Movie(s) with best soundtrack?
Movie(s) with best soundtrack?
Which movie(s) do you think has the best soundtrack?
I think American Psycho has a good soundtrack and I listen to it occasionaly.
The Abyss really does something for me, can’t quite put my finger on it
Shrek 2, unironically
Also Sucker Punch and Tron Legacy
For me the criteria is: would the movie be very different with another soundtrack. The below offerings truly elevate their movies imo.
Tron Legacy
Blade Runner
Black Panther
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Reservoir Dogs / Pulp Fiction / Kill Bill
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Stand By Me
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Dirty Dancing
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The Lost Boys
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The blade runner soundtrack is my go to relax soundtrack. Have listened to it thousands of times by now.
Forrest Gump, hands down.
No one mentioned Donnie Darko yet? Fanatic soundtrack.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has a fantastic soundtrack. Can really push a system to its limits.
The Matrix soundtrack is amazing
American Beauty.
It's the most autumn sounding OST I know, super moody.
Rogue One. First time I saw it I was sure no one could hold a candle to John Williams. Then I watched it again and the way Michael Giacchino uses a half-step to underline the theme of hope gives me chills just remembering it.
- Pirates of the Caribbean (personally, At World's End has the best, Hans Zimmer)
- The Lord of the Rings (Howard Shore)
- Gravity (Steven Price)
- Tron Legacy (Daft Punk)
- Moonlight (Nicholas Britell)
- Harry Potter (can only speak to the ones by John Williams)
- Braveheart (James Horner)
- The Matrix (Don Davis)
Thank you for so many suggestions! Honestly, I didn't know most of them.
For anyone who are too bothered to read the entire comment section, here's the list
List
- O Brother Where Art Thou?
- Forest Gump
- Legion (show)
- Westworld
- Good Will Hunting
- E.T.
- Jurassic Park
- Indiana Jones
- Birdman
- 28 Days Later
- Trainspotting
- Garden State
- Once upon a time the west
- Blade runner
- Yellow Submarine
- The Muppet Movie
- School of Rock
- The Village
- Amelie
- Pride and Prejudice
- Shutter Island
- The Piano
- Reservoir Dogs
- Blues Brothers
- From Dusk til Dawn
- Gladiator
- Dump and Dumber
- Romeo and Juliet
- Pulp Fiction
- Buena Vista Social Club
- Help!
- Purple Rain
- La Boum
- Fame and The Kids from Fame
- The wackness
- Vertigo
- North by Northwest
- Psycho
- Ultraman Rising
- The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
- Desparado
- Conan the Barbarian
- The Fountain
- Grosse Point Blank
- Donnie Darko
- Reservoir Dogs
- Kill Bill
- Stand By Me
- Dirty Dancing
- The Lost Boys
- Hackers
- Summer Wars
- Kikujiros Summer
- Dunkirk
- Inception
- Desert Rose
- American Beauty
- Easy rider
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- The Matrix
- Interstellar
- Requiem for a dream
- Tenet
- Independence Day
- Garden State
- The Crow
- Pacific Rim
- The Decline of Western Civilization
- Schindler's List
- Rogue One
- Dunkirk
- Judgement Night
- Full Metal Jacket
- Varsity Blues
- Oppenheimer
- Atomic Blonde
- Dazed and Confused
- Spawn
- Ransom
- Lord of the Rings
- Empire Records
- Get Shorty
- The Big Lebowski
- Buried
- A Knight's Tale
- Pretty in Pink
- Stranger Than Fiction
- The Third Man
- The Mission
- Dred
- Redline
- Tombstone
- Almost Famous
Let me know if I'm missing something
Oh just my thing.
- Summer Wars
- Kikojiros Summer
- Dunkirk
- Inception
- Desert Rose
I have a lot of these on my shortlist. More series and even way more videogames
Watched Blade Runner 2049 2 days ago. Had a very good soundtrack but I wouldnt just listen to it just.
Personal favorites:
Tron: Legacy
Pacific RimDazed and Confused
I was just watching Tenet last night and the music kind of took me out of it sometimes because I was like, “Fuck, that music sounds awesome”, though not sure how well it will stand on its own, I’ve not tried that yet.
The Lord of the Rings
This is Howard Shore's Magnum opus. It's what distinguishes this movie as more than just a great adaptation. His use of themes to represent not only races and kingdoms but characters, objects (like the One Ring, of course), and even concepts is a level above most movie soundtracks. There are even elements of storytelling through the music!
For example, the first time we hear the theme for Gondor is when Boromir is in Rivendell. Since he's more or less alone, the theme is played by a single French Horn in a somber (almost tragic) style. In Return of the King, we see Minas Tirith, capital of Gondor, in all its glory, and so the full orchestra plays the theme.
One more: As the Fellowship begins to break down, so too does the theme. We go from heroic phrases to shorter, interrupted instances. There's a book about the soundtrack written by Doug Adams. I highly recommend it if you're interested!
Easy rider
Bohemian Rhapsody
Birdman. Just drums. Really fucking good drums. Also they appear in the middle of one scene in an excellent way.
Also: not a movie, but Cowboy Bebop. Lots and lots of great tracks.
Yeah American Psycho does have a good soundtrack. Eyes Without a Face is great.
My vote is for Interstellar or some of the other Hans Zimmer ones
The Blues Brothers - it's stringing together performances from famous musicians, and the soundtrack was successful as an album in its own right.
Swingers has a great oldies/crooner soundtrack.
- Schindler's List
- Requiem for a Dream
- Independence Day
Once upon a time the west. (Ennio Morricone)
Blade runner (Vangelis)
A few not listed:
- The Crow
- Empire Records
- Leaving Las Vegas
- Get Shorty
- Grosse Pointe Blank
Pulp Fiction(listed elsewhere)
The Decline of Western Civilization
Batman Forever
I know you said movies, but a soundtrack for a show I'm hooked on currently is Legion (FX/Marvel, on Hulu). The whole entire show has an amazing cast to begin with, but Jeff Russo (Fargo, Star Trek Discovery, more) and Noah Hawley put together one hell of a score. I highly recommend it and the show.
Godzilla 1998
Varsity Blues
The Big Lebowski deserves a mention.
Reservoir Dogs, O Brother Where Art Though, Blues Brothers, From Dusk til Dawn,
I'm going to reframe this as who I think the best composers are:
Bernard Hermann, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, etc.
John Williams, E.T., Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc.
Akira Ifukube, most of the Shōwa era Godzilla movies
Shiro Shigasu, Evangelion, Shin Godzilla
As far as new work, I'm partial to Scott Stafford on Ultraman Rising. It came out on Netflix this past June and I was really surprised how good that movie and soundtrack were.
Lots of good ones here, I'll add some that haven't been mentioned: Sahara, Rango, both Sherlock Holmes movies, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, the JJ Abrams Star Trek's, The Incredibles, Godzilla 2014, The Road to El Dorado
When I think of exquisite sound design, two of my favorite movies spring to mind: Stalker (1979) and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The former has such a subtle soundtrack that it's almost like it's not there, but without it so much of the atmosphere of a movie that is heavily atmospheric would be lost.
The latter is just a perfect western with a perfect western soundtrack. The theme is well known, but L'estasi Dell'oro gives me chills every time it starts playing.
Judgement Night - some of the greatest hip-hop & metal crossover songs ever made.
A Knight's Tale
I'm not seeing Oppenheimer mentioned , perhaps I'm in the minority here.
Atomic Blonde
Stranger Than Fiction, soundtrack by Spoon
Garden State
I don't know that I could pick one, but Joe Hisashi's Studio Ghibli sound tracks are done of my favourites
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Pretty in Pink - Pure 80s.
28 Days Later
Trainspotting
Garden State....could not tell you a single thing about the film but when it was released, the soundtrack was full of my favorite artists at the time
Honorable mention: Most Wes Anderson films have pretty thoughtful soundtracks but I've never been blown away or introduced to a new band
Monsoon Wedding
Lord of the Rings
The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream, or anything by Clint Mansell
The album has been seen as presaging the dark ambient music genre, and its presentation of background noise and non-musical cues has been described by Pitchfork's Mark Richardson as "a sound track (two words) in the literal sense". -wikipedia
The mood and tone of Eraserhead and its soundtrack were influenced by Philadelphia's post-industrial history. Lynch lived in the city while studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and was fascinated by its feeling of constant danger; describing it both as a "sick, twisted, violent, fear ridden, decaying place" and "beautiful, if you see it the right way."[8][9][1] Lynch and Splet used avant-garde approaches to recording on the soundtrack; including crafting almost every sound in the soundtrack from scratch using bizarre methods. The ambiance of the love scene in the movie, for example, was produced by recording air blown through a microphone as it sat inside a bottle floating in a bathtub.[10] Lynch and Splet worked "9 hours a day for 63 days" to produce the soundtrack and all of the sound effects in the film. Splet recalls the sound effects Lynch called on him to produce for Eraserhead as "snapping, humming, buzzing, banging, like lightning, shrieking, squealing” over the five years it took to produce the film and its soundtrack. -wikipedia
2001: A Space Odyssey
Just epic classical music.
Spirited Away
Joe Hisaishi fits the fantastical setting perfectly. Lots of bittersweet, exciting, and meditative moods, each placed in the perfect scene.
Tarantino's movies usually have a great song selection.
Full Metal Jacket
Hearing "Bird is the Word" juxtaposed with the Vietnam War is just a crazy choice that paid off.
Nobody (2021)
Turned me on to Luther Allison. Not a "best soundtrack" but it definitely stands out.
The Third Man has that fantastic zither theme.
Into The Wild
The Last of the Mohicans Once heard, you cannot escape its beauty.
Conan the Barbarian
Resident evil
Dred 2012
Redline
Desparado https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0112851/
Amazing soundtrack!
Tombstone and Almost Famous for me
Ransom is underrated IMO.
Buried.
Banger after banger
- Yellow Submarine (I think a lot of people either forget this movie exists, or write it off as a kids movie. You're missing out on a movie that could be considered as revolutionary to animation as the Beatles were to music.)
- Back to the Future
- The Muppet Movie
- School of Rock
- Bladerunner
- The Matrix
There's probably other's, but that's what immediately comes to mind.
This is an old one, but:
The Mission, scored by Ennio Morricone.
interstellar, interstella5555, gladiator
The wackness - iconic 90s hip hop songs
28 days later - introduced me to post rock vibes
Baby Driver, The Third Man, anything by John Williams
Dumb and Dumber