A Little Knight Music

When I reviewed the film The Dark Knight Rises, I made a brief mention of its musical score, composed by Hans Zimmer. While I criticized one dishonest element of it, I noted that it was a treat overall. I liked it enough, in fact, to add the soundtrack to my collection.

Christopher Nolan's two earlier Batman films were scored by the team of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Both are accomplished composers that have done plenty of films separately, and (to my knowledge) have never collaborated outside of these projects. But this time around, Howard himself declined to return, leaving Zimmer to complete the trilogy alone.

Zimmer and Howard both have distinct styles, leaving little question in the mind of a careful listener which parts of the earlier scores were primarily written by which composer. But any doubt you might have about who did what would be erased by listening to The Dark Knight Rises. It's the most aggressive music of the trilogy; there's nothing here like the quieter, contemplative music from the earlier films (things like Harvey Dent's theme, or the music for Bruce and Rachel's relationship).

At the same time, the score doesn't feel wildly different; it's clearly part of the same trilogy of musical storytelling. But the turning of the dial farther in one direction, if you will, does result in a soundtrack more enjoyable to listen to outside of the film. The movie was, by a slight bit, my least favorite of the trilogy, but the music is my favorite of the three overall.

A great example of the shift can be heard in the theme Zimmer composed for Selena Kyle. It's a slinky and slightly mournful piano melody... and yet it's not truly soft like the Howard contributions to the earlier two films, but rather has a hard undertone, evidenced by the cold and insistent bass strings.

Then there's the theme for Bane. It's a savage and chilling composition, marked by a vast choral chant. Zimmer actually created his "choir" by inviting fans to record their own voices saying the words, then assembling them together to play over the recorded orchestra. The result is undeniably the best thing to listen to in the entire soundtrack, cold and harsh.

And also, a lie. I mentioned this in my film review, but chose not to go into detail at the time to avoid spoiling anything for people who hadn't seen it. I will warn anyone who still hasn't to skip the rest of this paragraph, and then spell out exactly what I mean now for the remaining music junkies. The chant used in the music is the chant of the prisoners in the pit where Bruce is trapped for the middle of the film. It's their chant to cheer on someone making an attempt to escape the pit, and we're told in the film that it means "rise." The problem is, this all clearly refers to the child who escaped the pit who, in the film's big "what a twist!" moment, is revealed to be Talia al Ghul, not Bane. So Bane's entire musical representation in the film is based on a lie.

But a lie that led to music thoroughly enjoyable when you're simply listening to the soundtrack on your stereo, separate from the film. I'll dock Zimmer some points for not finding a more clever way to match the plot, and a few more points for a handful of lackluster tracks on the soundtrack album. But overall, it's an album I'm glad to have in my collection, and that has been in heavy rotation since I saw the film. I grade it a B+.