Ridley Scott and Hans Zimmer once again team up for the
director’s next film after Gladiator.
Obviously, Scott must have been pleased with Zimmer’s score to Gladiator
(as were a lot of Zimmer fans as well) as he tapped him to provide
the score for his next movie. With Hannibal being
such a different film, I’m sure many were wondering how Zimmer would
approach it. Would it be a horror-based score, something electronically
driven, or something more conventional? Well, the answer is
basically...yes.
The foundation of the score is rooted in conventional
orchestrations with occasional electronic flourishes. There are really
only a couple of spots where any of the horror style of scoring comes into
play and that is close to the end of the score (could he have really
gotten away without any of that to begin with?). There is a lot of good
bass work throughout the score, and Zimmer thankfully works a choir into
the mix as well. The tone of the music is generally quite dark and
sometimes even borders on the psychotic. The best example of this would
have to be the soon-to-be-infamous Gourmet Valse Tartare track. The
opening to this track is a completely twisted performance of The Blue
Danube that has to be heard to be fully appreciated. It’s one of the
most interesting things I’ve heard in a long time, but it’s also quite
disturbing.
As I mentioned before, Zimmer does not completely abandon the
electronics for this score, but they are far more subdued than normal.
They mainly exist as flourishes during certain sequences, and occasionally
they provide some audio effects to the music. This can be a little odd at
first, but it really does work within the context of the score. And in
addition, it really adds to the creepiness of the music. The use of the
electronics and the style of certain cues sounds more like something from
the pen of James Newton Howard as opposed to Hans Zimmer (especially
Avarice). This is not a bad thing, however, and it is really quite
interesting to hear.
One would have thought that Decca would have been a little more
cautious after the dislike that many expressed towards the little
narrative bits on the Angela’s Ashes
CD. This time there are only three spots, but they are located more in the
middle of the affected tracks and not just at the beginning of the cues.
While I felt the voice-overs in Angela’s
Ashes were quite tasteful, I’m not sure I can whole-heartedly
accept their inclusion here. Anthony Hopkins brings a good performance to
the quotes, but I cannot always understand what he is saying and they
don’t seem to be all that important (except for maybe the first one).
This is quite an interesting score from Hans Zimmer and unless the
darkness of the score is something you’d rather avoid, it’s a good CD,
sans quotations. It’s great to see a composer branch out like this and deliver
something so darkly subtle. Definitely recommended for Zimmer fans, but if
your only experience with Zimmer scores comes from Gladiator,
be prepared for something completely different. ****
