The Best Music in Film

DJ Brahms

(House and techno DJ performing Big Beat)

S&S: What is your favourite film soundtrack music and why do you like it so much?
"My favourite soundtrack music would have to be the soundtrack music to the movie A Clockwork Orange (1971). While the music was not composed for the movie (obviously) Kubrick does an amazing turn with very familiar songs in an unfamiliar setting. This irony is best seen in the scene where the kids are raping and beating people up to 'Singin' in the Rain'. Also the scene of 'Ode to Joy' playing while Alex is watching scenes of horror such as the atom bomb and the holocaust is fantastic."
S&S: In what ways does music best enhance a film?
"Music is the soul of film. Even when movies were silent, the mood of a scene was best conveyed by how the piano player played the music along with the silent film. When all else fails, a director can easily send a message to the audience just by what music he plays. It also works in the opposite way. In the film Birds where no soundtrack was used, Hitchcock left a very unsettling atmosphere as the audience did not know what to think."
S&S: Which film either has music that you wished you'd written or is one you would like to rescore and why?
"One of the great travesties of film recently was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) . While the film itself is amazing and breathtaking, I feel that the music is very cliché, and despite the fact that Howard Shore won an Oscar. I felt given the amount of time he had, he could have come up with a much better score that could match the scope of the film itself. Alternatively, I wish I had written the score to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Ennio Morricone is great."
Last Updated: 29 Sep 2008