While surfing the web today I discovered that the American Film Institute is hosting a concert at the Hollywood Bowl in September honoring "100 Years of Film Scores". The program hasn't been determined yet; the AFI sent out ballots to over 500 people asking them to select a number of scores (the site didn't say how many per ballot). The top 25 vote-getters will be performed in the concert in Casey Kasem's favorite order.
While obviously I didn't get one of those ballots, the AFI was kind enough to post the full list of 250 nominees. So I thought to myself, "Self, there haven't been 100 years of film scores, but this would be a neat exercise nonetheless!" So I went through the list and picked 25 scores that I thought were sufficiently exemplary and/or popular. This is what I came up with (without commentary):
- THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) - E.W. Korngold
- BATMAN (1989) - D. Elfman
- BEN-HUR (1959) - M. Rozsa
- THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957) - M. Arnold
- BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) - B. Bacharach
- CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981) - Vangelis
- CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) - B. Poledouris
- DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990) - J. Barry
- E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) - J. Williams
- GLORY (1989) - J. Horner
- THE GODFATHER (1972) - N. Rota
- JAWS (1975) - J. Williams
- KING KONG (1933) - M. Steiner
- LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) - M. Jarre
- THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001) - H. Shore
- THE NATURAL (1984) - R. Newman
- ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) - L. Bernstien
- PATTON (1970) - J. Goldsmith
- THE PINK PANTHER (1964) - H. Mancini
- PLANET OF THE APES (1968) - J. Goldsmith
- PSYCHO (1960) - B. Herrmann
- SPARTACUS (1960) - A. North
- STAR WARS (1977) - J. Williams
- VERTIGO (1958) - B. Herrmann
- THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) - H. Stothart
So, what would your list look like?