DVD movies must have

Saving Private Ryan

Black Hawk Down
Gladiator
Jurassic Park

inland empire

For great movies to have in the collection with music and sound.... I recommend Blade Runner, Lawrence of Arabia, Ben-Hur, The Godfather - all three, Nikita, Gladiator, Matrix - again, all three, Bourne Identity/Ultimatum/Supremacy - again all three (great music and great action), The second to last James Bond - Casino Royale, and if you haven't seen them in a while, the entire Star Wars series. Somewhat lacking music/explosions, I think The Departed, Brazil, The Shawshank Redemption, The Usual Suspects, Schindler's List, and Grand Bleu are all great gotta-have'em-in-the-collection movies. I have only listed a few older classics. Some (not listed) really deserve to be in a DVD collection, but relatively few have epic soundtracks.

For great, dynamic, and musical soundtracks, nothing beats Lawrence of Arabia (and some of its most musical moments are those with silence - a true cinematic masterpiece (Ben-Hur does pretty well in this case as well)). I think Gladiator, and the Matrix films do pretty well on loudness (though some of the recent winners in terms of big, thundering bass are indeed Master & Commander and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (always good for a laugh)). Nikita and the Bourne movies do well for a combination of intelligent action and scores well implemented. The others I tossed in there for just being great DVD movies...