Escape Artist's Top 10 Movie Soundtracks: Part 1

Ever since the first Neanderthal cave-dweller was recorded whistling the tune to '(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay', it's been known that we humans use music to express those emotions for which words just can't cut it. Music is emotional shorthand, able to express in a few bars what many novels fail to capture in 300 pages. I'm not sure if this is true of anyone else, but songs give me a lump in my throat on a manhood-threateningly regular basis. And whenever I think about moments on film that have done the same, it's not the images flickering on-screen that I remember. It's the orchestral swells. The violin flourishes. That lonely piano line.

In that sense, it seems crazy that movie soundtracks are given so little attention. In an attempt to redress the balance that, in centuries to come, will surely come to be described as "arrogant and almost comedically presumptuous", here are ten of Escape Artist's very favourite movie soundtracks and scores, in no specific order.

Yojimbo - Masaru Sato (1961)



A brilliant score that brings out the mischief and menace pervading Kurosawa's wandering ronin classic. Masuro Sato's orchestral arrangements are surprisingly timeless too, mixing traditional Japanese instrumentation with some attention-grabbing atonal stabs here and there. With his samurai epics, Kurosawa was in a constant cinematic dialogue with the American western genre, and the dust-flecked soundtrack is as indicative of that as Toshiro Mifune's Kuwabatake Sanjuro, the man with no name who came before The Man With No Name. The film itself also shares a lot of DNA with Hollywood film noir, and Masuro's trilling woodwinds and heavy-handed drums help it walk that noir line between playfulness and brutality.

The full Yojimbo OST on Spotify: here.

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat (2009)



Wes Anderson's risky adaptation of Roald Dahl's much-loved children's novel is, like most of his films, a triumph of impeccable taste and judgement. This has always extended to Anderson's soundtracks, and Fantastic Mr. Fox might just be the best of them. The film is perpetually illuminated in an amber haze of autumnal sunlight, and Alexandre Desplat's score is pure, rose-tinted late summer nostalgia. From the gorgeous banjo/violin arrangement on 'Mr. Fox in the Fields' to 'Great Harrowsford Square''s kiddified Mexican stand-off, Desplat's score will bring flooding back the idyllic rural childhood you never had.

Added to the mix is an assortment of superbly pitched pop and folk, all sun-streaked guitar jangle and campfire-singalong fun. Along with a couple of familiar Beach Boys melodies (what kid wouldn't love those kazoo parts on 'Heroes and Villains?) and the Bobby Fuller Four's toe tapper 'Let Her Dance', this soundtrack introduced me to the simple beauty of folk singer Burl Ives with a brace of tracks from his 1959 children's album Burl Ives Sings Little White Duck and Other Children's Favourites. Incredible. Oh, and don't get me started on 'Canis Lupus'. Sets me to sniffling every time. Paws up, wolves. Paws up.

The full Fantastic Mr. Fox OST on Spotify: here.

Blade Runner - Vangelis (1982)

Possibly the most obvious choice on the list, but it's obvious for good reason. Out of context, Vangelis' smoky, synthesised sax might sound embarassingly 80s, like a robot version of the sad bits from Lethal Weapon. But as an accompaniment to Deckard's melancholy hunt for humanoid cyborgs in a future Los Angeles where darkness and rain is the default setting, it's beyond perfect. Vangelis stretches his synths into all sorts of shapes, from sinister arpeggios ('Blush Response') to sweeping Islamic chants (Damask Rose) to soft-focus romance in full bloom ('Love Theme'). Appropriately enough considering Blade Runner's subject matter, Vangelis achieves the rare feat of wiring humanity into his musical constructs.

Blade Runner's full and extended OST on Spotify, here.

There Will Be Blood - Jonny Greenwood (2007)

The musical equivalent of a knife attack and the bloody silence that follows, Jonny Greenwood's score to Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 tale of cruelty and capitalism during California's early 20th century oil rush is pure Hitchcock. It's deafening silences punctuated by shocking musical violence. It's small moments of humanity washed away by waves of unsettling strings. It's an entire orchestra used as a weaponised bowling pin, poised to bash your brains in. It's little spiders made of coal dust crawling down your throat and laying their sooty eggs in your soul. It's about as fun to listen to as the movie is to watch, and just as enthralling.

There Will Be Blood full OST on Spotify, here.

The Fountain - Clint Mansell (2006)

Much like the film, The Fountain's soundtrack is all about the set-up and the pay-off, years of denial and pent-up frustration culminating in a release that comes all in a rush. Darren Aronofsky's movie - broadly speaking - follows a man living his life to defy death, little realising that peace lies in embracing it. Clint Mansell, with help from the Kronos Quartet and Scottish post-rockers Mogwai, charts this narrative through expert pacing and arrangements with real emotional bite.

The majority of the tracks echo the main character's feeling of being hemmed in, frustrated strings rushing around with echoing drums hot on their heels. The final two pieces are where everything changes. Penultimate track 'Death is the Road to Awe' stacks the confusion and chaos to an almost unbearable degree, then gives us a single second of ecstatic silence before the explosive pay-off of electric guitar, pounding rhythm, howling violins and a choir so unhinged that it might well be possessed. Final track 'Together We Will Live Forever' is a sumptious piano piece, replacing the mad scrum of the rest of the score with a serenity that feels all the more blessed for what has come before. It's about as subtle as a rhinoceros, but Mansell's score is a towering piece of work, and The Fountain would only be half a movie without it.

The full Fountain OST on Spotify, here.

That's it for Part 1 of Escape Artist's best soundtracks. Stay tuned for another five scores that score, featuring cowboys, a guy who no one understands but his woman and Regency-period new wave. Also, please keep in mind that this list will likely be made completely redundant after the recent announcement that the Scissor Sisters will be providing the score for the new Fraggle Rock movie, which will probably be more amazing than this entire list combined. Seriously, I don't even know if I'm being sarcastic.