The Good Musician

The Good Musician loves great film music. Growing up with 50’s musical extravaganzas through the evolution to electronic and digital of today, I’m aware that what I hear in the movies is just as affecting as what I see. A great music and sound staff can pull a mediocre movie up to a decent one. Even though I have more than five favorites, I’ll try to be the Good Blogger and keep it short and sweet.

1. Kiss Me Kate (1953) Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson look fabulous and really wail on the Cole Porter score.

2. Psycho (1960) Pretty much the exemplar, taking strings to the edge, presaging the era of electronic film music

3. One Eyed Jacks (1961) Brando directs Brando, Karl Malden, and Katy Jurado to a score as searingly gorgeous as the Big Sur setting

4. A tie, for obvious reasons The Big Chill (1983) and
Forrest Gump (1994) All-time Boomer favorites–for good reason!

5. Stop Loss (2008) Kimberly Pierce’s laser precise film is a must see and hear. It’s an epiphanic anthem for the current generation of young men and women at war abroad who can’t turn it off when they come home, and the critical role of music in helping tell the real story of tens of thousands of severely wounded young men and women–body, heart, soul, and psyche–and the catastrophic consequences of this practice for America.

“Aha!” the alert reader will exclaim, “that’s six faves!” Technically, yes…but I never excluded a tie And that doesn’t include any favorite foreign flicks, animation, manga…so expect to see more Top Five Music lists coming up!

What are your top five film soundtracks? Send me a post, or a link to your list.

Comments Off