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BOT's Top 100 Film Scores: The Countdown Thread (2015 Edition) (#1 Revealed Page 14, Full List Page 15)

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4815162342 Global Phenomenon

4815162342

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4. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)


Original Music by John Williams
977 Points
Top 10 Placements: 7
Top 5 Placements: 6


SELECT TRACKS

The Map Room: Dawn

The Fist Fight/The Flying Wing

Desert Chase

The Miracle of the Ark

Washington Ending & Raiders March


Sliding in at #4 is one of the best adventure films ever made, along with possibly the best adventure music ever made. John Williams' work for Raiders is pure bombastic fun, strumming up energy and excitement with every beat. There's not much that needs to be said about the main theme, so let's give him praise for the two main secondary themes, one for the Ark which evokes wonder and ancient glory, and one for Marion which is romantic and endearing. In many ways Raiders is a playbook of the kinds of music Williams does best and how he expertly weaves them into a film.

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4815162342 Global Phenomenon

4815162342

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3. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)


Original Music by Ennio Morricone
990 Points
Top 10 Placements: 6
Top 5 Placements: 3


SELECT TRACKS

Il Buono, Il Brutto, ed Il Cattivo

Il Deserto

Morte Di Un Soldato

L'Estasi Dell'Oro

Il Triello


Coming in for Third Place is a Western, though not just any Western, but in some respects THE Western. Ennio Morricone composes what is easily his best known film score for this movie, music that is harsh, violent, and unforgiving, much like most of the characters in the movie. The iconic main theme resonates throughout the film, but what really sells the score is how natural and atmospheric much of the music is, cloaking the dry and cracked landscapes and gritty characters. And of course, Morricone really knows how to write some epic and energizing showdown music.

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4815162342 Global Phenomenon

4815162342

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#2
 


2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)


Original Music by Howard Shore
995 Points
Top 10 Placements: 10
Top 5 Placements: 8
#1 Placements: 2


SELECT TRACKS

Concerning Hobbits

Flight to the Ford

The Ring Goes South

The Bridge of Khazad Dum

The Breaking of the Fellowship


Our penultimate film on the Countdown is the movie that introduced us to Middle-Earth. Howard Shore's music is like a storybook of its own, guiding us along with all the wonderful characters, places, and things we encounter along the way. So many of the iconic themes in the trilogy, the Ring theme, the Shire theme, the Fellowship theme, and more, they have their roots in this score. Shore's music crosses all sorts of tones and styles, from sweet pastoral melodies to booming and operatic chants of doom, it never fails to help tell you the nature of the scene and its stakes. Few musical scores can build a word single-handedly, Fellowship's is one of them. But the final ranking is one as well.


 
 
 
Which means obviously that #1 is:
 


1. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)


Original Music by John Williams
1217 Points
Top 10 Placements: 12
Top 5 Placements: 8
#1 Placements: 3


SELECT TRACKS

The Hologram/Binary Sunset

Cantina Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exu4QC2sqbY&index=12&list=PL020BCDAC36605D62'>Princess Leia's Theme


The Battle of Yavin

The Throne Room/End Title


The Number 1 Film Score as decided by BOT is John Williams' composition for the first Star Wars movie. Now, regardless of what a certain member has said, there truly is no denying just how much of a gamechanger Williams' work was for the world of film scoring. While it had been used sparingly here and there in Hollywood over the years. it was with Star Wars that Wagner's leitmotif theory of music was put into practice on a large scale. Music was no longer just about setting mood or providing background noise for action, it was about signposting and storytelling as well, giving each place and character of note their own musical cue, to double-down on the significance and weight of their presence. Film music has on the balance adopted Williams' methods wholesale and in numerous ways it is far better for it.

And even that aside, Williams' work on its own for the movie is downright brilliant. He mixes old-school movie serial adventure and drama with orchestral power, crafting adventure music that pops and crackles off the screen, with blasting trumpets and other horns pounding in the action beats, saving woodwinds and strings for more softer or emotional cues. Plus, a lot of the music, like the universe on screen, has a real and lived-in feel to it, helping set the atmosphere for a journey to a galaxy far far way.

Edited by Numbers of Westeros
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Kalo Global Phenomenon

Kalo

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Surprise surprise, but deserving. even if I think Empire expanded on the themes better. But Binary Sunset has perhaps the best sort sequence ever in the history of film scores.

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BadAtGender Global Phenomenon

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I deliberately didn't vote for any Williams scores, although I'm perfectly happy acknowledging that he's the best. I also don't think I voted for any by Shore, even though he's great, too. SW and LotR are pretty much the two best series scores ever.

 

(Personal amusement: I actually wrote down one of my votes wrong. I don't think it would have affected standings, though.)

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