THE IMPORTANCE OF SCORING - A List

He is...the most interesting film composer in the world

Aside from movies, comics, and TV shows, another one of my nerdy passions is original scoring. A good score can elevate the work that it's attached to. It can take a great scene and make it amazing. Or it's sudden absence can throw the viewer off and ratchet up the suspense to an insane degree.

I don't think it's inaccurate to call Hans Zimmer my favorite composer working today, just as I don't think it's inaccurate to call John Williams perhaps the most iconic composer in the history of film. And even though I could fill this list with ten of my favorite Zimmer tunes, I'm going to try to be more democratic about it. So that being said, here's a list of some of my all-time favorite scenes elevated by amazing scores. This list won't include themes (so no Raiders, no Imperial March). But it will include some of the best all-around scenes in some of my favorite movies.

'Gravity' - composer Steven Price; track "Shenzou" - Price's amazing work throughout this exercise in nearly intolerable suspense is worth listening to, and definitely worthy of the Oscar he won. But this track, used during Stone's final moments in space before she returns to Earth captures everything about the scene: the suspense, the fear, the danger, and the hope. Stone realizes she's definitely in extreme danger, but she's accepting of it, realizing she did everything she could to get back home, and Price's work in these moments have a sort of dangerous beauty about them. Even if Stone had died, I don't think the music would have necessarily had to change.

'Rocky' - composer Bill Conti; track "The Final Bell" - beginning with a quiet piano tune before exploding into a mess of brass, bongos and bass guitar, Conti's work captures the chaos surrounding Rocky and Apollo at the end of their interminable fight. It is rambunctious and happy, and builds to a rousing climax as Rocky loses the fight but still ends the night on a high note, embracing Adrian.

'Jaws' - composer John Williams; track "Blown to Bits" - look, a lot of these selections are gonna have crescendos. And I'm ok with that. But this is the best one of the bunch, John Williams had a lot of work and a lot of acclaim before 1975, but this work is not only among his best, it arguably set him on the path to being a household name. Spielberg's work on this film is nothing short of masterful - it's a rare movie I'd give the title "flawless", and the conjunction of what he did behind the camera, and what Williams did behind the scenes are a huge part of what makes it great. The shark barrels toward Chief Brody, closer and closer, the gun shots more erratic, the frantic music rising higher and higher to match Brody's desperation, and then..."smile, you sonofabitch!" Absolutely perfect.

'Backdraft' - composer Hans Zimmer: track "Show Me Your Firetruck" - Hans is gonna be on this list more than once, and honestly, I could throw him on it a handful of times and not feel like I was overdoing it. His work on Ron Howard's firefighter drama is very strong, but the ending is a rousing sort of call to arms. Filled with the sort of red-blooded American...fuckyeahness of it, the final minute or so of 'Backdraft' makes you forget that one of the main characters just died, and instead fills you with pride at the job firefighters all over the world do. I honestly can't listen to this track without feeling it in my heart.

'Guardians of the Galaxy' - composer Tyler Bates; track "Black Tears" - one type of movie scene that I'm obsessed with; the heroic sacrifice. Quill reaches for the power stone, knowing it will likely kill him, before being saved by the other Guardians. And (forgive me, because I don't know actual music terms, so this is all gonna be in embarrassingly layman terms) for the two and a half minutes or so, the theme? chorus? whatever repeats itself, adding a new element every time, as soon as another team member puts his/her hands on Quill to save him. The music literally grows stronger and louder in the same time as the group on the screen does. It's one of the better "heroic sacrifice" scenes I can think of, and Tyler Bates' work is a large part of why it works so well.

'Mad Max: Fury Road' - composer Tom Holkenborg; track "Brothers in Arms" - Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL) was flat-out robbed of an Oscar nomination last year. Larceny, I say! So many of his musical set pieces on this job could have made the list, but I'm choosing the track that plays over Furiosa and Max's escape through the gorge and ensuing motorcycle chase and flight from Immortan Joe. Every single thing about the scene and the music is absolutely thrilling, and it gels so fluidly with the desperate action on the screen. It's a relentlessly intense movie and this scene is just the strongest of the bunch.



'Gladiator' - composer Hans Zimmer; track "Am I Not Merciful?" - a different sort of crescendo. The powerful music belies the lack of traditional action on the screen. But it does capture the utter defeat that Maximus and his friends have suffered at the hands of the villainous Commodus. Everyone is captured, killed, chained up, and threatened with death, and Zimmer's track piles on the sadness as Commodus viciously threatens his sister and her son. The crescendo-ing portion itself is great, but once the scene cuts over to the Colliseum and the captured gladiator, it switches to something wonderfully thrilling, if not still tinged with despair. The people cheer for their hero, not knowing that he's already lost. Not for nothin', but there's a reason this was one of the most commercially successful soundtracks of all time.

'Sunshine' - composer John Murphy; track "Sunshine (Adagio in D minor)" - Capa and Kaneda are outside the ship where exposure to the sun will literally incinerate you in an instant. Murphy's score begins slowly and builds, going faster and faster, as the two men race to finish crucial repair work and then to escape the sun. It builds and builds until it reaches a fever pitch as Capa makes it and Kaneda elects to finish the repairs at the cost of his own life (another heroic sacrifice!). It's a beautiful and heart-wrenching, yet exciting piece of music, mixed masterfully within Danny Boyle's underrated sci-fi gem.



'Glory' - composer James Horner; track "Charging Fort Wagner" - James Horner, along with the Boys Choir of Harlem, did wonderful work on Edward Zwick's Civil War masterpiece. Like so many others on the list, there are a few scenes with great music. But the ending...once the 54th regiment see their colonel gunned down and they decide they've had enough of this shit, they charge the impregnable Fort Wagner. Against all odds, they advance, losing few along the way, the music beautiful, thrilling, exciting and determined - just like the men. It builds to a spectacular ending, worthy of comparison to Tchaikovsky, just as the soldiers are ready to declare victory...before they are all slaughtered, ending a battle they never even had a chance to win. It's a wonderful and heartbreaking scene that wouldn't have been as good without Horner's work.


Did you really think I'd forgotten my favorite movie score of all time??

'The Dark Knight' - composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard; track "A Watchful Guardian" - the Joker is captured, Harvey Dent is dead, Gordon's son is safe...and yet, Batman and Gordon reach a difficult understanding that Batman must take the blame for several crimes and disappear. It's a scene filled with what can only be described as hope and melancholy. And the composers realize that essence beautifully with their work in the final two minutes of the film. It is hauntingly beautiful, and filled with a sort of sad optimism. They've saved Gotham (for now) but at what cost? This is not only one of my favorite moments in Chris Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, it's one of my favorite moments in all of film. Amazing.