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Top 10 overall favorite scores


WampaRat

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I imagine this topic has been done a time or two on this thread. But I love seeing people’s lists of their overall  favorite scores. I often discover new scores I might not have otherwise checked out. Your list might be an exact copy of your “Top 10 JW scores”. It’s all good. 
 

My top 10 are heavily impacted by the phase/era of life I experienced them. How much they impacted my budding interest in film music, the amount of chills I got listening to them etc. I suppose it’s a similar criteria to my favorite films:) Here they are:

 

1.  Hook

2. Gladiator

3. LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring

4: HTTYD 2

5. PoTC: At World’s End

6. Indy: Last Crusade

7. Braveheart

8. Road to Perdition

9. Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

10. The Ghost and the Darkness

 

Runners up: Legends of the Fall
                     Solo: a Star Wars story 

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My Top 10 (JWbis) scores:

 

1. The Empire Strikes Back

2. Star Wars

3. The Force Awakens

4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

5. Revenge of the Sith

6. Temple of Doom

7. Superman

8. The Adventures of Tintin

9. War Horse

10. Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

Runners up: Star Wars (I, II, VI, VIII, IX), The Last Crusade, Jurassic Park (I & II), Jaws, Saving Private Ryan, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Harry Potter (1,2,3)

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Yes, look at my entry for top 10 John Williams scores.

 

But if I should rank my top 10 non-Williams scores, I chose to not pick more than one score per composer.

 

If I would think longer and probably listen to some I would decide differently.

 

Favourite non Williams scores:

Joe Hisaishi - Princess Mononoke
Bernard Herrmann - Vertigo
Jerry Goldsmith - Poltergeist
Basil Poledouris - Conan the Barbarian
Howard Shore - Return of the King
Angela Morley - Watership Down
Miklós Rózsa - El Cid
Dario Marianelli - The Darkest Hour
Patrick Doyle - Much Ado about Nothing
Alan Menken - Mirror Mirror

 

By the way. I was surprised by myself that I didn't pick any Danny Elfman score. But I just prefer his non-film work and I am not aware of any top 10 score of his.


 

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In no particular order, off the top of my head:

 

The Nightmare Before Christmas

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Signs

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Road To Perdition

Once Upon A Time In The West

The Thin Red Line

Medal Of Honor

How To Train Your Dragon

 

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Oh man! Can’t believe I didn’t have Batman ‘89 in there or Signs. Shoot. 
 

Id probably bump Last Crusade for Batman ‘89. And Signs would be a very strong runner up.

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  1. Star Wars: A New Hope
  2. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
  3. Homeward Bound 2: Lost in San Francisco
  4. Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
  5. Princess Mononoke
  6. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
  7. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  8. Titanic
  9. Home Alone 2
  10. The Fellowship of the Ring
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Papillon - Jerry Goldsmith

Vertigo - Bernard Herrmann

A Little Princess - Patrick Doyle

Ben Hur - Miklos Rozsa

Alexander Nevsky - Sergei Prokofjew

Jaws - John Williams

The Portrait of a Lady - Wojciech Kilar

Taras Bulba - Franz Waxman

Star Trek I - Jerry Goldsmith

QB VII - Jerry Goldsmith

 

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Here's my list as of half past eight British Standard Time, May 17th 2021...

 

Silvestri - Contact

Arnold - Independence Day

Gold - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Zimmer - The Lion King

Goldsmith - Total Recall

Debney - Cutthroat Island

Powell/Gregson-Williams - Chicken Run

Powell - How To Train Your Dragon

Williams - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Rozsa - Ben Hur

 

(no particular order)

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  1. The Lost World - Williams
  2. Alien - Goldsmith
  3. The Prisoner of Azkaban - Williams
  4. The Temple of Doom - Williams
  5. Legend - Goldsmith
  6. The Mission - Morricone
  7. Papillon - Goldsmith
  8. Rosewood - Williams
  9. Once Upon a Time in America - Morricone
  10. Jurassic Park - Williams
  11. Night Crossing - Goldsmith
  12. Total Recall - Goldsmith
  13. The Ghost and the Darkness - Goldsmith
  14. JFK - Williams
  15. Under Fire - Goldsmith
  16. La Califfa - Morricone
  17. The Last Crusade - Williams
  18. Artificial Intelligence - Williams
  19. The Reincarnation of Peter Proud - Goldsmith
  20. Il Grande Silenzio - Morricone
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9 minutes ago, WampaRat said:

@Thor

 

Ah tricky. I can’t read the language so I’ll need to listen to your show to find out your top picks;)


Just click “show playlist” under the player, and you’ll find the list (in reverse order).

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In no particular order:

  • The Last Samurai (Zimmer)
  • The Fellowship of the Ring (Shore)
  • POTC: At World's End (Zimmer)
  • Legends of the Fall (Horner)
  • The Village (JNH)
  • Apollo 13 (Horner)
  • Braveheart (Horner)
  • Dinosaur (JNH)
  • Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Goldsmith)
  • Total Recall (Goldsmith)
  • The Untouchables (Morricone)
  • Ben-Hur (Rósza)
  • A Streetcar Named Desire (North)
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark (Williams)
  • E.T. (Williams)
  • HP and the Philosopher's Stone (Williams)
  • Dances with Wolves (Barry)
  • Out of Africa (Barry)
  • The Shawshank Redemtion (T. Newman)
  • The Horse Whisperer (T. Newman)
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1. GIU, LA TESTA - Morricone

2. GBU - Morricone

3. OHMSS - Barry

4.YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE - Barry

5. WIND AND THE.LION - Goldsmith

6. FAHRENHEIT 451- Herrmann

7. SUPERMAN- Williams

8. FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE- Morricone

9.THE BIG GUNDOWN- Morricone

10. OUR MAN FLINT- Goldsmith

 

 

10. HTTYD

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2 hours ago, Brundlefly said:
  1. The Lost World - Williams
  2. Alien - Goldsmith
  3. The Prisoner of Azkaban - Williams
  4. The Temple of Doom - Williams
  5. Legend - Goldsmith
  6. The Mission - Morricone
  7. Papillon - Goldsmith
  8. Rosewood - Williams
  9. Once Upon a Time in America - Morricone
  10. Jurassic Park - Williams
  11. Night Crossing - Goldsmith
  12. Total Recall - Goldsmith
  13. The Ghost and the Darkness - Goldsmith
  14. JFK - Williams
  15. Under Fire - Goldsmith
  16. La Califfa - Morricone
  17. The Last Crusade - Williams
  18. Artificial Intelligence - Williams
  19. The Reincarnation of Peter Proud - Goldsmith
  20. Il Grande Silenzio - Morricone

A top 20 with only 3 composers represented. That’s a first!

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Poltergeist (Jerry Goldsmith)

Ferdinand (John Powell)

The Fury (John Williams)

Honey I Blew Up the Kid (Bruce Broughton)

Land Before Time (James Horner)

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Christopher Young)

Far From Home: Adventures of Yellow Dog (John Scott)

 

 

I can’t confidently do a top 10, but I can manage a top 7.

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Love seeing these different lists. 
Also interesting to see how each list tends to stay within a certain decade/era of scores with a few outliers in the list here and there. Kind of telling when each person really came into film scores.

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1. Gone With The Wind - Max Steiner

2. E.T. - John Williams

3. Lawrence of Arabia - Maurice Jarre

4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg - Michel Legrand

5. Amarcord - Nino Rota

6. La Strada - Nino Rota

7. Breakfast At Tiffany's - Henry Mancini

8. Ryan's Daughter - Maurice Jarre

9. El Cid - Miklos Rozsa

10. Ben-Hur - Miklos Rozsa

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Max Steiner - The Big Sleep (1946)

Bernard Herrmann - Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

John Williams - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

John Williams - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Danny Elfman - Batman (1989)

Jerry Goldsmith - The Shadow (1994)

Hans Zimmer - The Lion King (1994)

Jerry Goldsmith - The Mummy (1999)

John Williams - Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)

James Newton Howard - Dinosaur (2000)

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My Top 10 (limited to one per franchise)

 

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - John Barry

2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - John Williams

3. Batman Returns - Danny Elfman

4. Return of the Jedi - John Williams 

5. Back to the Future - Alan Silvestri

6. Star Trek: First Contact - Jerry Goldsmith

7. Aladdin - Alan Menken

8. Robocop - Basil Poledouris

9. Major League - James Newton Howard

10. Stargate - David Arnold

 

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No " GOLDFINGER". Goldfinger?

😄

 

On 5/18/2021 at 9:20 AM, Corellian2019 said:

Limited to one composer each:

 

48 HRS.

About Schmidt

Blade Runner

Brazil

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

The Fugitive

Heat

K-PAX

RoboCop 2

Total Recall

Another fan of KPAX!

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Top 10 overall?  Oh wow.  Let's see.

 

No order and not too much thought:

Ben-Hur - Rozsa

Schindler's List - Williams

Superman - Williams

The Land Before Time - Horner

Spitfire Grill - Horner

Krull - Horner

The Russia House - Goldsmith

The Mission - Morricone

The Book Thief - Williams

Jane Eyre - Williams 

 

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On 5/17/2021 at 11:09 AM, GerateWohl said:

Yes, look at my entry for top 10 John Williams scores.

 

But if I should rank my top 10 non-Williams scores, I chose to not pick more than one score per composer.

 

If I would think longer and probably listen to some I would decide differently.

 

Favourite non Williams scores:

Joe Hisaishi - Princess Mononoke
Bernard Herrmann - Vertigo
Jerry Goldsmith - Poltergeist
Basil Poledouris - Conan the Barbarian
Howard Shore - Return of the King
Angela Morley - Watership Down
Miklós Rózsa - El Cid
Dario Marianelli - The Darkest Hour
Patrick Doyle - Much Ado about Nothing
Alan Menken - Mirror Mirror

 

By the way. I was surprised by myself that I didn't pick any Danny Elfman score. But I just prefer his non-film work and I am not aware of any top 10 score of his.


 

Love the Angela Morley Watership shoutout :)

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01. Brazil (Michael Kamen)

02. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

03. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

04. Back to the Future (Alan Silvestri)

05. Rocky (Bill Conti) 

06. The Empire Strikes Back

07. Return of the Jedi

08. Superman - The Movie

09. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

10. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Maurice Jarre)

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  • 2 years later...

A fantastic list and short but on point assessments. Thank you, my friend!

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6 hours ago, Thor said:

In reponse to JTN in the "Now Playing (older scores)" thread:

 

JURASSIC PARK -- the score that cemented my film score love. Has it all -- the two-part, religioso main theme, as well as brutal tension, sturm-und-drang action and lovely, cautious landscapes. Even some synth.

 

JANE EYRE -- Williams' pastoral/religious sound is my favourite of his, and this is the pinnacle of all of them.

 

RETURN OF THE JEDI -- while I don't listen much to symphonic action scores anymore, this one has a special place in my heart. Contains most of the themes from the preceding two films, as well as some proper new setpiece showstoppers, like "The Forest Battle". Love the ewok music too.

 

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS -- my first Elfman. Dig the mix of Kurt Weill-ian styles with lush, seasonal sprinkling. Always a sucker for melancholy and the bittersweet.

 

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS -- same as above. Still his best score; captures the outsider elements through his magical melancholy. Constituted an analysis chapter in my university thesis.

 

BEYOND RANGOON -- Zimmer's best. One, it paints the exotic landscapes in musical terms (the sunsets, the flies, the jungle), two, it beautifully captures the spiritual redemption journey that the Arquette character is on. Introspection through outrospection.

 

THE ABYSS -- the gobsmackingly beautiful finale music, yes, that again goes to my penchant for religioso stuff. But I've come to really love both the miltaristic stuff and the watery, mystical electronic landscapes. One out of three scores that formed my interest in film music (the other two being TWIN PEAKS and the aforementioned JURASSIC PARK)

 

ALIEN 3 -- Goldenthal's best, and the best ALIEN score on album, really. Combines requiem-like beauty with uncompromising, brutal tone clusters. A dark symphony, really.

 

BLADE RUNNER -- maybe the best synth score of all time, my favourite of Vangelis. In-film, the organic mix of sound and music, diegetic and non-diegetic. On album a totally envelopping landscape. Was another chapter in my thesis.

 

WATERWORLD -- been a staunch defender of the film since it came out, despite negative reception from everyone else. It's a "best of JNH", really -- swashbuckling heroism, awe and wonder ("The Bubble"), delicious ethnic elements and his best electronic composition -- nay, composition ever! -- in "Swimming".

7 of these I have on album.

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BLADE RUNNER- Vangelis

E.T.- Williams

BACK TO THE FUTURE- Silvestri

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST- Morricone

NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM- Keane

THE THIN RED LINE- Zimmer

DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL- Herrmann

49th PARALLEL- RV Williams

MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART-Yared

BODY HEAT - Barry

 

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2 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

BLADE RUNNER- Vangelis

E.T.- Williams

BACK TO THE FUTURE- Silvestri

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST- Morricone

NEW YORK: A DOCUMENTARY FILM- Keane

THE THIN RED LINE- Zimmer

DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL- Herrmann

49th PARALLEL- RV Williams

MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART-Yared

BODY HEAT - Barry

 

Another fan of MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART! Good to hear. I actually recently played it and posted about it in the "What are you listening to (older scores)?" thread.

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In no particular order:

 

Close of the Third Kind

Star Wars

Vertigo

The Agony and the Ecstasy

A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Batman Returns

The Mask of Zorro

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

The Lion King

 

And another 20:

 

Apollo 13

Jane Eyre

Angela's Ashes

The Thing

Basic Instinct

Cleopatra

Conan the Barbarian 

The Fly

The Fury

The Lord of the Rings trilogy

The Thin Red Line

Titus

Zodiac

The Peacemaker

Lady in the Water

Willow

Schindler's List 

The Matrix

Michael Collins

Mission: Impossible (1996)

 

Karol

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10 is too hard.  Can I start with 50?

 

1975 - Jaws (Williams)

1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Williams)

1977 - Star Wars (Williams)

1979 - Alien (Goldsmith)

1979 - Star Trek The Motion Picture (Goldsmith)

1980 - The Empire Strikes Back (Williams)

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark (Williams)

1982 - E.T. (Williams)

1982 - Poltergeist (Goldsmith)

1982 - Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (Horner)

1983 - Return of the Jedi (Williams)

1983 - Twilight Zone: The Movie (Goldsmith)

1984 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Williams)

1984 - The Last Starfighter (Safan)

1985 - Back To The Future (Silvestri)

1986 - Aliens (Horner)

1988 - Earth Star Voyager (Schifrin)

1988 - Willow (Horner)

1989 - The Abyss (Silvestri)

1989 - Batman (Elfman)

1989 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Williams)

1990 - Back To The Future III (Silvestri)

1990 - Edward Scissorhands (Elfman)

1990 - Predator 2 (Silvestri)

1990 - Total Recall (Goldsmith)

1991 - Hook (Williams)

1991 - The Rocketeer (Horner)

1992 - Basic Instinct (Goldsmith)

1992 - Batman Returns (Elfman)

1993 - Jurassic Park (Williams)

1993 - The Nightmare Before Christmas

1995 - Apollo 13 (Horner)

1995 - Die Hard With A Vengeance (Kamen)

1995 - Stargate (Arnold)

1995 - Waterworld (Howard)

1996 - Independence Day (Arnold)

1996 - Twister (Mancina)

1996 - Mission: Impossible (Elfman)

1997 - Air Force One (Goldsmith)

1997 - Contact (Silvestri)

1997 - Fifth Element (Serra)

1997 - The Lost World (Williams)

1997 - Speed 2: Cruise Control (Mancina)

1997 - Starship Troopers (Poledouris)

1997 - Tomorrow Never Dies (Arnold)

1999 - The Matrix (Davis)

1999 - The World Is Not Enough (Arnold)

2001 - A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Williams)

2001 - Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (Williams)

2001 - The Fellowship of the Ring (Shore)

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1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

Another fan of MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART! Good to hear. I actually recently played it and posted about it in the "What are you listening to (older scores)?" thread.

Great film also!

 

btw I posted TWO top ten ( actually 11)lists 😄

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Unbreakable - James Newton Howard

Cold Mountain - Gabriel Yared

Year One in the North - Michiru Oshima

Bliss - Jan A.P. Kaczmarek

Legends of the Fall - James Horner

Les Misérables - Basil Poledouris

Merlin - Trevor Jones

Under Aurora - Reijiro Koroku

Across The Sea Of Time - John Barry

The Portrait of a Lady - Wojciech Kilar

 

 

 

 

 

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