Best Films for Sound Design and Film Scores: 10 to Study

A leitmotif is a piece of music tied to a character or an idea. Every time it comes back, it brings the character's presence with it. In M (1931), the killer Hans Beckert whistles 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' and can't stop himself. You hear the tune before you see him, so the whistle turns into a warning. In the balloon seller scene, you know who's nearby before the child does.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) introduced the Imperial March, and it works as Vader's announcement. The music shows up ahead of him and fills a space with his authority before he's even in it.

For Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Leone played Morricone's finished score on set during takes, so the actors heard their themes while performing. The harmonica theme is music, and it's also the instrument the character Harmonica carries. That one sound ends up standing for who he is and for the mystery of the plot.

There Will Be Blood (2007) uses an atonal score, music with no settled key to hold on to. It never comforts you. When the first oil derrick catches fire, the orchestra erupts into noise and pays no attention to the people getting hurt.

No Country for Old Men (2007) has a score so minimal it's close to silence. The desert wind does the work, along with the sound of cash being counted and the hiss of a silenced gun. Chigurh's weapon is a captive bolt pistol made for slaughtering cattle. It makes a small click and a puff of air. That tiny sound for something so violent is a big part of why he's frightening. In the hotel room shootout, you follow the fight through darkness, flashlight beams and sound.

Das Boot (1981) trains your ears. You learn what the sonar ping means and which depth-charge pattern means an attack is on the way. By the middle of the film, you're reading sound as fast as the crew. During the attacks, the explosions start far away and get closer, and the hull groans under the pressure. In the silent-running scenes, everything drops away except breathing.

A Quiet Place (2018) stays in near-silence for most of its running time, since any noise can get you killed. The score is used sparingly, and you end up holding your breath along with the family. The birth scene is the peak. The mother is in the bathtub with the creature in the house, and every splash could give her away.

Sound of Metal (2019) uses real silence, held for a long time and with no cue to warn you it's coming. Over 2 hours, you learn to hear that silence as something present. In the last scene, Ruben sits on a bench in a Paris square and takes off his implant processors while church bells ring. The film goes completely quiet, and this time the quiet feels like relief.

In Apocalypse Now (1979), the sound design and the music blend into one track. The opening mixes helicopter blades with 'The End' by the Doors, and you can't cleanly sort what you hear into music and noise.

Heat (1995) is the lesson in realistic gunfire. The downtown shootout was recorded with real blanks in real locations, and the sound wasn't altered afterward. The shots echo off the buildings of downtown Los Angeles. You can follow where the fight is happening by ear, and it's loud enough to feel physical.