Andrew Listens to... Movie Soundtracks (feat. Greer Dubois)
Iconic film scores, written by a film buff who knows nothing about popular music and a music buff who hasn't seen all of these movies.
Andrew: When I was a senior in high school I was wandering through Barnes and Noble and stumbled across “1001 Movies to Watch Before You Die”. I had just been accepted into Northwestern’s Theatre program and was deeply worried that I’d get to college and be surrounded by erudite throngs of theatre people who were all better read and better acquainted with culture than I was. (I was proven right almost immediately). But I thought, “Ok, better buy this book and religiously watch as many of them as I can so I don’t embarrass myself”. This task lasted about a year before the college grind got to me, but I’ve always been distinctly aware of my inexperience in cinema. [Greer's note: This is dumb. Andrew probably has seen as many movies as I have.] Then Greer started their Master’s program in Filmmaking at Depaul, and I was so relieved; finally, someone who can make me cultured. Reader, I have not taken advantage of their resources. But when it came time to co-write a blog (a long-time dream of mine as a devoted reader of Greer’s excellent blog “Crazies”- linked), I made them talk about the intersection of music and film. So make sure you watch the clips! This is both a visual and an auditory experience.
Greer: These are some of my favorite soundtracks with scenes that feature them. Not the best or the only good ones by any means. Just my favorites.
Let’s dive in:
Andrew Listens to… Movie Soundtracks (Linked to Spotify)
Godzilla (1954) - Akira Ifukube
Star Wars (1977) - John Williams
Umbrellas at Cherbourg (1964) - Michel Legrand
Interstellar (2014) - Hans Zimmer
Challengers (2024) - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
The List
1. Godzilla (1954) - Akira Ifukube
Greer: I love an old-school Hollywood movie soundtrack, and when I say old school, I mean true old school, like 1930s-1960s Golden Age of Hollywood schmaltz full of squealing strings and sentimental melodies. Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Henry Mancini, Bernard Hermann (all linked): these influential film composers were, like most people in Hollywood in this era, first or second-generation immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, the Jewish or Catholic children of European musicians and maestros and theater people, and their work threads a direct line between Europe's 19th century classical music traditions and the most famous Hollywood soundtracks of all time. There's something so beyond on the nose about these soundtracks. They're larger than larger than life in a way I can't get enough of sometimes, the musical equivalent of a sugar rush.
But I think my favorite soundtrack from this era isn't from any Hollywood composer: it's Akira Ifukube's music for the original Godzilla. Ifukube was a composer for films and independent orchestra equally. His music brought together Japanese musical traditions with European influences like Stravinsky. And maybe because of that, his score for Godzilla is both full of blockbuster bangers and also contains some complexity and mixed emotions that some of the Golden Age American composers lack. There's a bunch of things I love about the Godzilla theme here (the biggest one musically is that baller time signature change) but mostly I just love that this heroic piece brings a tragic grandeur to the monster and to the people trying to take him down equally.
Andrew: I have very little experience with the Godzilla movies, having never seen the original. But I did watch the incredible “Godzilla Minus One”, with its combination of titanic horror and human bravery. I’ve watched this clip from the original a dozen times, and I’m struck with how it doesn’t match the expectations I bring to this kind of imagery in 2025. It’s not the fast paced disaster scores I associated with films like “Twister” or “Armageddon”. Instead the scene has four movements: the softly rumbling drums and bassoon as Godzilla approaches the beach, the silence interspersed with explosions and gunshots as their first volley fails under his onslaught, the terribly slow bass as Godzilla lays waste to the city, and the staccato triumphant orchestra as the humans rush to contain the damage-- all the while buildings and people are evaporated under his atomic breath. As Greer notes, this piece is less interested in raising the heartbeat of the audience and instead tells the story of the seemingly inevitability of destruction and the bravery and tenacity of humanity in the face of such an existential threat.
2. Star Wars- John Williams (1977)
Greer: The heir to the OG Hollywood composers is, of course, John Williams, who monopolized thirty years of blockbuster film scoring so decisively (E.T., Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Harry Potter, among others) that it's physically impossible that you've never heard one of his songs. So maybe it feels a little cliche to include a song from his biggest and most obvious soundtrack ever: the original Star Wars.
But this shit's iconic for a reason. It slaps. The thing about John Williams is you can always, always hum his theme songs. They're memorable and melodic to a degree that rivals Tchaikovsky, and just like you'll never forget the Nutcracker Suite, you'll never forget Leia's theme or the main titles music. I loved this shit so much as a kid that I recorded the entirety of the original Star Wars audio on a cassette tape to listen to on road trips. You could do any song from this score to represent how fucking good it is, but I chose this bit – the binary sunset scene, where we hear the Force Theme on French horn – because it captures so simply what makes the original Star Wars soundtrack good: a deeply felt emotional quality that you would never have expected from sci-fi before these films changed cinema history forever.
John Williams can be derivative, but in a way that a lot of Hollywood film has always been derivative, whether it's film directors swiping whole sequences from earlier films, or people reusing the same fake New York street set on the Paramount lot fifty times. That is to say, a definitional part of (Hollywood) filmmaking is stealing shit. Influenced by Korngold, John Williams was never afraid to remix or copy older classical music and film scores, but he never fails to transform his influences into even more memorable new compositions, and he continues to inspire new composers to do the same with his work.
Andrew: I’m so glad that Greer included this scene as its one that I’ve watched a hundred times and always leaves me a little misty eyed. A good score moment bears the weight of the story as much as the cinematography. And in this scene, you can close your eyes and hear the yearning of Luke, the heart on a string quality as he’s pulled toward his destiny. Greer called out the soulful French Horns, but equally as important are the tremulous violins as Luke approaches the horizon, before opening out into a glorious full orchestra moment that sends chills down your spine. This moment balances the isolation of Tatooine and Luke's farmer upbringing against the majesty of the Force and the wider galaxy into which Luke heads. It tells the story of choice, of destiny, and the hero's journey into the unknown.
3. Umbrellas at Cherbourg (1964) - Michel Legrand
Greer: There were so many good soundtracks that I wanted to do for this and I feel almost sinful in omitting some of them: transwoman/electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos' scores for Kubrick, Danny Elfman's work, Howard Shore's. But I am not doing any of them and am instead doing this French movie because, well, it's weird and I like it and this is a scene that I have probably watched hundreds of times.
Umbrellas at Cherbourg is a strange movie that occupies a weird crossroads of film history. It looks and feels like a classic Hollywood film in many ways, but it's made during the French New Wave period by Jacques Demy, a leftist/Left Bank filmmaker who was married to feminist film pioneer Agnes Varda (Cleo 5 to 7, The Gleaners and I) and was friends with experimental filmmaker Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienband).
But it's this interesting juxtaposition between classic Hollywood aesthetics and experimental independent European ones that make this movie so good, and that's exactly what you can hear and see in this scene. A theme running through all of the scenes I've chosen is the way that a soundtrack can almost contradict a film's visuals at times, providing an unexpected color to the scene that isn't in the visuals. In this scene in particular, we're seeing (spoilers) two former lovers who were forced to separate running into each other for the first time at a gas station five years after they last met. They make dry small talk, singing in what opera composers call recitative – speech-like singing on one or two notes over a score. But what we're hearing in the background and under the scene is the lovers' theme song, "Ne Me Quitte Pas," which they sang to each other at the beginning of the film to promise their everlasting love for each other. I just cannot get enough of hearing these old Golden-age-style Michel Legrand notes paired with the absolute dry banality of these lyrics ("Regular gas or premium?" "The car horn is NOT a toy!") It perfectly captures the wrenching feeling of running into an ex but being completely unable to talk about anything but the most banal shit, while also marrying the larger-than-life aesthetics of old Hollywood with the ironic, bitter realism of the European independent film that blossomed out of this period. (Finally, if you're a fan of La La Land, give this movie a go – it's that film's biggest influence).
Andrew: I was once told by a former lover that we can’t regret the things that have happened, the choices that we’ve made, because ultimately, they made us into the people we are. While it’s been a long time since I’ve left that particular moment, it’s been a powerfully resonant idea in my life. I’ve never seen this movie, but I know that feeling. And in this case, the music deeply underscores the juxtaposition of tragedy and fulfillment. The two characters sing-speak these nothing phrases at each other, but the timbre of their voices reveal the things unsaid, and as they drive away, the music swells romantically and we see the man’s wife and see him joyfully play with his child. I didn't know that this was the theme of the young lovers, but it makes sense. The moment of that love has gone and cannot be reclaimed, but the echoes reverberate through both of their lives. I’m glad that Greer called out “La La Land” because even from this short scene, I immediately recognized the influence. While the music and the style evoke the big musicals of a previous age of cinema, the music tells the story of the memory of love, time, and the ways that we move on.
4. Interstellar (2014) - Hans Zimmer
Greer: Interstellar is an all-time favorite movie of mine, and despite what anyone might say about its scientific verisimilitude (okay haters, but do you know what's inside of a black hole? DO YOU??) the film conveys something visceral about outer space, its vastness in size and time, like nothing else. The story is literally about a crew of cosmonauts (...Matthew McCosmonaughts?) who leave their families to travel through space, searching for a new planet for humanity before the climate-ravaged earth becomes uninhabitable. But I think the story is really just a base for director Christopher Nolan to build his operatic visuals on, weaving a tapestry of all of his favorite themes: the wonder and horror of science, personal relationships clashing with personal ambitions, and, of course, the malleability of time.
Nolan's composer and repeat-collaborator Hans Zimmer was involved in the film from its earliest pre-production phases. While some directors bring composers very late into post-production, completing the entire edit using temp music-linked (placeholder music from other films that the composers will replace with similar, sometimes derivative tracks), Nolan gave Zimmer creative control early on so that the score would be an integral and distinct part of the final product. Zimmer didn't even know much about the film initially, not even that it was about space – just that it was about fatherhood and time (linked) – but in response, he created this immense soundscape-plus-symphony featuring ticking clocks, orchestral pieces, and the organ from the Temple Church in London.
I love pretty much every single track from this score, but this scene gives you a sense of the soundtrack's vast dynamic range – from quiet to loud, from lovely melodic strings to Philip Glass-inspired percussive abstractions – and the way the sound gives the sci-fi visuals an emotional dimension that they would otherwise lack.
Andrew: I’ve never seen “Interstellar”. I know I should have. I’ve meant to for years. But honestly, I’ve avoided it. I knew how big this movie is in terms of visual, emotional, and musical weight and I’ve rarely felt like I had the capacity to handle it. From watching this clip, I might have been correct. A fun fact about me is that I’ve always been terrified of the concept of infinity. Numbers counting up eternally chills me. Fractals ceaselessly repeating fill me with anxiety. And imagining existence at the event horizon terrified me. (I had nightmares about “2001 Space Odyssey” for years) But, in the hands of Nolan and Zimmer, such concepts of time and space are both given grandeur and humanity. Sure, the immensity and the terror are there, but so is the beauty. None of us will ever live through anything close to the edge of human experience, but with this soundtrack, we can imagine. From the ticking clocks to the silences and to the transcendent heights, it tells the story of the very edge, the farthest reaches, and the terrible mysteries of the cosmos.
5. Challengers (2024) - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Greer: So real talk: I know nothing about this Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's other music lmao (something to do with nails? idk never heard of it) but they've been dependably churning out solid blockbuster soundtracks for the past fifteen years: The Social Network, Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But it was their score for Luca Guadignano's Challengers last year that stood out to me as the best of their scores so far, and my favorite score of the year.
Why? Here's their scoring of Challengers's climactic scene (SPOILER alert for the end of the film):
Quick recap: Challengers is about tennis, sex, and Zendaya trying to get two bro-frenemies to do at least one of those activities with each other by the end of a two-hour film, and in this scene, we finally see all her efforts pay off. The film both starts and ends with this tennis match, bookending the story of the three main characters' complicated friends/lovers/enemies dynamics, and so when we finally get to see it play out, it's a massive payoff, both of the sports plot and the relationship story.
And obviously, the soundtrack is just as fast-paced and physically intense as you'd expect. But what I love most about this clip is that the music is so unexpectedly goofy. There's the pulsing techno beat, but then there's this fruity little disco string sample over it. If you played that scene with a more stripped-down up-tempo track under it, yeah, it'd still be suspenseful, but the humanity of the scene would be gone. But the combination of that intense beat plus the delicious riffs over it coupled with the wildly fast and joyful edit make my hairs stand up on end. This film doesn't make tennis look cool. It doesn't even make tennis look sexy. But it does make tennis the vessel for joyously horny camp about three athletes who probably could have resolved their issues years ago if they'd cared less about winning and more about loving each other.
Sometimes Reznor and Ross's other soundtracks get criticized as being too interchangeable, or blending into the background of their films too much. This gets to an interesting debate about soundtracks and how much they should draw attention to themselves within a film. As YouTube channel Every Frame a Painting stated so well in this video essay about Marvel soundtracks, as the digital era has transformed film editing, contemporary soundtracks have strayed too far into becoming replaceable background noise to lay in over scenes as the director and editor please, rather than being central pieces of the emotional storytelling, with each note scored to a particular frame of the film. But Luca Guadignano, as Christopher Nolan does when collaborating with Hans Zimmer, involved Reznor and Ross in Challengers from the beginning of the pre-production phase. And that's why this score has so much personality. The film's audio and visuals are perfect dance partners – or tennis partners, if you will.
Andrew: If you’ve been hanging around this blog for the past year, you might remember when Jim referenced Reznor’s band Nine Inch Nails in their Metal Primer (linked) as part of their discussion of Rob Zombie. And what I love about Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s soundtrack for this scene is that it’s both goofy and sexy, intense and yet almost as overwrought as a parody, both deeply human and yet almost caricatures the characters. That’s cool. That’s camp. That’s the dialectic of both the scene and Challengers. I’ve not seen the whole thing (I’ve been told I’d cringe throughout), but this one scene so perfectly crystalizes everything I’ve heard. It’s incredible to watch a scene that is both deeply serious and tongue and cheek at the same time, and music plays a powerful role in maintaining that balance. Unlike Williams or Ifukube, Reznor and Ross aren’t memorable as writers of melodies or themes, but their work evokes powerful feelings in just as powerful a way. My dad, in talking about my blog, often expresses astonishment that music holds all of the emotional weight that I say it does (he will often analyze the lyrics separate from the music), but even he has said that movie soundtracks shape the emotional state of the audience member in ways that he can immediately pick up on. The soundtrack from this scene might not be instantly memorable, but it does effectively tell the story of lust, competition, and triumph.
I want to thank Greer for their writing, their experience, and for the gift of this list of music.
Next Time: Andrew Listens to… a Summer ‘25 Needle Drop