For me, a great soundtrack can top off a great movie, or make a mediocre film better. Lately, movies have employed flavor of the month bands to write songs that will surely get their film noticed. Don’t get me wrong, those kind of soundtracks are fun to listen to. I own a few of those. But what’s better than listening to a sweeping score done by a symphony? Maybe I’m weird, but I love soundtracks that don’t rely a flavor of the month, which most of the time, the song isn’t all that great to begin with. For me, one of the best movie soundtracks is Gladiator. I can’t get enough of it. I listened to it so much that I wore the cd out. Another amazing soundtrack is Memoirs of a Geisha. In both soundtracks, you can hear and feel the emotion without someone singing lyrics telling you what you’re suppose to feel. To me, those are the best soundtracks: the ones that without words evoke the emotions that the film is attempting to convey.

So true -Taxi Driver and any Lynch film with music by Angelo Badalamenti are so enhanced by their soundtracks.

I somewhat agree, I think when lyrical songs are used effectively, typically older songs, and directly relate to whats on screen in a foreshadowing way to me it really feels like some thought was put into it. Score music, what your talking about, is a necessity and adds emotion, tension and all of the other things we feel when seen with the moving images and is effective, but I think listening to score is way more subject to interpretation when listening to it without the images. Personally I like Danny Elfman and Mark Snow

Check out our sound track for our feature:

http://www.cafepress.com/mma1.45818930

-Jason

Have you heard the soundtrack of “Atonement”, it’s quite clever how they incorporated typing sounds (something that the main character was doing a lot) into the soundtrack, and the way the choir blends into the score in the beach scene, is brilliant!

Can’t deny the effect Bernard Hermann’s score has had on the impression of Hitchcock’s “Psycho” - every time the shower scene is mention, it’s accompanied by the shrieking sounds of the violins.

Hans Zimmer has done some great scores, plus composed a libretto for Dante’s La Vita Nuova especially for “Hannibal” which has a very moody, dark and romantic score.

There are a lot of great composers. Gustavo Santaolalla and “Brokeback Mountain” and “21 Grams”, not to mention James Newton Howard and Cliff Martinez, and check out Bear McCreary’s score for Battlestar Galactica - I haven’t even seen it but the music is amazing. :)

While I’m not necessarily an enormous fan of all of his work, Ennio Morricone’s score for The Mission is quite stellar.

well,it’s not incidental that many great directors use the same composer.it’s very relaxing , i guess , to know that the music will carry ,at least with ease, your movie. Schindler’s list… PURE MAGIC

Composer Michael Nyman is a favorite of mine.  He’s contributed mightily to many a Greenaway project.

I love the soundtracks of Requiem for a Dream and the Fountain. The Kronos Quartet is amazing.

And that main theme from Requiem holds a very special place in my heart because I used it in my own first movie, a 2 minutes horror/thriller flick. So I always think of it as the theme from Side Effects… I’m a nerd.

I’ve always loved Basil Pouledouris’s score for “Conan the Barbarian.” The music was the perfect compliment to the story.  And that’s what you want from your musical score.

I also love the music from “Taxi Driver,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Star Wars,” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.