What Is Jerry Goldsmith's Best Score?

by Lukas Kendall

Here's a juicy one for a new poll: we all know that Jerry Goldsmith is great, and has written some of the best film scores of all time. But which one, exactly, is THE best? I have selected the following nominees out of my own experience in what people like:

Planet of the Apes (1968): A landmark science fiction and avant garde work -- brilliant from stem to stern.

Patton (1970): One of Goldsmith's most famous innovations -- the echoing trumpet triplets -- are the highlight of his simple, surgical yet ambiguous score for this acclaimed war epic.

Papillon (1973): Another great Franklin Schaffner film with a brilliant use of music.

Chinatown (1974): Possibly the single greatest film Goldsmith has ever scored. Like Patton, there's a little over a half hour of music, but it's all to perfect use: haunting, melodic and symbolic. Goldsmith wrote his score in 10 days, after the first composer's music was rejected (someone named Philip Lambro).

The Omen (1976): Goldsmith's one Oscar came for this score, which pioneered Latin chanting for the horror genre.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979): A supreme accomplishment, from the famous main title march to the weird sound/musical effects to the sheer quantity and quality of the musical setpieces. The best aspect of the movie -- and one impossible to miss.

Alien (1979): Goldsmith's last, great avant garde score was sliced and diced in the movie, but it only made the affair even clammier and more suspenseful. Truly scary music.

Poltergeist (1982): Like ST:TMP this has it all: lyrical themes, suspense, beauty -- from memorable motives to broader melodies to unique timbres. A major element in the superb movie.

Under Fire (1983): This was one of the few times Goldsmith tackled a truly adult movie with the same type of broad strokes that he has applied to his more fantasy-oriented pictures. He was justly singled out for praise by mainstream film critics. All of James Horner's Latin American affectations owe a debt to this one work.

Legend (1985): A broad, Ravelian fantasy score well known to collectors for being dumped from the American release of the movie. Goldsmith singled it out as his favorite among his works for some time thereafter.

Basic Instinct (1992): Perhaps the last time Goldsmith tackled a genre in the making and defined it for all others. The sexy femme fatale has previously swooned with sleazy saxophones; here, the sex is all icy intelligence.

Rudy (1993): Compared to many of the above, this is wholesale, accessible and warmly melodic -- a favorite for many '90s movie trailers.

Naturally, this leaves off another ten or so scores that could also be considered among Goldsmith's best: The Blue Max, A Patch of Blue, The Sand Pebbles, Islands in the Stream, Gremlins, Twilight Zone, Total Recall, Mulan, the Rambo films, Capricorn One, The List of Adrian Messenger... oh, there are so many. I picked the above ten "nominees" because they are famous enough to be considered, possibly, Goldsmith's single all-time best.

So what are we voting for? Everything: how well the music works in the movie, how well it works on its own, how inventive it is, how memorable it is, how famous it is, how great the movie is (or not).

Okay, get to it! I'm interested in seeing what the result will be. (I have a hunch...) You have to vote to see the results, so please do!

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