Jerry Goldsmith

Jerry Goldsmith is one of the best composers to ever write music for film. Among film score aficionados, he is highly regarded and, deservedly so. While he is almost uncannily versatile, he has also established a style that is oft-imitated by other composers who nevertheless do not capture the intangible quality that Goldsmith brought to a majority of his scores. He is as good a composer as his contemporary John Williams, but he is not quite as well known because he did not score as many high-profile or successful films. He has enjoyed successful collaborations with directors Franklin J Schaffner, Paul Verhoeven, and Joe Dante among others. With around 250 films to his name, a mere survey of his vast body of work would probably require its own monograph. At the most basic level, Goldsmith often uses syncopated action rhythms, complex time signatures, innovative orchestral playing techniques, and bold themes. Admittedly, it is difficult to summarize his style because he was proficient in so many genres and did each of them with flair and superb skill. His scores range from the unabashedly emotional strains of Hoosiers, Rudy, Forever Young, and Explorers to the spine-chilling tones and extraordinary acoustics of Alien, The Omen, The Illustrated Man, Planet of the Apes, and Basic Instinct. Often, he blended themes of terror and beauty into an emotionally wrenching whole, as in Poltergeist, The Final Conflict, Logan's Run, and Twilight Zone: The Movie. Goldsmith's action music is furious, complex, and thematic, the propelling rhythms driving scores such as The Wind and the Lion, Total Recall, The Mummy, The 13th Warrior, The Edge, Capricorn One, First Knight, and the first three Rambo films. As one might notice, the titles of some of the mentioned films are probably unfamiliar, and indeed, Goldsmith is known for providing superb scores for sub-par films. Yet he has done great scores for films of quality as well, among them Patton, Under Fire, LA Confidential, Disney's animated feature Mulan, The Blue Max, and The Sand Pebbles. One major highlight of his later work is not from a film, but for a theme park attraction. In 2001, Goldsmith wrote the magnificent music for the Soarin' Over California ride at Disney's California Adventure. After scoring hundreds of films for dozens of genres, from western to horror to sci-fi, Goldsmith passed away in 2004, winning only one Oscar for The Omen.

Air Force One

Alien*
Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend

Bad Girls

Bandolero

Basic Instinct*
The Boys From Brazil*
The Blue Max*
Breakheart Pass

California Adventure: Soarin’ Over California*

Capricorn One

Chain Reaction
The Challenge
Chinatown
Congo

Contract on Cherry Street
Damnation Alley
Deep Rising

The Edge*

Executive Decision
Explorers*

Extreme Prejudice
Fate Is the Hunter

The Final Conflict*

First Blood*

First Knight**

Forever Young

The Ghost and the Darkness
Gladiator (Rejected)
The Great Train Robbery
Gremlins*
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
The Haunting
Hollow Man

Hoosiers**

The Illustrated Man
In Harm's Way
Inchon

Innerspace
Islands in the Stream*

King Solomon’s Mines

Legend*
Link

Lionheart*

Logan’s Run*
Magic
Masada* (with Morton Stevens)

Medicine Man

Mulan**

The Mummy*
Night Crossing*

Not Without My Daughter

The Omen
One Little Indian
Papillon*

Patton*

Planet of the Apes*

Poltergeist**

Poltergeist 2: The Other Side
Players
Powder
The Prize
Psycho II

Rambo: First Blood Part II**

Rambo III
Rio Conchos
The River Wild

Rudy**

The Russia House
The Salamander
The Sand Pebbles*

The Secret of NIMH*

The Shadow
Shock Treatment

Sleeping With the Enemy
Small Soldiers
Stagecoach

Star Trek: The Motion Picture**

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier**

Star Trek: First Contact (with Joel Goldsmith)

Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek: Nemesis
The Sum of All Fears
Supergirl
The Swarm
Take a Hard Ride

Timeline (Rejected)

Total Recall**

Twilight Zone: The Movie**

Under Fire**

The Wind and the Lion**

The 13^th Warrior*
100 Rifles

Elliot Goldenthal

Elliot Goldenthal is a truly unique voice in film music, having a challenging, complex, operatic, and often wild style. Goldenthal trained under renowned composers Aaron Copland and John Corigliano, and the influence of the latter in particular can be heard in his work. He has a fondness for experimental orchestration, unconventional playing styles, aleatoric passages, and wailing, trilling French horns. Augmenting the technical precision and compositional mastery of his scores, Goldenthal also injects ample doses of powerful emotion, with an emphasis on darkness balanced by grandiloquent finales. In this way, Goldenthal is analogous to Danny Elfman, but while Elfman's darkness leans towards sadness, Goldenthal's tends toward anger. His wife is flamboyant film and theater director Julie Taymor, known for films such as Titus and Frida and a Tony winner for her direction of Disney's Lion King stage show. In late 2005, Goldenthal was involved in a bizarre accident that nearly killed him: he was leaning back in a chair at home and hit his head, suffering severe head trauma. Thankfully, he was able to recover, and has done a few film scores since then. Goldenthal scored a few films in the '80s and early '90s, most notably Pet Sematary, but David Fincher gave him his first big film assignment with Alien 3. Goldenthal composed a score for the Alien franchise equaled only by Goldsmith's classic score for the original. It was in this score that Goldenthal established many of his trademarks, from whooping horns and tortured brass to skittering string arpeggios and brutal percussion. He has scored many films for director Neil Jordan, including Interview with the Vampire, Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy, and The Good Thief. He has also scored Taymor's Titus, Frida, and The Tempest. The first is a wildly eclectic score merging dark choir, furious orchestral action, metal grunge, swinging jazz, and techno. The second is a Spanish-flavored score that netted Goldenthal an Academy Award, despite (or maybe because of) its more conventional writing. The last showed Goldenthal's facility with using electric guitars and electronics in a musically interesting manner, something also displayed in his scores for Michael Mann's Heat and the action film SWAT. Goldenthal has done extensive work in theater, has composed an opera called Grendel based on the legend of Beowulf, and written an oratorio called Fire Water Paper, dedicated to the victims of the Vietnam war. Goldenthal's film output has slowed lately, but hopefully filmmakers will continue to recognize and use his considerable talents.

Alien 3**

Batman Forever

Batman and Robin
Cobb

Demolition Man

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within**

Fire Water Paper* (Concert Work)

Frida
The Green Bird
Grendel (Opera)

Heat

In Dreams

Interview with the Vampire
Jabberwocky (Single)

Michael Collins*
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Othello Symphony
Pet Sematary

Public Enemies

S.W.A.T.*
Sphere
The Stone Cutters and Early Chamber Works
Symphony in G# Minor*

The Tempest

Titus**

Nigel Godrich

Nigel Godrich is primarily a pop music producer and recording engineer. Although he has worked with artists such as Paul McCartney, Beck, and U2, he is most renowned for his extensive work with Radiohead since 1994. Godrich was hired by director Edgar Wright to compose the score to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Godrich blends his pop sensibilities with nods to classic '80s and early '90s video game music to create a fitting audio accompaniment to Wright's surrealistic adventure.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Nick Glennie-Smith

Although Nick Glennie-Smith has composed scores for films such as The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers, Ella Enchanted, and Secretariat, his largest role has been as a conductor for Hans Zimmer and his proteges. The scores he has conducted run from Zimmer's The Lion King, Crimson Tide, Da Vinci Code and the Pirates of the Caribbean films to Steve Jablonsky's Transformers films and Henry Jackman's X-Men: First Class. His highest-profile assignment as a composer, however, was for Michael Bay's The Rock. Glennie-Smith and Harry Gregson-Williams composed the bulk of this highly derivative yet highly enjoyable and pulse-pounding score. Hans Zimmer composed the theme heard during the main titles.

The Rock (with Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams)

Michael Giacchino

Michael Giacchino is unquestionably one of the brightest rising stars in film music today. Giacchino is one of the few of the new generation of composers who values and knows how to use melody, thematic development, and orchestral color. A film score fan himself, Giacchino's knowledge of master composers from Erich Korngold to John Williams informs and enhances his work. Giacchino got his start scoring for video games, including The Lost World, the first console game to feature a complete orchestral score. He soon attracted the attention of Steven Spielberg, who hired Giacchino to score Medal of Honor, the WWII game inspired by Saving Private Ryan. Giacchino went on to score four more games in the series, all written in the best John Williams-esque, adventurous tradition. JJ Abrams was a fan of these games, and hired the composer to score for the TV series Alias and all the episodes of Lost, the former displaying a wide range of stylistic techniques and the latter one of the most effective and emotional scores for television. Giacchino's big break in the feature film arena came with Brad Bird's The Incredibles, a wild and lush take on John Barry's James Bond stylings. Giacchino subsequently became a Pixar stalwart, scoring Bird's Ratatouille, Cars 2, Inside Out, the Academy Award-winning Up, and numerous Disney and Pixar short films. He also continued his collaboration with JJ Abrams, scoring Mission: Impossible 3, Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, the end credits for Cloverfield (directed by Matt Reeves and produced by Abrams), and the wonderful Super 8. Other notable scores include the Wachowskis’ Speed Racer and Jupiter Ascending, Matt Reeves's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and his masterful, under-seen horror film Let Me In, 50/50 starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, Bird’s Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol and Tomorrowland, Jurassic World, and a magnificent soundtrack for Andrew Stanton’s John Carter. Giacchino has recently established a musical presence in the Disney parks, scoring the pre-show music for the new Star Tours and the high-energy, rollicking music for Disneyland's Space Mountain. The composer has only been scoring features since 2004, and he has already amassed an impressive and varied body of work. No doubt his future will promise even more musical gems as his style continues to evolve.

Alias (Seasons 1,2)
The Book of Henry

Call of Duty

Cars 2
Coco
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
War for the Planet of the Apes
Day and Night
Doctor Strange

Earth Days

The Family Stone

The Incredibles**
Inside Out
John Carter**
Jupiter Ascending*
Jurassic World
La Luna

Land of the Lost

Let Me In*

Lost (Seasons 1-6)*
Lost: Via Domus
The Lost World (Video Game)

Medal of Honor**

Medal of Honor: Underground

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault*

Medal of Honor: Frontline**

Medal of Honor: Airborne

Monte Carlo

Mission: Impossible 3
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol
Prep and Landing
Prep and Landing: Operation Secret Santa
Prep and Landing: Naughty vs. Nice

Ratatouille**

Roar! From Cloverfield
Rogue One*

Secret Weapons Over Normandy*

Sky High

Speed Racer*
Spider-Man: Homecoming

Star Trek
Star Trek Into Darkness
Star Trek Beyond

Super 8**
Tomorrowland*
Toy Story of Terror
Toy Story That Time Forgot
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Up**
Zootopia

Harold Faltermeyer

Harold Faltermeyer's style of electronic scoring was only popular for a brief time, and yet his approach is a great influence on fellow German Hans Zimmer. A protege of electronic musician Giorgio Moroder, Faltermeyer first hit it big with Beverly Hills Cop and its popular "Axel F" theme. Scores for films like Fletch and The Running Man followed, but his most famous and lasting piece of music is his immortal anthem to Top Gun. Faltermeyer and guitarist Steve Stevens created a simple yet rousing tribute to the thrills of flying, not to mention to the sight of Val Kilmer trying to hold his stomach in. Unfortunately, the rest of the score doesn't match up to the anthem (which actually isn't used in the film that much). Tango and Cash in 1989 was in many ways his swan song, as he didn't score a major film until Kevin Smith's Cop Out (which was basically Faltermeyer paying homage to his 80s scores anyway).

Tango and Cash

Top Gun

Ilan Eshkeri

Ilan Eshkeri got his first big break from director Matthew Vaughn, co-composing the score to the brilliant film Layer Cake, one of Daniel Craig's first major roles. He then was the sole composer for the under seen  fantasy Stardust, creating a rich, thematic score that drew upon the greatest traditions of old-school fantasy scoring as typified by James Horner and Trevor Jones. He was also the original composer (with Marius De Vries) of Kick-Ass, but not very much of his work remains in the film. Eshkeri has also written scores for Hannibal Rising, The Young Victoria, Centurion, and the Wachowski Brothers-produced Ninja Assassin.

Kick-Ass** (with Henry Jackman, John Murphy, Marius De Vries, Danny Elfman)

Stardust

Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman is one of my favorite composers and continues to maintain high quality in his scores after more than 30 years. Elfman was the lead singer and songwriter of the band Oingo Boingo before Tim Burton pulled him into the world of film scoring. Elfman is a self-taught composer, and his sheer innate talent puts him on equal footing with other classically trained composers. He is best known for scoring all but two of Tim Burton's feature films (Ed Wood, scored by Howard Shore, and Sweeney Todd, based on Stephen Sondheim's already existing stage musical). From the start, Elfman displayed inventiveness, taking the influence of classical Russian composers Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich and film composers Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann and adding his own macabre sense of humor. Offsetting his sometimes wacky stylings as showcased in films like Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, Elfman has also written some of the most emotional and dramatic pieces of film music that I've heard. He is especially strong at awe-inspiring finales, as evidenced in Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Men in Black, The Family Man, Corpse Bride, and Spider-Man 1 and 2. Subtler scores such as A Simple Plan, Good Will Hunting, Dolores Claiborne, Taking Woodstock, and Restless are also highlights.  He often writes main title pieces that define the tone of the film to come and that can stand alone as musical compositions. Despite his lack of formal training, Elfman writes complex and multi-layered music and is not afraid to use dissonance and atonality. The "darkness" omnipresent in much of his music is characterized by melancholy and loneliness, though he can also write hardcore action with the best of them. He also is adept at "lighter" music, as shown in Black Beauty, Sommersby, Big Fish, and Charlotte's Web. Elfman is a master at portraying beauty without cheese and writing wild action without sacrificing coherence. Also typical of Elfman is a main theme that can be used in many different settings without sounding forced or awkward.
 
In addition to his collaborations with Burton, Elfman has also worked with Sam Raimi, scoring one track from Army of Darkness and the scores for Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man 2. Raimi and Elfman had a falling out after the composer's music was hacked up in Spider-Man 2, but the two have since reconciled and collaborated on Oz The Great and Powerful. Elfman is a fabulous songwriter and a great singer, singing every voice in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and featuring as the singing voice of Jack Skellington in the classic Nightmare Before Christmas. The multitalented composer has also written music for ballets, a concert work called Serenda Schizophrana, and the Cirque du Soleil show Iris. He even sang a rock song for the first time in 13 years with "The Little Things," featured in the film Wanted, and contributed a score track for Kick-Ass. On top of that, he is married to actress Bridget Fonda. I could rhapsodize about Elfman for a lot longer, but suffice to say that he is a wild and unique talent whose music is truly exceptional.

Alice in Wonderland**
Alice Through the Looking Glass**
Anywhere But Here
Article 99
The Avengers: Age of Ultron (with Brian Tyler)
Back to School

Batman**

Batman Returns**

Beetlejuice
Big Eyes

Big Fish*
Big Top Pee-Wee

Black Beauty**

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*

Charlotte’s Web
Chicago
The Circle
A Civil Action

Corpse Bride
Dark Shadows

Darkman

Dick Tracy
Dolores Claiborne

Edward Scissorhands**
The End of the Tour
Epic
Extreme Measures

The Family Man
Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades Darker
Fifty Shades Freed

Flubber

Forbidden Zone
Frankenweenie*
The Frighteners
Freeway
The Girl on the Train

Good Will Hunting
Goosebumps
Heartbreakers (theme only; score by John Debney)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Hitchcock

The Hulk

Instinct
Jimmy Callicut (demos)
Justice League*

Kick-Ass** (1 track)

The Kingdom
Little Demons* (demos)

Mars Attacks!

Meet the Robinsons

Men in Black

Men in Black II
Men in Black 3

Midnight Run

Milk

Mission: Impossible
Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Music for a Darkened Theatre Volume 1 (compilation)

Music for a Darkened Theatre Volume 2 (compilation)
Nacho Libre

The Next Three Days

Nightbreed

The Nightmare Before Christmas**
Oz: The Great and Powerful

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure

Planet of the Apes
Promised Land
Proof of Life
Rabbit & Rogue (Ballet)*
Real Steel

Red Dragon
Restless
Scrooged*

Serenada Schizophrana** (Concert Work)
Silver Linings Playbook

Sleepy Hollow**

Sommersby**
A Simple Plan

Spider-Man*

Spider-Man 2**

Spy Kids (with Harry Gregson-Williams, John Debney)

Standard Operating Procedure

Taking Woodstock

Terminator Salvation
To Die For
Tulip Fever
The Unknown Known

Wanted*

Wisdom

The Wolfman

Oingo Boingo Albums:
BOI-NGO
Boingo
Dark at the End of the Tunnel
Dead Man's Party
Good for Your Soul
Nothing to Fear
Only a Lad
So-Lo

Cliff Eidelman

Cliff Eidelman's first major score was for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, one of the film series' better scores ranking with the best entries of Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, and Michael Giacchino. Unfortunately, he has been stuck doing lightweight comedies since then and hasn't really had enough chances to show his talent.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Patrick Doyle

Scotsman Patrick Doyle has a wonderfully robust, lavish, and noble orchestral style that may seem over the top to some, but is undoubtedly inspiring to listen to when taken on its own terms. Doyle has scored the films for Kenneth Branagh, the man who brought Shakespeare to the moviegoers. Until recently, his most high profile feature was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, taking over the scoring duties for the franchise from John Williams and injecting his florid themes into Mike Newell's film. It's too bad and that he or Williams wasn't called to score the next two films in the franchise. In the late 2000s, Doyle was getting less assignments, but his fortunes improved dramatically in 2011 when he scored Branagh's Thor for Marvel Studios and the reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, with Pixar's Brave following in 2012. Although his two major 2011 scores feature a more streamlined style, they still contain elements of grandeur that is certainly refreshing compared to the simplistic, tuneless droning that is becoming ever more prevalent in modern scores. May Doyle's fluttering arpeggios continue to be heard for many years to come.

As You Like It
Brave
Carlito’s Way
Cinderella (2015)
Dead Again

Eragon
Frankenstein

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Henry V

The Last Legion
Much Ado About Nothing
Murder on the Orient Express

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Thor

Ramin Djawadi

Ramin Djawadi is another apprentice of Hans Zimmer and to be honest, he isn't one of the better ones. In fact, the only reason I have a score by him is because it came in a box set (Medal of Honor), and it is easily and by far the weakest disc in the set. Djawadi's music for the first Iron Man, the Clash of the Titans remake, the Game of Thrones TV series, and the latest Medal of Honor (2010) are bland and derivative, and this kind of scoring is becoming all too common.

Medal of Honor (2010)
Pacific Rim

Alexandre Desplat

Although Desplat is a relative newcomer to Hollywood, he has been scoring French films since 1985. He first got attention in the US for his scores to Girl With a Pearl Earring, The Painted Veil, The Queen, and Ang Lee's Lust, Caution. He has been extremely busy since then, scoring David Fincher's Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Ghost Writer, Tamara Drewe, Julie & Julia,  The King's Speech, Argo, and the 2014 Godzilla reboot. His relationship with idiosyncratic director Wes Anderson has yielded eclectic scores for Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Desplat's orchestral style is always crystal-clear, and each instrumental section can be heard. He is best at subtle and delicate music, and has a penchant for waltzes. His one-of-a-kind approach to action is shown in films like Largo Winch, Firewall, and Hostage. Lately, he has effectively scored fantasies like The Golden Compass and Twilight: New Moon. He became the first composer not from Hans Zimmer's MV/RC outfit to score a DreamWorks Animation film, providing Rise of the Guardians with robust, enchanting, and swashbuckling music that is among his finest work. His most high-profile assignment has been for the two parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. While the scores aren't up to the heights of John Williams's original three, they are a distinct improvement over the bland scores to Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. Desplat's music can be polarizing-- some accuse it of having no emotion, while others find him the most exciting composer working today. I think his music is fine, and it will be interesting to see how his style evolves.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Firewall

Ghost Writer
Godzilla*

The Golden Compass*
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Hostage
The Imitation Game

Largo Winch
The Light Between Oceans
Monuments Men
Moonrise Kingdom
Rise of the Guardians*
The Shape of Water
Suburbicon
Unbroken
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

John Debney

John Debney is one of the industry's most prolific, versatile, and talented composers, and yet a good majority of his scores are for silly comedies or kid's films. Yet Debney's heroic, swashbuckling, energetic score to the flop Cutthroat Island alone proves that he belongs with the best of them. It's true that Debney mostly gets lightweight assignments like The Princess Diaries, Liar Liar, Inspector Gadget, Jimmy Neutron, The Hot Chick, No Strings Attached, The Change-Up, and the mighty, unbeatable Hannah Montana: The Movie. Yet he also writes heart-wrenching scores for sensitive and dramatic subjects in films like The Passion of the Christ, Dragonfly, The Stoning of Soraya M, and Dream House. He frequently works with director Jon Favreau, having provided the scores to Elf, Zathura, and Iron Man 2. Although the latter was not as good a film as the first, Debney's score was leaps and bounds above the score that Ramin Djawadi provided for Iron Man 1. Debney is also great at action, with scores like End of Days, The Scorpion King, Sin City, and Predators to prove it. One of his grandest scores is for the much-maligned PS3 game Lair. No matter the quality of the game, Debney provided a huge orchestral score fit for a fantasy epic, with numerous memorable themes and unabashed emotion. Even comedies like Chicken Little, Meet Dave, and Evan Almighty have grand music that wouldn't sound out of place in an action-packed summer blockbuster. In addition, he has written music for the Disney theme parks, from the dark rides of Fantasyland and Disneyland Paris's Phantom Manor to the Disneyland 60th Anniversary edition of World of Color at California Adventure. Debney is also one of the most thoughtful and friendly composers out there, and he deserves all the success he has, and then some.

Chicken Little

Cutthroat Island**

Dragonfly
Dream House
The Emperor's New Groove

End of Days

Evan Almighty
Heartbreakers (theme by Danny Elfman)
Hocus Pocus

Iron Man 2
The Jungle Book*

Lair**
League of Gods

The Mummy 3 (Additional Score)

The Passion of the Christ*

Predators
The Relic

The Scorpion King

The Sims Medieval (Volumes 1, 2)

Sin City (with Robert Rodriguez, Graeme Revell)

Spy Kids (with Danny Elfman, Harry Gregson-Williams)
Texas Rising (with Bruce Broughton)

The Young Riders

Zathura

Marius De Vries

Marius De Vries is primarily a pop music producer, having worked with a wide range of artists from David Bowie and U2 to Bjork and Madonna. He co-composed the scores to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet with Craig Armstrong and Sucker Punch with Tyler Bates. He was also one of the composers for the wonderful Kick-Ass, although most of the best cues were written by the other composers.

Kick-Ass** (with Henry Jackman, John Murphy, Ilan Eshkeri, Danny Elfman)

Romeo + Juliet (with Craig Armstrong)

Don Davis

Although Don Davis has composed for films like Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever and Jurassic Park 3, as well as orchestrating for Randy Newman and James Horner, his greatest achievement is his music for The Matrix trilogy. Even more impressive is how the music for the series evolved and got even better with each film. For the first Matrix, Davis employed his penchant for Lutoslawski-esque aleatory to chilling effect while incorporating driving electronics. For the Matrix Reloaded, Davis combined his swirling music with the goa beats of Juno Reactor's Ben Watkins, most notably in the Burly Brawl and the freeway chase. But it was Matrix Revolutions where Davis was allowed to really go all out with majestic instrumental and choral forces while still retaining the brutality and unsettling minimalism he introduced in the trilogy's groundbreaking first film.

The Matrix

The Matrix Reloaded*

The Matrix Revolutions**

Daft Punk

I don't know much about the French duo that call themselves Daft Punk, but they provided a surprisingly entertaining and rich score for Tron: Legacy. If they decide to do more films, I'll be eager to hear what they come up with.

Tron: Legacy*

Alexander Courage

Alexander Courage is primarily known for his classic theme for the Star Trek Original TV series (it plays at the end of the 2009 Star Trek film if that's the only Star Trek you know). He adapted John Williams's material for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, which just may be his masterpiece. He worked extensively as an orchestrator for composers like Williams. Courage and Arthur Morton where the orchestrators of choice for Jerry Goldsmith.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace* (with John Williams)

John Corigliano

Corigliano is primarily a classical composer and has only written three film scores to date, yet his work has had a large influence on the craft. His pupil Elliot Goldenthal is one of the most interesting voices in film music today, and one can hear how Corigliano influenced Goldenthal's wild, compositionally complex style. Corigliano's score to Altered States is the foremost example of aleatory (chance) scoring in films. His score to Revolution, while mostly buried in the film, formed the basis for his acclaimed Symphony #1, a tribute to the victims of AIDS. The Red Violin, as expected from the title, is a beautiful piece of scoring with Joshua Bell performing the violin solos. Unfortunately, his score for the Edge of Darkness was rejected, the final score being provided by Howard Shore.

Altered States*
Edge of Darkness (Rejected)**
The Red Violin
Symphony #1: Of Rage and Remembrance

Bruce Broughton

Bruce Broughton certainly knows how to use an orchestra to create powerful, adventurous themes, but he sadly seems to be underutilized these days. His most notable scores are for the rousing Westerns Silverado and Tombstone. His dramatic music for Young Sherlock Holmes is filled with expressive themes, and he also provided the music for Disney's The Rescuers Down Under. He also was an orchestration consultant for Daft Punk's surprisingly strong score to Tron: Legacy. If you go to Disney theme parks, you have almost certainly heard Broughton's music. He created the music for the attractions One Man's Dream, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Golden Dreams, Seasons of the Vine, It's Tough to Be a Bug, O Canada, Ellen's Energy Adventure, and Spaceship Earth. He has also composed background music played in the parks. If life were fair, Broughton would be composing a lot more scores.

Baby's Day Out
The Boy Who Could Fly
Glory and Honor
Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco
Honey I Blew Up the Kid
The Ice Pirates
The Rescuers Down Under*
Lost in Space*
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
The Presidio
Silverado**
Texas Rising (with John Debney)
Tombstone*
Young Sherlock Holmes*

Elmer Bernstein

One of the great composers of the so-called Silver Age of film music, Bernstein was, at different points in his career, pigeonholed as a composer of Westerns, jazz-styled scores, films noir, and comedies. However, he did all these genres well, often defining how that particular style of film would be scored in years to come. His frequent collaborators included John Sturges, Ivan Reitman, and Martin Scorsese. Bernstein wrote tender scores for films like To Kill a Mockingbird, Far From Heaven, and Bird Man of Alcatraz, and created indelible themes for The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. His music for comedies like Airplane and Ghostbusters was often deadly serious and dramatic to contrast with the silly onscreen antics. One of his favored instruments later in his career was the Ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument that had an eerie sound similar to the theremin, but could be controlled with a keyboard. Bernstein wrote many stellar scores, but one of his best was for the animated cult film Heavy Metal. Despite the film's moniker, Bernstein conjured up a rip-roaring, sensational fantasy-adventure score for full orchestra. Bernstein died in 2004 after a long and glorious career.

The Age of Innocence
Bird Man of Alcatraz
The Black Cauldron
Far From Heaven
Ghostbusters
The Great Escape**
Heavy Metal**
Kings of the Sun
The Magnificent Seven**
The Miracle
The Ten Commandments**
To Kill a Mockingbird**
Trading Places