Comments

Firstly, I love the inclusion of Hans Zimmer's Gladiator work. (I personally thought it was the shoe-in for the Oscar- what a robbery!) the juxtoposition of triumphant horns and a beautiful haunting woman's voice (Lisa Gerrard) has become a template for sword-n-sandal flicks these days. Have you noticed all these history epics that followed copied that music scheme?

Secondly, don't knock Danny Elfman. He's actually one of the 5 best composers still working today. Sure his scores are starting to sound generic (Spiderman), but remember Edward Sissorhands? Pee Wee? Heck, he even did The Simpsons, a theme the entire world is familiar with. Not only is his music half the reason Batman worked, but no one, NO ONE does creepy better than him.

And Finally, there's not enough John Williams. Don't be ashamed to say he's the best, because he is and we all know it. Schindler's List, Jurassic park, and Harry Potter should all be on this list. Even Hook's theme is among his best musically. My personal favorite: Superman.

Other composers criminaly forgotten:

Alan Silvestri. Back to the Future's theme is legendary.
Forrest Gump is also very nice.

Yo-Yo Ma. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Beautiful and haunting.

Randly Edleman. "Dragon, the Bruce Lee Story." Look it up. One claim to fame, but you hear the music used EVERYWHERE, and constantly in other trailers.

Jerry Goldsmith- Rudy and The Terminator. Come on, people!

Clint Mansell. Please tell me you've seen Requiem for a Dream.

Basil Poledouris. I love his work on RoboCop. The world loves him for CONAN THE BARBARIAN.

Wojciech Kilar. Dracula, Dracula, Dracula!

Hugo Montenegro. Is he not the guy who's music is synonamous with the western showdown? (The Good the Bad and the Ugly).

JAMES HORNER! Braveheart and Titanic are epic masterpieces, musically. Surely, he should be on this list.

Honorable mentions:
Howard Shore. Lord of the Rings was pretty good. Do I really need to explain?

Greg William-Scott. I love the music in Armageddon, and The Rock (you'll hear it on NFL Fiilms highlights all the time).

Posted by: Rob Grizzly | July 6, 2008 11:08 AM

Oh, and E.T.

Posted by: Rob Grizzly | July 6, 2008 11:27 AM

Just like most lists, 25 isn't enough...I can't believe that Bernard Herrmann isn't in there!

Posted by: mbm | July 8, 2008 09:28 AM

Randy Newman - The Natural.

Posted by: Bones | July 8, 2008 10:00 AM

No Bladerunner? The Fountain? Little Miss Sunshine?

Posted by: Alan | July 8, 2008 10:11 AM

No Gone with the Wind? No Psycho? Or North by Northwest? Ben-Hur? Do we not include musicals here like Sound of Music or is that getting into thorny areas of categorization?

I have to second the Danny Elfman backing for Edward Scissorhands and Batman. I agree, he's done a GREAT deal of work from the mid-90's on that has been fairly generic, where you see his credit after the film and you're like "HE wrote this? I never would have guessed", but you can't discount his phenomenal works.

James Horner has done a few of my personal favorites, including Aliens and the Rocketeer, but there are times when he comes off as too much of a John Williams clone (check out his Enemy at the Gates after listening to Schindler's List and you'll see what I mean).

Actually, Mr. Grizzly, I like a lot of the names you threw up there. I believe it was Tan Dun who did the score for Crouching Tiger...Yo Yo Ma just played cello on it. And I think you were talking about Harry Gregson-Williams for the soundtracks to The Rock and Armageddon (both films had other composers as well...Trevor Rabin, Nick Glennie-Smith, and Hans Zimmer).

Also, if I may nitpick, does 2001 really count as a film score? Wouldn't the category of film score be reserved for musical compositions written specifically for the film as opposed to already written music used for the film? You point to John Hughes and Quentin Tarantino as guys who did this, but doesn't the use of classical music as the backing music fall into the same category as using pop music as the background?

Finally, I think the reason why you see so much John Williams up here is because he is specifically a "big theme music" kinda composer. You hire him BECAUSE you want to have those recognizable, indelible themes to associate with your characters and your movie. However, sometimes, the film maker doesn't want to have the themes be so prominent. It's interesting that in recent interviews with Hans Zimmer about his collaborative writing with James Newton Howard on the new Batman movies, he's pointed out that they eschewed the bombastic, identifiable themes for the characters, stepping away from what Danny Elfman did with Tim Burton on their Batman movies.

Posted by: Paul K | July 8, 2008 10:17 AM

Where is the Superman theme song? C'mon, whoever made this list did not do their research.

Posted by: big doug | July 8, 2008 10:31 AM

A top 25 list without The Magnificent Seven? Can't be that great a list! The opening chords alone were never matched until Star Wars broke on the screen.

Posted by: attagreek | July 8, 2008 10:57 AM

Okay list, with a few I'm not familiar with (The Vikings), but how could you leave off these?:

Gone With The Wind
Out of Africa
Born Free
The Lord of The Rings trilogy
Titanic
Mary Queen of Scots (my obscure favorite)

Posted by: cgaston | July 8, 2008 11:47 AM

A top 25 list without The Magnificent Seven? Can't be that great a list! The opening chords alone were never matched until Star Wars broke on the screen.

Posted by: attagreek | July 8, 2008 11:49 AM

You just really shouldn't knock Danny Elfman. For "The Nightmare Before Christmas" alone he deserves to be sainted!

Posted by: Stephan | July 8, 2008 11:50 AM

No Randy Newman? I could make a case for The Natural, with its iconic, soaring melody as Roy rounds the bases with the light standards exploding around him, but my absolute favorite is Ragtime, which so vividly captures the turn-of-the-century spirit, both in its exuberance and its wistfulness.

Posted by: Charles | July 8, 2008 12:45 PM

Chariots of Fire?
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

Posted by: chnest | July 8, 2008 12:45 PM

And, The Taking of Pelham 123 by David Shire and Sweet Smell of Success by Elmer Bernstein. Both amazing Hollywood-Jazz scores.

Posted by: chnest | July 8, 2008 12:50 PM

KUDOS on putting THE BIG COUNTRY on this list, I agree this is the best SCORE ever!!

Posted by: Randy | July 8, 2008 01:01 PM

Any top-howevermany-list without Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score somewhere near the top is--to put it mildly--FUBAR!

Posted by: Trav | July 8, 2008 01:06 PM

Can't believe you don't have Risky Business. Tangerine Dream, anyone? Plus the handful of pop hits.

Posted by: Ottis | July 8, 2008 01:07 PM

How is Requiem for a Dream nowhere on the list?! Terrible, terrible omission.

Posted by: Carli | July 8, 2008 01:33 PM

how could you forget Bernard Herrmann? His score for PSYCHO and NORTH BY NORTHWEST are what writers of film music dream about.

Posted by: SPENCER | July 8, 2008 03:49 PM

George Delerue's haunting score for Godard's "Contempt" should definitely be up there.

Posted by: raymond | July 8, 2008 03:52 PM

John Williams IS movie music, period. And the shame is, like popular music goes, so does the use of thematic material in movie score. Howard Shore should definitely be up there for his scores to LOTR! Also, James Horner should make an appearance since there are several scores I like (Rocketeer mostly), Jerry Goldsmith who I believe gave us many of the Star Trek music. Another fave is David Arnold for his Stargate and ID4 scores.

I rather hate this current background crap. Would it kill movies to throw in a theme occasionally? The movies that are my most favorite are probably 95%+ with thematic music. Sadly, when John Williams passes away, who will take the torch and use leitmotif? These current composers need to get into themes!

Posted by: Angelo | July 9, 2008 11:31 AM

Should add Ennio Morricone for "The Shining" and "The Untouchables". I believe Jerry Goldsmith did "Alien", some of the creepiest opening music ever.
Also Maurice Jarre "Witness."

Posted by: Amy | July 9, 2008 02:03 PM

No ennio morricone. I assume you haven't seen the Good the Bad and the Ugly because that score is infinitely more hummable and memorable than anything in Heat.
No Howard Shore?
No Bernard Hermann?! (Psycho, at least)
Danny Elfman should be on here as well.

Posted by: zaviar wun | July 9, 2008 04:13 PM

Err, could your list have been any more populist? It seems you didn't so much research the story as just include every instantly recognizable theme song. SW AND Jaws AND Raiders AND Love Story AND River Kwai... Now are you really quite sure these are the absolute best film scores around, and not just catchy theme tunes?

Then again, bickering over what some perceive to be omissions is just pointless.

Posted by: Slobodan Chutzpah | July 10, 2008 05:05 AM

Jerry Goldsmith did not compose the score to The Terminator, Brad Fiedel did.

Posted by: Murdoch | July 10, 2008 05:21 PM

I can't seem to find any info in Gustav Holtz? (referenced in the Zimmer section). Could you be referring to Gustav Holst who wrote "The Planets".

Posted by: monette61x | July 10, 2008 06:21 PM

Williams is thé master indeed! And I do dislike most of the percussion looped contemporary scores, but let's not forget Michael Giacchino and Alexandre Desplat! Two very talented, melodic and orchestral composers. Both - Oh what a coincidence - big fans of one certain composer named: JOHN WILLIAMS!!! :)

Grtz, Joris

Posted by: Joris | July 11, 2008 02:35 AM

Personally, my favorite film scores are John Williams' score to 1978's "Superman: The Movie" and John Ottman's score to 2006's "Superman Returns".

Posted by: Donny | July 13, 2008 01:15 PM

Scores forgotton-

Lord of the Rings
The Lion King
James Bond
Batman (Elfman)
Harry Potter
Jurassic Park
E.T.
Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Schindlers List
Magnificient Seven
The Village

And dozens more

Posted by: kingreenbean | July 17, 2008 07:47 PM

Didn't John Hughes hire John Williams for Home Alone? Just saying.

Posted by: Sander de Regt | July 24, 2008 02:34 PM

Couldn't have said it better--movie music has lost it's way. Gone are the great musical scores we used to get on a regular basis, now replaced with endless drum-loops, percussion-loops, and ambient noise. It's a really sad state of affairs, and I don't know what will turn it around.

Posted by: Jamie | July 31, 2008 04:13 PM