Movies with Bad Music Scores

DeeF · 01-19-2005, 10:04 AM

There's a major piece of news on the web. A movie, Major Dundee, directed by Sam Peckinpah, is being re-scored. This must be a first, setting a precedent (if it's successful) for other older movies. So, let's make a list and send it to ... er, ... them!

www.filmscoremonthly.com/...Friday.asp

The first movie on my list of movies with bad music scores:

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

and a whole group of other movies scored by Max Steiner.

Mitch Stevens · 01-19-2005, 10:43 AM

I love the movie American Beauty with all my heart. It's become one of my favourite movies of all time, but I hate the musical score with a passion. I feel it's defintely the worst scored film of all time. I wish there was a way, to take out the score, so that it wouldn't bother me so much, when I'm watching it.

Robert Crawford · 01-19-2005, 10:52 AM

and a whole group of other movies scored by Max Steiner.

So I take it you're not a Max Steiner fan?

DeeF · 01-19-2005, 11:01 AM

I recognize that such things wouldn't be able to be done -- probably there are no surviving separate music tracks for Treasure, so the dialogue and music are inseparable.

I actually like Max Steiner for many things, certainly King Kong (the original sweeping score) and Gone With The Wind are in a style that suits them. I wouldn't tamper with these great classics.

But Treasure is nearly ruined by its score, and a surprising number of people have noted this, including Pauline Kael and other critics. The score is "cowboy" music, and it really doesn't suit the quality of the material at all.

Jonny_L · 01-19-2005, 11:01 AM

Just about anything scored in the 70's is aweful - all the big blockbusters don't count, im talking most everything else. They seemed to have an almost sitcom quality to the ques and deminish the scale of what a movie is vs what a tv show is. To contrast that, everything else had a ridiculous disco beat in it.

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DeeF · 01-19-2005, 11:05 AM

Additionally, I think quite a lot of movies would play better with no score at all. The scenes would be better "unamplified."

DeeF · 01-19-2005, 11:07 AM

Jonny_L:

I just watched a movie from the 70s, Chinatown, and the score by Jerry Goldsmith is just superb! Classic work.

DeeF · 01-19-2005, 11:20 AM

I thought of another one:

Murder on the Orient Express

Haggai · 01-19-2005, 11:41 AM

Big-time dissent from me on the Sierra Madre score, which I like very much. Steiner also did great stuff for The Searchers.

Tim Glover · 01-19-2005, 11:43 AM

Just recently I had the pleasure of watching Foul Play on dvd. It had been forever since I've seen this. This was filmed in 1978 and I had forgotten how much Barry Manilow was used in this film. Not necessarily bad, but it certainly ages the film.

Peter Apruzzese · 01-19-2005, 12:00 PM

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and just about everything else scored by James "Anvil-Clanker" Horner, the worst A-list composer in Hollywood.

JonathonSan · 01-19-2005, 12:07 PM

I know I will need to duck and cover for this one, but the original Dawn of the Dead US release is horrible...laughable even. Whether for effect or not, it is BAD. Love the movie though.