Films that would be improved by removing the score

I once read somewhere that Gravity was originally not meant to have any background score and, while I don't think that factoid was actually proved to be true, it has been hard not to think of a version of the film where a real-time attempt to survive the vacuum of space would be more interesting without a score attempting to impress a level of urgency that I would've thought was already apparent in the situation.

A Quiet Place is also a good example for even more obvious reasons, namely that the premise of sightless killer aliens hunting people by sound means that extra emphasis is put on diegetic noises yet that is also compromised by a score that just ends up being distracting more than anything else.

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So tough to say just via imagination. I expect the best answers we'd never guess or know without actually hearing what they'd sound like, so in practice we'd mostly just end up choosing ones where we thought the score was intrusive or something.

Not really an answer but I did see a documentary once about M. Night Shyamalan where he said he always starts each film saying he wants to have no music, let it stay really raw and stripped down, and then James Newton Howard comes in and gives him part of the score and it always persuades him that it's better with it.

Interesting question. I don't remember the score of Gravity either way (liking it or finding it intrusive).

I do think that a lack of a score can add a heavy dose of realism, especially with a movie like Festen.

I actually don't mind a more bombastic score (the recent Invisible Man comes to mind) when the events on screen are more outlandish. But I get what you're saying about Gravity because it's such an intimate film in many ways. On the other hand, sound (and specifically music) really taps into a different emotional part of my brain. It's true that the peril in Gravity is more than apparent, but having an urgent score heightens that experience for me. I guess it's a question of "how much is too much."

I can't even remember the title now, but there was some film that uses what sounded like trumpet blasts to emphasize EVERY SINGLE SIGNIFICANT PLOT MOMENT. Man, I wish I could remember the film. All I remember is the irritation. I think it was a crime/thriller. "You mean she isn't really her mother?" *BWAMP BWAMP!!* "No . . . I've never seen that woman before!" *BWAMP BWAMP!!* Like they had an easily surprised trumpet player in the studio.

12 Angry Men perhaps. The remake had no music and I like that better, but the original is still better. However, as far as Sidney Lumet movies go, 12 Angry Men has more music compared to other ones of his.

Mamma Mia!

Django Unchained partially.

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Pretty much any Spike Lee movie...the music in his movies is almost always horrible

Night of the Hunter: The atmosphere is so chilling but the soundtrack just does not fit the film at all in my opinion.

Also here's many films out there that largely have no score but have a bit of non-diegetic music maybe towards the end (12 Angry Men, A Man Escaped, Rope, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). It feels strange in the film since the film had almost no music to begin with. Therefore, I feel if these films had no music AT ALL, they would be even better.

Whenever I see moments like that, I always think a low droning sound effect would be better instead.

I agree.

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yeah as much I love Malcolm X (1992), the score is very generic sounding.

An interesting question. Often I think that the best musical soundtrack is the one that I don't notice because it blends in so well with the action. The soundtrack music is like the emotional barometer. I have an appreciation for a composer who can make that kind of soundtrack and it's why I don't like conventional musicals where everything stops for a song and dance.

I always wondered about No Country for Old Men, which has almost no score and uses that for both stylistic and thematic reasons. One scene that does have a minor score is the coin toss scene. I can't imagine that scene being done any other way, but I also kind of wish the movie had zero score in it, just so there would be a stylistic through line. Can't have it both ways though.

Even though I like 80's electronic scores often, a terrible one that comes to mind is Dreamscape. Even back then I remember thinking it sucked beyond belief.



The worst one I can think of however comes from a pretty terrible movie anyway and that is Mission To Mars. DePalma makes plenty of awful decisions in my opinion and it's like he tried to create the most anti-climactic, sleep inducing score for a supposedly exciting outer space adventure he could just to be a rebel or something!

I've long said I don't like the "score" for Forbidden Planet (some people like the Moog noise - which is all it is, there is no actual background music). I think I'd love a version with an actual orchestral soundtrack (be neat if John Williams would score it)!

I miss Moog sound in scores. How come nobody uses them anymore?

The 1979 film The China Syndrome is devoid of a music score...there's one scene in a bar that has a Stephen Bishop song coming from a jukebox, but other than that, there's no music in the movie.

They Live. Much like John Carpenter's other film, Prince of Darkness, there's annoying bassline played throughout a good portion of the movie. The movie is great as is, but removing that tedious cheesy blues music would date it much less. I know it's supposed to convey a sense of desolation for the protagonist...but it comes across as tacky and the tone of the bass or whatever sounds so obviously '80s.

After my most recent viewing, I've been having this thought about Schindler's List. This is especially true considering how Spielberg drops the score totally for the scenes where he really wants you to sit with the atrocities being committed so it can feel like the moments where it uses it for more emotionally stirring moments starts to feel a little incongruous.

What the heck. The scores for Prince of Darkness and They Live are amazing! I could never imagine these movies without them.

Anyway, my pick is My Sister's Keeper. It has one of the most horrifically manipulative scores of all time, and really prevents you from taking the story seriously. There are other flaws too, but the music is especially gratuitous.

I forget if it was Suspiria or Tenebrae (or both) but I found Goblin's score to be distracting and out of place.

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