The Dark Knight | ||
 | Composer: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard Label: Warner Brothers Label Release Date: 2008-07-15 Producer: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard Conductor: Matt Dunkley and Gavin Greenaway Buy this soundtrack:   | 1 Rating |
 Track Listing | ||||||||||
| 01 Why So Serious? (9:14) 02 I'm Not a Hero (6:35) 03 Harvey Two-Face (6:16) 04 Aggressive Expansion (4:36) 05 Always a Catch (1:40) 06 Blood on My Hands (2:16) 07 A Little Push (2:43) 08 Like a Dog Chasing Cars (5:03) 09 I Am the Batman (2:00) 10 And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad (2:29) 11 Agent of Chaos (6:55) 12 Introduce a Little Anarchy (3:42) 13 Watch the World Burn (3:48) 14 A Dark Knight (16:15) Total Length: 1:13:36 | ||||||||||
More Soundtracks by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard Reviewed by James - Grade: C Not a bad score, just not the best listening experience. Dark Knight is a tricky score to review. While certainly effective in the movie, I don’t think it deserves all the hoopla it has been receiving – and I am certainly happy it was not nominated for an Oscar despite the Academy changing the rules to make it eligible. I know Newton Howard and Zimmer have their fans, and I know Dark Knight as a film was a huge phenomenon, but does the score really deserve all this attention? Well, yes and no. In the film, the music is no doubt effective. While I personally think that Batman deserves a more heroic theme, like the 1989 Elfman theme, I do understand this was not the mood that director Christopher Nolan was going for. The Batman ‘theme’ is serviceable, I suppose, at getting your adrenaline pumping for the action scenes; so it at least serves its purpose. Some of the music for Harvey Dent (Two-Face) is beautifully written and nicely orchestrated, and the Joker theme is extremely effective at representing the chaos going on in the villain’s head. It’s loud, convoluted, and unsettling, and therefore perfect for the character. But I am not going to say it is innovative – Zimmer talked a lot about how much thought he put into creating this one-note theme, but did he forget he did the same thing back in Ridley Scott’s Hannibal? It is the same music note-for-note (well, just one note, I guess). Why is this being lauded as so original? I don’t get it. That’s not a reason to dislike the score as a whole, though. In the film, it functions very well, and the one-note theme undoubtedly works better in Dark Knight than it did in Hannibal. But ultimately, the point of these reviews is not how well the score serves the movie, but should you buy the CD? My answer is no – as a listening experience, I can’t say I enjoyed Dark Knight very much. The Joker music, effective in the film, is more aggravating to listen to at home. The Two-Face music is beautiful, but I wouldn’t buy a CD for just one track. And the Batman music – the best material you’ve already heard in Batman Begins. Maybe if they had sequenced the album differently, the music would have played better. When I listen to Batman Begins, I feel like I had an experience when the CD ends. But Dark Knight feels so disjointed - stopping, starting, whispering (so you have to turn the stereo up) and then blaring (so you have to turn it back down before your ears start bleeding). It just isn’t a good experience. More Movie Soundtracks
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