Best Use of Music in a Movie/Scene

Yes, very good call.

I'd say the entire score to The Shawshank Redemption and Road to Perdition.
 
Ahhhh, that Jaws score.... Woah, makes me not want to go into a pool! Hehe. It's has such atmosphere and menace, the music has a visual to it.
 
Titanic's score is at its best when the iceberg is about to hit and when eventually it does. Everytime I watch those scenes my heart wants to jump out of my chest, the music dominates me w/ fear.
 
OMG, The Painted Veil's score was fantastic and so evocative! :nod: I agree. Fight Club had perfect music to go along with what was going on on-screen. :nod:
 
Takeshi Kaneshiro has to be one hottest guys EVER, EVER, EVER! Anyway, just wanted to say that.

And to say something on topic, I totally I agree with Gattaca as having an incredible score.
 
I may be going a different angle, but here is a brief list of favorite scenes in a movie with the right song playing.

End of Wicker Park - Coldplay - The Scientist
Brandon Lee returning to his apartment and putting on the makeup The Crow - The Cure - Burn
Dawn of the Dead (remake) - Accapella version of Disturbed - Down With The Sickness
Matthew takes the party stand and goes to kiss Danielle in The Girl Next Door - David Gray - This Years Love
 
I have to agree with you all about Last of the Mohicans. The music definitely moves the film along...as does all the running they did (and mostly up hill!). Seriously, they must have been so fit after making that film...

But I find myself driven to watch it again and again, once I've started it, because of this dynamic combination of physical activity fueled by an excellent sound track. Really, there's so little dialogue but the music carries much of the drama.
 
Two scenes immediately come to mind:

Titanic: The "I'm Flying" scene. A lot of other things come together to make that scene sing, including the visuals and lighting. But the music makes it transcendent.

Before Sunset: Best ending I've ever seen in a film and a great example of using music effectively. Celine dances to Nina Simone's Just In Time as the movie fades to black. It's utterly perfect.

Judy :cat:
 
I thought the music in Pride and Prejudice (2005) and The Painted Veil (2006) were beautifully composed! Gorgeous. I also loved the music for Kill Bill, and the Dust Brothers' composition for Fight Club. I thought the IKEA scene was brilliant.
 
I have to show some love for Tyler Bates, because he did the music for 300 and Watchmen, both of which I adore, and both with scores that I loved. Also Watchmen has a whole different soundtrack with songs that I also felt were awesome, because each was well-placed in the movie, and they were just a lot of fun!
 
For a really effective study in music and the impact it can have on scenes watch the films of Michael Mann... Of which "Last of the Mohicans" is a prime example.

He is the master of juxtaposition -- Putting a song/piece that you normally would not associate with certain visuals in order to create a surreal effect. His is more subtle than say Quentin Tarantino and far more mature in a lot of respects.

His most recent example of this technique is toward the end of the bank shoot-out in "Heat" where all you hear is instrumental music which slowly builds and builds and is almost jungle-like until it climaxes when Al Pacino finally shoots Tom Sizemore while he is holding the child.

More of Mann's stand-out work include "Thief" (James Cann), "Man Hunter" (William Peterson) and probably the new "Miami Vice" with Collin Farell and Jamie Fox considering he over-saw the original TV series in the 1980s which also used juxtapositioning almost every single episode.
 
Best is probably a bit too strong for me. But I really enjoyed the music in A Good Year, and I think it added a lot to the movie...


And the same goes for Deathproof and Planet Terror.
 
Gattaca has the most amazing score I've ever heard. Especially moving scenes are when the brothers are plaing chicken in the water and the final scene when "Jerome" is going into space and the real Jerome is burning himself.

God, that music is just amazing to me. :sigh:
 
Excellent thread idea! :glow:

Well, aside from the more general references you've all mentioned, I really love when music because part of the plot, or an actual character. Two movies that come to mind (I believe the latter was in homage to the former):

The Graduate - which was the first film to incorporate an entire soundtrack by a single music artist/group with music made just for the film.

Risky Business

In both these films there's a single moment when you hear the music, it's pounding away, the hero/protagonist (Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, respectively) are in the process of driving a car - when the car stalls and the music stops with it.

Two of the most comedic uses of music ever, and very, VERY funny. The first is when Dustin Hoffman's character is driving to rescue Elaine from her wedding, and he's cruising south down Highwawy 101, rushing along in his little roadster, when his car starts to sputter and stall. The music - the instrumental part of Simon and Garfunkle's "Mrs. Robinson" - sputters and stalls, too. Freakin' hilarious (turns out he's out of gas).

In Risky Business, Tom Cruise's partents are away and have left him in charege of the house with explicit instructions not to do certain things - including driving his father's Porsche. But his friends (naturally) egg him on, so he gets in and the music pounds and he starts to back out of the garage and the music continues to pound and you know he's going to go drive off like a maniac in his father's souped up sports car - and the car suddenly stalls, the music stalling with it. He hasn't even made it out of the driveway! :lol:

In both cases the music is used to emphasize the sense of anticlimax, and becomes a visceral part of the plot, not just background or emphasis for the storyline.
 
Patch Adams, when the girl goes to that guy's house and he is playing classical music on the piano, you knew something bad would happen.
 
Cliche I know but I'm going to have to go with the Jaws theme. Brilliantly used and it saved Spielberg's ass!
 
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