so many interesting characters and plot lines, such great direction, and such sublime editing - that the score didn't really register to me during my initial viewing back in 2010. With subsequent re-watches, though, it's really grown on me. Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) and Atticus Ross combined to create one of the greatest scores of the new millennium on their very first film collaboration, an impressive feat indeed. The music, in parts, has been described as IDM or "intelligent dance music" which, honestly, was a term I had to Google. It certainly fits, though. During the several scenes where parties are happening, the score doesn't just settle for generic dance music - there's an undercurrent of slight piano or white noise that elevates everything and highlights different characters' personalities or motivations. Reznor and Ross utilize the white noise in many different tracks and it's an unique technique, giving layers and depths to the music. There's an early scene showing Mark Zuckerberg after he's dumped and as he's programming Facemash. The piano keys highlight his sadness, the white noise indicates his anxiety, and a deep, electric throbbing conveys his seething anger. These three traits might make up most of Zuckerberg's personality and the individual sounds are reused throughout the score. Like several other scores on this list, this one won the Academy Award and it richly deserved the honor. 

7) The Shawshank Redemption

Since it's my all-time favorite movie, I've written about The Shawshank Redemption a few times on this blog. In the 5.5 years that I've been working on this blog, this is only the sixth time Shawshank has come up and I think I have a pretty good explanation for that. Shawshank isn't a flashy movie, it doesn't wow you with any one particular facet. Rather, every little piece is done just right and the whole ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. The score, from Thomas Newman, is in the same vain. While there are recognizable pieces of music scattered throughout, I don't think any one piece stands out like some of the other pieces on my list. While taken as a whole, however, the power of the music is substantial. Most of the tracks are quiet or subdued, much like Andy Dufresne who is played so wonderfully stoically by Tim Robbins.  Lightly plunked piano chords resonate on multiple tracks. Stringed instruments and the occasional horns fill in other tracks. An intermittent percussion flairs here and there. Newman mixes everything together to perfectly compliment the action and drama unfolding on screen and never oversteps, never throws off the complicated balance that director Frank Darabont was shooting for. Newman squeezes every little bit of drama and tension, of levity and lightness, out of his arrangement and the whole resonates powerfully with Andy's eventual escape from Shawshank Prison. The score has built and subsided, built and subsided again, until the marvelous ending, the best ending in all of cinema, in my opinion. 

8) Psycho

In the 100+ year history of films, there have been countless musical scores. I don't think there's any reliable metric to determine which score is the most memorable or influential, but if there were, I bet Bernard Herrmann's work on Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho would be near the top of the list. Herrmann himself was one of the most beloved film composers for the better part of four decades, ranging from the 1940's to his death in 1975 and his music is still being used today in everything from web series and commercials to TV series and movies. Psycho, however, is easily the best and most recognizable of all of his work. Using only strings, Herrmann creates a score that is alluring, enticing, threatening, and downright terrifying at different times. The power of music in film is nowhere more obvious than in the film's most famous scene, where Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is brutally murdered in the shower. The screeching violins - now a pop culture reference point in their own right - helped scare some viewers away from taking showers for a time. Hitchcock originally envisioned the scene sans music and I don't know who talked him out of it, but whoever did helped make film history. 

9) 2001: A Space Odyssey 

I went back and forth on whether to include this score or not since it's completely different than every other score on this list. All the other entries mostly include new music composed specifically for the film itself, while 2001: A Space Odyssey uses exclusively pre-existing pieces that were originally only going to be a guide for director Stanley Kubrick while he edited his footage. The two most famous pieces are Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" - which opens and closes the film and is also my favorite professional wrestler's entrance music, so that's cool - and Johann Strauss's "The Blue Danube", which is famously used during the magnificent docking sequence. Both pieces are absolute masterpieces and never fail to thrill me when I watch the film and both have been around for more than 130 years and, thanks to their usage in this landmark film, will be talked about for as long as the art of film lasts. Several contemporary pieces from Gyorgy Ligeti were also selected and while they don't resonate quite as profoundly as the two Strauss works, they're certainly wonderfully composed and performed pieces of music. For a movie that's as cerebral and deliberately paced as 2001, music is very important. Without a strong score, this film probably wouldn't work nearly as well as it does and would probably be too slow moving to interest most people. 2001 isn't my favorite Kubrick film - it probably ranks near the middle of his filmography for me, but that says more about how impressive his other works are more than anything negative about this film itself - but it's definitely his best score. 

10) Titanic 

Titanic is probably one of the most talked about, thought about, and written about movies of my lifetime. There's no shortage of information and analysis available about every little detail of the production, but that's not going to stop me from gushing about it here again. When I first saw it in the theater, I was underwhelmed - as a 15 year old, I probably didn't care about the love story aspect - but I always appreciated the wonderful score from James Horner. Over the years, I've grown to love just about every aspect of the film and my appreciation for the score has only grown. The opening track, "Never an Absolution" is a sweet Irish ditty, with a tinge of melancholy and heartbreak. It sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the score. "Southampton" is sometimes referred to as 'the ship's theme' and is fast paced, swooping, and energetic. I would consider "Rose" to be the movie's theme, or close to it, and it's a loving, ethereal number. Whenever I hear it, it makes me want to watch the movie again. "Take Her to Sea, Mr. Murdoch" is like an up-tempo version of "Southampton", a bit more triumphant and soaring, but with a similar melody. "Hard to Starboard" and "The Sinking" are both more intense, dramatic, and hard hitting than the rest of the score. They both are vaguely scary at times, especially with "Starboard's" hammer-like banging that ratchets up the intensity level as it goes. It's hard to talk about Titanic's music without at least mentioning Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". It might be the most perfect movie soundtrack song ever and compliments Horner's score wonderfully. 

Well, that's my list! Do you agree with any of my choices? Did I miss any of your personal favorites? With 100+ years of scores to choose from, this was a difficult list to narrow down, but I'm very pleased with these picks.

Thanks for reading!