Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Avoiding the Broadway Musicals that made it into the movies, I can still think of a number of movies where the music played a major role and was memorable. Breaking it into movies with a great theme or two, and movies with an outstanding musical soundtrack, I'll start out with a couple of examples:
Great theme or two:
Bridge on the Rive Kwai
Zorba the Greek
Great musical soundtrack:
Streets of Fire
Rocky Horror
Star Wars
Many critics consider John Williams' "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" score to be one of the most manipulative pieces of music ever written; and, they meant it in a good way. I've read that Steven Spielberg actually tried to match the film to the music instead of the usual process.
For me, Basil Poledouris's score for "Conan the Barbarian" is absolutely brilliant! I've been buying soundtracks since my teens in the mid-Sixties: "Gone with the Wind" by Max Steiner, "Doctor Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia" by Maurice Jarre, "Romeo and Juliet" by Nino Rota, etc., including the works of Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa, Ernest Gold and others with many of these inspiring the works of John Williams and James Horner). But, "Conan" is simply outstanding, a perfect match for this epic story:
"Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis, who also wrote the amazing score for "Blade Runner", has a theme that still is used though mainly for parodies or as an allusion:
They use a traditional song throughout "On the Beach" to set the melancholy mood: "Waltzing Matilda". It's sung and incorporated into the score. Here's one scene:
Avoiding the Broadway Musicals that made it into the movies, I can still think of a number of movies where the music played a major role and was memorable. Breaking it into movies with a great theme or two, and movies with an outstanding musical soundtrack, I'll start out with a couple of examples:
Great theme or two:
Bridge on the Rive Kwai
Zorba the Greek
Great musical soundtrack:
Streets of Fire
Rocky Horror
Star Wars
Best musical turned into a movie, based on a great novel by French writer Victor Hugo (out now in most theaters) = Tom Hooper's Les Miserables. Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Ann Hathaway. Stunning. Strangely, few people are going to see it, saying they don't like musicals. Reviews are mixed but mostly great. doing much better in Britain, where perhaps there seem more familiar with great classics. But the movie is not like a staged Broadway musical with professional song and dance. These actors are using their real voices in the music by composer Claude-Michel Schönberg (with English-language lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer)
I found it so wonderful that I went to see it twice. I will probably buy it.
If every high school kid saw this rendition, they would love their assignment to read Les Mis in French or English.
Notting Hill is one that came immediately to mind.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
