Terry's Reviews
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Music Reviews: |
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The Last Samurai – Music by Hans
Zimmer Elektra – 2003 |
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| "A Way of Life" begins like light
shining down from Heaven. Flutes bring Japanese flavor drifting above the gentle sway of
the orchestra. The mood Hans Zimmer creates is celestial and meditative. The Hollywood
Symphony Orchestra stands out with emotional power in "Spectres in the Fog." It
is awesome listening to strings swelling and the brilliant drum work. I was very impressed
the way Zimmer is able to keep the emotional theme running between the percussive fighting
sound. The simplicity and somberness of "Taken" erupts into a powerful display of film scoring. Zimmer shows his gift of picking just the right moments to highlight "A Hard Teacher" with soft synthesized notes. I’m guessing the tenderness in this fourth track is a contrast to the action on the screen (if you look at the title of track). If this is the case, I can see it having so much more power than if Zimmer tried to match the physical action. Instead Zimmer makes it more cerebral, which in turn sinks deep into your heart and ultimately will be magnified ten times once Zimmer actually does use it to serve the action. That’s what I would call great composing. The orchestral waves in "To Know My Enemy" move big and beautiful. "Idyll’s End" is Zimmer ever so slightly tugging on your heartstrings. You can feel "Safe Passage" move the score towards a certain battle to come, which is further built upon in "Ronin." I was roused by the vocal screaming in "Red Warrior." Next comes the last sixteen minutes (the last two tracks) and wraps up this score with an emotional payoff that will sit with you long after this CD is over. "The Way of the Sword" represents what THE LAST SAMURAI is all about, respect. Zimmer gives this track dignity with emotionally moving structure. "A Small Measure of Peace" gave me completeness to this outstanding score. When you put this CD into your computer it sends a weblink out that allows you to access bonus photo galleries, trailers and behind the scenes material from the movie. It’s all so simple to use and pretty cool if you ask me. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, for years now Hans Zimmer has moved way beyond just action scoring, though that was never actually the case. Remember Hans Zimmer scored RAIN MAN, DRIVING MISS DAISY, A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, RAIDO FLYER and THE LION KING before CRIMSON TIDE, BROKEN ARROW and THE ROCK. THE LAST SAMURAI is another example of how delicately expressive he can be. |
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