It fits here better... soundtrack...

My favorite choices would have to be:

First and foremost Star Wars- all three films' scores by John Williams- he may have pinched a lot of it from "The 9 Planets" but the emotions encapsulated in the music truly moves me. Then, in no particular order:

Platoon- Barber's Adagio for Strings forms the core of a very moving score indeed

Schindler's list- The music goes a long way to setting the tone of this film

The Piano- Some of the concertos draw the viewer in more than the superb plot ever could

Gladiator- I like this because it marks Hans Zimmer stepping out of his "Bruckenheimer cheesy score mode" and puts him firmly in with the classics. A score approaching greatness.

Chinatown- Jeremiah Goldsmith's score is so classic and evocatively noirish that it has to have a mention here.

The Great Escape- Love it or loathe it, Elmer Bernstein's classic score is the catchiest tune you'll ever see going around. It's almost evil in its insidious ability to suck you into whistling it.

Batman- Danny Elfman (who scores the Simpsons as well) surpassed all expectation with his dark, brooding score. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

And, saving the best til last...

El Cid/Ben Hur- I put these together, because only together can the genius of Dr. Miklos Roza be truly seen. My favorite of the two scores would be El Cid, but it doesn't really matter. All that does is the emotional rollercoaster of the strong toned music.

Those are my favorite scores without a doubt. A lot of these films owe the atmospheric setting their plots thrive on to the music.

Bob the Unlucky Octopus
=Alea Jacta Est=

PS- gr8 thread Bard, plyd

Gladiator is amazing - fantastic music to play games by, too.

The original Star Wars orchestral soundtrack is a work of art as well... And I'm quite a fan of the Stargate soundtrack, some nice themes the best of which has, of course, been recycled as the opening for Stargate: SG-1.

So shoot me, but with the exception of the terrible Celine Dion crooning, the Titanic soundtrack was very good - haunting melodies with a distinctly Irish feel.

In terms of non-orchestral work, the soundtrack done by Michael Kamen and Orbital for Event Horizon is discordant, scary and brilliant.

As per usual, the Japanese have some great stuff - orchestral music is still quite mainstream there, thanks to the common use of original orchestral scores in TV series and games - where we have Hans Zimmer and John Williams, they have Joe Hisashi and Yoko Kanno. The soundtrack to Laputa is particularly good, as is pretty much anything by Kanno - check out the Escaflowne soundtrack in particular, or the Brain Powerd OST.