Favorite Film Scores of All Time

by pere-25366 | created - 16 Jan 2018 | updated - 22 Apr 2020 | Public

Jazz and film... it's like a dream...

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1. Days of Wine and Roses (1962)

Approved | 117 min | Drama

74 Metascore

An alcoholic marries a young woman and systematically addicts her to booze so that they can share his "passion" together.

Director: Blake Edwards | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugman

Votes: 14,117

2. The Apartment (1960)

Approved | 125 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

94 Metascore

A Manhattan insurance clerk tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston

Votes: 197,892 | Gross: $18.60M

3. Taxi Driver (1976)

R | 114 min | Crime, Drama

94 Metascore

A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks

Votes: 925,038 | Gross: $28.26M

4. Chinatown (1974)

R | 130 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

92 Metascore

A private detective hired to expose an adulterer in 1930s Los Angeles finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.

Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez

Votes: 351,652

5. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

PG | 122 min | Drama

97 Metascore

Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden

Votes: 114,942 | Gross: $8.00M

6. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965 TV Movie)

TV-G | 25 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama

Depressed at the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find a deeper meaning to Christmas.

Director: Bill Melendez | Stars: Ann Altieri, Chris Doran, Sally Dryer, Bill Melendez

Votes: 44,358

7. Elevator to the Gallows (1958)

Not Rated | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

94 Metascore

A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.

Director: Louis Malle | Stars: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin

Votes: 28,809 | Gross: $0.11M

8. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Approved | 96 min | Drama, Film-Noir

100 Metascore

Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.

Director: Alexander Mackendrick | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison, Martin Milner

Votes: 35,908

9. Laura (1944)

Passed | 88 min | Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery

A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.

Directors: Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price

Votes: 51,724 | Gross: $4.36M

10. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Not Rated | 161 min | Drama, Mystery

95 Metascore

An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?

Director: Otto Preminger | Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell

Votes: 71,670 | Gross: $11.90M

11. Psycho (1960)

R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

97 Metascore

A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin

Votes: 721,928 | Gross: $32.00M

12. Vertigo (1958)

PG | 128 min | Mystery, Romance, Thriller

100 Metascore

A former San Francisco police detective juggles wrestling with his personal demons and becoming obsessed with the hauntingly beautiful woman he has been hired to trail, who may be deeply disturbed.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore

Votes: 429,251 | Gross: $3.20M

13. Paris Blues (1961)

Approved | 98 min | Drama, Music, Romance

61 Metascore

During the 1960s, two American expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls.

Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier, Louis Armstrong

Votes: 3,984 | Gross: $1.30M

14. Touch of Evil (1958)

PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

99 Metascore

A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping and police corruption in a Mexican border town.

Director: Orson Welles | Stars: Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia

Votes: 110,319 | Gross: $2.24M

15. American Beauty (1999)

R | 122 min | Drama

84 Metascore

A sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend.

Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley

Votes: 1,217,210 | Gross: $130.10M

16. Your Name. (2016)

PG | 106 min | Animation, Drama, Fantasy

81 Metascore

Two teenagers share a profound, magical connection upon discovering they are swapping bodies. Things manage to become even more complicated when the boy and girl decide to meet in person.

Director: Makoto Shinkai | Stars: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Mone Kamishiraishi, Ryo Narita, Aoi Yûki

Votes: 321,482 | Gross: $5.02M

17. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

R | 142 min | Drama

82 Metascore

Over the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.

Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler

Votes: 2,902,523 | Gross: $28.34M

18. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Approved | 170 min | Drama, Romance, War

93 Metascore

Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.

Director: William Wyler | Stars: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright

Votes: 70,929 | Gross: $23.65M

19. The Shape of Water (2017)

R | 123 min | Drama, Fantasy, Romance

87 Metascore

At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.

Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Doug Jones

Votes: 450,116 | Gross: $63.86M

20. Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Passed | 110 min | Drama, Film-Noir

94 Metascore

A screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.

Director: Billy Wilder | Stars: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson

Votes: 237,699

21. A Bronx Tale (1993)

R | 121 min | Crime, Drama

80 Metascore

An intense drama about a boy torn between his tough, hard-working father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss.

Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato, Francis Capra

Votes: 161,844 | Gross: $17.27M

22. The Wild One (1953)

Approved | 79 min | Crime, Drama, Romance

67 Metascore

Two rival motorcycle gangs terrorize a small town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail.

Director: Laslo Benedek | Stars: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin

Votes: 17,648

23. Born to Be Blue (2015)

R | 97 min | Biography, Drama, Music

64 Metascore

A re-imagining of jazz legend Chet Baker's musical comeback in the late '60s.

Director: Robert Budreau | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Carmen Ejogo, Callum Keith Rennie, Tony Nappo

Votes: 9,336 | Gross: $0.83M

24. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

R | 229 min | Crime, Drama

75 Metascore

A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.

Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams

Votes: 379,640 | Gross: $5.32M

25. Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)

Unrated | 102 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A salesclerk at Macy's department store finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with a musician who does not even remember her.

Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Herschel Bernardi

Votes: 5,503

26. Shaft (1971)

R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

66 Metascore

A crime lord hires black private eye, John Shaft, to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.

Director: Gordon Parks | Stars: Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John

Votes: 21,151 | Gross: $16.69M

27. The Godfather (1972)

R | 175 min | Crime, Drama

100 Metascore

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton

Votes: 2,022,021 | Gross: $134.97M

28. Let the Right One In (2008)

R | 114 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

82 Metascore

Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl.

Director: Tomas Alfredson | Stars: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl

Votes: 228,116 | Gross: $2.12M

29. American Splendor (2003)

R | 101 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama

90 Metascore

An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini | Stars: Paul Giamatti, Shari Springer Berman, Harvey Pekar, Chris Ambrose

Votes: 52,647 | Gross: $6.00M

30. Jackie Brown (1997)

R | 154 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

62 Metascore

A flight attendant with a criminal past gets nabbed by the ATF for smuggling. Under pressure to become an informant against the illegal arms dealer she works for, she must find a way to secure her future without getting killed.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda

Votes: 376,917 | Gross: $39.67M

Favorite soundtrack ever probably - what a vibe QT!

31. Her (2013)

R | 126 min | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi

91 Metascore

In a near future, a lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need.

Director: Spike Jonze | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson, Rooney Mara

Votes: 673,050 | Gross: $25.57M



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