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

[franfar]

4 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

 

Seriously this is the kind of stuff you can't even call a Hot Take it deserves its own name/category. Alien Take or Unprocessable Take or something like that. 

Rough Take

[4815162342]

50.
 

Spoiler

 

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Original Music by Sergei Prokofiev

333 Points

Top 5 Placements: 2
Top 10 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: 50 (NO CHANGE)

 

 

 

Coming in exactly the same as last time around is the Russian propaganda epic Alexander Nevsky, where the Teutonic Knights are totally not in any way supposed to be Nazis. Prokofiev worked in tandem with director Sergei Eisenstein in the production of the film, with some scenes being structured to fit with Prokofiev's music, and vice versa. Prokofiev used different sections of the orchestra to form the baseline music for each of the warring factions in the film. Prokofiev would later rework his film score into a seven movement cantata.

 

 

[4815162342]

49.
 

Spoiler

 

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Original Music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

340 Points

Top 5 Placements: 1
Top 10 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: 57 (+8)

 

 

 

We stay in the same calendar year with one of the legendary and original swashbuckler films out there. Korngold's music helps lay the framework for countless decades of adventure music to come, with rousing, bombastic brass instruments propelling action forward with gusto and a smile. Korngold's music would win for Original Score at the Oscars.

 

 

[4815162342]

48.
 

Spoiler

 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) 

Original Music by John Williams

350 Points

2015 Placement: HONORABLE MENTION

 

 

 

John Williams pops in again with a well-known film score to a well-known sci-fi movie from 1977, that happened to come out around the same time as another little film he helped worked on. While Star Wars has overshadowed this movie, it's score remains quite the piece of work, centered around a five-note cue that is intertwined with the film's plot. It took Williams about 300 tries before he crafted a variation of the five-note cue that Spielberg was satisfied with.

 

 

[4815162342]

47.
 

Spoiler

 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Original Music by Jerry Goldsmith

351 Points

Top 10 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: 41 (-6)

 

 

 

A slightly disappointing drop for the OG of the Star Trek film franchise. Jerry Goldsmith had actually been considered to score the music for the Trek TV show's pilot episode The Cage, but was unavailable at that time. Goldsmith's music for the film shows great variations, from the bombastic and adventurous main theme, which would find new life in the Next Generation TV series, to the elegant and romantic theme for Ilia, to the menacing electronic synthesizer work for the V'Ger space cloud, the Uncle to Galactus. Goldsmith's work would be nominated for an Oscar and is considered to be one of his finest efforts. After all, music that can make a 5-minute scene of a shuttle flying around a space dock with characters semi-disinterestedly looking out a window not totally boring and mind-numbing must be some pretty good stuff.

 

 

[cannastop]

Damn, is Vertigo not even going to show up?

[4815162342]

46.
 

Spoiler

 

Forrest Gump (1994)

Original Music by Alan Silvestri

354 Points

Top 5 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: 61 (+15)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wxp1Dcoplg

 

 

Music is as Music plays. Rising 15 spots higher from 2015 is Alan Silvestri's music for Forrest Gump. I must say I was a bit surprised by the jump, since for me the music for the film, aside from the memorable main cue, is mostly driven by the various licensed material dropped into the movie. Silvestri's music was nominated for an Oscar. The wistful piano notes for the main theme really do drive home a key facet of Forrest's characters, in that even in spite of all the stuff in his path he continues to plow forward hoping for the best.

 

 

[Fancyarcher]

5 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Damn, is Vertigo not even going to show up?

 

It was in the top ten on at least three lists, mine included. I'll be shocked if it doesn't show up at some point. 

[Truckasaurus]

7 minutes ago, cannastop said:

Damn, is Vertigo not even going to show up?

It should show up at the Top 20, at the very least. 

[4815162342]

Next five factoids:

 

• 2 films are post-2005
• One film is before 1960
• The other two are between 1975-1985
• One film features a famous director/composer collaboration
• We have an animated film, a sci-fi film, and a holiday film

[Fancyarcher]

Nice to see Close Encounters. It wasn't in my top 100, but in many ways it's one of Williams's really avant garde scores like Images, just with more melodies. 

 

Forrest Gump may have a lot of licensed music, but like most Zemeckis films Silvestri does provide at least 30 minutes of score, and there actually several themes in addition to the feather theme, there's also a theme for Forrest when he runs, a sorta love theme, and some dark music for when he learns he has go to Vietnam, among others. The Forrest Gump suite highlights all of themes, save for the dark material. Silverstri and Zemeckis follow-up Contact (which actually features considerably more music, around 50 minutes of it) would actually feature two similar sounding themes (the feather for the main title, and the darker music), as well.

Edited April 9, 2017 by Fancyarcher

[cannastop]

3 minutes ago, 4815162342 said:

Next five factoids:

 

• 2 films are post-2005
• One film is before 1960
• The other two are between 1975-1985
• One film features a famous director/composer collaboration
• We have an animated film, a sci-fi film, and a holiday film

Probably some Pixar movie, I guess.

[4815162342]

Also, now that we're in the Top 50, I'm gonna start sharing some films that only received a single vote in the various submissions. Here are a few:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

There'll be some more random updates after every pod of 5 from here on out.

 

 

[4815162342]

4 minutes ago, Fancyarcher said:

Nice to see Close Encounters. It wasn't in my top 100, but in many ways it's one of Williams's really avant garde scores like Images, just with more melodies. 

 

Forrest Gump may have a lot of licensed music, but like most Zemeckis films Silvestri does provide at least 30 minutes of score, and there actually several themes in addition to the feather theme, there's also a theme for Forrest when he runs, a sorta love theme, and some dark music for when he learns he has go to Vietnam, among others. The Forrest Gump suite highlights all of themes, save for the dark material. Silverstri and Zemeckis follow-up Contact (which actually features considerably more music, around 50 minutes of it) would actually feature two similar sounding themes (the feather for the main title, and the dark sinister music), as well.

 

Oh I know there's several themes, I have the soundtrack suite, but none of them really stand out to me other than the main title theme

[Fancyarcher]

Just now, 4815162342 said:

 

Oh I know there's several themes, I have the soundtrack suite, but none of them really stand out to me other than the main title theme

 

For me the running theme is great, and I might actually prefer it over the feather theme. It helps that it's featured in two of best sequences of the film, when Forrest first runs, and when he decides to run across America, for no particular reason. 

[Fancyarcher]

BTW speaking of director and composer collaborations, I actually found out about something yesterday that I thought was nifty. Apparently Steiner composed the music for thirty two of Michael Curtiz's film. Though it was likely mostly coincidence, and Curtiz didn't have much say in the music, being the studio system era and all, I think that might be for a record for a Hollywood director / composer collaboration, surpassing even the likes of Mancini / Edwards, or Williams / Spielberg in terms of films. 

Edited April 8, 2017 by Fancyarcher

[WrathOfHan]

Alright, now I'm curious as to who submitted CW  

[aabattery]

1 minute ago, WrathOfHan said:

Alright, now I'm curious as to who submitted CW  

 

Someone who appreciates the beauty that Henry Jackman inflicts upon the world.

[The Panda]

2 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

50.
 

  Hide contents

 

Alexander Nevsky (1938)

Original Music by Sergei Prokofiev

333 Points

Top 5 Placements: 2
Top 10 Placements: 1

2015 Placement: 50 (NO CHANGE)

 

 

 

Coming in exactly the same as last time around is the Russian propaganda epic Alexander Nevsky, where the Teutonic Knights are totally not in any way supposed to be Nazis. Prokofiev worked in tandem with director Sergei Eisenstein in the production of the film, with some scenes being structured to fit with Prokofiev's music, and vice versa. Prokofiev used different sections of the orchestra to form the baseline music for each of the warring factions in the film. Prokofiev would later rework his film score into a seven movement cantata.

 

 

 

Way to low, but at least there were some people here who weren't but plebs and voted for it.

[4815162342]

45.
 

Spoiler

 

North by Northwest (1959)

Original Music by Bernard Herrmann

357 Points

Top 5 Placements: 1
Top 10 Placements: 2

2015 Placement: 91 (+46)

 

 

 

A couple posters were asking a few times when this film was going to appear, well, here it is. One of the many collaborations between Hitchcock and Herrmann, the film features a thrumming main theme that sets the stage for high stakes thrills and adventure. It appears the newbies really dig the music, as they gave it one of the highest jumps in position for a film on the 2015 countdown. The music is very bombastic yet also playful and sprightly at times, reflecting the film's overall tone.