Film Score Discussion

[aiman04]

I though we can have a discussion about film scores. We can discuss anything from instruments to music editing.

I'm finding it hard to remember any good themes from films the last 10 years, I don't know what happened. Slow, drama type films are fine, but for big blockbusters I found that the scores are like toned down and/or forgettable. There are no recognizable character themes, but more like incidental scores, without meaningful melody to it. I don't remember anything from Man of Steel, they're loud, but nothing that I can hum while discussing it. Even Alan Silvestri, who I always recognized his cue before, sounds generic now (i.e. The Avengers).

There are a few exceptions, the Pirates of the Caribbean series were good, they should give more work to Klaus Badelt (he scored the first film). Michael Giacchino was also good earlier in his career, but he disappointed me with Super 8 and his later films. Alexandre Desplat is promising. But what really made me thinking about this is John Powell's work in the How to Train Your Dragon films. His work in them rekindle my hope. I really admire his score in these films.

I like grand orchestral score we often heard from 1970's to 1990's, probably started by the maestro John Williams. But but not necessarily all the time, depending on films but at least has memorable themes. Danny Elfman's Men in Black and Don Davis' The Matrix trilogies were great.

My favorite composers are John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri (older films), Danny Elfman, James Horner, David Arnold, Trevor Jones, Brad Fiedel, Howard Shore, James Newton Howard, and my new favorite John Powell. I would also give my respect to Alfred Newman for the 20th Century-Fox fanfare.

Those we my thoughts. What do you guys think? Who and what kind of score is your favorite? What do you think the quality of film scores lately?

[Foggy]

Orchestral scores are a tad dull now, I think the last really note worthy score of that kind was Hans Zimmer with Inception, which has since plagued the rest of cinema.

I will say, some of the best scores in recent memory:

The Social Network (score brings the film to a whole new level)
Godzillia (stops the film from getting swallowed up in self seriousness and keeps the film speeding along while keeping tension)
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Attack the Block
Hanna (the best score of the decade thus far)

And before anyone says, yes Daft Punk's score was pretty awesome, but doesn't anyone else think that it was insanely overcooked?

[LegacyCosts]

I like non orchestral scores usually the best. Whether it be a moody noir piece like blade runner with the synth, or breaking bads' unconventional soundtrack to heighten emotion and tension. A solid soundtrack from good bands is always nice too like in vanilla sky, garden state, or Friday night lights. I like hearing stuff I don't usually hear within a film. The Italian film Honey from this year had a standout Soundtrack.

[Thomas Irwin]

I think for me personally, my favorite overall decade for film scores would probably be the 70's. Like many more modern films, a lot of modern scores just don't seem to engage me quite as much.
As far as favorite composers, I'd definitely have to rank Ennio Morricone and Francis Lai among the top. Casualties of War is probably my favorite score by Morricone, and Love Story and Bilitis by Lai. Other favorite soundtracks include Blade Runner by Vangelis, Halloween by John Carpenter, Phantasm by Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave, various themes from the Dirty Harry series by Lalo Schifrin, and of course The Exorcist (Tubular Bells) by Mike Oldfield. I'm a huge Oldfield fan.
I can't leave out Platoon or Rollerball, as Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber and Adagio in G minor by Tomaso Albinoni are two of my three favorite pieces of classical music, the third being "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven. And one final score that I would rank among my all time favorites is the soundtrack to the Kung Fu: The Legend Continues television show by Jeff Danna. I probably pretty much wore that cassette tape out, along with Love Story.

[The Fallen Deity]

I love the classical scores done by composers such as John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith etc and I also really like some of the electronic scores for movies like Blade Runner, The Terminator etc.

A good question for this thread would be:

What is everyone's favourite scores?

Put them into a top ten list and you can lump more than one movie score into one slot if it's done by the same composer.

It makes it easier that way seeing as there's so many scores out there.



It's a tough one but for me in no particular order I would go with:


1. Pretty much anything done by John Williams.

2. Jerry Goldsmith - Star Trek The Motion Picture & Alien.

3. James Horner - Aliens, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan & Star Trek III: The Search For Spock.

4: Ennio Morricone - Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western Trilogy.

5: Vangelis - Blade Runner.

6: Brad Fiedel - The Terminator & Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

7: Elmer Bernstein - The Great Escape & Ghostbusters.

8: Danny Elfman - Batman.

9: Basil Poledouris: Conan The Barbarian.

10: Howard Shore: The Lord Of The Rings & The Hobbit movies.


I'll also give a big shout out to Alan Silvestri's scores for the Back To The Future trilogy & the music from John Carpenter's movies in the '70s and '80;s.

Also the music done by Queen for Flash Gordon & Highlander and Toto's score for Dune.

I'm a musician myself and a film enthusiast so it kinda makes sense for me to like a lot of movie scores and actually pay attention to them.

Sorry for the long post btw haha!

[mrbrat_Boy]

I absolutely enjoyed Clint Mantsell's score in The Fountain. It was melodious and quite emotional. There was depth to this score that i haven't heard in a while. I always keep coming back to this.

I've recently also enjoyed John Ottman's score in X-Men: Days of Future past. It caught my attention the first time round. Normally, the soundtrack would be something i'd look out for on a second viewing. But this really hooked me. Its an elaborate score that hits all the right notes.

Other favorites would include:

The Lord of The Rings Scores
The Hobbit Scores
Gladiator
Rome - The Series

[Thomas Irwin]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

9: Basil Poledouris: Conan The Barbarian.

Another outstanding composer and an exemplary selection.

[Thomas Irwin]

One more favorite that I feel compelled to add is Romeo and Juliet (1968) by Nino Rota. Sorry for the additional post.

[srinivas1015]

Apart from the ones mentioned, I really love these two tracks:

This track is really beautiful and I have no idea why this wasn't used in the movie. It would've served as a perfect bookend to the film instead of the main theme (which felt really out of place).

23 - Man Of Steel Soundtrack - Earth - Hans Zimmer - YouTube

The Island - 14 "My Name Is Lincoln" - YouTube

[aiman04]

I love those too guys, but there are some of them I have yet to listened. Yes, Basil Poledouris, Elmer Bernstein, Ennio Morricone (most mentioned for his other films but also to note his suspenseful score for The Thing was really effective), Vangelis, Nino Rota, Lalo Schifrin. Also Bill Conti, his rousing score for Rocky is just perfect.

Blade Runner and Terminator definitely very unique with the usage of synthesizers. Using non-conventional instruments stands out, but really depends on the type of film, noir suits really well. Also commendable work in mixing orchestra with electric guitars by Ramin Djawadi for Pacific Rim.

[swaseem]

I feel the same. Scores today seldom enhance the movie experience. The classic orchestra scores are less and less seldom. Those always added a rich texture that elevated the tension or action sequences. I think the norm now is to use film music to fill gaps. I really like Elliot Goldenthal's music. He has a fine balance in his work. Also classic composers like Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Hermann and Alex North. Their scores were also great as just stand alone music.

I heard the score to Noah was exceptional. It may be that studios and directors aren't inclined to spend bucks to have an exceptional score composed nowadays.

[Talal86]

My current obsessions:

Only God Forgives
The Machine
Blade Runner

[Astro Zombie]

Rewatched the Dollars Trilogy over the past couple of days, and all 3 have awesome scores.

Also love Bernard Herrmann's scores for Taxi Driver, North by Northwest and Psycho.

James Horner's Commando score is one of the greatest of all time. It's pure genius

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by swaseem

Scores today seldom enhance the movie experience.

I think if you ever have the opportunity to listen to a film without the score, you'd be surprised just how much even a mediocre film score adds to the experience. Some BDs have the ability to isolate the score and remove the dialog, but not the reverse. Too bad, because it's an amazing experiment.

Decades ago, Tom Holman of Lucasfilm/THX fame did a presentation a number of times where he played a clip from the original Star Wars with various combinations of set recorded dialog, looped dialog, one layer of sound effects, another layer of sound effects and with and without the score and it was quite revealing as to how much each layer of sound contributed to the overall presentation.

[The Fallen Deity]

Originally Posted by Astro Zombie

Rewatched the Dollars Trilogy over the past couple of days, and all 3 have awesome scores.

Also love Bernard Herrmann's scores for Taxi Driver, North by Northwest and Psycho.

James Horner's Commando score is one of the greatest of all time. It's pure genius

Those steel drums.

Not to mention the awesome song done by The Power Station.

[Al_The_Strange]

I've got a pretty meaty collection of film scores at home. Most of my favorites are the non-traditional type, which incorporates a bit of rock or techno in them, or perhaps some other genre or modernist touch. I especially love it when a modern band or singer composes music for a film (such as Trent Reznor's work on The Social Network and GWTDD, or Toto's Dune score, or Massive Attack's Unleashed).

I can kinda see how a lot of the big blockbusters today are pretty generic (I think a lot of Alan Silvestri's work sounds all the same), but there are some standouts. I absolutely loved Zimmer's Man of Steel score; a very simple melody with a lot of noise, but I find it very moving. TDK trilogy is pretty decent. Pain and Gain is a score I can chill to over and over again. Howard Shore's LOTR trilogy stands as my personal favorite score though; it is beautiful and perfect on all accounts (the Hobbit scores have been okay, but nothing really blew me away about them).

The only scores I bought this year have been 300: Rise of an Empire by JXL (it sounds great in the movie, seems a little dry to listen to on its own, but it's alright) and Clint Mansell's Noah (which is decent). The only other one I currently plan on getting is the score for Pompeii, which is actually quite nice.

Just recently invested in some John Carpenter albums: I was never sure about his synthesizer work, but Escape from NY, They Live, and Assault on Pricinct 13 are pretty neat. I've always loved his theme for In the Mouth of Madness as well.

Favorite Composers: Hans Zimmer, Brian Tyler, Tyler Bates, Henry Jackman, Steve Jablonsky, John Williams, Graeme Revell, Clint Mansell, James Newton Howard, Thomas Newman, Cliff Martinez, Eric Serra, Yoko Kanno, Yuki Kajiura, and more.

Favorite Scores: Lord of the Rings, Man of Steel, Pain & Gain, Red Planet, Dune, Gone in 60 Seconds, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift, Unleashed (Danny the Dog), Requiem for a Dream, The Dark Knight, The Social Network, The Island, Conan the Barbarian (1984), The Fountain, Jarhead, The Hunger Games, Solaris (2002), Only God Forgives, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The Living Daylights, Goldfinger, Skyfall, and probably loads more.

[Astro Zombie]

Originally Posted by The Fallen Deity

Those steel drums.

Not to mention the awesome song done by Power Station.

Do anything with the score playing, it instantly makes it 10x more awesome.

[Xenia]

- Most of John Barry's work for the 007 films (with Moonraker, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice being my favorites)
- Danny Elfman on Batman
- Taxi Driver
- Howard Shore's LOTR

There are more but there's a few of my favorite. A good film score is essential if you ask me. Music is a big part of film in my opinion.

[The Fallen Deity]

Originally Posted by Xenia

- Most of John Barry's work for the 007 films (with Moonraker, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice being my favorites)
- Danny Elfman on Batman
- Taxi Driver
- Howard Shore's LOTR

There are more but there's a few of my favorite. A good film score is essential if you ask me. Music is a big part of film in my opinion.

Damn I forgot about the music from the 007 franchise.

John Barry's scores in particular are brilliant.

[Thomas Irwin]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

I think if you ever have the opportunity to listen to a film without the score, you'd be surprised just how much even a mediocre film score adds to the experience. Some BDs have the ability to isolate the score and remove the dialog, but not the reverse. Too bad, because it's an amazing experiment.

Decades ago, Tom Holman of Lucasfilm/THX fame did a presentation a number of times where he played a clip from the original Star Wars with various combinations of set recorded dialog, looped dialog, one layer of sound effects, another layer of sound effects and with and without the score and it was quite revealing as to how much each layer of sound contributed to the overall presentation.

I totally agree. I've always believed, that although quite simple in a way, Carpenter's Halloween due to it's somewhat akward 5/4 signature is one the most brillant and suspense inducing pieces in cinema history. Here is an article that sums up the intricacies of it - and what I'd argue it indispensably adds to the film - quite beautifully:

http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/bl...alloween-1978/