Top 5: Movie Scores

First off, respect to Oklahoma. I have some relatives up there, as do many of you. Prayers....

In the face of that, lets just move on with minimal fanfare to the Top 5 series. For the initial entry, let me lay out some of the ground rules. Well, they're not so much rules as guidelines. All these lists just kind of lay out my own personal preferences. Have I done some sort of academically researched, double blind, peer reviewed study to verify each list's accuracy? If you consider thinking about each list about 10 minutes before I start writing, or while I'm running, then yeah I totally did a study for all of them. These lists simply describe personal favorites, crazy as others may consider them. As with all things, your mileage may vary.

In fact, your comments would make these lists a little more interesting. What have I omitted? What did I include that makes you want to have me committed? Or accidentally run me over with your Mercedes five times? Comments are always welcome! If they're constructive, that is.

Oh, and I go in reverse order. Like NASA. Or Casey Kasem. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

For the first installment, we consider movie scores. I know, there's millions of lists of the "greatest movie scores." They're all wrong by the way. Let me drop some knowledge on you so you won't embarrass yourself should the subject arise in conversation. These five movie scores are The Best of all time. Naturally, foreign films aren't eligible for consideration. Any movie not made in English is, by definition, not worth mentioning or thinking about.

A movie score is not a movie soundtrack. I'm sure the UCLA Film School or some other nerdiversity has defined these terms somewhere. Whatevs. I, however, define a "movie score" as music specifically written for a particular movie, intended to highlight or enhance various scenes but not necessarily draw their own focus. A "movie soundtrack," on the other hand, consists of various unitary songs, each of which could stand on their own, and which the producers intend the audience to enjoy as such. So using my definitions, the songs in a musical would constitute a "soundtrack," because the movie wants the audience to enjoy the songs for themselves, maybe in addition to screen action, but certainly on their own. Likewise, all those incredible Simon and Garfunkel songs in The Graduate constitute a "soundtrack," because they (mostly) weren't written for the movie, they could stand alone apart from the movie, and you're supposed to focus on them. You might think of a "score" as the background music playing throughout a movie. Generally it lacks lyrics, except to the extent that there's a theme song that plays over the opening credits, and then that theme repeats throughout the movie itself.

Got it?

Lets proceed, shall we?

Here's my criteria: musically profound, enhances but not overwhelms the action, instantly memorable, evocative, impossible to imagine the movie without that music.

5.     Vertigo (Bernard Hermann). How great is this score? Its already universally regarded as one of the greatest scores of all time. Like many Hitchcock projects, it wasn't even nominated for Best Score at the Academy Awards. But when The Artist used about six minutes of the Vertigo score at a critical story juncture, it won Best Score of 2011. Think of the hypnotic and foreboding sense the music conveys over the opening credits, setting the movie's entire tone of events repeating through life. Think of the "back from the grave" scene when Judy, finally transformed by near psychotic James Stewart, walks out of the restroom into the neon green light as Madeleine. The music perfectly captures the euphoria Scottie feels at that moment as all his borderline maniacal love rushes back as he kisses her. Then in the final bell tower scene as Scottie drags Judy up to the top. The music just incredibly underlines the buildup to that shocking climax. You would recognize this music within seconds, and this movie is unthinkable without it. Like many of Hermann's scores, each character has his or her individual themes playing during their scenes. The themes weave into one another in a dreamlike, hypnotic way, just as Scottie and Madeleine seem to move back and forth between reality and madness. This score is simply impeccable.

4.     Lawrence of Arabia (Maurice Jarre). Imagine a score with a theme instantly recognizable within the first two notes, and that can carry a three and one-half hour movie without a trace of repetitiveness. That's the Lawrence of Arabia score. Most scenes play out in the desert, and the score perfectly conveys the desert's vastness and timelessness. Yet, it livens up to underscore critical action points. Imagine the scene when Lawrence finally retrieves the straggling Bedouin in the Nefud Desert's "Sun's Anvil." The music just conveys the power of that moment so forcefully.

3.     Breakfast at Tiffany's (Henry Mancini). Mancini's masterpiece. True, this does contain at least one "stand alone" song ("Moon River"), but the entire score perfectly captures that New Frontier, early 1960s sophistication that America has never regained. If one could imagine a music version of Audrey Hepburn, this is it. Highlights include the cool and elegant music playing as Hepburn and Peppard prowl Manhattan doing things the other has never done, the incredible music playing during what has to be the most amazing party scene ever filmed, and the gut wrenching music playing at the end during Peppard's speech in the rain outside the taxi ("because no matter where you go, you just end up running into yourself."). One afternoon during law school I was listening to KUT's old show, American Pop. It hasn't been on for more than 20 years, but was an incredible radio show featuring pop songs from roughly 1900 to 1960. That afternoon, the host just played the entire Breakfast at Tiffany's album. It stands on its own as a remarkable piece. Audrey Hepburn herself gave the best description. In a letter she wrote to Mancini after watching the movie for the first time with his music, she said "Your music has lifted us all up and sent us soaring. Everything we cannot say with words or show with action you have expressed for us. You have done this with so much imagination, fun and beauty." Exactly.

2.     Star Wars (John Williams). Who doesn't know this one? People who spent the last 35 years on a desert island maybe. Or imprisoned in some Chinese gulag (though even they probably saw a bootleg video at some point). If any music ever screamed "epic," this is it. It begins with one of the most powerful opening themes of any score ever written. Then it wraps all the following scenes together, providing each its own link to the main theme. As with other scores, individual characters have their own themes. Darth Vader's theme represents one of the most menacing pieces of music this side of Bach's Toccata and Fugue. Or Black Sabbath's Paranoid album.  The main theme, evoking Luke Skywalker, was played about a million times on TV and radio, even becoming a huge pop hit. Bill Murray turned it into one of his greatest Saturday Night Live accomplishments ("Star Wars! Nothing but Star Wars!"). Then there was that band in the Mos Eisley cantina. What the hell was going on there? Those Eeyore's Birthday Party freaks think that cantina is full of weirdoes. And why did that band know only one song? Even the seeming inconsequential "interlude" sections have power, such as right after the opening titles run and its just synthesizer notes evoking twinkling stars. How could Star Wars have been the same movie without that incredible score? It would have just been a bunch of freaks running around in costume (just like the ones who camp outside movie theatres every time a new one opens). The score gives the rest of the movie the emotional resonance needed to overcome the preposterousness of things like, well, all those Pete Rose haircuts for one. And Leia's buns. Its just magnificent.

1.     Gone With the Wind (Max Steiner). This is the greatest score ever, producing one of the best selling movie soundtrack albums. When you hear the main theme, you instantly think of Gone With the Wind. Despite running over three hours, it never flags at all. The music perfectly matches the mood and story on screen throughout. When originally released, and now when shown at the Paramount, the movie begins with a musical prelude, and after it ends, the music continues in prologue. The score includes original written material, and incorporates some of the popular period songs (like "Bonnie Blue Flag" or "Maryland My Maryland"). It winds loftily during lighter scenes, turns darker during the heavier scenes, and crescendos to enormous climax at the most gripping scenes. Can you possibly imagine the "not going to go hungry again" scene just ending in silence without that triumphant, determined ending leading to the intermission? Or the haunting music as Melanie dies (oops, spoiler alert!)? Or the delicate violin piece playing as Belle Watling and Melanie talk of their children in Belle's carriage? I could go on and on. Even reading the book, you still hear this music in your head it has such great impact. Its the greatest score of all time. Enjoy

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