Watching Dark Knight for the tenth time this week with Hans Zimmer’s incredulous soundtrack leading the show … was the reason for this write-up today.
Powerful, raw and simply emphatic, the film score is simple in design, but truly effective when put together with Nolan’s trilogy epic.
With this one, is it any wonder that Zimmer has been honoured an Academy Award, two Golden Globes, three Grammy’s, an American Music Award and a Tony Award? Which, for the Dark Knight, he won two for.
I think the caption within the vinyl sleeve says it best, don’t you?
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“…Zimmer’s extraordinary vision for these scores set the bench mark for comic book hero soundtracks thereafter,
defining the genre.
The imitable rhythmic tension in the music is matched by equally dramatic melodies, and this Main Theme, embellished here by Lindsey Stirling’s violin work, brings new life to this extraordinary score.”
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I think it also gives us the true identity of any film, providing us with little elements of context of what and when to feel throughout. Music without film, would be Italy without pasta. It is impossible to imagine without – and Zimmer’s soundtrack is a true superhero soundtrack. Bold, brash and dark. The perfect trio of words to describe the caped crusader, too while we’re at it.
This is possibly why this trilogy is one of the greatest superhero trilogies of all time, and has been since. It is also why that it is one of the most talked about trilogy to date, despite the first instalment being released in ’05. And it’s not just about its music.
Stellar casting, stunning choreography, a heroic story, and an incomprehensible performance from Ledger’s Joker – that no-one saw coming – the Dark Knight is the perfect super-story.
What a film. What. a. film.
