Yes Tom, that's true and besides I think that a song is always related in our heart to a particular scene of the movie that has a meaning for us. For example, I like the "Dance with the wolves" theme because it symbolizes the fall of a barrier, the beginning of a friendship between a man and a wild animal, based on trust. Yes, maybe it's corny, but what the heck, at least watching a movie we are free to let our feelings loose.

Thinking better of it, the theme from Titanic (My heart will go on) is one of the movie themes which can be played in front of an audience because actually it is a song. Other movie themes (like Star Wars, Dances with the wolves, Jaws, etc) are nothing more than musical phrases that last a few bars and serve just the purpose of conveying a state of mind, an emotion, etc.
The examples made by DonM (Blues Brothers 1 & 2 and Your cheating heart) are actually soundtracks made by different songs (like in American Graffiti 1 & 2).
So I think that there is a difference between composing music for a film and putting together different songs to have a soundtrack (just like when an amateur makes a video of his holidays and has to choose the songs to go with the scenes).
The difference, of course, is evident, when you try to play that music, even for yourself. I like some movie themes (like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly by Ennio Morricone), but playing them on my keyboard and being satisfied with the result is an entirely different thing.
Mmmhhh... what do you think?

No one has mentioned "As Time Goes By". It will always be one of my favorites. Now that's sappy.
Don

JAWS ......I kinda of made fun of this Theme but you can't forget the impact it has had .
Even when I see a gold fish attacking food I dropped into the Fish Bowl I kind of do the JAWS thing ...............It's just a scaled down version ...............dano

BTW...does everyone know " Adagio for strings " that I refered to ? dano

DanO1
No, I don't know it... but, I don't want to sound stupid.


Andrea,
Yes, of course, you're frame of mind & particular reactions to a movie scene and it's accompanying music are what makes certain ones special to you. I like the haunting "paper bag" them that played in American Beauty a lot. I personally connected with the video image and the music just added to the feeling.
Tom

I always liked the John William's (Star wars, Jurassic Parc etc) and James Horner's music (Titanic, Braveheart). Of course, there are many more great soundtracks, but I like these best.

I love the Music from "WEST SIDE STORY", "2001 Space Oddessy"

This one is a little far back for all you modern K/B Jockey's, but most of the people of my generation simply could not get the the song out of their minds, once they had seen the show with Gerry Cooper, entitled: "HIGH NOON." I have heard it making a little come-back lately. Best wishes to all...........ARJ

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Notting hill and Blues brothers...