Related to the death of Basil Poledouris (see my earlier post), a friend of mine (
“This got me to thinking about my favorite film scores, some of the best music being composed is for films these days. So I am curious as to what your favorites are.”
This is the sort of meme I like much more than the usual “validate me by telling me that you really, really like me” thing, so, without further ado:
Gareth’s Top Ten Favorite Film Scores:
(In no particular order, ‘cuz it depends on my mood)
1. Young Sherlock Holmes by Bruce Broughton
2. Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Wojciech Kilar
3. Conan The Barbarian by Basil Poledouris
4. The Black Hole by John Barry
5. The Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore
6. The Rocketeer by James Horner
7. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn by James Horner
8. You Only Live Twice by John Barry
9. The Crow by Graeme Revell
10. Blade Runner by Vangelis (I don’t mean the crappy “New American Orchestra” version, either — I’m lucky enough to have a 2-disc bootleg of the actual Vangelis score)
There are tons more: I’m a film score nut. I own many, many scores where I like a handful of the compositions, but not enough for the entire album to make that list (Wolfgang Korngold’s swashbuckler films from the 30s and 40s, various blaxploitation action scores of the 70s, Thomas Dolby’s score for Gothic, Toto and Brian Eno’s score for Dune, just to name a very few….).
You’ll also notice that the usual suspects (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman) by John Williams aren’t there….and it’s not that I don’t like them. It’s just that I find that Williams does anthems and particular cues very well (the main title from Star Wars or Raiders, for example or “The Planet Krypton” from Superman) but the incidental stuff is just….meh.