Movies with the best music track (music makes the movie)
by kryptoman102 | created - 30 Oct 2013 | updated - 12 Jan 2014 | PublicI think music can help a movie. These are some of my favorites where the music is such an integral part of the movie that the movie wouldn't stand up as well without it. This list is not about musicals.
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1. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 288,341 | Gross: $104.95M
The music of Simon & Garfunkle just makes the movie. It's perfectly placed and each song fits with the situation
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Approved | 178 min | Adventure, Western
A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè
Votes: 810,983 | Gross: $6.10M
The whole movie is situated around music. I love the interwoven music and the music that was written for specific situations (esp. The Ecstasy of Gold)
3. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.
Directors: Victor Fleming, King Vidor | Stars: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr
Votes: 428,525 | Gross: $2.08M
No explanation necessary.
4. Casablanca (1942)
PG | 102 min | Drama, Romance, War
A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains
Votes: 605,864 | Gross: $1.02M
Again, enough said.
5. Live and Let Die (1973)
PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond is sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroin magnate armed with a complex organisation and a reliable psychic tarot card reader.
Director: Guy Hamilton | Stars: Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour, Clifton James
Votes: 115,447 | Gross: $35.38M
A great movie made greater by the music.
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
G | 149 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter
Votes: 719,299 | Gross: $56.95M
It's impact on society is self explanatory
7. The Anderson Tapes (1971)
GP | 99 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
After ten years in prison to protect a mafia family, Duke Anderson is released and he cashes in a debt of honor with the mob to bankroll a caper.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Sean Connery, Dyan Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker
Votes: 8,842 | Gross: $10.90M
Quincy Jones' score is arguably the sum of the movie.
8. The Godfather (1972)
R | 175 min | Crime, Drama
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: 2,011,754 | Gross: $134.97M
The subtlety of the music makes it so haunting that coupled with the directing makes this movie so engaging one can't help but find yourself immersed in the story.
9. Angel Heart (1987)
X | 113 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A private investigator is hired by a man who calls himself Louis Cyphre to track down a singer named Johnny Favorite. But the investigation takes an unexpected and somber turn.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling
Votes: 95,794 | Gross: $17.19M
This movie is so underrated it's pathetic. DeNiro's devil is easily in the top 5. The music is so interestingly interwoven in this movie that a person needs to watch the movie twice just to realize that you are being given clues in so many different ways that you should be able to watch 10 minutes and the plot is exposed to you. The fact that you don't realize it until you watch it a second time makes this a movie that in my opinion is a classic.
10. American Graffiti (1973)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of teenagers in California's central valley spend one final night after their 1962 high school graduation cruising the strip with their buddies before they pursue their varying goals.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith
Votes: 98,129 | Gross: $115.00M
A movie set in the 50's would have to have a great soundtrack. This is done very well in this movie. Keeping it fresh and similarly to other movies on this list, appropriate for certain settings.
11. Billy Jack (1971)
GP | 114 min | Action, Drama
Ex-Green Beret hapkido expert saves wild horses from being slaughtered for dog food and helps protect a desert "freedom school" for runaway.
Director: Tom Laughlin | Stars: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, Clark Howat, Victor Izay
Votes: 6,596 | Gross: $98.00M
The music brings a poignancy to the movie that is at times more powerful than dialog would.
12. Jaws (1975)
PG | 124 min | Adventure, Mystery, Thriller
When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary
Votes: 659,271 | Gross: $260.00M
Iconic theme music that transcended the movie.
13. The Blues Brothers (1980)
R | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Jake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.
Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Cab Calloway, John Candy
Votes: 214,434 | Gross: $57.23M
Classic. That's more than enough.
14. Payback (I) (1999)
R | 100 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After a successful heist, Porter is left for dead. Once he recovers, he seeks vengeance and wants his share of the money.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Maria Bello, David Paymer
Votes: 145,679 | Gross: $81.53M
I love this movie. The music that is in this movie just amped it up for me. So love this movie.
15. The Breakfast Club (1985)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama
Five high school students meet in Saturday detention and discover how they have a great deal more in common than they thought.
Director: John Hughes | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy
Votes: 436,404 | Gross: $45.88M
Defined teens of the 80's and the music helped. Great movie that allows us to stay young. The songs are still playable.
16. Top Gun (1986)
PG | 109 min | Action, Drama
As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer
Votes: 502,429 | Gross: $179.80M
If you haven't seen the movie then watch it. Music is all over this movie, which is, ironically a movie for pretty much everybody. I will get a lot of heat for that last statement but I believe it's still true.
17. Trick or Treat (1986)
R | 98 min | Comedy, Horror, Music
A bullied teenage boy is devastated after the death of his heavy metal idol, Sammi Curr. But as Halloween night approaches, he discovers that he may be the only one who can stop Sammi from making a Satanic comeback from beyond the grave.
Director: Charles Martin Smith | Stars: Marc Price, Tony Fields, Lisa Orgolini, Doug Savant
Votes: 7,868 | Gross: $6.80M
It's a campy horror movie. I LOVE IT!!! The music helps a lot.
18. The Lost Boys (1987)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Horror
After moving to a new town, two brothers discover that the area is a haven for vampires.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes
Votes: 161,087 | Gross: $32.22M
Another great movie from the 80's that was musically great.
19. Do the Right Thing (1989)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson
Votes: 112,393 | Gross: $27.55M
The music is so important to this great movie!
20. Singles (1992)
PG-13 | 99 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A group of twenty-something friends search for love and success in grunge-era Seattle.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Sheila Kelley
Votes: 32,663 | Gross: $18.47M
Any movie with Alice In Chains singing Would? live is on the list.
21. The Matrix (1999)
R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 2,052,475 | Gross: $171.48M
Groundbreaking movie, groundbreaking music.
22. A Knight's Tale (2001)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
After his master dies, a peasant squire, fueled by his desire for food and glory, creates a new identity for himself as a knight.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon
Votes: 201,657 | Gross: $56.57M
Rock music in a period piece is pure genius.
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