If you enjoy both cinema and music, or if you’ve ever listened to critics or music…
Movie soundtracks
Music in the audiovisual language can help bring a story to life and define a character on a deeper level. A great soundtrack can not only elevate an average film or series but can also elevate exceptional cinema into unforgettable memory. That’s why in this category, we want to talk to you about some of the greatest soundtracks in history and our favorites. In addition to the articles you’ll find following this text, we’ll also provide you with a short list to get you started.
Because a background soundtrack, simple yet melodic, can take you on an unforgettable roller coaster of emotions. From iconic central themes to lesser-remembered compositions that are equally recognizable among film enthusiasts (and advertisers). And not just instrumental music, we must also mention songs specifically composed for legendary films like Saturday Night Fever or more recently in series like Euphoria, where music plays a significant role within the series’ language.
All this without forgetting those soundtrack composers who forever changed the way music and cinema interact with their work, influencing all subsequent cinema. That’s the beauty of the invention of the seventh art – as a language, it’s a comprehensive compilation that allows us to access and celebrate many different worthwhile things. Hence, in the following, we must limit ourselves to classical music, leaving out Pulp Fiction, High Fidelity, or American Graffiti, to name just three examples.
The Greatest Original Soundtracks of All Time
Gladiator, by Hans Zimmer
Wonderful music by Hans Zimmer. Gladiator, Interstellar, or Pearl Harbor were, each in its time, revelations for all cinephiles who discovered them. Decade after decade, Zimmer forged a legend and reinvented himself with each new cinematic proposal.
In addition to everything we already know about the film and the main theme performed by Lisa Gerrard, we can add that the melodies written by this composer evoke the key scenes of the movie, expressing all the emotions it contains with absolute precision. Considering that Gladiator is one of those films you can watch hundreds of times, that’s quite impressive.
Life Is Beautiful, by Nicola Piovani
Nicola Piovani, an Italian composer of music for cinema and theater, won the Oscar for Best Original Score for Life Is Beautiful, the film directed by Roberto Benigni. The work of the Italian filmmaker is considered a masterpiece by many and morally questionable by others. However, no one seems to dispute that Piovani’s work is highly enjoyable. So much so that the power of the film’s message would not have been as strong without the excellent music accompanying it.
Forrest Gump, by Alan Silvestri
Between Alan Silvestri’s original compositions and the popular songs that defined the decades the protagonist went through, the Forrest Gump soundtrack offers a unique and unrepeatable film that seems to have stumbled upon all the ingredients of a great movie in their prime state – from direction to script, editing, soundtrack, and performances. Everything is memorable.
Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), by Ennio Morricone
Considering the famous trilogy directed by Sergio Leone as a single work is difficult to avoid. Not just because of the appearance of the same actors or the period it represents. Also because of the music that accompanies it. Ennio Morricone’s pieces (composer of other soundtracks such as Cinema Paradiso, The Mission, Once Upon a Time in the West, or Malèna) have filled all sorts of characters with charisma, interpreting their silences or memories with a power capable of disarming the viewer in the middle of a gunfight.
Waltz with Bashir, by Max Richter
When we dedicated a full article to Max Richter, we never thought it would become what it is today. Not because of a lack of talent – he had already captivated us with Waltz with Bashir, just like with previous works like Vladimir’s Blues and On The Nature Of Daylight (later used in the soundtracks of Shutter Island and Arrival) – but undoubtedly, the success his work has achieved since then was unexpected.
From his reinterpretation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons to his work on soundtracks for series like The Leftovers or the forgettable Invasión, not to mention compositions created from Virginia Woolf’s works.
Well, in Waltz with Bashir, he already showed what he would be capable of doing and had done before, turning the protagonist and director Ari Folman’s recurring memory scene into something unique and even transcendent within his animated documentary.
Instrumental music: more than 700 famous instrumental pieces
Even though the complete instrumental music playlist is at your disposal after this introduction and just…
Classical music composers from 1400 to today
We have preferred to overlook everything produced in the Middle Ages and earlier, focusing solely on…
Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter
Some of you have probably read Vivaldi and have thought: classical music, whoosh, it’s time to…
Forrest Gump soundtrack. How many and what songs are heard in the Tom Hanks movie?
Forrest Gump is one of the most important films of the 90s, with an influence that…
High Fidelity music: over 100 High Fidelity songs
High Fidelity is one of our favorite movies from the 2000s and, by extension, from all…
Max Richter. Career, musical works and best compositions
Max Richter is a Classical and Ambient Music composer, possibly one of the greatest classical music…
Jo Yeong-wook, Cho Young-wuk or 조영욱, Park Chan-wook’s main composer
For anyone who isn’t familiar with the South Korean classical music composer and film score artist…