My Top Ten Movie Scores (Part 1 of 2)

My Top Ten Movie Scores (Part 1 of 2)

Many everyday movie watchers often ignore music in films or the music merely becomes background to what is happening on screen. However, if people took the time to listen to the score alone, they might discover more to it than filler music. Scores enhance, or improve upon, what the writer/director/actor are trying to convey on screen. We get the intended feeling of a movie through its music.

MC asked me to compile the top ten best movie scores according to me. So, let’s get this party started.

10. Jaw 2 (John Williams): While the movie isn’t as good the first Jaws, but the score is better than the first movie. John Williams’s score here is well crafted as he takes his central themes from the first one and adds a little bit more flare to this follow up.

9. Batman (Danny Elfman): When Batman came out back in 1989, I believe people took notice of the amazing score that Elfman wrote. It is still his strongest score, with the exception of Spider-Man II, to date. The score is dark and yet heroic at the same time. There are so many fun tracks to listen to, and I would be hard pressed to pick one favorite. Elfman is at the top of his game here. (I actually played this score in my High School band. It was fun.) A truly epic score…

8. Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan (James Horner): Following the masterful Jerry Goldsmith isn’t an easy thing to live with, but Horner came through with a memorable action/Sci-fi score. You truly get the feeling of sailing ship (Interesting enough Goldsmith originally has a similar sailing ship feel before Wise rejected that version of his score.)

Here's one of my Favorite tracks: Battle in the Mutara Nebula

7. Rambo III (Jerry Goldsmith): The other two Rambo scores are fairly entertaining, but I found myself moved by this often-overlooked Score. His theme for Afghanistan is something you have to hear as he twists the theme into different things such as an action piece or a touching ballad.

6. X2 (John Ottman): I was surprised as anyone that this score turned out as good as it was. Ottman has some great themes introduced here, but yet it felt like they were there during the first movie. (Ottman didn’t write music for the first movie, Michael Kamen did that one.) His best work is the Jean Grey theme, which you can hear in the video below.

Find out what are going to be my top five in Part II. I’ll have that one complete in a few days.