Movie Soundtracks

[chrisfffan]

Schindler's List.

i love that film! that soundtrack must be very depressing though.

One of the reasons I love it so much is the fact that it's so emotionally powerful, so yeah, John Williams' best work IMO.

To offset it, though, I also love the LoTR score. Perfect Vocal harmonies and chord progression with the trumpets/french horns.

is that the same John Williams who done Star Wars?

[ThundagAuron]

is that the same John Williams who done Star Wars?

The very same. He is a musical genius.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Lost in Translation.

[Kossage]

I enjoy quite a few soundtracks (Star Wars Original Trilogy soundtracks, Cutthroat Island, Ben-Hur, Bambi etc), but so far I've noticed two which really stand out: The Land Before Time and The Lord of the Rings (I consider the LotR soundtracks as a single enormous soundtrack).

<i>The Land Before Time</i> has surprisingly emotional themes, each of which fit the accompanying characters, events and locations in a perfect way. The way Horner (the composer) utilizes the massive children's choir and various instruments is just spectacular, and all the tunes are memorable. He manages to make Mickey-Mousing interesting, he knows how to get really gripping emotional stuff going on in the instruments, and there's also the sense of despair and danger which can be heard in various ominous passages and brutal action pieces. The soundtrack has a great sense of continuity to it (as the tracks are played in a chronological order), and the theme song itself is really beautiful as well. It's a true gem of a soundtrack.


Although the single-disc Lord of the Rings soundtracks were surprisingly good, much more praise should be given to the Complete Recordings. The CRs for Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers are already available, both having 3 CDs worth of music (so that makes 6 CDs so far). The catch isn't just that they offer the entire movie soundtracks and tracks composed for the Extended Editions, but that they include the tracks in the way Shore (the composer) would've wanted them to be played in the films. The music in the films is often edited or tracked from other parts of the LotR films, so there's a surprisingly large amount of music which we haven't heard until the CRs were released. There are quite a few themes, choral passages and the like that never made it into the final cuts (not even the EEs), so I'm glad they're included in the CRs.

So far I've listened to the Complete Recordings of FotR and TTT, and both give a much more impressing view of the score and the thematic material than the stuff we heard in the films and the single-disc soundtracks. From what I've heard so far it doesn't seem impossible to think that Shore has composed more than 60 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitmotif">leitmotifs</a> for the LotR trilogy, because there are plenty of themes and motifs presented in the CRs already. I'm sure that the coming Return of the King CR will have just as many surprises in store as the two previous CRs.

Shore utilizes a lot of instruments, many of which are quite interesting and foreign to our ears. The orchestra, the choir and the solo bits get to shine in different parts of the Complete Recordings score and there's thematic continuity all the way through. It's amazing how he managed to pull all the themes together and developed all of them and yet offered unique material in between and not just thematic reprises all the time. There are a lot of variations of existing themes, and some themes actually get developed as the scores progress (two good examples of this are The Heroics of Aragorn theme and the Fellowship theme, although there are quite a few others which get a lot of development).

The variety in the styles of music in the LotR Trilogy is quite impressive too: there are rural tunes, grand heroic bits, choral action pieces, romantic interludes, contemplative and ethereal cues, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprechstimme">Sprechstimme</a> bits (e.g. that spooky music in the Dead Marshes sequence in TTT), and even some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonality">atonal</a> stuff (e.g. the aggressive music in the Watcher in the Water sequence in FotR) to mention a few. Shore pretty much pulls all the stops as he tries to build and represent the cultures of Middle-earth through his music, and the result is quite an impressive and complex tapestry of different musical ideas. All the different cultures and creatures are represented through music, and yet all of the cultures sound different (you won't mistake the ethereal Elvish music for the aggressive stuff representing Mordor, for example) so that it's easy to distinguish them while you're listening to the score. The different musical ideas interact with each other, sometimes overpowering the others (particularly in battles) and other times working together, and they all follow the story on screen.

So yeah, Shore's work in the LotR trilogy has been quite impressive and one heck of a monumental task, and he pulled it off. As far as complexity and thematic ideas go, LotR does get quite high in my list of best soundtracks.

[Cruise Control]

Blade Runner
Star Wars (Episodes 4-6, 1-3 sucked)
The Fellowship of the Ring (Best of the three, musically speaking)
The Fountain

[Odaisé Gaelach]

Kill Bill, Vol. 1 is excellent, especially Twisted Nerve and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.

Though it probably doesn't qualify, the soundtrack to 24 has some amazing stuff in it too.

[Owen Macwere]

Lord of the rings (especially the two towers).
Titanic
The last Mohicans (or however you spell that)
Gladulator
Mission impossible
Spirit (though this is a cartoon movie xD)

[KazexLisa]

King Kong(the newer one)
Star wars
FF7: Advent Children (Oh like you didn't expect that from me; if you didn't read all my other posts...)
Final Fantasy Unlimited....(see previous note)

[chrisfffan]

King Kong(the newer one)
Star wars
FF7: Advent Children (Oh like you didn't expect that from me; if you didn't read all my other posts...)
Final Fantasy Unlimited....(see previous note)

is the advent children cd better then the final fantasy 7 game cd?

[Yliette]

Mine would have to be the OST of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Harry Gregson-Williams is da man! He also composed the OST of the Metal Gear series.

[chrisfffan]

what do you think is the most rated and acclaimed movie soundtrack?

[LauraD]

Is the fountain really so fantastic? I'll have to look into acquiring it.

I find that I can listen to the following over and over again:

Batman Begins
Kingdom of Heaven
Doy, FFX and FFXII
I'm digging the Battlestar Galactica series' score right now, too.

Oh and anything by Thomas Newman.
And of course, the all holy revered John Williams. I saw him in concert a few years ago. SO AMAZING. *oozes*

[oddler]

Pride and Prejudice.

[GooeyToast]

Is the fountain really so fantastic? I'll have to look into acquiring it.

Yes, it is a brilliant piece of work. Though I must say, having the film's visuals with you when you're listening makes it much more powerful.

[Remedy]

Gladiator

you've got served

Lord of the rings

Titanic