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So i was sitting here listening to the arrival to earth theme from the transformers movie soundtrack as i played some online games with friends and i was thinking about all the instrumental/orchestral themes that are iconic and most people know or are inspired by from the likes of john williams, micheal kamen, hans zimmer, yoko kanno, jerry goldsmith and other legendary musicians.

some are more well known than others and some of the less known ones are just as impressive. i cant help but to put on the space battleship yamato theme when i play my musashi in WOWS or the battlefield 1942 soundtrack when playing ground forces in war thunder (WWII era of course)

So i thought i would list some of the iconic ones that stand out to me and see what you all think should be on that list.

.black rain suite-hans zimmer
.star wars various themes-john williams
.indiana jones-john williams
.patton-jerry goldsmith
.the great escape-elmer bernstein
.band of brothers-micheal kamen
.voices of authority-babylon 5 christopher franke
.star trek original/movie/klingon themes-jerry goldsmith
.star trek II the wrath of khan-james horner
.star trek VI the undiscovered country-cliff eidleman
.space battleship yamato main theme-Hiroshi Miyagawa
.james bond-monty norman
.bridge over the river kwai-based on the british army Colonel Bogey March
.nausicca, princess mononoke, totoro and all the other iconic myazaki film themes-joe hisaishi
.the last starfighter-craig safan
.the good the bad and the ugly-Ennio Morricone
.varous anime themes including escaflowne (dance of curse), macross plus dogfight, tank (cowboybeebop) etc..-yoko kanno
.transformers arrival to earth-steve jablonsky
.pirates of the caribbean-hans zimmer/klaus badelt
.the expanse main theme-clinton shorter
.battlefield 1942/2142 themes-Joel Eriksson
.the magnificent seven-elmer bernstein
.battlestar galactica-stu philips


That's my short list-what makes yours

Harmonica man - Morricone
Theme from LotR - dunno by whom
Burning Bridges - Mike Curb Congregation
The entire soundtrack to the Blues Brothers.
And a bunch of the ones you already mentio ed

I love the lord of the rings stuff to, but there isn't really a main theme that stand out. each movie kind of has it's own. that's why i didn't include it.

The Battle - Hans Zimmer. Also, 'Sorrow'.

Both from Gladiator.

Howard Shore did the score for LotR.

Darn i knew i would forget a few yes gladiator. great piece

Danny Elfman has done a few good ones.
They're not usually on the scale of most of those mentioned, but a couple would stand out if my memory was better at this.

28 Days Later.

Used elsewhere, it’s really at home with Jim wandering a desolate London. As his realisation and horror mount, so does the theme.

Wonderful stuff!

Are you referring to 'In The House - In A Heartbeat'?

That’s the one.

The moria section of the lotr ost is awesome.

Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

Dambusters.

Dunkirk - Supermarine (Hans Zimmer)
Prometheus - Space Jockey / Collision (Marc Streitenfeld)
MI: Fallout - Fate Whispers to the Warrior / And the Warrior Whispers Back (Lorne Balfe)
Mad Max: Fury Road - Brothers in Arms (Junkie XL)
Dark City - Main Title (Trevor Jones)

Probably lots more I can't think of right now...

I generally know scores by their movies, not individual pieces of it. . .

So I'll list my faves as such:

Gladiator - works well in film, works well for listening on its own, even having been in a GW daily for about 2 years didnt kill the sound for me (unlike other films)
Kingdom of Heaven - whatever your thoughts on the film, the soundtrack is quite good
2001 - another "whatever you think of the film" type things, the score works extremely well on its own (which is helped in part due to it not being an OST, its all older classical music)

Braveheart - this one is odd to me, in that I absolutely love it within the movie, but cannot really stand listening to it on its own. . It just doesn't seem to "work" for me

The score to the TV show "Westworld" . . . I love how the show continues to subvert your expectations, and that includes running into remixed versions of 20th century hit songs.

My three favourite film composers are John Williams, Ennio Morricone and Basil Poledouris.

Of their work, that's harder to pin down. John Williams has a lot, from various Star Wars tunes, to Indiana Jones, to Superman, to Jurassic Park, and more.
Ennio Morricone, the theme from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, and 'Ecstasy of Gold' from the same film.
Basil Poledouris, with a nod to Robocop, 'Hymn to Red October', and other tracks from the Conan films, I'd go for 'Anvil of Crom'.



Also have to mention Nino Rota:



And Danny Elfman by way of Shirley Walker.




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Bran Dawri wrote:

The entire soundtrack to the Blues Brothers.

The Blues Brothers, best musical ever.

Since we've already strayed from the orchestral mandate, I'll go ahead a put a nod forward to Alan Silvestri's work on Young Guns II.

Also whoever did Repo: The Genetic Opera.

Everything in The Last of the Mohicans rocks my socks.

Ok

The Highlander Score, many bits aside from the main theme, and if you really dig deep there's some really good stuff like versions of old folk songs even in the really bad movies.

Surprisingly, I think the MCU films are quite poor score wise, but the main Avengers theme was an instant classic for me.

The Untouchables has some real stand out moments (Morricone score, so it would.)

The Nolan Bat films have good scores too, but a lot of the best themes tend to be buried in the middle of 14 minute long pieces which make them harder to listen to independently of the movies.

I also really liked some of the score from the Craig era Casino Royale, but this suffered the same issue.

There's a theme in Peter Jackson's King Kong when they're playing on the ice in Central Park I really like too.

Most of the others I'd mention have already been covered, but if inspiration strikes I'll be back!


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Two more

Last Of The Mohicans
Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.


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Blade Runner.

Once you dump the Marilyn Manson track, the Matrix soundtrack is solid all the way through.

 Azreal13 wrote:

Surprisingly, I think the MCU films are quite poor score wise, but the main Avengers theme was an instant classic for me.



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Blade Runner.

Seconded on the MCU thing, aside from Thor Ragnarok. I dunno why, but I just dig that weird 80s video game, side-scrolling shooter game vibe that music gives off.

Also, another vote for Blade Runner. . . And by extension, I have really enjoyed the Blade Runner 2049 score as well.


Since I'm on a modern sci-fi kick, say what you will about the rest of the film, but I really like the Interstellar score.

Nothing for Jurassic Park yet? Really? Another gem by John Williams, to go along with Star Wars. Yeesh. Tough crowd, if you forgot JP!!

That's why i started this topic, to catch the great ones we missed

Iam not a huge JP fan like the wife is so i didn't think about it, but it's john williams so i expect nothing less

I think a lot of scores are "really good" but maybe don't move me the way other ones do.

At the risk of upsetting people, I think a lot of John Williams stuff falls into it. Memorable, catchy, but not...overly interesting? I think that's probably the point of some of the music too...just to be a hugely memorable, easy to hum broad score. I think my favourite Williams pieces are the Star Wars main theme and Jurassic Park's main theme.

Off the top of my head, there are random score pieces I really like.



Chevalier de Sangreal
Probably one of my favourites from Hans Zimmer.



What are you going to do when you're not saving the world?
I think, arguably the best score of any of the super hero films recently - really a solid piece. The YouTube video's audio is pretty poor, but watching it on Netflix with good speakers is worthwhile.



Labor of Love
Short, but really nice bit from one of the newer Star Trek movies.



Host of the Seraphim
Not a score, in particular....but used to super sorrowful effect in The Mist. A haunting piece of music...



M83 Outro
Again, not a score in particular...but a great piece of music that is easily set to film (in this case, a cool trailer for IL2)



Children of Dune Soundtrack
Most of the pieces from this Soundtrack by Brian Tyler are pretty good - used in a lot of YouTube videos.



Taming the Dinosaurs
This is from Deepwater Horizon, and while the rest of the score is a bit meh, this piece has a nice ring to it.



Paind and Gain
Jablonsky does some really solid work on this soundtrack/suite.



The Guardian Suite
Trevor Rabin does a nice job on this piece as well.






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This is one I can't believe I left out...one of my favourites.



Sunshine: Surface of the Sun
From the original score to Sunshine - but there was some hiccup and I don't think the score was released in the US for a long time - it later featured below, though remixed. Most of the music from Sunshine is superb - this is the main piece. You'll recognize it from HEAPS of trailers that used it later.



Big Daddy's Death
Large parts of the Sunshine soundtrack were later used in Kick Ass...and they're equally excellent.

Anything by John Williams pretty much. his music when it's on is amazing and really makes the experiance. it's worth noting that Williams stuff has also had the benifit of being in some of the "never seen anything like it" movies of our time. Star Wars and Jurassic park where IMHO special

I think I own 3 CDs with scores from movies.

Last of the Mohicans.
The Piano
Gattaca

But agree with a lof of what has been said above (especially the Blues Brothers)

Well elbows that's why we have variety to me almost everything you put up is slow, boring or forget-able save the Dune one.


When you hear the magnificent 7, imperial march or mission impossible theme it is automatic recognition, even after all these years the compositions might be updated but they still hold up just like many of the classical greats from centuries past.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Nothing for Jurassic Park yet? Really? Another gem by John Williams, to go along with Star Wars. Yeesh. Tough crowd, if you forgot JP!!

What am I, chopped liver?


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 Elbows wrote:
At the risk of upsetting people, I think a lot of John Williams stuff falls into it. Memorable, catchy, but not...overly interesting?

I'm upset.

Can't say I completely understand what you mean, here, but from my POV John Williams' strength is rousing music. I look to others when I want moving.

If I had a complaint, it's that at times, he's too fond of triangles.

the new Wonder Woman sig tune

I think that in the last years there has been one movie and its soundtrack that has stuck to my mind, and it has to be Norwegian film Kongens Nei, I think its the only movie that actually made me feel like shedding a tear while I was watching it in the cinema.

As a result of channel surfing a few evenings ago, I am adding

Rush (Hans Zimmer)

Also, weirdly, Educating Rita. It's essentially one refrain repeated and modified, but, very likely because I've affection for the movie, I've always liked it. Very of its time though.

I think John Barry deserves a mention for his scores including the one to The Black Hole. Gave a sense of grandeur, mystery and fear to the strange dark ship hovering on the event horizon of a black hole.

Always been a huge fan of this one, the movie and the song: