Uni

I actually found the androids much creepier and more anxiety-inducing than the alien itself.

Terrific observations, those. And right on the nose. I loved Aliens as a sequel, but a lot of its edge has worn down over the years. I've watched Alien at least twice as many times—once again recently, in fact. And it never fails to captivate me. It really is a universe in itself (that the following films could only marginally duplicate). This was reinforced for me with the release of the spectacular Alien Isolation game. They replicated the look, sound, and feel of the original Alien universe so completely I felt like I was there. Really, the most inaccurate and least interesting element was the alien itself, which looked video-gamey to the point of near-goofiness. But I couldn't have cared less. I loved playing the environment more than anything else. So I guess that makes Alien the best Indy movie of them all. . . .

Roger that! Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full. . . . Goose . . . is dead.

That's always the inherent difficulty in all those Top-10 lists, too: it's not always clearly defined whether you're voting for your favorite or which you consider the best (and there's absolutely a difference between the two).

Bug's Life is Newman's best, in my eyes. But my own favorite is the John Barry tribute Gia pulled off in The Incredibles.

I still do that sometimes. Seriously. My idea for the prequel stories is far better than what Lucas gave us (not that you should be too impressed with that—s'not like he placed the bar real high on that one.)

This is such a specific metric you're after here, I'll have to give some thought to it. I had a hard enough time coming up with 10 pieces I consider to be the best of a single composer; coming up with a list of 10 pieces from all the composers in my library, but which only fall within a limited categorical parameter, is something I've never really considered before. However, I can't seem to resist any kind of Top-# list when it comes to this subject, so . . . looks like I've got some homework to do.

Count me in (out, I guess). I made the mistake of thinking the special editions would change my mind on the score, but they're only more (and more, and more) of the same kind of thing. Come to think of it, Vangelis has never really stricken my fancy to any great degree. That's absolutely how I feel! Except . . . I'm never, ever, ever in the mood for it. Pity.

Splendid trifecta, that.

Agreed. Actually, all three OTs beat out the PTs, IMO. This is pretty close to how I'd score them, except I'd switch ROTS and AOTC and bump the latter up to a solid 3. I think I've let my disappointment in the films color my perception of the music. It's hard to separate them (they do say emotionally traumatic events lead to years of difficult associations). One of these days I need to give the PT set another go in the spirit of TGP's "music only" viewpoint—something I can do with other scores very easily, but again, with these, it's always been tougher.

Heaven's Gate only one step behind Gone With The Wind, and one step ahead of 12 Years a Slave = Zero credibility.

Soapdish was fun, but tried a little too hard. Tootsie is definitely the better of the two.

Fuqua dedicated the film to Horner's memory: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6640958/southpaw-dedicated-to-james-horner Also was moved and impressed to hear that Horner did this score for free, since he loved the film so much. Not something you see happen very often in this business.

I think it's your use of the word "change" that might be throwing people off. It implies a reversing of one's opinion, rather than a deepening of it. I would think it'll pretty rare that someone who likes a score will suddenly be turned off toward it once they hear an extended release. On the contrary—most of us pick up extended releases for scores we already love, and it just gives us more to love. (I don't often spend the money to get more of a score I don't care for to begin with.) So I've certainly had my appreciation for scores grow significantly after hearing an extended release. The best example has to be that first 4-CD set of the Star Wars scores that came out in '96. I already loved all three, but I was in heaven once I got to listen to two or three times as much music from them. Same with the Indy scores, and while Hook had an original release of pretty decent length (compared to many others at the time), the special editions—including the Concorde, though that was diminished by the quality—made it even better. I completely agree with this. It tends to eliminate 80%-90% of the "downer" elements common to so many OSTs.

Papillon's definitely the most obscure one on that list. I doubt many millenials have ever heard of it. It's a beautiful score, too, one of his great waltz works.

I've always LOVED Much Ado About Nothing, a score that's pure joy to listen to. I'm not that big a fan of his HP score. Thor was a pretty solid effort as well. I really need to give Henry V and Hamlet a listen. And you guys have inspired me to check out Frankenstein as well.

Bingo. From beginning to end. What boxed set is this? I didn't hear this announcement, and I don't see anything on their website.

We could be wrong on this—and I confess, I haven't listened to that interview yet—but I'm leaning more in this direction myself. Stories like this do tend to proliferate after the death of artists who were commissioned for, or are in the midst of, writing a new work. Again, that's not to say there might not be something to this . . . but it would very much surprise me (and, I'll admit, delight me) if this turned out to be more than a simple sketch or two of ideas Horner was thinking on during the earliest stages of the creative process.

Doesn't completely surprise me. Even more than Horner, most of Barry's stuff sounds very much the same unless you've built up a larger collection of it and can begin to appreciate the subtle differences. All through my early years of collecting, he was the fourth J, and finished my "composer's stanza"—John, Jerry, James, Barry. I was as heartbroken by his loss four years ago as I was for Jerry's ten years earlier. Sucks that he doesn't get more attention here. I actually agree with you on that, and have long thought that Barry would've been the better composer for that film. Not that I have any less love for Horner, but I think he could've done better, and I know Barry could have (and doubly so if Cameron had made the movie ten years earlier).

This was a heckuva lot easier than the Horner list. I don't know if that's because Jerry's scores are more distinguishable from one another (I don't think many folks would deny that), of if his best just stands out more than JH's do. Whatever the case, I only really had a slight issue with the ordering of the last few. The first six or so were set in stone from the word "go": 1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture 2. Poltergeist 3. Alien 4. The Mummy 5. Rudy 6. Total Recall 7. Explorers 8. Star Trek: First Contact 9. First Knight 10. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier I'm a little ambivalent about ST scores taking up three spaces in my top 10, so I may actually change out that last one with one of the runners up before the polls close: - Innerspace - Air Force One - Hoosiers - Powder - Twilight Zone: The Movie

That was absolutely breathtaking. I can't even begin to imagine what it would've been like to be there. JW's finest musical moment, set to a visual display like that? It's enough to bring the most green-blooded Vulcan to tears.

Yes. Elisabeth Shue appears nude in Link. Oh—you meant a video link. Heh. I think they've got the entire movie on YouTube.

No movie that featured a young Elisabeth Shue in the nude could ever be referred to as "crap."

I'll take a look at some point. I've burned out on the statistical thing for the day (I was originally going to post the Top 10 Pieces today as well, but it proved too much to handle). You could be right—and if you are, I'll change the posting.

Or just start over again later in the year, maybe even after the beginning of next year. People will be processing through their (likely expanding) Horner collections until then. And there's the new scores to take into consideration as well. We'll just do a new poll at that point. This one . . . well, this was just people registering their favorites at the time of his passing. Who knows how time will change his legacy? We will, on the other hand, give plenty of time for people to submit their Goldsmith favorites.