Chewers' 100 Best Movie Scores of the Last 25 Years: 1986-2011 - Page 3

79. Ravenous (1999) Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn

There's a lot of debatable aspects when discussing Ravenous, but one of the consistent factors of this very weird movie is Albarn and Nyman's amazing score. Blending Nyman's minimalist approach with Albarn's, at the time, interest in experimental rock music the soundtrack is thumping, primal,rigid and full of ideas. It's two artists whose collaboration should work creating something superlative and it works to really raise the overall quality of the film and maintain it's ethereal tone.

For an idea of the score listen to 'The Cave' and jump to the 4 minute mark

80. Rush (1991) - Eric Clapton

A devastating, brilliantly acted and crafted study of drug addiction and the blurring of the line between law and disorder, the film gets a massive boost from the wailing yet subtle and powerful guitar work from the legendary Clapton. Everyone remembers "Tears in Heaven" from this one, and while it is a very moving song indeed, it's the whole of his work that truly resonates.

81. Gladiator: Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard.   Beautiful, moving score.   Lisa Gerrard's voice is more of a musical instrument than your traditional vocalist and it adds an exotic element to an already eclectic score.   Here's the best track off the album.   As a wedding videographer, I've over used this like crazy.....

And continuing with the beautiful gibberish theme, a soundtrack that doesn't qualify for this list (it's from the miniseries, "Children of Dune") but should be listened to if you like exotic soundtracks.   Enjoy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spike Marshall 

79. Ravenous (1999) Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn

 

There's a lot of debatable aspects when discussing Ravenous, but one of the consistent factors of this very weird movie is Albarn and Nyman's amazing score. Blending Nyman's minimalist approach with Albarn's, at the time, interest in experimental rock music the soundtrack is thumping, primal,rigid and full of ideas. It's two artists whose collaboration should work creating something superlative and it works to really raise the overall quality of the film and maintain it's ethereal tone.

 

Awesome pick and great points.  As a fan of Albarn, I'm upset at myself for forgetting about this one.  All those banjos and accordions.  'Boyd's Journey' sounds like something out of an N64 game.

Last one from me although I have lots of them but we really can't go any further until this one is mentioned....

82.  Last Temptation of Christ: Peter Gabriel.   An unlikely choice for a composer of a film about Jesus but the results are nothing short of electric.   One of the best soundtracks I've ever heard and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it earlier (as the lot of you should as well).....

This may be a bit of a cheat, but this is absolutely one of the best soundtracks of the last 25 years.

83. The Buddha Of Suburbia (David Bowie, 1993) [BBC TV Films]

Score & songs by David Bowie. Godlike.

84. Midnight Run (1988) - Danny Elfman

Elfman is a composer that I adore, but above all his other work, this is my absolute number-one favorite. A pleasurable balance of southern-accented blues and MTV-friendly alt-rock helps shape this as the closest Elfman's film work has come to his Oingo Boingo sound.

And a HUGE yes to The Last Temptation of Christ. Killer.

My personal favorite Elfman score.

85.  Beetlejuice (1988)  Danny Elfman

The score is energetic, mischievous and a bit sinister, just like the title character and that's why it works so well.

86. Walker (Joe Strummer, 1987)

J

ust listen.

GREAT choice, Art. A very underrated film with a score that deserves as many props as it gets.

87. Crossroads (1986) - Ry Cooder

Cooder and Walter Hill are a dynamite combo, and my favorite collaboration falls just before the cutoff of this list. That being said, this is an unconventional film for Hill and one of his best, where people fight with guitars instead of guns. Cooder fights the shit out of the music here and it all pays off in the rousing climax.

88. Manhunter (1986) - Michel Rubini & The Reds

It's just you and me now, sport. I'm gonna get you, goddammit!

"Graham's Theme" just gives me chills thinking about it.

Yeah, Manhunter 's score is a major reason why that film works so well. It's aggressively atmospheric yet never intrusively so & it allows every scene to breath & develop beautifully.

89. U-TURN, Ennio Morricone

Morricone's offbeat western-flavored riffs and soaring orchestral pieces are reminiscent of the Maestro's best work with Leone. And they bolster a sometimes depressingly terrible movie.

90. Until the End of the World (1991) by Graeme Revell and Various Artists

For his epic, globe-spanning and budget guzzling, production Wim Wenders approached various pop and rock artists of the time and asked them to submit a song for the soundtrack. The caveat being that the songs had to represent what the artists thought there work would sound like in 1999, the far future setting of the film. The film ended up boastings songs from Talking Heads, Crime and the City Solution, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Depeche Mode, U2, Patti Smith, R.E.M. , Elvis Costello, Peter Gabirel and a slew of others. Along with Revelle's traditional soundtrack this selection of songs immediately gave Wenders vision of the future a distinctive style and theme and coalesced into perhaps one of the better multi-artist soundtracks of the 1990s. What's fascinating is listening to the artists and seeing which ones were able to accurately predict where their sound would shift over the course of a decade. Ironically the band who gets it the most right are U2 whose song 'Until the End of the World' with it's heavy production feels far more at home on something like 'All You Can't Leave Behind' or 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb' than their contemporary work.

What's great about the soundtrack is how each piece feels like a part of the narrative and how they help to flesh out a world that Wenders only touched on. My personal standouts are Peter Gabriel's track 'Blood of Eden' and the Crime and the City Solution song 'Adversary' which perfectly capture the moments they score in the film.

Blood of Eden

The Adversary

91. Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (Ryuichi Sakamoto, 1992)

I like Sakamoto's scores because they're melodically rich, broadly emotional, perpetually organic, chamber pieces that don't sound tied down to offscreen cinematic action. This score could easily be listened to alone as an album having nothing to do with a movie of any sort.

92. In The Mood For Love (2000) by Shigheru Umebayashi

The soundtrack to Wong Kar-wai's masterpiece, and I will FIGHT anyone who says otherwise, is both lush and simple. Based largely around different permutations of Yumeji's theme (the piece used above) and it perfectly represents the amazing atmosphere and style of the film and the melancholic tone which hangs across the entire film. It's a perfect fusion of music and image and for me it's one of the most iconic scores of the past twenty five years. I hear those notes and I can picture the sequences of the film almost perfectly.

93. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Jerry Goldsmith

Goldsmith revisits, but doesn't retread, his themes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, going for beauty instead of menace. His score expresses everything about the characters' quest that the film itself fumbles to communicate, and finds a scope and scale not otherwise present onscreen. Fun fact: the brief interpolation of the Klingon Theme at 3:44 in this clip was improvised by Goldsmith on the recording stage.

94. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)  Composed by Carter Burwell

This score always stuck with me, It has an interesting collage of influences most of them stemming from Aaron Copland and Aram Khachaturian. The hula hoop sequence uses Khachaturian's Sabre Dance, and one the the films main melodic themes is directly lifted from Khachaturian's Spartacus Ballet. By using the Copland's classical American style for the more mundane scenes and using Khachaturian's sweeping melody for the emotionally heightened moments Carter Burwell takes this film to a completely different and much more fantastical level. Overall the score is a wonderful mishmash worth listening to.

I am unable to find the clip that uses the Spartacus theme, but trust me, it's there.

Here is said theme from the ballet. 

95. Lethal Weapon (1987) - Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton & David Sanborn

A perfect blend of three very different musical backgrounds: Clapton's guitar prowess, Kamen's slam-bang bombast, and Sanborn's jazzy touch merge together as one of the best action film scores of the 80's.

And one of the most iconic pieces of music associated with the series, John Eric Alexander's trailer music (which was a staple of the marketing for all four films) wasn't even used in the film!

Admittedly, however, Lethal Weapon 2 has this over the original:

I hear that Clapton string bend in my head every time I see anything having to do with Lethal Weapon. Good call.

96. Hanna (2011) - The Chemical Brothers

A kinetic throwback to Jan Hammer and Harold Faltermeyer while also taking full advantage of the Brothers' pounding electronic beats, which fits Joe Wright's brilliant direction and the symphonic aesthetics of the film brilliantly.

97. "Star Trek: First Contact" - Jerry Goldsmith

Over the past few years, I've been repeatedly saddened as I've read about how "Star Trek: First Contact" (my favourite Star Trek movie) is far from universally praised by the online community. It's a small consolation that the general consensus about the score is kinder. Everyone seems to agree with me that it has one of the most beautiful Star Trek movie themes. I love its warm, sentimental vibe. Always uplifting, always able to make me smile.

Oh fuck it.

98. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Danny Elfman

I shouldn't still affection for this film, I really shouldn't. But the moment I hear the opening strings to 'This Is Halloween' or 'What's This' I get the kind of endorphine flashback to my childhood which is impossible to defeat. Elfman get's a lot of stick for being kind of samey sounding, especially when working with Burton, but his score and songs for Selick's iconic picture are perhaps some of his more layered and nuanced work. Changing style and tone at the drop of a hat and giving Elfman a chance to really show off as Jack Skellington's singing voice. There's a wistful, playful, melancholic, element to the scoring in this film which works perfectly with the brilliant songs themselves.

So yeah, this is a personal favourite of mine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi 

97. "Star Trek: First Contact" - Jerry Goldsmith

 

Over the past few years, I've been repeatedly saddened as I've read about how "Star Trek: First Contact" (my favourite Star Trek movie) is far from universally praised by the online community. It's a small consolation that the general consensus about the score is kinder. Everyone seems to agree with me that it has one of the most beautiful Star Trek movie themes. I love its warm, sentimental vibe. Always uplifting, always able to make me smile.

Now you see I love Jerry Goldsmith, and his amazing work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but I could barely remember his score for First Contact. Even listening to that YouTube video I can't think of the score in relation to the actul movie. It also sound weirdly like a John Williams pastiche for some reason. I'm not questioning the choice, I just found it interesting how people have different attachments to different stuff.
 

99. The Witches of Eastwick (1987), John Williams

One of Williams' liveliest scores of the '80s, and one of his few major works not composed for the Beards during that period. Catchy as hell (pun intended), and interesting in retrospect as a dry run for Harry Potter.

Goddamn it, Art took Walker right out of my brain. And I was gonna post it in honor of Strummer's birthday too.

Oh well, guess I'll have to settle for Ghost Dog by the RZA.

Amazing choice Martin, one of my all time favourite scores. Just brilliant.

Great choice with Witches, Hammer.   That's definitely one of Williams' unsung scores.   

I kind of wish I'd been able to get Eric Serra's score for Leon: The Professional onto the list. Probably my favourite Serra score.

I'm currently adding all of your comments to this list, http://www.listal.com/list/chewers-100-best-movie-scores, but I've attached an image wall of all the movies picked.

Beautiful, Spike.

Once again, our work here is done.

Great work, everyone! I sort of wanted to get Randy Edelman's Dragonheart in there somewhere, but it's not like it's hard to find.

Dragonheart is a good pick and from the same composer, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story had some choice tracks on it.   Even if you never saw the movies, you heard their soundtracks in countless trailers.

One of the soundtracks I had in my back pocket if this list waned was Passion of the Christ soundtrack.   Opinions on the movie may be divided but the soundtrack is all kinds of awesome..

Also, great pick Spike for the "Until the End of the World" soundtrack.   Loved the soundtrack and the movie itself is an underrated gem.   Would love to have Nolan remake it into a sequel to Inception.   Just kidding but I could see it work :)