Every month, our contributors submit lists of ten films fitting certain topics. Each month, we feature an alphabetical list of films along with commentary explaining our selections. There will also be an itemized list at the end of each of our individual selections.

When we decided to do this monthly feature, one thing we wanted to do was stretch beyond the traditional list of films. The next two months will be devoted to exploring music, specifically that which might be forgotten by or unfamiliar to modern audiences. Some of these films are from the early 1940s while others are more recent.

Our primary requirement was that they couldn’t be so memorable that the Average Joe would recognize it instantly and put it to the film it’s from. Our secondary requirement was that the Oscars didn’t recognize it. That wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule, especially for some of these titles that haven’t maintained the level of familiarity that an Oscar win would normally generate.

Peter, Tripp, Thomas and I pored over our favorite films, isolating those which we thought may not be very familiar. Each of us put together our own criteria for making that determination, so while some might disagree with these selections, they are nevertheless personal choices. We’ve included introductions below to explain our decision making processes.

Additionally, instead of the posters you’ve seen previously and attributions to the film’s director, each title below (arranged alphabetically) has the composer listed and either a single tune or the full soundtrack as embedded directly from YouTube. Where possible, I have attempted to cue up the soundtracks directly to the most emblematic choice for each as indicated by each contributor. There is one exception, which I’ll explain momentarily.

Looking at the submissions, there are three films that appear on multiple lists. All three showed up on only two lists. Thomas and I selected Murder on the Orient Express while Peter and Thomas agreed on The Lion in Winter and A Passage to India. For Orient Express, Thomas and I selected different tracks from the film. I cued the embedded video to the title track, which happens to be my selection, but Thomas selected the “Orient Express” track. You can listen to the full soundtrack or just pick out those two tracks.

As for composers that appear on multiple lists, would you be surprised if I said that there were only three out of 37 non-duplicate submissions? I would be. There are a lot of talented composers in cinema history and while some are so well known that their every work is familiar to the masses (think John Williams or Bernard Herrmann), there are plenty of other great composers that don’t have that level of recognition and that’s what a list like this is intended to do: bring attention to great scores that time or complacency may have forgotten. Those three composers: Bernard Herrmann (not for a single Hitchcock film, his frequent collaborator), Jerome Moross, and Jerry Goldsmith.

After the break, dig into our introductions and follow that by reading about each film score.

The Introductions

Wesley Lovell:
When I sat down to create this list, my focus was not just to find my favorite scores, but to find those that most people either hadn’t heard, don’t realize that they’ve heard, or might have heard but don’t remember. Titles like Dracula and Requiem for a Dream may sound familiar as they’ve been used frequently for movie trailers, but most aren’t likely to recall where they came from. I also dug into genre fare, films that aren’t typically as popular on a broad scale as they are with their narrow demographics. While something like The Day the Earth Stood Still was popular in its time, most modern audiences haven’t sought it out even though they should while others like Suspiria are quite far off the beaten track such that even many fans of the genre haven’t likely seen it. I didn’t want my list to contain just a smattering of traditional film scores and I think the end result speaks for itself in terms of breadth and scope.

Peter J. Patrick:
Great film scores enrich the movie watching experience by bringing the emotional elements of a film’s story to life. When I think of the great film scores I think of many that were on AFI’s 2005 list of 250 nominees for their 25 Greatest Film Scores of All Time selection. I can only surmise that some of the best on the list failed to make the cut because they weren’t as well known to the majority of the jury of 500 professionals that made the selection. If not known to them, then clearly not known to the public at large. Therefore, all of my selections are of films that were on the list of nominees but failed to make the final cut, limited to one film per composer.

Tripp Burton:
I had a hard time with this list, mostly because I struggled to figure out what people aren’t familiar with. In fact, a couple of my choices were rejected because they were “too familiar.” In the end, I focused on movies whose music I really loved but that I don’t often hear outside of the film itself. The greatest film scores pop up throughout our lives in commercials, concerts, trailers, and elsewhere. These are some scores that should be heard just as much but sadly aren’t.

Thomas LaTourrette:
My first love is Broadway musicals, but my second largest music collection is film scores. I will often put them on when I want a more relaxing mood. While compiling this list and re-listening to the scores, I did realize that I often like grand epic outdoorsy, medieval, and 1920s-1930s-set scores. Most of my favorites are not the most popular, but the quieter ones found here.

Auntie Mame (1958)

(composer: Bronislau Kaper) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Kaper won his Oscar for his lilting score of 1953’s Lili, but in a career that spanned 42 years during which he composed 133 scores, he excelled at bringing out the best in everything from the high comedy in the Marx Brothers’ 1937 classic A Day at the Races to the heartbreaking drama of Frank Borzage’s 1940 anti-Nazi classic The Mortal Storm. Although he worked steadily from 1930 through 1972, he reached his zenith with his jaunty score for this 1958 comedy classic which brings out the best from the film’s wild comic scenes to its quieter sentimental moments.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

(composer: Hugo Friedhofer) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Friedhofer was one of the great composers of classic Hollywood whose scores ran the gamut from Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat to Mark Robson’s Edge of Doom to Henry King’s This Earth Is Mine in a career that spanned nearly fifty years from 1929 to the mid-1970s encompassing 168 composing credits. He was nominated for an Oscar nine times for such memorable scores as those he composed for The Woman in the Window, The Bishop’s Wife, and An Affair to Remember. He won his only Oscar for this, his finest score which grabs you from beginning to end.

The Big Country (1958)

(composer: Jerome Moross) Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – Jerome Moross wrote many film scores in addition to more typical classical fare and one failed though fabled Broadway musical (The Golden Apple). In a 20-year span, he wrote the music for 16 movies and also did work for television. The work he will be most remembered for is the music for The Big Country. I have to confess that I have not seen the movie, but it is on my list to see, partially for Burl Ives’ Oscar-winning role (though why he wasn’t nominated for playing Big Daddy in the same year’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a mystery) and to see how this rousing score was used in the actual film. It is a very American sounding score, full of horns and is typical of many westerns, but few scores can grab me the same way. It is a pulsing score and I can imagine shots of mountains and rolling stage coaches with the main theme. It is said that the main theme came from a walk he remembered taking in the flatlands around Albuquerque. I don’t know if that is true or not, but it is easy to picture time in the west inspiring this score. The score was nominated for the Oscar, but did not win, which is a pity. Dmitri Tiomkin’s work on The Old Man and the Sea won that year, and I have to confess that I do not know it (another movie on my list to see), but it is hard to picture it being better than this sweeping score.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

(composer: Wojciech Kilar) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – When this film released in 1992, I was thoroughly enamored with it. It quickly rose to the top of my list of favorite films that year and became one of the first film scores I picked up on audio cassette (yes, audio cassette). It captures the haunting echoes of Gothic Europe while tantalizing us with the grandiose exoticism of the film itself. There are few musical scores that feel so distinct, yet so absolutely native to the film in which they’re housed.

The Cardinal (1963)

(composer: Jerome Moross) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Former child prodigy Moross composed ballet scores for Broadway from 1935 to 1954,as well as the musical The Golden Apple, while working as an assistant for some of the greatest film composers in history including Hugo Friedhofer and Franz Waxman. As a film composer he amassed twenty compositions in twenty-two years from 1948 to 1969, earning a single Oscar nomination for 1958’s The Big Country. His finest score, however, was for this 1963 Otto Preminger film in which he worked in various musical genres from music hall pizzazz to tangos to Viennese waltzes to full, rich dramatic underscoring in this multi-faceted film.

A Cat in Paris (2010)

(composer: Serge Bessert) Commentary By Tripp Burton – Serge Besset’s score to A Cat in Paris, a tragically underseen family gem from a few years ago, is pastiche done right. The film follows a literal cat burglar through the streets of Paris, and Besset captures the mood of the city musically. It harkens back to film noir jazz and Hollywood action scores, but does so with a playfulness befitting an animated family film. The film moves at a breakneck pace, yet the music never lets it feel rushed and gives it a lived-in quality that puts you right at ease.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

(composer: Bernard Herrmann) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Herrmann was a master composer. Having worked with Alfred Hitchcock on two of his most famous film scores, Vertigo and Psycho, you’re probably familiar with his work. Like many composers in that period, he was flooded with work and one of his finest pieces is one that helped define the science fiction genre’s musical themes. Today, you cannot imagine a sci-fi score from this period without hearing the bizarre sounds of a theremin, one of the most unique and fascinating instruments ever used and Herrmann played its electricity to mesmerizing effect.

Death on the Nile (1978)

(composer: Nino Rota) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – The 1970s were characterized by a long list of all-star productions. Not new to that period, there were some dazzling genre pieces that emerged from it. One of those was the adaptation of Agatha Christie’s legendary Death on the Nile. Set on a tourist boat traveling down the Nile and allowing its denizens to explore the ruins of the region, Christie’s clever plotting make for a fun movie. Having the likes of Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, David Niven, Maggie Smith and others certainly gave the film a nice sheen, but Rota’s score adds a majestic and regional flavor to the film that defines the cultures thrust together in this compelling mystery.

Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

(composer: Hans Zimmer) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – This is the film that got me into the Oscars, but it was so much more than that to a 14-year-old in 1989. A look at social injustice and prejudice in the 1950s, the film is a towering work of strong performances and emotional resonance. One key element to this is the rolling theme composed by Hans Zimmer. His orchestral theme has a jaunty quality that feels as if you’re traveling down the road of life with naught but the mysteries of life to guide you. To this day, when I hear the score, I can’t help but feel my heart lift in realization that things can and will get better as long as we have friends and family to support us.

East of Eden (1955)

(composer: Leonard Rosenman) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – It isn’t often that an unknown composer’s first film score is as auspicious as Rosenman’s haunting score of East of Eden, but that’s exactly what happened when Rosenman’s friend James Dean introduced him to Elia Kazan. Rosenman would also score Dean’s second starring film Rebel without a Cuase. His signature score, however, was probably the one he composed for TV’s Combat! (1962-67). Busy until his death in 2008, he won back-to-back Oscars for Barry Lyndon and Bound for Glory and two subsequent nominations, but to me his first was his best.

Elmer Gantry (1960)

(composer: Andre Previn) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Prolific composer-arranger Previn won four Oscars out of eleven nominations for adapting Gigi, Porgy and Bess, Irma La Douce, and My Fair Lady. The forty-four films that he was associated with as composer ran the gamut from Bad Day at Black Rock to Designing Woman to The Music Lovers. Nothing, however, jumps out at you as quite as much as his score for Richard Brooks’ rousing film of Sinclair Lewis’ novel about the phony 1920s evangelist, one of three films for which he received a 1960 Oscar nomination.

Empire of the Sun (1987)

(composer: John Williams) Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – John Williams is known for his iconic work on films like Jaws, Star Wars, Superman, and Raiders of the Los Ark, but he also did some lesser known but beautiful film work like this. I debated about whether to use this score or the one from Amistad, neither of which is known well to most people. This is the second film that I haven’t seen but whose score I recommend. I enjoy the choral music he wrote for it as well as the instrumental themes. The opening number, Suo Gan, is a choral masterpiece, and that is followed by some lyrical passages, which do not fit my idea of war music, but it is a lovely score to listen to. The ending choral piece, Exsultate Justi, is also a lovely piece. Williams holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a living person, 50, and is second only to Walt Disney for the number of total nominations. Surprisingly he has only won five times. He also wrote the score to Jurassic Park which is one of my all time favorite scores, but too well known to use here.

The Fifth Element (1997)

(composer: Eric Serra) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – This eclectic sci-fi comedy was an incredibly fun experience in the theater. Part of that excitement is thanks to the fascinating score. Eric Serra isn’t a name most audiences will immediately recognize, but what he did for this film was precisely the right thing. Combining an inventive tone with incredibly varied individual compositions within the film creates an atmosphere of rich otherworldly entertainment. While the most famous musical segment in the film is a remix of a prominent opera piece, the rest of the score is equally memorable.

The Firm (1993)

(composer: Dave Grusin) Commentary By Tripp Burton – Dave Grusin’s pulsating piano score to 1993’s The Firm is the first score that came to mind. The film itself is a very well-made thriller, the sort of film that wraps me in every time it is on TV, but the score is a work of art that transcends the movie. Grusin is one of the unsung masters of Hollywood scores, and this is one of my favorites. Using only a piano, Grusin manages to hit every piece of the film perfectly: the legato romance between Tom Cruise and Jeanne Tripplehorn, the staccato beat of the corrupt law firm and, most memorably, the throbbing Memphis jazz of the final chase scene.

Hangover Square (1945)

(composer: Bernard Herrmann) Commentary By Tripp Burton – Stephen Sondheim has credited Bernard Herrmann’s score to Hangover Square as his major influence on Sweeney Todd, and you can see that influence everywhere. The film is a dark, Victorian thriller, and Herrmann embraces the time period and the styles to haunting effect. The film creaks with danger hanging on every note, but it is at the end of the film that the music truly comes alive. The central character, a composer, finally performs his masterpiece (Herrmann’s “Concerto Macabre”) as the room around him burns, and while the visual of him playing the piano surrounded by flames is jarring, Herrmann’s music is more frightening, creepy and haunting. For a composer who has given us some of the most well known pieces of film music in Hollywood history, this is one that is sadly not remembered very well.

Henry V (1989)

(composer: Patrick Doyle) Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – This is another medieval score with moody and moving music by Patrick Doyle. It perfectly matched Kenneth Branagh’s take on the Shakespeare play. Doyle had primarily been an actor before asking Branagh if he could write the score for Henry V. He had never written a film score before, but did admirably with his first one. The stirring music behind the St. Crispin’s Day speech matches the emotion of Branagh’s Henry as he exhorts his men to fight against a larger army, and it is easy to picture going into battle with him. The film was nominated for Academy Awards for actor, director and won for costume design. The score was inexplicably not nominated. Doyle has gone on to write for movies and usually produces two to four scores a year. He has twice been nominated for film scores, but has yet to win.

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

(composer: Alfred Newman) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Nominated a whopping 45 times for an Oscar and winner of 9, the legendary head of Twentieth-Century Fox’s music department was responsible for some of the greatest scores from some of the greatest films of his era that lasted from 1930 to 1970. The emotional impact of his score for How Green Was My Valley was matched time and time again by the scores for such films as The Song of Bernadette, The Keys of the Kingdom, All About Eve, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Anastasia, and The Diary of Anne Frank.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

(composer: Jerry Goldsmith) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Goldsmith’s 258 composer credits began with TV work in 1953, which led to his mixing film and TV credits throughout his lengthy career. Nominated for an Oscar 18 times, he surprisingly won only once for his score of 1976’s The Omen. Other scores that made major impressions included The Sand Pebbles, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Chinatown, The Boys from Brazil, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and L.A. Confidential, which beautifully evoked the music of the 1950s in which the 1997 film was set.

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

(composer: Trevor Jones, Randy Edelman) Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – This stirring score is probably Trevor Jones’ most known piece of music. He has written for many other films, most notably Excalibur. He originally was commissioned to write an electronic score for the film, but it was later decided that an orchestral score would suit it better. There was not time for him to rewrite all the score, so Randy Edelman was brought in to score some of the minor themes. I am not certain why, but the co-credit given to both men made the score ineligible for Oscar consideration, even though it received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. The rousing work stays in mind.

The Lion in Winter (1968)

(composer: John Barry) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – No composer of the post-studio era has composed scores as varied as those Barry contributed to works ranging from Goldfinger and ten other James Bond films to Born Free to The Lion in Winter to Midnight Cowboy to Out of Africa to Dances with Wolves and many others, encompassing 115 credits in all. He won five out seven Oscars he was nominated for. Picking one of his great scores for inclusion here is difficult, but I have to go with his magnificent score for The Lion in Winter which wouldn’t be half the film it is without it.
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – This is arguably my favorite film score and has remained so for years. I was first introduced to John Barry’s music with his Oscar-winning score and title theme for Born Free, which I felt too well known to use here. He wrote for many movies over the years and may be best known for working on the James Bond films over 25 years. However, his quieter work in films like Born Free, Dances with Wolves and most notably The Lion in Winter are what I will long remember. From the opening credits with an almost ferocious beat and sung choral accompaniment through quieter choral and instrumental pieces, the whole score has a very medieval feeling to it, which suits the movie. Even though it is one of my favorite films, I do not picture scenes from the film while I listen to the score, which I do listen to quite often, but I find it a score to relax to. Barry was nominated for seven Oscars and won five, four for his scores including this one.

Lust, Caution (2007)

(composer: Alexandre Desplat) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – One of the most exciting new composers to emerge in the last two decades is Alexandre Desplat. Just listen to any one of his scores and you’ll hear a musical talent who easily shifts from one genre to the next with grace and beauty. Each score is a distinctive creation that excites the aural palette. One of his most underrecognized scores was that for Ang Lee’s war-time drama Lust, Caution. His thematic strain is gorgeous and flows beautifully from scene to scene. Even standing on its own outside the film, it’s mesmerizing. This is the kind of composition that stays with you and is why it should be remembered much more fondly and frequently.

The Man from Snowy River (1982)

(composer: Bruce Rowland) Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – Bruce Rowland is an Australian composer who is best known, if he is known at all, for this score. He has written a number of other film scores, but none have captured my attention the way this rousing and lyrical score does. It takes elements from the typical western scores, but soft piano interludes keep it from seeming too derivative. There is a sense of scale and beauty that suits the Australian landscapes. Rowland won the Australian Film Institute award for best music score for this film.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

(composer: Richard Rodney Bennett) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – From the opening titles, you’re hit hard with a forceful, fascinating score for the adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Starring a rich tableau of legendary actors, Bennett gets us started in grand fashion conjuring the opulence of the era while establishing a stark dramatic tone. Later, when the train leaves the station for the first time, his jaunty, rolling waltz transports us with the train into a world of mystery and suspense. Bennett’s score was nominated for the Oscar, but lost; however, it’s such a stunning work, it seems almost criminal for it to be ignored.
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – Richard Rodney Bennet was a prolific writer of music, producing over 200 pieces for the concert hall and over 50 film scores. He wrote operas, ballets, choral works and symphonies. However, I would confess that the only work of his that I know is this lively period score that is so perfectly suited to the film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s best seller. The elegant set piece when the train is leaving the station remains one of my favorite pieces of music. The rest of the score is also lovely, with a few eerie points for the kidnapping and murder. For years I wondered if it would ever be released on CD, and I was immensely grateful when that finally happened. He received his second Oscar nomination for this film, but never did win.

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

(composer: Popul Vuh) Commentary By Tripp Burton – Popul Vuh, a German electronic music band, had a long history with Werner Herzog throughout the 1970s, adding a synthesized sound that contrasted brilliantly with his vision of the powers of the natural world. With his remake of Nosferatu, their synthesizer echoes the religious undertones of Herzog’s vision. From the opening montage of mummified bodies, Popul Vuh’s music almost sounds like a chant, quietly orchestrating the journey towards death (or eternal life, in some cases). The music today sounds slightly dated, but also much more timeless than most of the other synthesizer-heavy soundtracks of the period, as if nineteenth century world and the twentieth century music are still resonating in our blood in the twenty-first century.

A Passage to India (1984)

(composer: Maurice Jarre) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – Nominated nine times for an Oscar, Jarre won three, all for David Lean films, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Passage to India, his 168 film scores also include The Longest Day, Sundays and Cybele, The Damned, Ryan’s Daughter, Witness, Dead Poets Society, and Ghost, but Oscar got it right. Jarre’s greatest compositions were for Lean’s films with Lawrence and Zhivago justly celebrated, but we shouldn’t forget his thrilling contributions to Lean’s unjustly maligned Ryan’s Daughter and his last, the mesmerizing A Passage to India.
Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – After leaving the engineering school of the Sorbonne in Paris to pursue music, Maurice Jarre worked in theater and the recording of film scores. His life and career changed drastically in 1961 when producer Sam Spiegel asked him to write the score for Lawrence of Arabia. He had written only four film scores to that point, none of which are for movies I have heard of. That epic score won him his first Oscar and huge acclaim. He scored every David Lean film after that. They paired together on Lean’s last film A Passage to India. When a friend first heard the score she complained that the sitar strum at the beginning was the only piece of Indian music in the film, but the grand score suits the waning days of the British rule in India. Parts can be a little eerie, but the marches are jaunty and evocative of the period. It is just a pleasant score to sit and listen to. I had owned this on vinyl and wondered for a long time if it would ever be released on CD. Jarre wrote for the films for over 40 years, scoring nine Oscar nominations. He won his third and final Oscar (all for David Lean films) for this stirring score.

Peyton Place (1957)

(composer: Franz Waxman) Commentary By Peter J. Patrick – With composer credits totaling in excess of 170, the prolific Waxman was justly celebrated during his lifetime with twelve Oscar nominations and back-to-back wins for Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun. His other masterful scores include The Bride of Frankenstein, The Devil-Doll, Woman of the Year, Dark Passage, Shane, Stalag 17, Mister Roberts, The Spirit of St. Louis, and saving the best for near last, two great ones, Peyton Place and The Nun’s Story.

Pleasantville (1998)

(composer: Randy Newman) Commentary By Tripp Burton – On paper, Randy Newman is the perfect person to compose the score to Gary Ross’ pastiche drama Pleasantville. He comes from a long line of Hollywood composers, many of whom wrote the sort of films that Pleasantville is throwing back to, and the upbeat, jazzy scores that he had just started writing for the Pixar films fit perfectly in the sitcom world of the film. What is shocking, though, is just how traditionally sweeping Newman’s score to Pleasantville is, devoid of all of the cynicism that laces through Newman’s songwriting. This score is at its best in the most serious of moments, and it helps the film sell its most difficult moments with ease and emotion.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

(composer: Jon Brion) Commentary By Tripp Burton – Although you could argue that the best use of music in Punch-Drunk Love is the choice to use “He Needs Me” from Popeye, the truth is that the original contributions of Jon Brion to the film are just as meticulous, if not quite as instantly memorable. Brion matches both the quirkiness and the tenderness of the film with his music, and it floats through the film wistfully.

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

(composer: Clint Mansell) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – This hypnotic, haunting film deserved a score that matched its ferocity and creative excessiveness. Mansell’s composition meets the film’s needs unwaveringly. Darren Aronofsky’s unrelenting film would be nothing without the compelling musical cues that punctuate each of his twisted scenes. With a slew of superb performances, this is a film that needs to be seen once, but requires absolute preparation before sitting down to. You may recognize the score from myriad film trailers in the last decade that have borrowed heavily from its fascinating theme.

A Room with a View (1985)

(composer: Richard Robbins) Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – Puccini’s aria “O Mio Babbino Caro” plays over the opening credits and Richard Robbins uses that as a theme throughout his lyrical score. Robbins wrote the scores for over 30 films. Most of his work was on period films including most of the Merchant-Ivory productions. He was later nominated for Oscars for his work on The Remains of the Day and Howards End, though this is my favorite of his scores. This is also my favorite Merchant-Ivory film, which may bias me towards the score, but I do not think that Robbins ever wrote a more lush one.

Shadowlands (1993)

(composer: George Fenton) Commentary By Thomas LaTourrette – George Fenton has written music for an eclectic group of filmmakers: Richard Attenborough, Ken Loach, Nicholas Hytner, and Stephen Frears. He has written over one hundred film scores, in addition to television and radio work, and has gotten four Academy Award nominations along the way. The slow, calm music of Shadowlands is my favorite of his, with some very British choral work interspersed through the instrumentals. The opening Veni Sancte Spiritus would easily be sung by any Anglican cathedral choir, though the setting is more orchestral than what is normally found there. It is a relaxing score.

Six Degrees of Separation (1993)

(composer: Jerry Goldsmith) Commentary By Tripp Burton – The strings that play under Six Degrees of Separation, Fred Schipisi’s adaptation of John Guare’s play, give the film a sense of New York elegance befitting the setting. These characters are at the top of the social pyramid, or desperately want to get there, and Jerry Goldsmith gives the film the sound of sitting in a private concert of a string quartet. The music also has a slight tension to it, though, making the music of the film border on the psychological thriller going on in the minds of these characters. We never know when the misdemeanors of the film’s characters will turn into real danger, and Goldsmith reminds us of that. Most memorably, though, is the tango that Goldsmith ends the film on, a bouncy string dance as Ouisa walks the New York streets anew.

Sunshine (2007)

(composer: John Murphy) Commentary By Tripp Burton – Danny Boyle’s Sunshine harkens back to a lot of the giants of Hollywood science fiction, most familiarly the operatic tones of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Whereas Kubrick embraced classical music to tell the story of humanity, composer John Murphy created his own original sound for Sunshine. It is just as epic and sweeping, but also new and foreboding, capturing the essence of Boyle’s vision perfectly. Boyle sees outer space as something serenely beautiful, and the orange and yellow tints of the approaching sun are painted aurally by John Murphy’s instantly classic score.

Suspiria (1977)

(composer: Dario Argento, Goblin) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – Horror fans can claim an appreciation for the genre, but without catching Dario Argento’s mesmerizing surrealist flick, they won’t truly have an appreciation for every aspect of the genre. Set in a bizarre European boarding house, a young woman discovers a cult of activity deep within its walls. Adding punctuation to its twisted narrative and visually expressive scenes is an eclectic score by Argento and a band by the name of Goblin. To appreciate the film is to appreciate the utterly unusual qualities that make up the myriad pieces of the production. A part of that is this score, which is as quirky and surreal as the film itself.

The Truman Show (1998)

(composer: Burkhard Dallwitz, Philip Glass) Commentary By Wesley Lovell – In 1998, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to declare this film ineligible for Oscar consideration due to its heavy use of Philip Glass compositions from prior films, including most notably Powaqqatsi. It’s easy to see why they made that decision, but invalidating the work Dallwitz puts into this is a real shame as his composition is beautiful and subtly dramatic. That’s not to dismiss the use of Glass’ work. The combination of these efforts creates a fascinating aural landscape for our hero in his journey of self-discovery and his attempts to conquer his fears and explore the outside world even if it isn’t the world he thinks it is. While I’m impressed with Dallwitz’s work, I have no problem giving credit to both composers for creating one of my favorite musical constructs of the 1990s.

Unbreakable (2000)

(composer: James Newton Howard) Commentary By Tripp Burton – In Unbreakable, M. Night Shyamalan plays with many of the tropes of superhero films, but perhaps no one breaks those tropes as much as James Newton Howard. For his score, which is part low-rent 1990s thriller, part piano sonata, and part string quartet, Howard never gives into either the John Williams triumph or the Danny Elfman cynicism that most superhero movies before this got. It is as real and rooted as the film itself is, yet always gives Shyamalan’s vision the fragile sense that all of this could shatter at any moment.

The Wicker Man (1973)

(composer: Paul Giovanni) Commentary By Tripp Burton – I am a sucker for the juxtaposition of music and image in film, and Paul Giovanni’s The Wicker Man score is one of the greatest examples of the horrifying mismatch of what you are hearing and what you are seeing. Giovanni embraces the cheerful village veneer of Summerisle, and his compendium of imitation and traditional folk songs make the underlying nature of the film even more disturbing. It may not be the first thing we think of when we think of horror scores, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one of the most provocative.