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• Great movies with great soundtracks

A great soundtrack is not about filling your movie with a collection of great songs. Anybody with iTunes, Limewire and a CD burner can make a decent playlist. What makes a film soundtrack great is the way it relates to the film and specifically, whether or not those tunes, both collectively and in their individual uses, capture the film’s essence, mood and message. Then again, having great songs never hurts. This is the definitive list of the greatest film soundtracks of all time (at least as I see it). For the sake of this list, musicals and original film scores were not considered ­— I didn’t need another reason to write about why I love The Dark Knight so much.

The Royal Tenenbaums (Various Artists)

It would be hard to screw up a soundtrack featuring songs from Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Jackson Browne and the Clash, but luckily this film was in the steady, creative hands of Wes Anderson. The soundtrack uses an array of lively pop classics and darker, lesser-known ballads to complement the film’s comedic, but sometimes dark, examination of family dysfunction at its extreme. The film’s greatest marriage between song and scene comes as Elliot Smith’s Needle in the Hay hauntingly crescendos during Luke Wilson’s character’s suicide attempt montage.

Dazed and Confused (Various Artists)

Dazed and Confused is a movie about a time when things were simpler: high-schoolers drove around with trunks filled with beer bottles, not wearing a bra was socially acceptable, mailbox baseball was still a pastime and parents allowed incoming freshman to be mercilessly paddled in public parking lots after their Little League games. Needless to say, I wish I had lived through the late-’70s.

Accompanying these happy-go-lucky times was some of the greatest music ever recorded. Dazed and Confused’s classic rock-laden soundtrack typifies the no worries, party hard mindset of the movie’s characters and is the perfect playlist for anyone looking for a beer bust. Alice Cooper’s "School’s Out" is the quintessential anthem for studentse filled with last-day-of-school giddiness, and as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s "Tuesday’s Gone" plays at the party’s end, viewers can’t help but feel the characters’ emotional mix of accomplishment and sadness over having a keg run dry.

Also, the soundtrack features both "Slow Ride" and "Free Ride", so if you feel like cruising or hitchhiking, you’re covered either way.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Various Artists)

Good soundtracks are composed of songs that you love, but great soundtracks can you make appreciate songs that you would have never listened to otherwise. I hate country music, but whenever I hear this soundtrack I strongly reconsider that position. O Brother, Where Art Thou?’s use of old-time classics, folk sing-a-longs, notable gospel songs and other country music traditionals performed by today’s best blues musicians accurately depicts the sonic landscape during America’s other notable recessionary period.

Also, bonus points for prominently featuring the vocals and fiddling skills of Urbana native and multiple Grammy winner Alison Krauss.

Good Will Hunting (Various Artists)

Prior to his still memorable live performance at the 1998 Oscars, Elliot Smith was an underground singer-songwriter whose solo work could only be found on the independent Kill Rock Stars record label. But his contributions to the surprise hit Good Will Hunting — and subsequent Academy Award nomination for original song "Miss Misery" — vaulted the relatively unknown indie-rocker into mainstream prominence.

The soundtrack does not exclusively feature work by Smith, but his five songs are the most relevant to the film’s narrative. Smith’s piano and guitar centered tunes about love, depression, addiction and loneliness coupled with his distinctive, whispery vocal delivery were the perfect accompaniment to a film about a pschologically scarred genius on a road of self-discovery.

Apparently, selecting Elliot Smith as the major soundtrack contributor occurred when screenplay co-author Ben Affleck was still making good career choices. However, I’m willing to bet it was all Matt Damon’s idea.

Almost Famous (Various Artists)

A film audacious enough to think that it can accurately depict the power of music better have the best soundtrack ever backing up the visual images. This movie did.

Featuring over 50 songs throughout the film and a staggering music budget of $3.5 million, Almost Famous is the semi-autobiographical account of director Cameron Crowe’s life as a young Rolling Stone reporter covering groups like The Allman Brothers Band, The Who and The Eagles. Needless to say, Crowe listened to and saw the greatest rock songs and rockers that history has afforded us, and he went to extreme lengths to compile a soundtrack that would recreate that experience.

What makes Almost Famous’ soundtrack so remarkable is not just that it has so many timeless songs by rock’s most mythical figures, its that none of these songs seem forced. The soundtrack seemlessly takes listeners on a trip through the life of a music reporter and the "Tiny Dancer" bus scene displays music’s ability to heal emotional wounds, alter a person’s mood and have even the most estranged of people feel connected.