Greatest Movie soundtrack of all time

[Davester]

I have been flicking through my soundtrack collection and was wondering what is the BEST soundtrack ever. There are the obvious ones such as Star wars original trilogy, JP collection, the rock and Indy, but I was looking at some of my others.Gross point blank is brilliant, so is BttF and the shawshank redemption. also Broken arrow is pretty cool. Am I mising anything? what do you guys think?

[Jon B]

If I had to choose just one, it would be Zimmer's score to The Thin Red Line which I adore. I feel it works in it's own right.

Honourable mentions,

Conan the Barbarian - Basil Poledouris
Magnificent Seven - Elmer Bernstein
The Specialist - John Barry
Gladiator - Hans Zimmer
Superman - John Williams
The Witches of Eastwick - John Williams
Out of Sight - David Holmes
Red Sonja - Ennio Morricone
RoboCop - Basil Poledouris
ChinaTown - Jerry Goldsmith
Don't Look Now - Pino Donnagio
Krull - James Horner(?)


For scores of songs (is there a word for them?) Aimee Mann's Magnolia cannot be beaten IMO.

:)

[Davester]

Originally posted by Jon B

For scores of songs (is there a word for them?) Aimee Mann's Magnolia cannot be beaten IMO.

:)

Forgot to mention that one. Agreed excellent piece of work!
And LOTR is very good to listen to.

[Bolch]

There can only be one :D

The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang OST. Every song is a work of art, apart from the 'Lonely man' solo by Truly Scrumptious.

[sampath]

Some horror films with great soundtracks...

Halloween (John Carpenter)
Suspiria (Goblin / Dario Argento)
Se7en and Silence of the Lambs (Howard Shore)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (Wojciech Kilar)
All 4 Alien films - particularly 1, 2 & 3, and whatever the merits of 4 as a film, it still has an excellen score.

[Raphph]

Planet Of The Apes (1968) - Jerry Goldsmith
Chinatown - Jerry Goldsmith
ET - John Williams
Dirty Harry - Lalo Schifrin
The Graduate - Simon & Garfunkel
Midnight Cowboy - John Barry / Nilsson / Various
Easy Rider - Various
Big Chill - Various
Field Of Dreams - James Horner
Taxi Driver - Bernard Hermann
Rocky - Bill Conti
Doctor Zhivago - Maurice Jarre
Risky Business - Tangerine Dream
The Mission - Ennio Morricone
Superman - John Williams
Vanilla Sky - Various
GetCarter - Roy Budd

All of the above are class!

[goof]

Are we talking score or soundtrack?

IMHO Forrest Gump can't be faulted for pure classics!

[stantheman]

Blade Runner

[mr_woo]

this is a very tough thing to decide but my personal favourites are

Robocop - Basil Poledouris (absolutely terrific score, instantly recognisable)

The Big Lebowski (particular favourite of mine)

O Brother Where Art Thou ?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Once Upon A Time In The West

Grosse Pointe Blank


there's so many more i could pick, some great scores & compilation tracks out there

[JamieL]

I'm a sucker for stomping upbeat jazz 70's heist stylie soundtracks my fave being David Shire's 'Taking Of Pelham 123' OST.
Also, Lalo Schifrin's soundtracks to 'Enter The Dragon', 'Dirty Harry' & 'Bullit' (also his storming cover of the theme from 'Jaws' which is on his 'Black Widow' lp).

Other's I rate highly...
John Barry's early Bond OSTs... 'Space March (Capsule In Space)' from the 'Thunderball' OST is one of the finest pieces of music ever. Supoib.
Isaac Hayes - 'Shaft'
Curtis Mayfield - 'Superfly'
Marvin Gaye - 'Trouble Man'
Roy Budd - 'Get Carter'/'Fear Is The Key'/'Diamonds'/'Black Windmill'
George Martin - 'Live And Let Die'
Bobby Womack - 'Across 110th Street'
Donald Byrd/The Blackbyrds - 'Cornbread, Earl & Me'
Roy Ayers - 'Coffy'
Clint Mansell - 'Requiem For A Dream'
Joe Hisaishi - 'Hana-Bi'


And one album that should have been an OST - The Cinematic Orchestra - 'Motion'.

[Joe Pasquale]

Originally posted by goof
Are we talking score or soundtrack?


:confused: Was thinking the same...

For soundtrack it has to be:
Dazed And Confused
Grosse Point Blank (already mentioned)

How about these, not too shabby:
Go
Animal House

And some cheesy musicals:
Rocky Horror Show
Little Shop Of Horrors (80's)

[NexusSheep]

Blade Runner
Braveheart
Forrest Gump
Coyote Ugly
Thelma & Louise

[Narshty]

My favourite soundtracks:

Pink Flamingos
Badlands
The Harder They Come
Dazed and Confused
Rushmore
Quadrophenia (does this count?)
and pretty much everything of Kubrick's since 2001: A Space Odyssey

My favourite scores:

Dressed to Kill - Pino Donaggio
Alexander Nevsky - Sergei Prokofiev
Blood for Dracula - Claudio Gizzi
Suspiria - Goblin
Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horrors - James Bernard (the BFI release)
Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann
Sisters - Bernard Herrmann
The Third Man - Anton Karas
Walkabout - John Barry
The Wicker Man - Paul Giovanni
Touch of Evil - Henry Mancini
Taxi Driver - Bernard Herrmann
The Last Temptation of Christ - Peter Gabriel
Carnival of Souls - Gene Moore
Edward Scissorhands - Danny Elfman

[DMillburn]

Requiem for a Dream
Shopping
Suspiria
Pi

[Marv]

Mortal Kombat

[Rollo Tomassi]

Soundtracks:

'Magnolia'
'Jackie Brown'
'The Big Lebowski'

Scores:

'Gattaca' - Michael Nyman
'The Shawshank Redemption' & 'American Beauty' - Thomas Newman
'The Last of the Mohicans' - Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman
'The Empire Strikes Back' - John Williams
'Back to the Future' - Alan Silvestri

[JohnMac]

I don't know if there was ever a soundtrack for Demoltion Man, but any CD with the theme from Love Boat and the Jolly Green Giant song has to be worth your cash ;)

[Bob B]

Jean de Florette

and I would go along with those who have suggested
Blade Runner
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
and Aimee Mann's Magnolia songs


If we can pick a theme tune rather than a complete soundtrack then how about
The Great Escape
Bridge on the River Kwai
The Magnificent Seven

[Davester]

Originally posted by goof
Are we talking score or soundtrack?

I don't discriminate ;). Whatever you want! If tehre is a good piece of music associated with a film put it here. i am already tempted to buy a couple off the list here (incl Forest Gump).

[Fatboydim]

I think there's a big difference between films with good music... IE: Soundtrack.

Run Lola Run
Grosse Point Blank
and indeed Charlies Angels had a decent soundtrack

And films with a good score.

Lawrencwe Of Arabia hasn't been mentioned. [Maurice Jarre]

And what about Psycho [Bernard Hermann]

and The Italian Job

Zulu

and not forgetting ET

Edward Scissors Hands is one of my personal faves... by the supreme MR Elfman

[Toothy]

Can`t believe nobody`s mentioned....

Predator - Alan Silvestri

Fantastic score! :clap:

[Davester]

Originally posted by Fatboydim
I think there's a big difference between films with good music... IE: Soundtrack.

Run Lola Run
Grosse Point Blank
and indeed Charlies Angels had a decent soundtrack

And films with a good score.

Lawrencwe Of Arabia hasn't been mentioned. [Maurice Jarre]

And what about Psycho [Bernard Hermann]

and The Italian Job

Zulu

and not forgetting ET

Edward Scissors Hands is one of my personal faves... by the supreme MR Elfman

There is a big difference but who cares! Put them all down.:D

[ethanfox]

Shawshank has to be mentioned
Stars Wars Trilogy and ET and Indian Jones Trilogy for Williams

Also, Braveheart is great stuff and I would have to mention Horner's ltest for A beautiful mind - really unlike him, and really, really good stuff.

Critters has a fine score, very emotional, gets in the minds of the characters and their journay, then pulls your heart out through your gut, I can't listen to it without welling up...

[Sputnik]

All of the above :p

But noone's mentioned:

Trainspotting
Pulp Fiction
A Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon

[mayhemmaster]

Hannibal - beautiful sountrack. (Crap film though, beautifully shot though, just fell apart at the end!)

[lorenzo]

Moulin Rouge - hello :clap:

I adore the soundtrack to Goodfellas and emplore you all to buy it today - it is perfect!

[Mozley]

Amazed that nobody's mentioned High Fidelity -- esp. Barry's version of Let's Get It On, and that tune by the skateboarders/shoplifters -- "The Kinky Wizards" (if anyone knows what this tune is or who it's by, I'd love to know).

Also amazed no-one mentioned Fight Club (Dust Brothers) - one of the best ever IMHO.

Oh and Star Trek - The Wrath Of Kahn has one of the great forgotten scores of all time (forgotten in the sense that I don't know who wrote it)!

[Blackwind]

Hawk The Slayer
Trick Or Treat

[Paul490]

Midnight Express - Rubbish CD though - doesn't sound at all like the film music does.
The Shawshank Redemption
The Beyond - Great horror score.

:clap:

[homerj]

the best soundtrack is:

The witches of eastwick

and in my other fav's are:

bladerunner
trick or treat
waterworld
batman score
near dark
blue steel
hard boiled
godfather

:)

[Creamstick]

Most of the above, plus -

Judgement Night
Velvet Goldmine
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The Doors

[aprout]

Originally posted by Toothy
Can`t believe nobody`s mentioned....

Predator - Alan Silvestri



Can't believe you can't officially buy it!

Backdraft by Hans Zimmer is a personal fave.

[Ben H]

Star Wars
Indiana Jones
Hunt for Red October (best thing about the film)
Blade Runner
Jaws
The Shining
Superman

[AndySedg]

Taxi Driver:cool:

[Tim Fleming]

Anything done by Ryuichi Sakamoto (Last Emporer, Under a Sheltering Sky, Gohatto, Wings of Honneimase, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence etc).

The soundtracks to:
- Diva
- O Brother Where Art Thou?
- Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown
- Shark Skin Man, Peach Hip Girl
- Party7
- Hana-bi

Oh yes, and just about anything made by John Waters.

Just a few that spring immediately to mind.

regards, Tim...

[blair]

"music from and inspired by" on the cover of a soundtrack cd can often mean they've packed the cd with hit songs not in the film to help sell the soundtrack album.

Sometimes it's for real though, one of my favourites is the "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack where the "inspired by" comment is explained by Tim Robbins in the notes. He sent a rough cut of the movie to songwriters he liked to see what they could do. The result is an excellent album, Suzanne Vega, Bruce Springsteen, Michelle Shocked, Tom Waits, Mary Chapin Carpenter and others.

I must see the film one day.

[BAM]

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Shaolin Soccer

[Mozley]

Oh yeah, and Elfman's Batman theme.

[Ghostface]

My favs...

- Independence Day
- Army Of Darkness
- Batman Returns

[britboy1979]

Well my soundtracks are (in no particular order)

1. The Beach (Best thing about the film)
2. Go
3. Moulin Rouge

[CountSatyr]

One score that plenty of people have not bothered hearing is that of Waterworld. If you forget where the score is from it can transport you places.

[Johnny Vodka]

My favourite soundtrack albums are Lost Highway and Twin Peaks: Firewalk With Me.

[Steve Kelly]

The best soundtrack / score that you've never heard:

The Wind And The Lion - Jerry Goldsmith

[Summerisle]

Originally posted by Davester
I have been flicking through my soundtrack collection and was wondering what is the BEST soundtrack ever. There are the obvious ones such as Star wars original trilogy, JP collection, the rock and Indy, but I was looking at some of my others.Gross point blank is brilliant, so is BttF and the shawshank redemption. also Broken arrow is pretty cool. Am I mising anything? what do you guys think?

Conan the Barbarian or The Wind and the Lion or The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

[Davester]

Star wars has been voted the best of all time according to cinescape.com (although, i think my first due south cd is better!!)

[Joe Pasquale]

Just skimmed through and no-ones mentioned these:

- The Blues Brothers
- The Commitments

Both fantastic soundtracks.

[edrch]

Why, oh why has no one mentioned the fantastic Saturday Night Fever soundtrack - surely a must for any music collection....

[Terry]

FLASH GORDON - Flash a-ah

[sage the owl]

Two classic Jerry Goldsmith scores,

Masada (yes, I know its a TV mini series)
Star Trek the motion picture

This set the standard by which all other Trek scores are judged and most havent come close, not even his own compositions for the later movies.

[ed rooney]

Rushmore

South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut

[AndyS]

As it's not been mentioned....

Carlito's Way - Particularly the chase scene at the end. Awesome score!

[geek]

Midnight Express
Virgin suicides
Requiem for a Dream
Cinema Paradiso
Godfather
All superb scores.

[Wooglie]

Blues Brothers is up there with Desperado, Grosse Pointe Blank and not forgetting Gone in Sixty Seconds, Shrek and Bad Boys.

I started with just a couple and kept on thinking of better ones :D

[xtrmntr]

nobody has mentioned VERTIGO :eek:

watch some better films ;)

best soundtrack: trainspotting

[yee_har]

To Live and Die in L.A. - Wang Chung (good, nonetheless)

[stefmcd]

May have been mentioned but here are my less obvious favourites-

Sleuth (John Addison)
Angel Heart
Body Heat (John Barry)
Dollars (Quincy Jones)
In the heat of the night / They call me Mr Tibbs (QJ again)

Anyone ever heard the soundtrack to 'They came to rob Las Vegas' - supposed to be excellent. Last I checked it was unavailable and vinyl copies fetch high figures.

[Alan_Mac]

I actually started one of these soundtrack threads about a year, 18 months back. I'm still of the opinion that the LEGEND Soundtrack is still one of the most haunting and beautiful of film themes/soundtracks.