Outstanding Original Score - best movie soundtracks

[Mari]

Posted by Mark (Star Mariner) (here)
In my own opinion, the greatest movie soundtrack ever written is Howard Shore's to the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings saga. Majestic, sweeping, ethereal, stirring, rousing, soaring beyond description... It's so far up there as the clear number one, it isn't even close.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IzQh2Lhv4vQ

Agreed! Off topic (a bit) but I will also add that, in my honest opinion, the LOTR trilogy is the best film adaptation ever, of any books written. Peter Jackson nailed it.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Posted by Mari (here)
in my honest opinion, the LOTR trilogy is the best film adaptation ever, of any books written. Peter Jackson nailed it.

100%. I have such fond memories of the excitement of that time. A point illustrated by this recent funny tweet from Babylon Bee.

The Babylon Bee
@TheBabylonBee
Humanity Finally Invents Time Travel But Everyone Just Keeps Going Back To 2001 To Watch 'Fellowship Of The Ring' In Theaters https://buff.ly/3Sf3NuK
https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1878487168462545361

I queued at the cinema to watch all three films, twice (thrice for Return of the King). Favourite book of all time, favourite films, and again it's not even close. Jackson's trilogy really was a once in a lifetime event - Star Wars approaches it but from a distance. LOTR is number one. What a let down the Hobbit films were by comparison!

[linde]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eeHDxUmtrsI

[madrotter]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dgmJVbL0IT8

[Mike]

I spent some time listening to all the stuff posted here. And while I enjoyed all of it, I found that I liked the ones I didn't expect to like the most ..and the ones I expected to like the most were pretty good but not as good as I expected them to be. Weird how that works. Here's my final 3:


From "The Dark Knight". Hans Zimmer. I love the first 3 mins of this. It's just epic. The rest is okay but I can do without it:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=94TAFSMdkvk

From "The Last of the Mohicans". It's called "Promentory", an orchestration of the tune "The Gael" by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean from his 1990 album The Search. Now this theme is hard to beat. It might be #1 on my list, just because the movie was so excellent and the music always evokes the emotional response I had when I first watched it:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9tjdswqGGVg

And you can't sleep on the Conan the Barbarian theme song! It's got the short prologue and everything. It's just totally bad ass:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5ZY2mRG5mzg

[JohnColeridge]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2oEsWi88Qv0

[Mari]

Posted by Mark (Star Mariner) (here)

Posted by Mari (here)
in my honest opinion, the LOTR trilogy is the best film adaptation ever, of any books written. Peter Jackson nailed it.

100%. I have such fond memories of the excitement of that time. A point illustrated by this recent funny tweet from Babylon Bee.

The Babylon Bee
@TheBabylonBee
Humanity Finally Invents Time Travel But Everyone Just Keeps Going Back To 2001 To Watch 'Fellowship Of The Ring' In Theaters https://buff.ly/3Sf3NuK
https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1878487168462545361

I queued at the cinema to watch all three films, twice (thrice for Return of the King). Favourite book of all time, favourite films, and again it's not even close. Jackson's trilogy really was a once in a lifetime event - Star Wars approaches it but from a distance. LOTR is number one. What a let down the Hobbit films were by comparison!

Sorry, off-topic, but took the words right out of my mouth. The LOTR book opened me in ways I cannot describe: I sensed that I recognised who I really was (I've never 'fitted' in with my current life) and from a time that I remember being in...very probably a past life somewhere. Ever since, I've felt a homesickness that I can't pin down to anything I can understand.
The (three and a half inch thick) LOTR tome that I have is the 1990 edition, beautifully illustrated by Alan Lee, who, as you know, was tracked down to help with the art work of the three films.

Yes, Star Wars was up there too...my kids were not that impressed (they had a cool image to maintain) and were just too embarrassed by their mum's awe-struckness to accompany me to my third viewing

[Michi]

Posted by Mike (here)
I spent some time listening to all the stuff posted here. And while I enjoyed all of it, I found that I liked the ones I didn't expect to like the most ..and the ones I expected to like the most were pretty good but not as good as I expected them to be. Weird how that works. Here's my final 3:


From "The Dark Knight". Hans Zimmer. I love the first 3 mins of this. It's just epic. The rest is okay but I can do without it:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=94TAFSMdkvk

...

Reminds me of the movie sound track of the film: Inception, "Time" composed by Hans Zimmer

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=c56t7upa8Bk

[Mari]

And while we're talking about Hans Zimmer: oh, goosebumps
Chevaliers De Sangreal, the last 3 mins from Da Vinci Code.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=KcfNpfaGejA

[JohanB]

I really liked the music score of “Divergent” by Junky XL

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WBW7OYJzIGY

[ExomatrixTV]

Posted by Dilettante (here)
For me, it's Philip Glass's Koyaanisqatsi:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=j3q7bT0v9IE

The film is well worth a watch.
Life changing, I might argue!

Awesome music @Dilettante ... and warm welcome to Project Avalon Forum

• Some claim above music was the inspiration for Rob Hubbard composing/writing Commodore 64 version called: "Delta" in 1987

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_8ctXlqGiBk

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jn2h6f1EO2k

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2tVBBBKDO10

• Joachim Wijnhoven - Koyaanisqatsi (We've all heard of the Rob Hubbard version. This is more faithful to the film OST.)
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Glass

cheers,
John 🦜🦋🌳

• source (November 26, 2024)

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

Posted by Mari (here)
The (three and a half inch thick) LOTR tome that I have is the 1990 edition, beautifully illustrated by Alan Lee, who, as you know, was tracked down to help with the art work of the three films.

Me too! Same edition. Here's mine, along with The Hobbit also illustrated by Alan Lee.



Also (embarrassingly) I have multiple other volumes, going back 50 years+, and a first edition Silmarillion.

[Sorry for the nerd-fest -- back to topic!]

[Vicus]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=RlSkpnNAPwE

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=41A-hN89m4I

[HopSan]

Ooh, just came to mind, eternal stuff.
Bach-Erbarme & Tarkovsky:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lNGJELazYhM

[Dilettante]

A couple others came to my mind.

To begin, when I saw Don Siegel's Dirty Harry for the first time, I did NOT expect the music to be so groovy. It adds so much character to that movie. Siegel is a genius, and perhaps second only to Sam Peckinpah for having the most "masculine" films.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=p3IPLsDxMxQ

This one is more atmospheric, but Goblin's soundtrack for Dario Argento's Suspiria is excellent, creepy, and energetic. Suspiria is certainly one of the most colorful (literally) and "fun" horror movies to me.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pGsckJnx0mE

Tangerine Dream's (AHH! So many beautiful hours listening to TD, the dream lives on!) soundtrack for William Friedkin's Sorcerer is excellent. Sorcerer is such a strange film, but one of my favorites. Has the best "tree jump scare" in a movie ever (cause I've never seen another).

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=nvLFe3nsulY

Finally, I absolutely love S. Craig Zahler's use of the O'Jays for his films Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete. These are brutal films! You have to have a strong stomach and a dark sense of humor to "get" them. Not for the faint of heart. The music is pleasant nevertheless.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=m3K6v__x0CI

And a warm rest in peace to legends Edgar Froese and William Friedkin. Gone but not forgotten.

[Matts]

For its time (the early 80's) in the former Soviet Union it was an outstanding movie with a wonderful soundtrack.
Director Richard Viktorov, composer Alexey Rybnikov: "Through Thorns To The Stars" 1981

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EDvFUXXsrDg

[grapevine]

THE BLUES BROTHERS soundtrack #fullalbum

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LTtyf1muANk

This might be viewed as a musical and therefore "cheating" but it's such an iconic movie and soundtrack it deserves a spot here

[Ankle Biter]

Some really good ones so far, and drawn from the not so obvious choices too.. which is great for two reasons. 1 i'd never have got to hear some of these so thanks for introducing something new to me and maybe others. 2. I can cherry pick some of the easy and more familiar choices.. but still solid picks and worthy of this thread imo.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JG-Z7DpTB6A

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jrg5lG90kzw

[delfine]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lN_8qFinDBM

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=al21Vtlsg4A

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=uy80ZwlPVFk

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=c08wiEyVuak

[madrotter]

Lots of great video's so far One subject not touched yet is the Bollywood movie scores and the great composers in this genre, guys like Laxmikant Pyarelal, Rahul Dev Burman, Kalyanji Anandji, Bappi Lahiri, O.P. Nayyar, Shankar Jaikishan and many others. It goes DEEP and they would experiment with every thinkable genre, mixing it with their own traditional music.... Hope this video works, amazing Bollywood crime jazz from composer Rahul Dev Burman with Asha Bhosle singing...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2LnMWU53jwc