Top 100 Scores of All Time
INTRODUCTION
Following the turn of the millennium, I have been thinking for a while that it might be an interesting exercise to go back in time a little and try to present a list of what, in my opinion, are the best film scores from the first 100 years of cinema. To give it a little historical relevance, I have limited the list only to include films released before 31 January 1999 (meaning that Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings trilogy, Don Davis's Matrix trilogy, and Elliot Goldenthal's Titus, both of which would have made my Top 100, were ineligible) - and please note that the title of the list is my "Top 100 Scores of All Time" not the "Best 100 Scores of All Time". This list is based solely on my personal opinion. My ego, and knowledge is not large enough to allow me to claim to be able to compile a fully comprehensive list. To date, I estimate I have heard about 4,000 scores - either the whole thing or a suite of themes on a compilation. That's a lot - more than many people hear in a lifetime - but it also means that there are thousands and thousands of scores I have not heard, many of them from the "Golden Age" of film music. I have based my ranking on several factors: how influential the music was; the quality of the music; how successful the music was, both critically (in terms of awards) and commercially (in terms of public awareness); and finally, my own personal appreciation of it. Also, please remember that the list is a living thing. As I hear more scores, it will evolve and change. When I discover a great old score, it may enter the list, knocking a newer one off. We'll see. Finally, a note on presentation. Although the list sits in a final state on my computer, I will not present it all at once. Over the next year, I will count down these titles at the rate of two per week, in reverse order. Each entry will feature a brief capsule review of the score and why I consider it important, with a link to a full review (where one exists) on Movie Music UK. So, for what it's worth, here's the list - the fruit of almost a decade of listening to the greatest film music ever written!
83. POLTERGEIST (1982) 
JERRY GOLDSMITH
One of Jerry Goldsmith's few collaborations with Steven Spielberg (officially in the guise of executive producer, but everyone knows he did more directing than Tobe Hooper), Poltergeist is one of the great horror films of the 1980s. Craig T. Nelson and JoBeth Williams star as Steve and Diane Freling, an average young couple in suburban America with three children. Things change when a poltergeist ("mischievous ghost") begins lurking in the family home, and communicating though TV static to their youngest daughter Carol Ann (Heather O'Rourke). At first amused by the phenomena, the Frelings are soon fighting for their lives, when the ghosts turn nasty, kidnap their youngest daughter and open a portal into another world. Goldsmith's masterstroke in Poltergeist is, theme-wise, to score against type: "Carol-Ann's Theme" is a child-like melody for soft voices and warm strings which, in the context it is heard, is perfectly bone-chilling. The malleability of this theme allows it to be used in different settings, albeit increasingly warped as the horror inside the Freling home unleashes itself. Tortured nursery rhymes and subtly sinister chords give the otherwise beguiling theme a delicious, devilish twist, and then by juxtaposing this thematic beauty against the supernatural terror of the film, Goldsmith gives the music an added dimension of horror. Other sequences, notably the "Twisted Abduction" cue, feature some terribly effective orchestral dissonance writing quite unlike anything Goldsmith's usual style, while an angelic choir gives the film's blatant religious overtones to psychic dwarf Tangina's stories of what lies in store in the netherworld. The final battle to save young Carol Ann's life is the score's major set piece, with the 16-minute duo "It Knows What Scares You" and "Rebirth" revelling in a combination of dense orchestral horror and awe-inspiring choral majesty. It has been regularly noted that Goldsmith's choice of films have often been in inferior parallel to John Williams - Supergirl vs Superman, Baby vs Jurassic Park, King Solomon's Mines vs Raiders of the Lost Ark - but Poltergeist stands as a fine example of him being in the right place at the right time, with the right film, and delivering on all fronts. Awards: Oscar nominee for Best Original Score. Album Availability: Definitive edition released by Rhino/Turner Classic Movies in 1997, 13 tracks, 67:53.
84. A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE (1962)
ELMER BERNSTEIN
Directed by Edward Dmytryk and set in a 1930's New Orleans bordello called The Doll House, Walk on the Wild Side stars French actress Capucine as Hallie, the most popular call girl working under the care and guidance of the brothel's butch lesbian madam, Jo Courtney (Barbara Stanwyck). However, Hallie's life is turned upside down with the arrival in town of Dove Linkhorn (Laurence Harvey), a former boyfriend, now a drifter, searching for his former love. Taking a job at a Mexican diner, Dove intends to win back the hand of Hallie - but Dove's reaction to his former love's new involvement in the oldest profession has a devastating impact on all involved - especially a young, naïve girl named Kitty (Jane Fonds), who travelled with Dove from Texas and who is now The Doll House's newest recruit. With gorgeous black-and-white cinematography by Joseph MacDonald, and a trio of smouldering performances by the female leads, Walk on the Wild side has become something of a classic. Elmer Bernstein, fresh off his successes of The Magnificent Seven and The Ten Commandments, wrote a landmark jazz score, building on the innovative style he first introduced in The Man With the Golden Arm seven years previously. Bernstein is generally regarded as being the man who brought New York jazz and blues into the film world, and although this score is not a landmark in terms of timings, it certainly stands as one of the earliest examples of a score capturing the exciting, gritty essence of the genre. A throbbing, dirty-sounding theme for brass dominates the score, sounding for all the world like the auditory remnants of a seedy blues bar which closed a few hours ago, but which still has patrons jamming outside. Bernstein's score pulsates, shimmies, jives, and almost seduces the listener into coming closer and investigating more... perfect music for a brothel. The opening sequence featuring two felines engaging in a vicious, fur-flying catfight to the tune of Bernstein's rhythms has become rightly famous, while the title song, co-written with lyricist Mack David and performed by Brook Benton, was nominated for an Oscar in its year. Awards: Oscar nominee for Best Original Song ("Walk on the Wild Side"). Album Availability: Released on LP several times, released on CD Mainstream Records, 13 tracks, 32:14.
85. TARAS BULBA (1962)
FRANZ WAXMAN
Based on the acclaimed historical novel by Nikolai Gogol, Taras Bulba was directed by J. Lee Thomson and starred Yul Brynner in the title role as the former Cossack warlord, who ruled 18th century Ukraine with an iron fist, but who now lives peacefully as a farmer - despite still having strong nationalistic ideals - after being betrayed by the Polish army he helped defeat the Turks. With the Cossack homeland now under Polish rule, Taras sends his son Andrei (Tony Curtis) to school in Poland, in the hope that one day he can lead his country into new independence. However, Andrei falls in love with Natalia (Christine Kauffman), the daughter of a Polish aristocrat, leaving Taras with an impossible decision - whether to respect the wishes of the son he loves dearly, or protect the honour of the nation he has defended for decades. In writing the score, for Taras Bulba, Waxman combined his own symphonic sensibilities with Ukrainian folk music, which he carefully researched while on a trip to Kiev to write a symphony. The result is a powerful, sweeping, majestic score brimming with energy and vitality, vibrant orchestral passages, traditional instrumentation, and which has gone on to be one of Waxman's most popular and enduring compositions. A lush romantic theme for the forbidden lovers combines with a passage of deathly source music for the terrible "black plague"which strikes the Polish city Taras is besieging. There are many moments of bombastic action adding to the level of drama, especially the famous 'Ride to Dubno' track has become a concert hall staple, and is rightly regarded as one of Waxman's virtuoso cues. Written to accompany the sabre-wielding horseback-riding Cossack horde as they sweep across the Steppes to war, it is inarguably one of the musical highlights of Waxman's career. Its thematic core is reworked and expanded in the stunning 12-minute finale, 'The Battle of Dubno', in which father and son clash on the steppes, while the romantic theme for Andrei and Natalia is worked into a song, 'The Wishing Star' with lyrics by Mack David. Franz Waxman, despite working solidly and successfully in Hollywood for over 40 years, had very few of his scores enter public awareness: Taras Bulba is one of the exceptions, Awards: Oscar nominee for Best Original Score. Album Availability: Released several times on LP and CD; definitive version released by Rykodisc in 1998, 11 tracks, 44:08.
86. SUPERMAN (1978)
JOHN WILLIAMS
When you consider the sheer number of classic scores John Williams wrote in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it is perhaps not unsurprising that Superman is often overlooked. Amazingly, this score is not even amongst Williams own Top 10 grossing films, despite its immense popularity and enduring appeal. Based on the comic book characters by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, and directed by Richard Donner, Superman stars Christopher Reeve in the title role. Launched into space by his father (Marlon Brando), the young baby Kal-El survives the explosion of his home planet, Krypton, and crash-lands on earth, where he is raised by kindly farm-owners. Given the name Clark Kent, the child grows to find that the sun gives him incredible powers, including super-human strength and the ability to fly. Disguised as a mild-mannered reporter by day, Kent uses his powers for good by night, and is given the name "Superman" by the grateful citizens of metropolis. However, when criminal mastermind Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) hatches a plan to rupture the San Andreas fault, Superman must rise to the occasion to stop him. The famous main-title march is John Williams's centrepiece for the score, and it is rightly famous, but people tend to forget that there is much more to his work here than that. Williams engages in some uncharacteristically ambient electronic work for the early scenes on Krypton, and underscores the scenes in the ice cave with dark, chilling choral passages. The longing love theme for Superman and Lois Lane, which plays in effective counterpoint to the bombast of the march, is an attractive diversion, and is especially effective in the scene where Superman and Lois glide serenely across the skies. Unfortunately, the theme is mangled in the song "Can You Read My Mind" by actress Margot Kidder, the score's only low spot. The years 1976-1983 really were golden ones in John Williams's musical career, and although Superman's brilliance is generally overshadowed by others from the same period, its effectiveness as a classic work in its own right should not be dismissed. Awards: Grammy winner for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special. Oscar nominee for Best Original Score. Golden Globe nominee for Best Original Score. Album Availability: Released several times on CD and LP, notably by Warner Brothers in 1987 and Varése Sarabande in 1998. Definitive 2-CD version released by Rhino and producers Nick Redman and Michael Matessino in 2000, 35 tracks, 149:02.
87. THE DEER HUNTER (1979)
STANLEY MYERS
Directed by Michael Cimino, The Deer Hunter is one of a series of great movies released in America to examine the effects of the Vietnam war. It starred Robert De Niro, John Savage and Christopher Walken as three friends from a small community in industrial America whose lives are shattered when the Vietnam war breaks out. After saying their goodbyes at a traditional Polish wedding, the friends are shipped out to the war zone as part of the airborne infantry. Before long, all three men are captured by the Viet Cong, and undergo sickening torment in a Vietnamese prison camp at the hands of their captors. However, upon their eventual return to normal life, the friends find that coping with the social and economic decline in their home is no easier than enduring the excruciating bouts of Russian roulette they "played" while at war, and that the mental anguish they suffered can never be truly overcome. British composer Stanley Myers (1933-1993) is mostly remembered nowadays for giving Hans Zimmer his first jobs in film music in the early 1980s, but his work on The Deer Hunter contains arguably his most beloved work - the gorgeous elegy "Cavatina", featuring performance solos by guitar virtuoso John Williams. The rest of Myers's underscore is generally low-key, simple and string-based, and peppered with traditional folks songs, but Cavatina holds sway above everything else. In the same way Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings added a tragic beauty to the scenes of death and destruction in Platoon eight years later, Myers's work helped make The Deer Hunter a truly remarkable, poetic, lyrical, devastating condemnation of the Vietnam war. Awards: None. Album Availability: Original soundtrack released by Capitol in 1989, 10 tracks, 42:31
88. HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962)
ALFRED NEWMAN and KEN DARBY
More than any other genre, the western has probably produced more memorable film scores than any other. Alfred Newman is not as well remembered for his work on westerns as, say, Bernstein or Tiomkin, but his work on How the West Was Won is inarguably one of the all-time greats. The first ever movie to be filmed in Cinerama (the laborious but spectacular process that required the action to be captured by three cameras simultaneously, and projected on an extra-wide screen) How The West Was Won was ine of the last great classic Westerns made in Hollywood. Co-directed by two cinematic greats John Ford and Henry Hathaway, it recounted the story of America's expansion to the West, as experienced by four generations of the Prescotts, a pioneer family. The impressive all-star cast featured such great names as John Wayne, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Gregory Peck, Karl Malden, Debbie Reynolds, Spencer Tracy, and George Peppard, each of them facing the hardships endured by the American west's first settlers. Co-written with his long-time collaborator Ken Darby, for an incredible 140-piece orchestra and choir, How the West Was Won covers an impressively vast canvas. Newman's memorable muscular main title, with its syncopated drumbeat and heartfelt vocals, has become a genre mainstay, but the underscore proper is equally impressive. As well as the familiar warm, open tones of the vast prairie, there are impressionistic flourishes for woodwinds that sweep softly across the landscape and are gone almost as soon as they arrive. There is a cache of surprisingly deep and thunderous action music to represent the supposed native American threat, and there are several of the typically lush string-led romantic themes that were Newman's forte. In addition to his own music, Newman also arranged several American classics, including "Greensleeves" and "Shenandoah" for inclusion in the score. After this movie was finished, Newman wrote just four more scores, before his death in 1970. There can be few better testaments to his legendary talent than this. Awards: Oscar nominee for Best Original Score. Album Availability: Released several times on LP and CD. Definitive version released by Rhino in 1997, 58 tracks, 138:58.
89. THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941)
BERNARD HERRMANN
The Devil and Daniel Webster (also known as All That Money Can Buy) is important, in a historical context, in that it was one of two scores Bernard Herrmann wrote in his first year of being a film composer. The Devil and Daniel Webster won Herrmann his one and only Academy Award, and is generally regarded as being one of the finest works in his not inconsiderable list of successes. Unfortunately, The Devil and Daniel Webster was released around the same time as another little picture called Citizen Kane, and has been virtually forgotten in the wake of that great film's legacy. Directed with stylish flair by William Dieterle, The Devil and Daniel Webster brings the classic short story by Stephen Vincent Bent to life with inspired visuals, and features a diabolical central performance by Walter Huston as "Mr. Scratch", the devil himself. Set in the late 1800s, the film focuses on New Hampshire farmer Jabez Stone (James Craig) who, following several years of hardship, is tricked into selling his soul to the devil in return for seven years of prosperity. When Stone begins to realise the error of his choice, he enlists the aid of the one man who might save him: the legendary orator and politician Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold). Herrmann's orchestral score, while undoubtedly excellent, is more important in historical terms than it is in musical ones, as this is score which introduced the Herrmann sound to Hollywood, and which ushered in a career destined to change the face of film music forever. This fact alone makes it worthy of inclusion in the All-time Top 100... the high quality of the music is simply a bonus! One musical moment that is worth mentioning - when the devil, in the form of a Boston lawyer, shows up at the wedding party and plays the violin, Herrmann illustrates this moment with a bizarre - but undeniably brilliant - set of variations on "Pop Goes the Weasel". Awards: Oscar winner for Best Original Score (Dramatic Picture). Album Availability: Originally released on LP. Re-recorded by the New Zealand Symphony and re-released by Koch International in 1994 (along with three Herrmann classical pieces, "Silent Noon", "Currier and Ives" and "For the Fallen"), 5 tracks, 20:01.
90. KRULL (1983)
JAMES HORNER
The musical representation of a 29-year-old's youthful exuberancy, Krull remains one of the jewels in James Horner's crown, and is inarguably one of the best fantasy scores ever written. Directed by Peter Yates, the actual movie was something of a dismal flop. It starred Ken Marshall as Prince Colwyn, whose marriage to the beautiful Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony) is interrupted by the Slayers, invaders from another world. When Lyssa is kidnapped by the Slayers and taken to their leader, the Beast, Colwyn vows to rescue her - and so he sets off across his planet in search of the Black Fortress, receiving help from a gang of mercenaries, a wise old man, a cowardly sorcerer, and a monosyllabic Cyclops along the way. Despite having lofty ambitions in terms of visual scope, Krull suffered from a bad script, and even worse acting, and eventually sank without trace at the box office. However, Horner's score is the film's saving grace: Krull is one of the rare occasional where great music makes a bad film seem better. Conducting the 100-strong London Symphony Orchestra, and adding the Ambrosian Singers in the mix, Horner's score is truly massive in every sense. The multiple recurring themes overflow with zest and energy. The action, notably the Swamp Battle and the Fire Mare sequence, crackles with orchestral intensity. The choral work and electronic effects in the Widow of the Web sequence were defiantly avant-garde, and cutting edge in their day. Horner's seemingly boundless enthusiasm for the project and his willingness to experiment with new and unusual orchestral styles to accompany the images is what makes Krull such a special score, and is one of the reasons Horner was once considered to be the future of orchestral film music. Awards: None. Album Availability: Released several times, notably by Southern Cross and SCSE. Definitive version released by Supertracks in 1998, 21 tracks, 93:04.
91. INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)
DAVID ARNOLD
The third cinematic score by David Arnold, following The Young Americans and Stargate, Independence Day thrust the then 34-year-old Englishman into the limelight, won him a Grammy, and initiated a career which would see him become one of the most sought-after and respected young composers working in film music. Directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman, Independence Day was a thrilling, spectacular tale which broke all box-office records upon its original release. It told the story of the devastating chaos brought about by the arrival of hostile alien invaders, who appear in gigantic space ships above all the major cities of the Earth. Suffering a devastating attack on New York and other cities, the survivors gather together and, embracing the enduring spirit that emerges in the aftermath of a disaster, eventually retaliate and allow humanity to overcome the inter-galactic aggressors. To accompany the film's patriotic style, Arnold composed a score which overflows with jubilant power, accentuates the action with driving themes, highlights the menace of the aliens with inventive dissonance and darkness, and bolsters the triumphant victory with a soaring combination of orchestra and choir. The sheer volume and intensity of Independence Day is the most impressive aspect, especially considering that this was only David Arnold's third movie, and his first of this scale. The relentlessness of the thematic drive and the fluidity of the action sequences are mesmerising, and the 10-minute finale cue (in which Arnold uses everything from anvils to planks of wood being dropped on the studio floor as percussion!) is one of the standout sequences of the entire decade. Hardly original, but certainly one of the most breathlessly entertaining scores of the 1990s. Awards: Grammy winner for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television. Album Availability: Original soundtrack released by RCA Victor in 1996, 14 tracks, 50:41.
92. HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II (1988)
CHRISTOPHER YOUNG
The director of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Tony Randel, asked Christopher Young to make his score "a celebration of Gothic horror" - and, thankfully, he did exactly as he was asked. The sequel to Clive Barker's horror classic Hellraiser, which introduced to the world Pinhead in 1987, and which has since spawned a multitude of straight-to-video spin-offs, Hellraiser II took the original ideas of Barker's novel "The Hellbound Heart" and ran with them. Ashley Laurence returns to reprise her role as Kirsty Cotton, who in the first movie saw her father and stepmother murdered by grotesque demons that appeared from within the mysterious Lament Configuration puzzle box. Incarcerated in an asylum by the maniacal Dr Channard (Kenneth Cranham), Kirsty must now open the box herself and venture into the depths of hell itself, so that she can save her father from an eternity of torture at the hands of the Cenobites. Horror films have always allowed composers a degree of flexibility to write more challenging music than one would normally hear, and Christopher Young's score certainly attempts some interesting musical ideas. Written for a full orchestra (Munich's Graunke Symphony) and choir, the music plays with many interesting ideas: the mesmerising cacophony of the 7-minute main titles, the misleadingly soft flute theme for Julia, the twisted carnival from hell, and the booming "Devil's Horn" playing against a bass choir chanting the word "God" in Morse code. In many ways, Young's score could be considered the culmination of 30 years of development in horror movie music, from the time when composers such as Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith started taking themselves and the genre seriously. The Latin chanting, the orchestral power, and the modernistic approach to the score is not new by any means, but Young's enthusiasm and talent have made it one of the great horror scores of the last 20 years, and one of the two opuses in Young's career. Awards: None. Album Availability: Original soundtrack released by GNP Crescendo in 1989 combined with Young's score for Highpoint, 13 tracks, 61:22 of a 73:59 album. Re-released as part of a 3-score set, "The Hellraiser Chronicles" (along with Hellraiser by Young and Hellraiser III by Randy Miller) by Silva Screen in 2003, identical timings.
93. FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)
LOUIS BARRON and BEBE BARRON
A true watershed in the development of film music technology, the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet has its place in soundtrack history by being the first film to have an all-electronic score, scored by husband-and-wife composers Louis Barron (1920-1989) and Bebe Barron (1927-). A space-age retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Forbidden Planet was directed by Fred Wilcox and starred Leslie Nielsen as the commander of a space ship sent across the galaxy to find out what happened to a community of colonists, with whom all contact has been lost. They arrive to find all but two of the colonists dead - the only survivors being a sinister doctor (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter (Anne Francis) - and a terrifying monster known as the ID roaming the planet's surface. The Barrons were already pioneers of electro-acoustic music when they were asked to score Forbidden Planet, but had never attempted a full film score before, complete with character-driven nuances and emotional needs. In a groundbreaking combination of science and music, the Barrons identified characters' moods and emotions in any given situation, and then built a series electrical circuits which would emit sound waves based on the signals given off by the human nervous system at any given time. The resulting waves, which varied from the intense crashing of the ID to the upbeat bubbliness of Robbie the Robot, were recorded as score, and eventually laid over the film. Although this intensely cerebral approach to film music would never be repeated, and although electro-acoustic instruments such as the theremin had already been used in Hollywood for several years previously, the Barrons proved that a film score did not need a traditional symphony orchestra to be successful, and opened a floodgate which allowed composers to make use of new and innovative electronic techniques in their music. Awards: None. Album Availability: Released by GNP Crescendo/Small Planet in 1989, 23 tracks, 38:21.
94. THE COBWEB (1955)
LEONARD ROSENMAN
A somewhat obscure entry in the Top 100, The Cobweb is noteworthy because its composer, the then 31-year old Leonard Rosenman, wrote for it Hollywood's first 12-tone score. A largely forgotten medical melodrama based on a novel by William Gibson and directed by Vincente Minnelli, The Cobweb starred Richard Widmark, Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall, Gloria Grahame and Lillian Gish as various doctors and patients at an exclusive psychiatric clinic in upstate New York in the 1950s. Initiated by Widmark's cocksure psychiatrist, a more "modern" regime of providing health care is brought into force, but it is not long before the new administrators and the established internees face varying problems while adjusting to their new lives - not least of these being a new pair of curtains, which become a bizarre focal point for the patients and their rehabilitation, and the cause of much consternation for the medics. It's unusual that such an inconsequential and, for want of a better word, silly film should herald the arrival of 20th Century serialism and atonality into film music, but Rosenman (who went on to score Rebel Without A Cause, The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek IV and win a couple of Oscars) was a student of Arnold Schoenberg, and was one of a new set of composers who felt it was time for Hollywood to begin to move away from the classical romanticism of Steiner and Rozsa - something that contemporaries such as Alex North agreed with. Rosenman's challenging score has been lauded by composers including Jerry Goldsmith and Christopher Young as a turning point in the history of film music, after which composers could begin to embrace more modernistic styles of writing without fear of upsetting studios. While the film is now consigned to history, Rosenman's brazenness in writing The Cobweb the way he did made film music history. Awards: None. Album Availability: Originally released on LP, and then on CD by Tickertape combined with Rosenman's score for A Man Called Horse. Re-released by Film Score Monthly in 2003 combined with Rosenman's score for Edge of the City, 11 tracks, 36:41 of a 51:14 album.
95. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
ANTON KARAS
A unique entry in the film music annals of history, Austrian zither player Anton Karas's score for the crime thriller The Third Man is included for its quirkiness, and for its surprising and enduring popularity. Directed by Carol Reed from the story by Graham Greene, The Third Man starred Joseph Cotten as novelist Holly Martins, who arrives in post-war Vienna to visit his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to find that Lime has been killed in a car accident. It seems that Lime has been posthumously accused of various crimes by the Austrian authorities, including racketeering and black market smuggling, and in order to clear his friend's name, Martins delves deep into the murky Viennese underworld to find out what happened. Karas, who died in 1985 aged 79, wrote just one score in his life - this one - and wrote it solely for the instrument at which he excelled - the zither. Originally intended to be nothing more than mood music to enliven the film's Viennese setting, the subsequent immense popularity of the film's central motif, "The Harry Lime Theme", completely dominated Karas's life, who went on to enjoy a fruitful career as a concert zitherist, but never worked in film again. The inclusion of The Third Man in the Top 100 of All Time may seem outrageous, but is a fitting testament to the fact that it is possible to write a wholly appropriate film score, and be almost impossibly successful, without the aid of a symphony orchestra, with limited funds, and with meagre ambitions. Awards: None. Album Availability: Originally released on LP. First re-mastered and re-released by Soundtrack Factory in 2000, 20 tracks. Re-recorded by Silva Screen in 2003 with zither solos by Gertrud Huber, 20 tracks, 48:12.
96. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990)
DANNY ELFMAN
Along with Batman, Sommersby and A Nightmare Before Christmas, scores like this are the reason Danny Elfman was one of the most successful and popular composers of the 1980s and 90s. One of nine scores (to date) for director Tim Burton, Edward Scissorhands is arguably the quintessential Elfman score. The film is a modern fairy-tale, a skewed take on the Frankenstein myth, starring Johnny Depp as Edward, an artificial man created by an eccentric professor (Vincent Price), who is left with scissors for hands when the inventor dies before he can complete him. Edward lives completely alone in a gothic castle until the local Avon lady (Dianne Weist) befriends him and brings him home. What begins as an amusing fish-out-of-water story slowly turns into something more beautiful and meaningful, as Edward falls in love with the beautiful Kim (Winona Ryder), but also becomes the subject of terrible abuse, misunderstanding and hatred at the hands of the narrow-minded community that lives nearby. Elfman's music has never been so moving, so tragic, so beautiful as it is in this score. He endows the film with a sumptuous sweep that combines comedic passages and upbeat scherzos for Edward's misadventures in suburbia with a trio of heartbreaking themes for Edward, and his relationships with Kim and the Inventor. The 12-minute finale, when Edward is driven from the town and is pursued by the townsfolk, is truly wondrous, celebrating the magical innocence inherent in the story. The cooing female choir would go on become an Elfman staple, the gentle music box theme illustrates Elfman's telling grasp of the fairytale idiom, and the majestic recapitulations of the sweeping themes are as cold as ice, yet appealingly warm-hearted. Easily one of the best scores of the 1990s. Awards: None. Album Availability: Original soundtrack released by MCA Records in 1990, 17 tracks, 49:20.
97. AGNES OF GOD (1985)
GEORGES DELERUE
Georges Delerue (1925-1992) worked on some truly awful films during his 10-year American tenure. It was almost as though Hollywood didn't quite know what to do with the Frenchman's unique musical talent following his Oscar win for A Little Romance in 1979, so he ended up writing truly amazing music for diabolical films such as True Confessions, Joe Versus the Volcano, Maxie and Curly Sue. One of his few commercial and critical successes was Norman Jewison's Agnes of God, for which Delerue wrote arguably his finest, richest, most moving score. Adapted from the acclaimed play by John Pielmeyer, the film starred Jane Fonda as psychiatrist Martha Livingston, who is sent to a remote convent to help a traumatised young nun (Meg Tilly) who was found in her cell with a dead baby, and who is claiming that her pregnancy was the result of an immaculate conception. Locking horns with the stubborn Mother Superior (Anne Bancroft), who opposes the investigation from the outset, Martha tries to pick her way through a medical and theological minefield to uncover the truth. A masterpiece of orchestral and choral beauty, Delerue's work is predominantly of one tone - that of reverence - but elicits such a feeling of grace and elegance, one cannot help but be enraptured. The combination of delicate woodwind solos with a sweeping string orchestra (the Toronto Symphony), and a soprano-led female choir (the Elmer Isley Singers) is utterly sublime, and ranks with the great works pf Rózsa and Newman as a fitting musical illustration of the devoutness of faith. As I have said before, my esteemed colleague James Southall described this work perfectly when he said it was music which brings you "closer to God". Awards: Oscar nominee for Best Original Score. Album Availability: Original soundtrack released by Varése Sarabande in 1993, 12 tracks, 30:04.
98. THE VIKINGS (1958)
MARIO NASCIMBENE
Italian composer Mario Nascimbene (1913-2002) had a successful career in Hollywood, with titles such as Barabbas, Solomon and Sheba and One Million Years B.C. to his name. No score left a greater impact, however, than his work on Richard Fleischer's epic adventure The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. Douglas and Curtis play two brothers, Einar and Eric, one a legendary warrior, the other a freed slave, who take part in a violent conflict with each other when the throne of Northumbria, to which they both have claims, becomes available. The Vikings is a pure spectacle movie, filled with lusty women, spectacular scenery, long ships and broadswords, and which is given a dramatic sweep by Nascimbene's memorable music, easily the pinnacle of his career, and one of the finest examples of work the genre at that time. Nascimbene's glorious brass work, featuring the famous heraldic three-note fanfare and some thunderous calls-and-responses, weaves seamlessly together with tender romantic melodies and several action cues which underscore all the mandatory raping and pillaging. Glorious choral work makes the noble funereal finale a standout (admirers of Jerry Goldsmith's First Knight would do well to investigate this score, its obvious inspiration). While The Vikings broke no new ground in terms of style or technique, it remains a fine example of full-throated heroism, and acts as a pertinent memorial to Mario Nascimbene's great, but largely under-valued talent. Awards: None. Album Availability: Originally released on LP. Re-mastered CD released by Legend in 1992, 18 tracks, 62:27. Also available on the DRG label with Nascimbene's score for "Solomon and Sheba".
99. BLACK RAIN (1989)
HANS ZIMMER
While many would perhaps consider Black Rain to be an odd choice for the best score of Hans Zimmer's career, it has certainly proved to be the most influential. Other scores, notably Crimson Tide, Gladiator, The Lion King and The Thin Red Line, are generally regarded to be his best works, but Black Rain was the film which first introduced the "Media Ventures Sound" as we know it today. In 1989, the Hans Zimmer über-anthem was new and fresh and exciting, and heralded a new way of making film music. A crime thriller directed by Ridley Scott, Black Rain starred Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia as two New York cops in Osaka who become embroiled in a violent war between members of rival Yakuza gangs - the Japanese Mafia. A modest hit upon its release, it is only really with the hindsight of ten years that the impact of this film and its music becomes clear. Modern composers such as Harry Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith, Mark Mancina, Trevor Rabin, Klaus Badelt, even Graeme Revell... they owe all their "sound" to this score. The dominating themes, the pulsating synthesised background, the upbeat yet overbearing feel of oppressive heroism... Black Rain was the catalyst for what is now a something of a cliché, but which was once at the cutting edge of film music technology. Although the score itself is not that memorable, its influence on the way films have been scored during the last fifteen years is immeasurable. Awards: None. Album Availability: Original soundtrack released by Virgin Records in 1989, 4 tracks, 21:35 of a 48:30 album.
100. HIGH NOON (1952)
DIMITRI TIOMKIN
Considered by many to be one of the best westerns ever made, director Fred Zinnemann's heroic yet tragic tale of honour, fate and destiny is a genre classic. Gary Cooper plays an ageing sheriff from a small town who learns that a man he jailed many years before is returning to find him - and kill him. Despite the pleadings of his new wife (Grace Kelly), and the majority of the townsfolk, the sheriff refuses to leave - and as the countdown begins, so does the process of contemplating his existence and life's work until the time of his destiny - high noon. The entire final sequence - the eerie close-ups of nervous faces, the continual shots of the clock in the town square ticking ever-closer to the stroke of twelve - has gone down in history as one of the defining sequences in Wild West cinema, and rightly won four Oscars. Two of these went to composer Dimitri Tiomkin - one for the song "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'" which he co-wrote with Ned Washington, and one for his sparse but incredibly effective score. The urgent, compelling rhythms Tiomkin employs continually add to the level of tension as the countdown to high noon relentlessly rolls on, while the plaintive sound of a lone harmonica has become a significant genre mainstay. Tiomkin's work in redefining the old lush sound of the Wild West was instrumental in influencing later composers such as Ennio Morricone and Jerry Fielding and, although Tiomkin's work on High Noon did not generate as much critical acclaim as the subsequent Italian Spaghetti westerns did, it was nevertheless a landmark genre score which should be recognised. Awards: Oscar winner for Best Original Drama/Comedy Score. Oscar winner for Best Original Song ("Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'"). Golden Globe winner for Best Original Score. Album Availability: Released several times in LP. Re-recorded by conductor Lawrence Foster and released along with Tiomkin's scores for Cyrano De Bergerac, The Alamo and 55 Days at Peking by RCA Red Seal in 1995.
Home Page | Reviews A-M | Reviews N-Z | Composers | Links
Movie Music U.K is designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton (c) 2003. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of the University of Sheffield. All photos and album artwork used on Movie Music U.K. are for non-profit making promotional purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.