Bernard Herrmann is arguably the greatest film composer ever. "Vertigo" is a towering achievement. (I would love for the BSO to showcase "Vertigo" the way they did "Psycho" last year.) Although Herrmann is my favorite composer overall, I'd have to say my favorite film score of all time is Hugo Friedhofer's for "The Best Years of Our Lives."

This year's crop of film score nominees proves once again that the Academy listens to movies with organs other than their ears. With that said, the winner will be "Up" because it is the most tuneful and emotional of the bunch.

Thanks for the response and the, um, firmly started opinions. I also think it would be really cool to see 'Vertigo' with live orchestra soundtrack. TIM

The Herrmann scores are great, especially "Psycho" when driving in the rain at night! But don't forget his great work for fantasy and science fiction--"Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Fahrenheit 451," and "Ghost and Mrs. Muir."

Other personal favorites: "The Big Country" (Moross), "To Kill a Mockingbird" (Bernstein), "Lawrence of Arabia"&"Doctor Zhivago" (Jarre) and "The Lion in Winter" (Barry)

Thanks for the colorful list. TIM

The Right Stuff while not the most original score with respect to classical music, was one of the most thrilling. Oscar winning it was for a film that soared even higher with Bill Conti's suppport. This from a composer who made Rocky's Theme a standard and did quite a bit of other scores including the live Oscar telecasts.

Other favorites-Eric Wolfgang Korngold did the best swashbucklers with Errol Flynn, Henry Mancini did Touch of Evil and Breakfast at Tiffany's, Elmer Bernstein scored The Great Escape and Magnificent Seven.

Thanks very much for the list. (If I recall correctly, that "Right Stuff" theme owes a little something to the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.) TIM

Round One: Winner this year -- who cares? None of these scores does anything exceptional. Of the composers, my favourite would be Zimmer (who is often in auto-pilot mode anymore, though that's still impressive), with Desplat a distant second; the others write the kind of scores that drove me away from contemporary film music. Horner's a hack; his early promise has materialized into nothing that'll strike interest 100 years from now. I'd put him in the same boat as Alan Silvestri.

Round Two: I _greatly_ admire Herrmann, but I don't _enjoy_ his work as much as that of my personal favourite, Ennio Morricone. The diversity of his work is staggering. What would his single-greatest achievement be? "Once Upon A Time In The West," hands down. All of his "Spaghetti Western" scores interact with their films on a very intense, visceral level, but OUATITW is as beautiful as it is brutal; the film would be an empty shell without the music.

One of my fondest memories: watching the opening titles to De Palma's "The Untouchables" and hearing Morricone's music. The experience still impresses me (and this was before I realized how silly De Palma's movies tend to be, though "The Untouchables" is one of his, a-hem, "best"). Ironically, I hate the harmonica, but it's used in both scores I've mentioned!

For a score that reaches into your soul: "Blade Runner" by Vangelis. He may have won the 1981 Oscar for "Chariots of Fire," but the _real_ slice of genius came a year later and has never been equalled by him since.

Finally, for a seriously-overlooked score, I nominate Edward Shearmur's "K-Pax": it's pure genius and covers a _lot_ of territory, all with a surprisingly-high level of consistency (considering that his other film music has done nothing to impress me -- I almost can't believe the same person is involved). Another one-hit-wonder, apparently...

Thanks, as always, for your thoughts. Fascinating list. I'll have to check out some of those . TIM

Just as a follow-up, I heard Morricone's "Moses & Marco Polo Suite" on WBJC just now, featuring the ubiquitous Yo-Yo Ma, and was reminded just how bloody amazing Morricone can be --- beautiful! I had first heard the "Moses" score as a kid, when the TV replayed the Burt Lancaster movie, but only years later did I realize who did the music -- a major "A-HA!!!" moment. (And I passed up a chance to buy the complete score album about a decade ago -- I'm going to have to go digging for it, argh...)

Ennio's still very much alive and composing at 81, and I hope he lives to 181. Or at least let's clone him or something -- he's a keeper!

(Then again, so was Herrmann.)

I like anything by Bernard Hermann, too. Let's also not overlook his scores for the Ray Harryhausen special effects extravaganzas, like "Mysterious Island", "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", "Jason and the Argonauts". Among other composers, Georges Auric's score for Cocteau's version of Beauty and the Beast is one reason I keep going back to that movie. (The score is available newly recorded on a Naxos CD, too.) Auric (one of Les Six) wrote wonderful scores for other movies, including some of the Ealing Studios comedies. I also like Elmer Bernstein and recently watched "The Man with the Golden Arm" with his jazz-influenced score. If you don't mind a cult favorite, check out Christopher Komeda's weird music for Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers". Out of more recent composers, I like the exotic scoring that Thomas Newman did for "Lemony Snicket" and "Road to Perdition".

Thanks for the great list. TIM