Happy National Film Score Day! National Film Score Day is observed annually on April 3 to celebrate the powerful, emotional, and memorable music composed for films. Established in 2018, this day honors composers and encourages listeners to revisit classic movie soundtracks, ranging from John Williams to modern film scores.
Recently, I’ve seen some reels on Facebook and Instagram that have a classic TV or movie scene with the caption, “The right music makes all the difference.” These scenes range from cowboys fighting with sexy romantic music underneath to toddlers walking down a hallway with dark horror music playing. The truth is that the music really does make a difference.
So many amazing composers have written memorable movie scores. I’m unsure of the year, but the American Film Institute had a list of the 25 Greatest Film Scores of All Time. It’s not a bad list, but not a good one either. Here is that list:
25. How The West Was Won (1963)
24. On Golden Pond (1981)
23. The Mission (1986)
22. On The Waterfront (1954)
21. Ben-Hur (1959)
20. The Pink Panther (1964)
19. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
18. Planet of the Apes (1968)
17. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
16. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
15. Out of Africa (1985)
14. ET The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
13. King Kong (1933)
12. Vertigo (1958)
11. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
10. High Noon (1952)
9. Chinatown (1974)
8. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
7. Laura (1944)
6. Jaws (1975)
5. The Godfather (1972)
4. Psycho (1960)
3. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
2. Gone With The Wind (1939)
1. Star Wars (1977)
Classic FM created their own list of the 50 Greatest Film Scores. It is a very different list with some that I think should have made the other list.
What do you think? Is your favorite score on either list?
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
Wow they certainly are different. I was flabbergasted that LOTR was not on the first list, but a bit surprised to find it #1 on the other. Not sure what criteria they were using but the most successful instrumental as far as charts is Percy Faith’s “Theme from a Summer Place”. So I thought that might earn a spot. Also I think missed on both lists is Shaft, The Entertainer and Mission Impossible. The lists seem to like the big lush orchestral pieces but that doesn’t always mean they are the best. Great post Keith.
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I’m not a big ‘Star Wars’ fan but that score deserves its spot. Never seen ‘The Entertainer’ that Randy mentions, but the score seems to fit from what I know of it
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The key here is to distinguish soundtrack versus score. A good example would be Batman (1989). The soundtrack included songs from Prince. The score was the orchestral pieces done by Danny Elfman.
Elmer Bernstein wrote many scores for movies like The Ten Commandments, True Grit, The Great Escape, The Sons of Katie Elder, Ghostbusters, Airplane!, The Three Amigos, Stripes, Animal House, etc. Many of those films had regular music in them, but did include a piece or two composed by him.
John Williams is perhaps the most prolific and famous with Star Wars, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and so many others. Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore have contributed with Lord of the Rings and The Lion King. James Horner’s work for Titanic and Michael Giacchino’ work on the Incredibles are so different from each other, but superior in their own way.
The work of these film composers adds depth, emotion, and familiar themes throughout the movies. When Ernest Gold was presented with writing a score for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World he was shown some clips and read the script. He said that it felt like the characters were going around and around like a merry-go-round. Listen to how he incorporated that into the theme:
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Star Wars as number one, really?! No.
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The two lists are so very different
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how interesting, the contrast in the lists!
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