AFI's 25 Greatest Movie Scores of All-Time

AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores

My choices in bold:

1. Star Wars (1977) - John Williams
2. Gone With the Wind (1939) - Max Steiner
3. Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - Maurice Jarre
4. Psycho (1960) - Bernard Herrmann (my choice for #1)
5. The Godfather (1972) - Nina Rota
6. Jaws (1975) - John Williams
7. Laura (1944) - David Raksin
8. The Magnificent Seven (1960) - Elmer Bernstein
9. Chinatown (1974) - Jerry Goldsmith
10. High Noon (1952) - Dimitri Tiomkin
11. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Erich Wolfgang Korngold
12. Vertigo (1958) - Bernard Herrmann
13. King Kong (1933) - Max Steiner
14. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) - John Williams
15. Out of Africa (1985) - John Barry
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950) - Franz Waxman
17. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Elmer Bernstein
18. Planet of the Apes (1968) - Jerry Goldsmith
19. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - Alex North
20. The Pink Panther (1964) - Henry Mancini
21. Ben-Hur (1959) - Miklos Rozsa
22. On the Waterfront (1954) - Leonard Bernstein
23. The Mission (1986) - Ennio Morricone
24. On Golden Pond (1981) - Dave Grusin
25. How the West Was Won (1962) - Alfred Newman

---

These people allegedly know their stuff? Most of these are listed b/c the films themselves are popular. I can't believe Mancini's Touch of Evil was left off. Or Jerome Moross' The Big Country.

But the big shocker is Ernest Gold's Exodus, which not only beat out Herrmann's Psycho for the Oscar but was also a big pop hit. Has it been forgotten already?

I also would have included:

E. Bernstein, Hud

E. Bernstein, The Man With The Golden Arm

Rosza, Double Indemnity

Korngold, King's Row

Delerue, The Day Of The Dolphin