Your favorite film/movie composers?

Basil Poledouris.

His music for Conan and Starship Troopers are the most awesomly epic set of musics I've ever heard. And Robocop has an awesome main theme.

His music is as intense and bloody and awesome as the movies he wrote for!

Danny Elfman.

Especially "The Little Things" from Wanted.

It totally inspired my WIP.

Clint Mansell - especially when he teams up with the Kronos Quartet. Thomas Newman. His scores are never bad and he's done some very nifty things - especially with A Series of Unfortunate Events. I adore some of Danny Elfman's scores but they sometimes feel a little repetitive.

Popol Vuh
Brad Fiedel
Mark Lindsay and W. Michael Lewis (I can't get over how awesome this is)

Michael Nyman blew me away in Gattaca.

Harry Gregson-Williams was especially great in Kingdom of Heaven (and Metal Gear Solid).

Oh and John Carpenter does some pretty mean things with a synthesizer... if you're into that kind of stuff.

Jerry Goldsmith...the master, and one of the most innovative composers ever. He's been dead for five years, and no one's taken his place yet.

Jō Hisaishi.

Joel McNeely.

James Newton Howard.

Basil Poledouris.

Elmer Bernstein.

Hans Zimmer, though in the beginning his scores all sounded the same...Crimson Tide was a rehash of Backdraft, but he got over that. And at least he didn't outright steal other scores, like James Horner did throughout the 1980s. The Last Samurai has some really stirring themes, even though the movie itself was a total cliche circus.

Michael Kamen.

John Williams...though his signature is so strong that I haven't really listened to much of his stuff since 1990. He is to musical innovation now what Mount Rushmore is to animation, to borrow a phrase.

Shigeru Umebayashi.

(Interesting how half the folks on my list are dead. )

10er said:

Michael Nyman blew me away in Gattaca.

Harry Gregson-Williams was especially great in Kingdom of Heaven (and Metal Gear Solid).

Oh and John Carpenter does some pretty mean things with a synthesizer... if you're into that kind of stuff.

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It was Ennio Morricone who did the awesome synth stuff for The Thing, I think he and Carpenter had quite a few collaborations like that, a real good choice in picking him though.

Ennio Morricone -- he's a God.

Dario Marianelli -- he so deserved the Oscar for Atonement, and the other scores I've heard (Pride & Prejudice and The Soloist) are sublime.

Alexandre Desplat -- amazing. Recommendations: Lust, Caution, Birth, and the Painted Veil.

My other favorites include John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Thomas Newman, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Giacchino and at times Phillip Glass (his repetitive stuff is hypnotic sometimes).

I don't follow this stuff as closely as some of you, but often when I notice I like a score, it turns out to be by Hans Zimmer. And will second whoever said Morricone.

I also tend to like John Barry and the old timer who did the score for the original "Cape Fear," a guy named Bernard Hermann. (I watch a lot of old movies).

Also, I thought Neil Young's score for Dead Man was outrageously good.

Noah Body said:

Jō Hisaishi.

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I can't believe I forgot him!

Good to know I'm not the only person who knows who he is.

Noah Body said:

Good to know I'm not the only person who knows who he is.

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The score for Laputa is just gorgeous. I admit, though, that I'm only familiar with his work with Miyazaki.

Check out his works with Takeshi Kitano...Hana-Bi, Sonatine, and for a more languid approach punctuated with action, Brother.

Hans Zimmer
Rachel Portman
Thomas Newman
James Newton Howard
Zbigniew Preisner
Joe Hisaishi
Yuki Kajiura

Kathleen42 said:

Thomas Newman. His scores are never bad and he's done some very nifty things - especially with A Series of Unfortunate Events.

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Love Thomas Newman's stuff, Unfortunate Events among them as well as Six Feet Under and American Beauty. His stuff is very distinctive; I can almost always pick it out.

His relative (cousin? uncle?) Randy Newman is not so bad either, if you overlook Short People. I love his scores to the Natural and Toy Story.

John Williams is noteworthy as well. (Love his Witches of Eastwick score)

Vangelis has also done some awesome scores--Chariots of Fire, Cosmos, Blade Runner, The Bounty, Missing, Antarctica and several foreign films.

Clannad for Robin Hood, Theme from Harry's Game

AuburnAssassin said:

His relative (cousin? uncle?) Randy Newman is not so bad either, if you overlook Short People. I love his scores to the Natural and Toy Story.

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Poor Randy Newman, doomed to be known forever for what's probably the worst song he ever wrote!

Dario Marianelli is my current fave. His music is beautiful. Classic, but inventive and fresh.

regdog said:

James Horner-Braveheart was a great soundtrack

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Except he's been copying himself for the past 10 years or so.

Shoot, he did that in 1985 when he took motifs from Star Trek II and used them in Cocoon.

Oh wait...ST II was a rehash of Wolfen. My bad.

Zoombie said:

Basil Poledouris.

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What he said. If the pack and I ever get around to raiding an enemy subdivision I'm totally going to blast Anvil of Crom out of the War Honda when we attack. It's good smiting music.

Adding Michael Giacchino.

I LOVE the scores for Lost, Star Trek, Up, and The Incredibles. He's so versatile.

Max Steiner
Elmer Bernstein
John Barry
Ennio Morricone
Bernard Herrmann
John Williams