Score!

Bet you didn’t know today, April 3, is National Film Score day.

Well, now you do. And no one will ever be able to take that away from you.

It’s no secret that music composition is integral to the cinema experience. A great score can make a great picture even better (Oppenheimer, for instance) while a subpar score can chip away at one’s enjoyment of an otherwise so-so flick (way too many comedies of the 1990s). Conversely, the absence of a score can heighten a film’s verisimilitude. Anyway, you get the point. Music is important.

In honor of the special occasion, I bequeath to the world, in alphabetical order, my 25 favorite movie scores. And remember, folks, this is fully subjective and not, say, a grouping of a consensus of the best scores. In other words, no Lawrence of Arabia here.

Amarcord (1973), Nino Rota

Amélie (2001), Yann Tiersen

American Beauty (1999), Thomas Newman

Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Duke Ellington

Black Panther (2018), Ludwig Göransson

Blue Velvet (1986), Angelo Badalamenti

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Henry Mancini

Casablanca (1942), Max Steiner

Chinatown (1974), Jerry Goldsmith

Cinema Paradiso (1988), Ennio Morricone

A Clockwork Orange (1971), Wendy Carlos

Dances with Wolves (1990), John Barry

The Empire Strikes Back (1980), John Williams

The Godfather (1972), Nino Rota

Goldfinger (1964), John Barry

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Ennio Morricone

Halloween (1978), John Carpenter

Jaws (1975), John Williams

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (2001), Howard Shore

The Magnificent Seven (1960), Elmer Bernstein

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Philip Glass

North by Northwest (1959), Bernard Hermann

Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Ennio Morricone

The Phantom Thread (2017), Jonny Greenwood

Psycho (1960), Bernard Hermann

Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Jon Brion

Rocky (1976), Bill Conti

The Seven Samurai (1954), Fumio Hayasaka

Shaft (1971), Isaac Hayes & J.J. Johnson

The Social Network (2010), Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

Sorcerer (1977), Tangerine Dream

Soul (2020), Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

Superman (1978), John Williams

Taxi Driver (1976), Bernard Hermann

The Third Man (1949), Anton Karas

Titanic (1997), James Horner

Treasure of the Sierra Made (1948), Max Steiner

Vertigo (1958), Bernard Hermann

The Virgin Suicides (1999), Air