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

[Blankments]

I'm making a Spotify playlist for the members of the board just for the hell of it; using the samples you use Numbers

[Kalo]

Good thing I put Her so high! so far this list seems pretty nice. 

[The Stingray]

The Fountain at 98??!  I'm thinking Numbers made a boo-boo with the numbers...

[TalismanRing]

I expect the list as usual will skew modern and most of my choices will land near the bottom but so far Kwai, North by Northwest, Sunset Blvd, Monoke with Dumbo, Pinnochio & Kane making HM - not too shabby. 

 

If Bridge On The River Kwai is the only score from a David Lean movie  I will flip harder than Blanks at an Oscar LEGO snub.

[Jake Gittes]

Very happy that Conquest of Paradise made it. Terrible movie, but that score is a masterpiece. 

[4815162342]

The Fountain at 98??!  I'm thinking Numbers made a boo-boo with the numbers...

 

I assure you I am good at calculations

[TalismanRing]

How many lists were submitted?

[4815162342]

A few more this morning:


90. Apollo 13 (1995)

 

Original Music by James Horner
138 Points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fra-m7RNMrU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYvpBsLhVlI


Man, how is this one not higher? James Horner gets flak for his penchant for ripping off past motifs and themes he's used and slightly re-dressing them for later work, and sometimes it is deserved. But his best work avoids these criticisms and ably spreads across genres and tones. His work in Apollo 13 evokes auras of triumph, pride, and dedication even as everything around the main characters goes wrong.

[4815162342]

How many lists were submitted?

 

20, including mine. Of those, about a half-dozen were full 100s. There were a couple 10s, a handful apiece of 25s and 50s, and two people bucked the scoring system by submitting a 39 and a 58 respectively, so I had to adjust the scoring ranks for those.

[4815162342]

89. Angels and Demons (2009)

Original Music by Hans Zimmer
140 Points
Top 10 Placements: 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2erShifxC2c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCblGxZZX6Y


Hans Zimmer returns to the countdown with his second Dan Brown outing. The Da Vinci Code did not make this countdown. Zimmer builds on some of the themes utilized in that previous film and adds new material aimed to generate ominous discomfort and religious foreboding.

[4815162342]

88. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Original Music by Thomas Newman
140 Points

Wins Tiebreaker Over Angels and Demons due to Number of Votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtx3vQI1Rk4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRAY0rVN_xk


Shawshank is one of the great uplifting movies of the modern era, showing a wrongly imprisoned man fighting to maintain his dignity and then to find a way out. A big reason for that success is Thomas Newman's music, which has probably one of the best soaring main themes in cinema. It carries so much emotion and feeling.

[4815162342]

87. The Piano (1993)

Original Music by Michael Nyman
142 Points
Top 10 Placements: 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FcL5jxzdyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJuHuxiEkxA


It makes sense of course that the core of Nyman's work in this film is in fact a piano. I confess to not having much familiarity with the film or its music. But the music in the film definitely acts as a character of its own, taking the place of its mute protagonist for a voice.

[4815162342]

86. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Original Music by John Williams
142 Points

Wins Tiebreaker Over The Piano due to Number of Votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP95xT0R28c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ac8qtskAg


It was only a matter of time before John Williams showed up and his debut film on the countdown is the third Indiana Jones movie, a film series notably for its pulpy and brash adventure music. The old Indy theme standbys are in his work here, but he also includes new themes such as the Grail theme, which is reverent and full of awe as it contemplates the MacGuffin at stake in the plot. The score also contains Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra, which in my opinion is one of Williams' best action beats in his over 40 years of scoring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll be back late morning with another short set.

[ChD]

*clicks thread*

 

*sees The Last Samurai only made honorable mention*

 

*considers life for a few moments*

 

*leaves*

Edited April 26, 2015 by ChD

[4815162342]

*clicks thread*

 

*sees The Last Samurai only made honorable mention*

 

*considers life for a few moments*

 

*leaves*

*wonders why ChD never sent in a ballot*

85. Dr. Zhivago (1965)

Original Music by Maurice Jarre

143 Points

Top 10 Placements: 1

Top 5 Placements: 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_1k-7tyDPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du0D10s0Ny8

David Lean's filmography returns, this time with a collaboration with famed composer Maurice Jarre. Jarre's music does a lot of flourishes, incorporating sweeping strokes with romantic melodies and wistful, sentimental pieces. It's definitely the kind of music that suits a historical epic romance.

[4815162342]

84. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

Original Music by Michael Giacchino
144 Points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu6xJsHKw58

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj6bERITNzE


This is probably the first film on this countdown that I can for certainty doesn't belong. Giacchino's work on the J.J. Abrams Nu-Trek sequel is very good, with plenty of fun action riffs and some new nifty themes, but a lot of it also feels pretty derivative of Trek 09's music, especially with a lot of blasting of the "Enterprising Young Men" theme in sometimes not quite appropriate places.

Plus, the best piece of music Giacchino composed for the film is presented only in hacked up pieces in the film and was left off of the soundtrack release entirely.

[4815162342]

83. Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Original Music by Dario Marianelli
145 Points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vYY0aRH46I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q68QRLGTfxM


The first collaboration between director Joe Wright and composer Dario Marianelli is a take on the classic Jane Austen romance novel. Marianelli's music is on the balance quiet and contemplative as it slowly pulls in pastoral and romantic tones here and there to accentuate the drama and emotion on the screen.

[Jake Gittes]

STID is so random I don't even know how to react. 

[4815162342]

82. American Beauty (1999)

 

Original Music by Thomas Newman
146 Points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrU3EppRwNA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASEeZSWwjfo


Thomas Newman shows up again with his work for Sam Mendes' suburban drama. Newman's music perfectly captures the clockwork routine of suburbia and the inner cynicism and dissatisfactions of its inhabitants, while at the same showcasing their wistful yearning to find something more in their lives.

[4815162342]

STID is so random I don't even know how to react.

 

True, but it is not the most random placement. Not even remotely close to it.

81. On the Waterfront (1954)

Original Music by Leonard Bernstein

147 Points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVs50Axufs

We jump back to the 1950s with one of the most memorable classics of that era. Leonard Bernstein's music for the film captures the rough-and-tumble grit and pain of dockworkers in the New York City metro area while at times subsiding into more quiet or emotional moments for when the characters, namely Marlon Brando's weary protagonist, reflect on how they've come to where they are.

 

 

 

 

Will come back later in the afternoon to do another segment of 5.

Edited April 26, 2015 by Numbers of Westeros