school assignment help -- war movie music

[meg]

Okay, marginally odd request coming up.  I'm doing a project analysing the use of music in war movies, particularly how music is used to identify the different sides.  For example, in "Black Hawk Down," music was composed specifically to sound like traditional American music (for the American soldiers' theme) and "typically" African music (for the Somalis).  At the moment, I'm looking for a bunch of movies to start off my research. 

Does anyone know of any movies that would work for this project?  I'm open to movies that have completely new soundtracks written for them, as well as movies that use pre-existing material.  My total war movie repertoire is a little limited, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
meg

 

[cplcaldwell]

Interesting request.

Music student eh.

Battle of Britain.

Battle of the Bulge  .. gotta throw in "Panzerlied" somewhere...

That oughtta get things started...

 

[muffin]

Apocalypse Now

We Were Soldiers

Band of Brothers

 

[TN2IC]

Hunt for the Red October.. really nice music on it.


And no I am not a commie...


;D

 

[bojangles]

I know "When we were soldiers" has a sountrack and its got some pretty interesting music on it.
Good Luck with your project

 

[R933ex]

How about these:

The Longest Day, Classic Paul Anka music IMHO, (who also makes an appearance in the movie) and on the Corneilis Ryan Theme, A Bridge Too Far.

 

[3rd Herd]

Good Patriotic Sound track:

Enemy At the Gates

I do not know how far back you want to go but several works by Sergi Esienstein such as the "Battleship Potemkin" are ideal for this sort of project.

add the German made version of Stalingrad

 

[medaid]

You're damn right about Panzerlied, when I heard that my blood froze over. It was a strong patriotic tune (it had NO NAzi undertones btw).

Another good one: sound track from 'The Unit', 'Platoon', 'Full Metal Jacket'

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Much of the music, including main soundtracks, for many of the above movies was written and produced by Hans Zimmer. Google him up and you should be able to get a list of the movies.

 

[meg]

Fantastic, guys.  This has been a lot of help.  Thanks so much.

meg

 

[niner domestic]

Meg: Look into the use of Christian hymns in soundtracks as an underlying theme to draw distinctions between western allies and enemies.  (one example was in the film, Road to Paradise with Glenn Close -ironically about female internees of the Japanese using music to keep them alive...in the scene where their ship was sunk by the Japanaese, the music playing is the hymn, "I Vow to Thee My Country".  The melody is then repeated throughout the film and juxtaposed against Biwaqaku. 

There is also this thread that list off a number of marches: http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/25820.0.html

This thread is a long list of people's favourite films but the titles in it should help you out. http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/28627.0.html

Good luck!

 

[Danjanou]

You guys missed the obvious movie scene with duelling music scores.... Zulu. The scene whee the Impi begins a war chant to work up the courage for a final assault on the mission station and the 24th respond with a rendition of Men of Harleoch.

 

[geo]

Zulu was great.

Hmmm.... there is/was  " Das Boot " (Flight of the Valkyrie")

 

[PMedMoe]

Music from Schinder's List, while not actually a "war" movie, it is a movie about the effects of war.

 

[Rider12]

In the second part of the movie, "Full Metal Jacket" has some good sound tracks. Some are by Pee-Wee Herman and The Rolling Stones.  ;D

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Tchaikovsky and Wagner?