Month: September 2017

Award-winning German film score composer Hans Zimmer (1957-), one of the greats of our time, has composed film scores for decades, with each one surpassing the last. Some of his most famous scores include Lion King (1994), Gladiator (2000), Batman: The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), and Interstellar (2014). He most recently composed scores for Dunkirk (2017) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Zimmer has received many awards for his work, including a Best Original Score Oscar for his Lion King score. He was also nominated for 8 other Best Original Score Oscars.

Today, we will be talking about Zimmer’s style when he composes scores. Like all great composers, Zimmer doesn’t fall victim to having one easily recognizable style. He possesses an amazing ability to vary his style and the mood of his music depending on the time period and context of the movie he is scoring.

One of Zimmer’s first highly recognized and successful scores was his score for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000). The film follows the story of the betrayed Roman general Maximus (played by Russell Crowe) as he seeks revenge for the murder of his family. He goes about this by battling as a gladiator in Rome. The score won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. In this score, Zimmer embraced the ancient Roman sound of the film’s setting and time period through ethnic singing, the multiple uses of various ancient European and Armenian instruments, and slow orchestral songs full of the malaise of the heat and hardships that Maximus fought through to seek his revenge. The song 4. Earth (song link 1: song 1) is a peaceful recurring theme that follows Maximus for the duration of his enormous burden of an undertaking. Listen to the airy sounds in the background as well as the cello and trumpet solos. Zimmer then matches this malaise with fast action-packed battle songs as well. These songs have pounding percussion parts and occasionally lively singing.

The next Zimmer score we will look at is the score for Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010). One of my favorite movies and my favorite Zimmer score, this philosophical and mind-blowing movie has an equally amazing score to match. In the movie, Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a criminal who uses dreams to steal corporate secrets, must complete one last big job in order to go home to his kids. However, Cobb’s dark past entangled with his deceased wife Mal (played by Marion Cotillard) keeps catching up with him until there is no escape from facing the reality of the film, that nobody knows which reality is reality. Neither Mal nor Cobb nor the viewer can ever be sure.

Zimmer is well-known for his mixing of synth sounds with live orchestral music. He does this extensively in Inception to create an ethereal, dream-like score with dark twisted moments and drama. Even though many of the songs sound like a dream, there’s always something off that puts the audience on edge. The songs that best exemplify this idea are The Dream is Collapsing (song link 2: song 2) and Dark Mal (song link 3: song 3). The Dream is Collapsing brings in the strong brassy chords and high drama while Dark Mal sounds peaceful but somewhat eerie and unreal. As a potential reference point for some of you, songs such as Dark Mal remind me of Ramin Djawadi’s soundtrack to the first season of the hit HBO TV series Westworld. Both Inception and Westworld have a dream-like world with twisted characters and themes. I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t seen the film Inception to watch it. I won’t say anything more for fear of spoiling the movie.

The last Zimmer score I would like to mention is the score for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014). Zimmer and Nolan paired up again to create another ethereal and otherworldly sound and experience after working together on the Batman films and Inception. Though the score lost against Alexandre Desplat’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) score for the 2014 Best Original Score Oscar, Zimmer’s Interstellar score still excellently captures the quiet and somewhat empty atmosphere of outer space through songs such as 3. Dust (song link 4: song 4). Take note that in Dust, synth noises are added in around 2:15 to drive the piece forward. Zimmer’s innovative trademark of combining synth sounds with orchestral music continues here from many of Zimmer’s other earlier films.

Despite the ingenuity of this score, I would like to mention that though Zimmer’s soundtrack is simplistic and beautiful, it relies heavily on the slow progression of a few key recurring themes. The loudness of the score also caused many viewers to take issue. Viewers complained that the score drowned out the dialogue in many important moments. Since most of the soundtrack followed the theme of being tranquil and otherworldly, hearing important moments be blasted away really detracted from the simplicity and effectiveness of the score, in my opinion.

Hans Zimmer continues to compose scores today, and I am excited to watch Dunkirk and listen to Zimmer’s latest score when the movie comes out on DVD. I hope you have learned a bit more about Hans Zimmer and have enjoyed listening to a few of his compositions. Though not discussed in this post, I would also recommend checking out Nolan and Zimmer’s collaboration in Batman: The Dark Knight in addition to checking out the other films mentioned here.

I hope to catch you next time on Scoring the Score!

Image and Information Credits:

Image 1: Figure 1

Image 2: Figure 2 (screenshot from video)

Image 3: Figure 3 (screenshot from video)

Image 4: Figure 4

Image 5: Figure 5

Information Source 1: Info Source 1

I don’t own any of the music or images. The music is property of Hans Zimmer, his collaborators, and the studios he has worked with to create these scores.

(Author’s Note: Last week we analyzed The Grand Budapest Hotel’s score. To explain some terminology, a soundtrack compiles existing songs, whereas a score contains original music written for the movie, so this week we are switching gears by analyzing an example of a fantastic soundtrack.)

Edgar Wright, the director of cleverly crafted films such as Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), created another instant classic this summer with his hit film Baby Driver (2017). Set in Atlanta, Georgia, Baby Driver follows the life of the young getaway driver Baby as he tries to get out of the business so that he can run away with his lady love, Debora. Though this short synopsis seems to follow the same tired trope found in many other heist films of the main character trying to escape their life of crime, I assure you that this movie is anything but stale. To give this well-established trope some new life, Wright expands beyond the trope through the film’s artfully crafted soundtrack.

As a bit of background, Wright knew exactly which songs to choose for the film’s soundtrack before he even finished writing the movie. He had been playing around with the idea for this film and its unique soundtrack ever since he first heard the song Bellbottoms by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (song link: song 1) in 1994 when it was released. The two distinct parts of the song inspired what has now become the movie’s opening scene. It starts with Baby rocking out to the song by himself in the car as his team commits the bank heist. Then, the song transitions into the get-away car chase scene around the 1:40 mark in the song. After deciding on this song, Wright created a soundtrack that primarily contains distinctly Rock ‘n’ Roll, Groove, and Motown songs from the mid-1960s and late 1970s to fit the mood set by Bellbottoms.

Wright connects this old music to the modern setting mainly through Baby, and he uses this to develop Baby’s character. In the story, Baby discovered his love of the soundtrack’s old music through his mother, a waitress who used to sing on the side. However, ever since a traumatic childhood car accident that took away his mother and left him with a constant ringing in his ears, Baby has listened to his mother’s old music through his headphones to drown out the ringing and to remind him of his past.

This has made music a very influential part of Baby’s life as he reacts to music and dances around to it everyday. Notably, the movie’s second scene features Baby walking through Atlanta on his way to get coffee for the team after the success of the first heist. The song Harlem Shuffle by Bob and Earl plays as he nonchalantly moves through the city to his own beat (song link: song 2). Baby has become obsessed with playing different songs on a number of different iPods in order to express his moods as well as to create a soundtrack for his life both in and out of the driver’s seat. At one point in the movie, Baby and a different team from the one in the beginning are about to commit a bank heist, so Baby naturally wants to play a song to go with the heist. However, the team gets out of the car before Baby has said “go”, so the music isn’t timed up right. Baby freaks out and makes them restart just so that the music times up to the scene.

This brings us to one of the most impressive and amazing aspects of the film, every movement and action in the film is lined up with the rhythm of the song currently playing. Everything from footsteps to doors slamming to even chewing gum was carefully timed up by the actors as they filmed the movie. Even more surprising, none of this was done during editing, and since the music couldn’t be played during the filming of scenes, this led to countless retakes in order to get everything just right. One of the most impressive scenes includes a weapons deal gone wrong. Bats (played by Jamie Foxx) starts a fight that ends in dozens of gun shots being fired. The actors had to time each gun shot to fit with the music, Tequila by The Champs (song link: song 3). Wright’s use of this technique immerses us in Baby’s world, letting us see things through his perspective as he uses music to make his life very much like an action movie.

After an illegal weapons deal gone wrong, the heist team sits in the diner where Debora works. Figure 4

Wright’s use of soundtrack develops Baby’s character through showing his maniacal obsession over his mother and her music as he turns his exciting life of crime into an action movie inside of an action movie. Additionally, Wright uses the soundtrack to describe and to contextualize the plot, allusions, characters, and their relationships with Baby. In order to give Wright’s genius and Baby Driver the credit and dedication that they deserve, we will take on this next part of the topic in a future post. Be ready to dive deeper into Baby Driver soon and I’ll see you next time on Scoring the Score!

Wes Anderson’s 2014 hit The Grand Budapest Hotel stunned audiences with its deeply touching story while still maintaining Anderson’s colorful fairytale aesthetic and mood. The story follows the grandiose concierge M. Gustave (played by Ralph Fiennes) and his timid lobby boy Zero Moustafa (played by Tony Revolori and F. Murray Abraham) as they try to operate The Grand Budapest Hotel in Lutz, Zubrowka and try to escape from murderers in the Boy With Apple Painting scandal. With romance, a prison break, the discovery of true friendship, and murder, the characters constantly jump from scene to scene with the everlasting light drumbeat and triangle in the background.

The academy award-winning score for this film, composed by the award-winning Alexandre Desplat, can teach the listener about a few of the key elements to composing a great score. Namely, it shows how to create a fitting atmosphere and how to pull reactions from the audience.

The movie opens with peaceful male choir music (1. S’Rothe-Zäuerli by Öse Schuppel, Link: Song Link 1) that brings you to the mountains where the movie takes place through its “yodeling” influences. The elegance and peacefulness of the piece create a serene and calm opening. By 3:36, the main theme (3. Mr. Moustafa by Alexandre Desplat, Link: Song Link 2) comes in with the opening shots of the hotel’s interior. A number of shots roll by, each with an interesting guest at the hotel. As the song picks up in volume and intensity, the viewer begins to see the hotel as a quirky and eclectic gathering place, quietly set in the mountains of this imaginary Eastern European country. However, Anderson and Desplat indicate that not all is well by 9:39 as the composition becomes more ominous and stressful as M. Gustave’s elderly lover Madame D foresees her own death (5. A Prayer for Madame D, Link: Song Link 3). The murder of Madame D starts a wild series of events that dictate the course of the rest of the film. For the film’s duration, Mr. Moustafa and A Prayer For Madame D return in different variations depending on who is on screen. For example, when the meddling, murdureous son of Madame D, Dmitri (played by Adrien Brody), enters a scene, a dramatic organ is added to the tracks.

These songs all prominently feature the balalaika, a guitar-like instrument of Russian and Slavic origin. Including this Eastern European instrument plays a large role in creating the movie’s setting and atmosphere. It brings all scenes to life whether they appear in the town, in the monastery, in the wintery estate, or in the ski hill chase scene.

Desplat also teaches the listener about silence in a film. Whenever a punchline or suspenseful moment comes, all sounds suddenly stop for a moment. For example, at 15:29, the music breaks off as a character asks why all the women that M. Gustave dates are blonde. The same technique is used at 52:55, when a character is being stalked by one of the murderers, organ chords build up and overlap until it cuts off and the murderer kills him. These interactive and playful uses of music grab the audience and make the score  a key element and a character of its own as it changes with certain characters or actions.

Alexandre Desplat uses the film’s score to create a playful atmosphere and develop the film’s comedy while also driving its more passionate moments. I encourage you to listen to the soundtrack, watch the movie with these things in mind, and listen to the soundtrack a day or two later. I find that you will grow to really appreciate the genius of it as I have!

I will leave you with (27. Canto at Gabelmeister’s Peak by Alexandre Desplat) which goes from a scene in a monastery to a murder in the monastery and finally to a huge chase scene down the ski hill which ends on a cliff edge. Listen for the monastery choir, the organ with the murderer, the balalaika and horn solos in the chase, and finally the drum heartbeat at the end. Link: Song Link 4

Thanks for reading and I will see you later on Scoring the Score!

Here are my notes from watching the film. It marks interesting moments when the music changes with their timestamps.

Photo Credits:

Figure 1: The Rushmore Academy

Figure 2: Mountain Cinema

Figure 3: Slate Magazine

I do not own any of the music. All music owned by Alexandre Desplat and Fox Searchlight Pictures.