BOT's TOP 100 Film Scores: The Threequel: COUNTDOWN COMPLETE! (#1 Page 36!)

[The Panda]

Yay for Chinatown and Jesse James.

[4815162342]

8 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

Was I the lone vote for ST6? I know it was on my shortlist but I don't remember if I pushed it in or not. 

 

I was.

[TalismanRing]

39 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

36. Chinatown (1974)

 

Jumping up a dozen spaces is the music to the film noir classic by Roman Polanski. Jerry Goldsmith allegedly wrote and composed the score to the film in only ten days, due to the original score by Philip Lambro being rejected at the last minute. The film features recurring trumpet solos and the musician playing the trumpet has said that Goldsmith told him "to play it sexy — but like it’s not good sex!" The music would be nominated at the Oscars.

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

13 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

 

I was.

 

Kudos to you, good sir. Now I wished I'd put it on mine. Some great stuff there that also manages to be memorable and completely its own thing -- tough to do when you're following up Goldsmith and Horner!

[Fancyarcher]

I know I've said this before, but COTB doesn't deserve to be on this list at all. It's a really poor score in general IMO, it was a rushed schedule and it shows. It's almost entirely composed of recycled Zimmer cues from other scores. It makes me disappointed that Silvestri never got his real chance to compose the score, because he was fired for using Woodwinds, and because Bruckheimer has his own comfort zone composers, which has to do with the RC style. 

 

Jesse James is good, though personally it doesn't connect to me as much. I think the lack of a real strong melody probably has something to do with it.

 

As for the scores that only got a single vote. Star Trek 6 is the score that I like the most, though personally it wasn't on my list. It's very good, and it's a shame that Eidelman's career took a nosedive because of one too many flop. His score for Christopher Columbus: The Discovery is magnificent and I would argue overall better then Vangelis's 1492, though I quite like both (neither made my list, though). 

[Fancyarcher]

4 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

Kudos to you, good sir. Now I wished I'd put it on mine. Some great stuff there that also manages to be memorable and completely its own thing -- tough to do when you're following up Goldsmith and Horner!

 

It probably helped that the previous composers on the Star Trek films all did their own thing as well, save for referencing / using Courage's classic theme. 

Edited April 10, 2017 by Fancyarcher

[Plain Old Tele]

1 minute ago, Fancyarcher said:

 

It probably helped that the previous composers on the Star Trek films all did their own thing, save for referencing / using Courage's classic theme. 

 

I'm sure someone will come up with some examples, but I'm hard-pressed to think of other series that so freely created new, cool themes for each movie without constant callbacks to the signature (original) theme. 

[Fancyarcher]

18 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

I'm sure someone will come up with some examples, but I'm hard-pressed to think of other series that so freely created new, cool themes for each movie without constant callbacks to the signature (original) theme. 

 

Goldsmith's own ST scores constantly use prior themes, though he's always good at least adding three or four new themes each time, so the scores themselves are a bit different. 

 

The great thing is, though, that for the most part the scores themselves have their composers trademarks all over them. ST2 and ST3 are completely Horner, and if you're film music buff like I am, then you know that Star Trek 4 has Rosenman's style written all over it.

 

I think an interesting example for a series with only one good entry would probably be the Highlander films. The first three films all have different composers, and they manage to do their own thing, without referencing the other scores, and for the most part they're actually pretty good scores. 

Edited April 10, 2017 by Fancyarcher

[Goffe]

1 hour ago, 4815162342 said:

39.
 

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Original Music by Klaus Badelt (Officially) (Unofficially: Klaus Badelt, Hans Zimmer, and about a dozen others)

389 Points

Top 10 Placements: 2

2015 Placement: 36 (-3)

 

 

 

You knew it was still gonna be shuffling around, even after At World's End took a tumble and Dead Man's Chest dropped off entirely. Alan Silvestri had originally been approached to compose, but after he left the project Verbinski turned to Hans Zimmer, who referred him to Badelt as Zimmer was working on The Last Samurai. Baldelt composed much of the music with assistance from Zimmer, and then several other composers were brought in to orchestrate music and prepare minor cues. So you had a full kitchen of cooks working on this one. Also, apparently the track titles for the music were written before anything was composed, which led to some of the music assigned to some of the track titles not actually matching up with what the track titles described.

 

 

Badelt acted more like supervising composer. Zimmer did almost all themes (He's A Pirate, Medallion Calls, The Black Pearl, One Last Shot). Badelt did the dark theme for the Black Pearl (the Fog Bound cue is mostly his) and the Underwater March theme. 

 

Zimmer didn't get credit because 1) legal reasons (The Last Samurai) 2) he doesn't like to take credit for rescuing a RC colleague.

 

About the score being one big collaborative work, that's true for all Pirates movies.

[Plain Old Tele]

6 minutes ago, Fancyarcher said:

 

Goldsmith's own ST scores constantly use prior themes, though he's always good at least adding three or four new themes each time, so the scores themselves are a bit different. 

 

I completely forgot he did FINAL FRONTIER. (I'm mainly thinking of the original series movies).

[Fancyarcher]

8 minutes ago, Tele Came Back said:

 

I completely forgot he did FINAL FRONTIER. (I'm mainly thinking of the original series movies).

 

His score is the best thing about that film. He reuses his Enterprise and Klingon themes, but also adds in a Copelandish Friendship theme (which would later get reused in the TNG films), as well as a quest theme, a mystic theme, and a theme for Sybok, among others. 

 

Goldsmith was also great at doing sequel scores though (Rambo, The Omen, Gremlins, Poltergeist among other examples), because he almost always approached the sequel as something new. Reusing some themes, but adding in a lot more as well, instead of simply doing a copy and paste for the most part. 

Edited April 10, 2017 by Fancyarcher

[Goffe]

20 minutes ago, Fancyarcher said:

I know I've said this before, but COTB doesn't deserve to be on this list at all. It's a really poor score in general IMO, it was a rushed schedule and it shows. It's almost entirely composed of recycled Zimmer cues from other scores. 

It doesn't really bother me that almost all the music is taken from others Zimmer scores since they cause much more of an impression here than they did on their original scores. 

[Fancyarcher]

8 minutes ago, Goffe said:

It doesn't really bother me that almost all the music is taken from others Zimmer scores since they cause much more of an impression here than they did on their original scores. 

 

The themes aren't bad, the amount of recycling just bothers me a bit. I enjoy DMC and AWE more because the themes are better put together and the added material sounds more original. 

[Jake Gittes]

Chinatown rising almost compensates for The Third Man dropping

[The Panda]

Yeah, Curse of the Blackpearl shouldn't even classify as an original score in my books.

[baumer]

On 09/04/2017 at 4:50 AM, 4815162342 said:

44.
 

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WALL-E (2008)

Original Music by Thomas Newman

363 Points

2015 Placement: 70 (+26)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdRI0VmjwsM

 

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

 

Pixar graces the countdown with Andrew Stanton's sci-fi adventure. Thomas Newman uses a mix of orchestral and electronic elements to construct the film's music, especially as the film's setting shifts towards the Axiom. Newman's work would be nominated for Original Score at the Oscars. Certain key moments of the film were originally intended to be accompanied with licensed songs, but Newman persuaded Stanton to let him compose music for those scenes instead.

 

 

 

[baumer]

On 09/04/2017 at 5:24 AM, 4815162342 said:

42.
 

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Halloween (1978)

Original Music by John Carpenter

375 Points

Top 10 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: 25 (-17)

 

 

 

John Carpenter returns with a film he directed and composed for the big screen. Carpenter's core for the music is a repeating piano melody played in 10/8 meter, which sets a very fast-paced and thrilling atmosphere for some of the film's climatic moments. The music as a whole is very moody and eerie, and while simple, is very effective at complementing the events unfolding onscreen. Carpenter composed the music for the film in three days.

 

 

 

I'm far from knowledgeable when it comes to music composition but I can tell you the reason Halloween works so well is because of its simplicity.  There really aren't many chords to the melody but it manages to terrify the audience.  Halloween, imo, is the best horror film ever made (JAWS is horror but not the same as Halloween imo) and it simply would not have been nearly as great as it is if the soundtrack wasn't as good as it is.

[baumer]

On 09/04/2017 at 5:30 AM, 4815162342 said:

41.

 

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La La Land (2016)

Original Music by Justin Hurwitz

380 Points

Top 5 Placements: 2
Top 10 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: NEW
 

 

 

It seemed inevitable that this movie would show up on the countdown. La La Land is the highest-ranked newly eligible film, so there will be no more movie scores from 2015 or 2016 appearing on this countdown. Hurwitz won an Oscar for his work, which draws heavily from the musical cues and motifs he crafted for many of the film's songs. The real question is, since we're only a few months removed from the movie's release, whether the film will rise or fall in estimation between now and the next Countdown in 2019.

 

 

 

[baumer]

On 09/04/2017 at 7:28 PM, 4815162342 said:

36.
 

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Chinatown (1974)

Original Music by Jerry Goldsmith

394 Points 

Top 5 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: 48 (+12)

 

 

 

Jumping up a dozen spaces is the music to the film noir classic by Roman Polanski. Jerry Goldsmith allegedly wrote and composed the score to the film in only ten days, due to the original score by Philip Lambro being rejected at the last minute. The film features recurring trumpet solos and the musician playing the trumpet has said that Goldsmith told him "to play it sexy — but like it’s not good sex!" The music would be nominated at the Oscars.

 

 

 

[baumer]

Jerry Goldsmith is a wonderful composer.  It's too bad his work for First Blood doesn't make the list.  It's one of my fave soundtracks.