Favorite Movie Background Scores

[Fusion]

This topic may interest a grand total of one person – but I thought to create a thread for it regardless. What are your favorite movie background scores? I’m not talking about soundtracks in general which contain popular songs, but music either specifically written for the movie or popularized because of it. A great background score can often set the proper “mood” for the film. Some of my favorite scores are from dramas that enjoy a leisurely pace and thus rely heavily on the background score to fill in the gaps in dialogue. I love the haunting quality of those scores. Though at times I also enjoy the techo/fast pace variety that accompanies action scenes. Be forewarned that most of them are quite long, but if you have the patience to listen to them you will find yourself lost in some wonderful music. So without further ado, below are links to some of my favs. Would love to hear about yours.


Shawshank Prison/Stoic Theme (From: The Shawshank Redemption)

Song for Bob (From: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

Time (From: Inception)

Clubbed To Death (From: The Matrix)

Labor of Love (From: Star Trek)

Requiem for a Dream (from Requiem for a Dream)

Terminator Main Theme (From: Terminator 2)

[keeper]

A couple of particular interest.

Zulu is one of the most dramatic and recognisable scores. Yet it features for a tiny part of the actual movie (13-15 mins if memory serves). Most scenes, including the action scenes, are conducted without any background music - something that is pretty rare. John Barry at his very best...

zulu main theme (sound track) - YouTube


Morricone also broke with convention in Once Upon a Time in the West where he had different themes for each of the main characters. Anyone who has seen this masterpiece knows how well it works and the dramatic effect it has.

Man with Harmonica - Once upon a time in the west - YouTube

[Fusion]

Morricone also broke with convention in Once Upon a Time in the West where he had different themes for each of the main characters. Anyone who has seen this masterpiece knows how well it works and the dramatic effect it has.

Man with Harmonica - Once upon a time in the west - YouTube

Love Morricone's style! Man with Harmonica is one of my favorites as well.

[Agent Nationaux]

Lost has great a theme.

From films:

Sunshine - The Surface of the Sun

The Fountain - Death is the Road to Awe

The Last of the Mohicans - Promentory

Minority Report - Sean's Theme

Minority Report - A New Beginning

LOTR - The Return of the King

There are loads more but I can't be bothered.

[Top_Cat]

Of new films, thought the music in Contagion was really interesting. I dig burbling electronica like that.

Of films where they use or re-work existing songs, Me, MySelf and Irene had some brilliant choices, some great covers of Steely Dan tracks. One of my favourites is Easy Rider too.

Composed for the film, I thought Ennio Morricone's score for The Untouchables was pretty damn cool but I loved Eno's work in The Lovely Bones. Under-rated but Neil Young's work in Dead Man was just brilliant.

[PhoenixFire]

The Village by James Newton Howard is pretty damn good.

[GotSpin]

Shutter Island had an awesome one.

LOTR has some of my favourites as well

[Spark]

Always enjoyed the LOTR score.

[GotSpin]

Always enjoyed the LOTR score.

The Two Towers Soundtrack-03-The Riders of Rohan - YouTube

&

The Two Towers Soundtrack-05-The Uruk-Hai - YouTube

[Fusion]

Excellent selections mentioned so far. Quite a few I hadn't heard before and enjoyed listening to. Agree with the LOTR love btw.

[benchmark00]

That time Ron Jeremy scored in Bangin' Booties V is probably my favourite.

[ripper868]

Gladiator scores are pretty epic.

The folk song from We Were Soldiers is pretty awesome as well.

[Burgey]

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

(Ripper, Murphy and Corrin)

[douglas fir]

goodbye, lenin! and amelie which are both by yann tiersen. he's fantastic.

[Adamc]

Falkor

The Jesse James one is pretty good. I like the Pan's Labyrinth score as well. Don't really watch movies much though tbh. Too much emoting.