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“THE DARK KNIGHT is
not likely to be the sort of score you'll play repeatedly..., but
there is little denying that there is hardly any other type of score
that would work for this film. ”
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Smiles in the Dark
Review by Christopher Coleman
Let me tell you how I got this smile on my face...
In 2005, one of DC’s most beloved superheroes was brought back to the
big screen by director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN. The Batman franchise had been
reinvisioned and reinvigorated by Tim Burton in the late 1980s with BATMAN
and then in 1992, with BATMAN RETURNS. While the film franchise went into serious decline
after that with the next two Batman films, several animated television
series were developed and have seen great success. Batman was still very
much alive in our media consciousness. Still, the overwhelmingly positive
reactions to Christopher Nolan’s BATMAN BEGINS made it clear that we were
ready for a big-screen-Batman again. Three years later, the
dark-one is back, flanked again by composers HANS ZIMMER and JAMES NEWTON
HOWARD.
THE DARK KNIGHT truly stands out from the crowd this Summer. Despite
excellent efforts in both IRON MAN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK, director
Christopher Nolan
pushes his film along the lines of real-worldliness beyond either of these
two ... even beyond his own BATMAN BEGINS. This real-world
grittiness (enhanced greatly by the sparring use of CG) helps to separate
this film from the glut of 2008's Summer movies. In fact, take away the
cape and cowl, and poorly applied make-up and this film could almost slip
into this year's dramatic Fall line up.
Well, maybe I go to far.
Since Batman's revelation, the city of Gotham has changed: the people, the police, and the criminals. Such change
is visually reflected, among other ways, in the color palette shift from
the golden hues of the first film to cold hues of blue. The mob is under
new leadership and have themselves hit hard times, thus opening the way for a
new sort of criminal – one not moved by money or simple power. Our hero of
the night has to fight the old mob and the new...as well as himself in
this new Gotham. Christopher Nolan's sequel is an effective mash-up of mob
drama and psycho-thriller that happens to include a caped crusader as its
protagonist. As the perilous second act of a hopeful trilogy, Zimmer
and Newton Howard follow suit and push and already menacing musical style
even further into the darkness.
For BATMAN BEGINS, the collaboration of a-list composers HANS ZIMMER and
JAMES NEWTON HOWARD got the film music community abuzz as much as the film
itself did; however, unlike the film, their score was not universally
received. The two composers musically took the franchise in a totally new
direction…just as Nolan wanted. Danny Elfman’s well-known theme was completely
dispatched and a score that danced the line of sound-design was delivered
instead. This dark, electronic, grunge was a bit of a
surprise to some, but few argued its effectiveness in the film itself.
BATMAN BEGINS was certainly not for those who clamor for more traditional
types of superhero scores. To those in that camp I can only ask,
"Why so serious?"
Three years later, the dynamic composing duo is back alongside director
Nolan and the memorable heroic characters of the first film. ZIMMER and NEWTON HOWARD bring forward
the dark and brooding textures from BATMAN BEGINS including: strong
orchestral and synthesized percussion, expansive strings and brass,
reversed samples, and a variety of other pulsing electronics. This
combination in the first film helped to give it a personality like no
other superhero film. Now, for THE DARK KNIGHT, they take these same
elements and force them even further down into deep places. This sequel
does bring back a handful of identifiable motifs from the previous film
but introduces a significant few as well.
Generally speaking, HANS ZIMMER handles the dark and foreboding side of
the score again and JAMES NEWTON HOWARD the more melodic. This puts the
dark world of the mob, Batman, and his new supernemesis, the Joker, in his
musical court. Newton Howard conversely continues to handle the love
interest, Rachel Dawes, and new white-knight of Gotham City, Harvey Dent.
Zimmer re-employs two main motifs for Batman. First, the expansive
two-note theme (see “I'm Not a Hero,” “Aggressive Expansion,” “Introduce a
Little Anarchy,” and “A Dark Knight”), which continues to convey a sense
of foreboding or dread when the bat-man cometh. Second, we hear a
tease of the heroic Batman theme at the conclusion of “I'm Not a Hero”
(2), but, on the soundtrack, don't get our first full treatment of it
until “Like a Dog Chasing Cars” (8). Interestingly, if not a little
ironically, Zimmer recalls a little used segment of music from the first
film and makes it a significant development of Batman's theme (see BATMAN
BEGINS “Eptisicus”). This melodic segment is very reminiscent of one theme
from THE LAST SAMURAI. With Batman musically well-defined in the
film, the most significant addition to the score is the theme for the Joker. Mimicking the character of the Joker, himself,
Zimmer provides a single note, played on electric guitar which is
mercilessly distorted, bent, flanged, and any other synomym for "twisted"
that you can think of. In our recent interview, Hans Zimmer simply called it “The
Note.” This note both begins and ends the soundtrack. In track 1, “Why So
Serious?” the note plays for over one minute while in the fading moments
of “A Dark Knight” (14) we hear the twisted motif surface one last time.
For JAMES NEWTON HOWARD's part this time out, there are fewer
opportunities for lightness. There are only select moments where he is
able to bring forward the simple and innocent piano motif for Rachel
Dawes. We get a glimpse of it at the conclusion of “Agent of Chaos” (11).
However, we hear a splendorous performance of the bittersweet romantic
theme at the conclusion of “HARVEY TWO-FACE” (3). Now, this arrangement is
only found on the soundtrack and sadly makes no appearance in the film. It
might have provided some interesting contrast in the film, but sadly there weren't any moments that warranted it. The
majority of track 3 offers Newton Howard's new theme for district
attorney, Harvey Dent. The theme is principally built upon a six note
motif, which is first played softly but firmly on strings and brass. Later
as Dent is transformed into the vengeful Two-Face the motif is played
more aggressively on brass and added percussion. In terms of the
soundtrack, the only other performance of the Dent/Two-Face theme can be
found only in “Blood on My Hands” (6).
It remains fairly easy to discern who is writing each piece as ZIMMER has
admittedly taken the dark side of Batman even darker…while JAMES NEWTON
HOWARD lifts the score with his melodic contributions. The end result may
not be the most seamless of scores, but it is, none the less,
effective...especially in context. Our composing-duo have followed
Christopher Nolan and Batman down to new depths. THE DARK KNIGHT is not
likely to be the sort of score you'll play repeatedly (oddly I have been
doing just that), but there is little denying that there is hardly any
other type of score that would work for this film. I have found this score
immensely interesting on its own, diving into the subtle changes and
development of the established style and themes as well as absorbing the
new material, but in context of the film HANS ZIMMER and JAMES NEWTON
HOWARD's score melds into the deep blue menagerie created by the fine
writing, directing, and acting that appears on the screen. What a
superhero score is in the new millennium is certainly different than in
years past. Film's like IRON MAN and THE DARK KNIGHT are perfect
examples of this and we can look for more of this evolution in music with
the upcoming THE SPIRIT and WATCHMEN films...and I'm betting heavily on a
third Batman film to come in the next few years as well. If you want
to maximize your purchase of the standard soundtrack release, the limited
edition, or the double LP release, experience the score of THE DARK KNIGHT
within the film. I can almost guarantee that will bring a “smile” to your
face as well.
Hahahahahahahahaha!
Rating:
8/10
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Track |
Track Title |
Track Time |
Rating |
|
1 |
Why So Serious |
9:14 |
**** |
|
2 |
I'm Not a
Hero |
6:34 |
**** |
|
3 |
Harvey
Two-Face |
6:16 |
***** |
|
4 |
Aggressive
Expansion |
4:36 |
*** |
|
5 |
Always
a
Catch |
1:40 |
*** |
| 6 |
Blood on My Hands |
2:16 |
**** |
| 7 |
A Little Push |
2:43 |
*** |
| 8 |
Like a Dog Chasing Cars |
5:03 |
**** |
| 9 |
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 |
**** |
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Total Running Time (approx) |
73 minutes |
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