Film Comment's 101 Film Score Milestones
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This Essential List of 101 Great Film Score Milestones (in chronological order) from 1933-2001 was compiled by John Caps in the November-December 2003 issue of Film Comment magazine in an article titled "Soundtracks 101 – Essential Movie Music: A Listener's Guide." The article also provided a brief history of film music in the introduction and further details on each of the choices.
Facts and Commentary About the List:
•The list was created to mark the 70th anniversary of the film score in 2003.
• The list consisted of composed instrumental film scores (whether symphonic or electronic, classical or pop in style), not film musicals or song scores, from American and British films (English-language films).
•These were films from the talkie era onwards (and recognizing that silent films were never silent).
•The quality of a film often has nothing to do with the rating of its film score, e.g., Taras Bulba (1962, Waxman).
•According to the author, the list was "representative rather than exhaustive; all of the scores in the list "contribute something memorable, something personal, to their films - and communicate one step further to us as music."
•Predictably, one-fourth of the list was taken by the six giants of the Golden Age (Steiner, Waxman, Korngold, Newman, Rozsa, Herrmann). Yet the author also recognized some of the great, but seemingly forgotten, figures of the recent past: Laurence Rosenthal, Richard Rodney Bennett, Dave Grusin, David Shire, and Basil Poledouris.
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101 new
Waking Life
2001, in 9 top lists Check -
100 new
The Horse Whisperer
1998, in 2 top lists Check -
99 new
Angela's Ashes
1999, in 0 top lists Check -
98 new
Much Ado About Nothing
1993, in 0 top lists Check -
97 new
Bed & Breakfast
1991, in 0 top lists Check -
96 new
Basic Instinct
1992, in 10 top lists Check -
95 new
The Grifters
1990, in 8 top lists Check -
94 new
Queen of Hearts
1989, in 0 top lists Check -
93 new
Batman
1989, in 9 top lists Check -
92 new
The Mission
1986, in 6 top lists Check -
91 new
Return to Oz
1985, in 1 top list Check -
90 new
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
1982, in 30 top lists Check -
89 new
Conan the Barbarian
1982, in 4 top lists Check -
88 new
Wolfen
1981, in 1 top list Check -
87 new
My Bodyguard
1980, in 0 top lists Check -
86 new
Gloria
1980, in 8 top lists Check -
85 new
Altered States
1980, in 5 top lists Check -
84 new
Tess
1979, in 5 top lists Check -
83 new
The Stunt Man
1980, in 2 top lists Check -
82 new
Islands in the Stream
1977, in 0 top lists Check -
81 new
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1977, in 23 top lists Check -
80 new
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
1976, in 0 top lists Check -
79 new
The Return of a Man Called Horse
1976, in 0 top lists Check -
78 new
Jaws
1975, in 28 top lists Check -
77 new
The Conversation
1974, in 23 top lists Check -
76 new
Chinatown
1974, in 31 top lists Check -
75 new
The Three Musketeers
1973, in 2 top lists Check -
74 new
Lady Caroline Lamb
1972, in 0 top lists Check -
73 new
The Last Valley
1971, in 1 top list Check -
72 new
The Wild Bunch
1969, in 25 top lists Check -
71 new
The Reivers
1969, in 0 top lists Check -
70 new
The Thomas Crown Affair
1968 — a.k.a. The Crown Caper, in 3 top lists Check -
69 new
Planet of the Apes
1968, in 16 top lists Check -
68 new
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
1968, in 0 top lists Check -
67 new
Wait Until Dark
1967, in 2 top lists Check -
66 new
Two for the Road
1967, in 4 top lists Check -
65 new
Far from the Madding Crowd
1967, in 2 top lists Check -
64 new
In Cold Blood
1967, in 8 top lists Check -
63 new
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo
1966 — a.k.a. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in 28 top lists Check -
62 new
Cool Hand Luke
1967, in 13 top lists Check -
61 new
A Patch of Blue
1965, in 0 top lists Check -
60 new
Goldfinger
1964, in 15 top lists Check -
59 new
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
1963, in 6 top lists Check -
58 new
A Shot in the Dark
1964, in 2 top lists Check -
57 new
Tom Jones
1963, in 13 top lists Check -
56 new
The Cardinal
1963, in 1 top list Check -
55 new
Taras Bulba
1962, in 0 top lists Check -
54 new
The Miracle Worker
1962, in 6 top lists Check -
53 new
To Kill a Mockingbird
1962, in 18 top lists Check -
52 new
Lawrence of Arabia
1962, in 40 top lists Check
Last updated on Feb 26, 2013; source