Thomas Newman’s Five Most Beautiful Movie Scores
Music that will take you on a breathtaking journey of heart-wrenching beauty
Music is the language of emotion. No medium utilises the emotive power of music better than films, and there are a few out there who can claim to have created as many beautifully emotive scores as Thomas Newman.
He has a real knack for mixing contrasting emotions, calm with pain, heartache with joy, sadness with the feeling that it’s okay to be sad. Thomas’s Newman’s music is often a rollercoaster of hopeless hope.
Here are five of his most breathtaking scores.
Any Other Name — American Beauty
Scored for the film American Beauty, a brilliant but unnerving watch, this has to be one of the most poignant and yet oddly calming pieces of music ever written.
The gentle piano strokes, if you just close your eyes and take a deep breath, they will take you to a place away from all the chaos. A place where it is just you, you are walking through a field of long grass, the breeze is gentle, the sun is fading but you aren’t worried. Even though you know that once you make it to the other side of the field, the world will come crashing back, you are not worried. Because in this moment, with this music playing, you are at peace.
A truly beautiful score.
Ghosts — Road to Perdition
Scored for the film Road to Perdition, a film about a tough decision, this is a truly beautiful piece of music. Whenever you listen to it, it feels like everything is so calm and still. Like you are just lying there watching as the madness of the world passes you by.
There is sadness in the music, but there is sadness in life, and in this moment as the music plays, you’re okay with that, you are at peace. It’s like in a way you’ve been faced with a tough decision, but now you’ve made the decision, you’re okay with it. You know there’s a storm coming but it’s okay because you have made the right decision.
In a way, this music is like the calm before the storm. The beautiful calm before the storm.
Whisper of a Thrill — Meet Joe Black
Scored for the film Meet Joe Black, a uniquely premised film with a highly emotive storyline, this is a heart-wrenchingly beautiful piece of music. Sometimes in life, people leave you and you have to leave people, and there is no score I’ve ever come across that better encapsulates that feeling than this one.
It’s like it is saying to you, I have to go now, but it’s okay. Because I’ll always be with you. And that is the lasting feeling from this score, that it will always be with you.
Brooks Was Here — The Shawshank Redemption
Scored for the superb film The Shawshank Redemption, what I love about this score is how it just perfectly encapsulates the feeling of the long and hard journey home.
It has everything, the poignancy of it, the desperation of it, the longing of it. Everything.
When you’re listening to it, it feels like you’ve been on a long journey, you’ve had to fight so hard, just so damn hard, and the whole time all you’ve wanted to do is make it home, and now finally you have finally made it home. You are free. And all you can think is, thank God.
The emotion truly is through the roof. That’s what makes it so great to listen to.
Coffey on the Mile — The Green Mile
Scored for the legendary film that is The Green Mile, this is a piece of music that has an eerie majesty to it. It somehow manages to encapsulate both dread and hope. It is sad, it is soaring, and yet somehow for an incomprehensible reason, it is filled with hope.
When listening to it, it is like you’re walking a hopeless path that is somehow filled with hope. It feels an impossible feeling, to walk a hopeless path of hope, but it exists. In this music, it exists. And when you listen to it, you feel it.
All in all, a truly breathtaking score.
That’s all from me, thanks for reading! If you found this post of interest, you may also enjoy the following:
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Meet Joe Black — a Film That Asks the Question What If Death Fell for the Living
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