5 Favorite Soundtracks

Taking out the obvious examples that everyone rates super highly (or should do) including: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, Italian Job, Pirates Of Carribean, Jurrasic Park, Superman, James Bond, basically anything that has been blessed with the magic of John Williams/Danny Elfman/Hans Zimmer, it's important to rate the lesser known soundtrack artists (or their lesser known work). there's a few well known names here and a few odds and sods, but these are my 5 favorite film soundtracks from eerie theremin to intelligent rap via Nick Cave's creepy vocal steez.


1) Ennio Moriconie: The Thing Main Title

Asides Alien I personally believe that "The Thing" is one of the most important sci-fi thrillers of all time so it was definetly a tough job to reflect the eerieeness of the story through strong soundtracking but the mastermind behind some of the world's most recognisable western soundtracks Mr. Moricone, brings the lesser known 80's synth instrument the Theremin in and creates a suspenseful otherworldy soundtrack that sets the tone of the movie, using both sudden key changes and long doomy held notes to really show the space-sent terrors that the crew of the arctic research station are going to encounter later on in the movie.

2) RZA (Wu Tang) - Ghost Dog

It's probably only a matter of personal taste but I was slightly dubious when someone told me that Ghost Dog had an all-rap soundtrack even though it was supposed to be an american style samurai film, but after watching it I understood completely why the choice had been made and embraced it completely. The song features Wu-Tang figure-head RZA dropping some classic intelligent lyrical fire with a samurai-twist, which completely suits the style of the movie and through that has encouraged me to watch more classic japanese samurai films to understand where the references and inspirations coming from in this movie.

3) Jerry Fielding "Straw Dogs Soundtrack"

In what can be described as one of the most emotionally rollercoaster of a film I have ever seen, Straw Dogs needed a strong ending to match the entire menacing tone that underlined the film. This song comes just after the mild mannered Dustin Hoffman has activated "I've had enough of your shit mode" and killed the people who attacked his home. After closing on his final line of the film "I got 'em all" the soundtrack kicks in, a mixture of redhot fury representing the change of man that he has had to embrace to protect himself and his lover but also the melancholy he clears feels at resorting to the acts of violence he so deplored throughout the movie.

4) Nick Cave "The Proposition"

Nick Cave's penned western tale of "rampage, retribuition and revenge" is supported by some of those most atmospheric set of opening titles i've ever heard, which reminded me heavily of films such as punishment park and last man standing, with a slow sombre pace with a obvious western twist to give the film this almost heavy yet sparse feel which reflects perfectly in the movie as the bleakiness of the characters lives unfolded in the boiling heat of the australian outback.

5) Braindead Soundtrack

No appreciation soundtrack post would be complete without mentioning one of the most delightful inappropriate opening soundtracks to ever grace my (slightly broken) ears. Braindead is a film that is completely caked in gore and laughter which only a horror and comedy director savant could truely master, however in true form to our antipodean cousins, the Peter Jackson helmed film places it's tongue firmly in cheek and gives a completely wrong impression of the ensuing and hilarious OTT carnage to come. The only way to describe it is to paraphrase a friend of mine who compared braindeads masterful use of incredibly high quality orchestral work for such a zany film to "using limp bizkits "Break Stuff" to soundtrack the beach raid in Saving Private Ryan"