I like some moments of the soundtrack,but something is wrong,something lackcs.(tracks 1,5,6,7,9 are my favourites)
Beyond rangoon is far better than last samurai and is composed 10 years ago....
Beyond rangoon a masterpiece...track 1 and 8 blow me away.Can Zimmer back to this kind of music?this synth ambience?this "more 4 notes" theme?

Other than that, the rest of the music that didn't appear on the CD sounds amateurish, like it was done by the additional arrangers for the film and should be left where it is, off the album.

To me, this is score is everything he couldn't do with The Thin Red Line—sort of a lesser effort, but with some strong and noteworthy moments for HZ.

I'd argue that Beyond Rangoon isn't one of Zimmer's best scores. The opening theme is good and memorable, but on a whole, a lot of the material sounds like an updated score for Black Rain. I seriously hope he doesn't return to that style of scoring. I like the direction he's going, he just needs to score good films for a change. There's pleny of them out there; just stop doing all that Bruckheimer garbage Zimmer! (And Edward "boring" Zwick shouldn't be the answer here, either.)

On the other hand, Zimmer has had this bad streak through his whole career. And the main part of his problem is continuing to work with Jerry Bruckheimer (who has made ONLY one good picture since Don Simpson's death: Pirates of the Caribbean).

Bruckheimer aside, his other choices aren't so flashy (Tears of the Sun, Backdraft, Drop Zone, As Good As It Gets). Though his scores are remarkably good for the garbage he's backing up on screen, a change of venue wouldn't hurt. Recently, with The Thin Red Line and Gladiator, Zimmer has done two of his best scores (with Black Hawk Down in hot pursuit, but still not quite up to par). He's a "safe" composer, probably the one most in demand in Hollywood today, along with Goldsmith, Williams, and Horner—and probably now, Howard Shore, too. And because of this, we know he can score anything he wants to. So, what he should be doing is seeking out different filmmakers to work with, instead of sticking with the same old pool of directors and producers. For example, working with Terrence Malick on The Thin Red Line or with Sean Penn (who has some marvelous things to say about Zimmer) on The Pledge. That's the direction he should be heading in.

zimmerito, I know what you mean about how simple his scores appear to be, and The Last Samurai definately is an example of this; his "contemplative" scoring technique that he's now so fond of should have stayed where it worked best, in The Thin Red Line and Gladiator, because outside of those it prove to be a weak crutch to lean on. So yeah, I generally agree with you, that Zimmer's scores should be busier now adays—and I thought Matchstick Men sorta did that, or at least provided something that was unexpected, but still: He is capable of bigger and better things.

quote:

---

I saw this movie yesterday. And it is one of the best movie I've seen this year that I really really really really really LIKE!. The Meiji era were a transitory period in Japan's history and the movie depicted it very well. It's not the most accurate depiction, but that's a given. I didn't mind the plot that were inspired by Dances with Wolves because it was much more entertaining to watch. There weren't any boring moment in the movie at all. Probably because everything was so nice to look at. The production design were great, effortless substituting the New Zealand countryside for preindustrial Japan. The cinematography was great at capturing everything. The action sequences were grand and exciting as well.
Hans's score was superb, matching the mood and feel of all the sequences to a T. I had goosebumps sometime too. That's some of the most beautiful sound Hans has ever composed. I did notice a minute of two of Pearl Harbor material in the final battle charge, but that's forgivable. That said, the sountrack CD is a great representation of the score, except for the glaring omission of the extended "Spectre Of The Fog" sequence. After listening to the cd for the last couple of week and now finally hearing with the movie, I must say that it's one of Hans's best.
A totally engrossing experience, except for that ending though.

---

The comparison to Beyond Rangoon is interesting, though IMO, a bit off base. BR had a great Asian theme and nice passages, and that's where it ends. Everything else were the exact opposite of it. There are far more influence of Drop Zone and Broken Arrow in the score that I didn't really enjoy. Note that BA and BR were composed almost back to back in the same period. And the synth ambience are interesting but sometime grating to the ear. What you get in the end is a Asian theme coupled with a majorly Western sound, loud, wallpaper-esque in execution. That approach worked in BR, but not Last Samurai. Consider the context and time span and you'll realized how bad the BR approach would be. The Thin Red Line approach fits the meditative nature of the fuedal society of Japnae, where in less is more, and bubbling emotions are the norm.
I guess, in the end, it's about preference. As you should know, Zimmer's current style of music isn't limited to just the Thin Red Line style. And a busier sound does not not signal something good. Hans' output have lessened somewhat since his early days, but his music has always been entertaining and interesting to listen to outside the movie theater, while, as it often show of late, keeping with the same quality of musical ideas and compositional approach.
His pool of directors and producers is a diverse one. Beside being the Musical Director to Dreamwork, which enables him to work with a big pool of director, like Gore Verbinski, and Simon Wells, along with many more up and coming directors.
His choices of director to work with, like Ridley Scott have lead to diverse scoring ops, like Matchstick men and Hannibal. We all know that Tony Scott now have HGW to score his movie, as evident by Enemy Of The State and Spy Game, as well as the upcoming Man on Fire. With Last Samurai, I see Ed Zwick as a good addition to that roster
I often considerd the movie Hans score to be exceptionally better than those that Goldsmith scored. And most provided us with some interesting listening materials.
Bruckheimer's post Simpson film have often relied on the Rabin sound, not Hans. And Pearl Harbor, the only fim that Hans scored, post Simpson, provided us with something we don't often hear from Hans, a sweet, poignant, unapologetic love theme.
But then, there aren't that many garbage out there that weren't scooped up by Jerry
And As Good As It Gets isn't one of them.

So, I think, that his resumé is chalked full of Bruckheimer stuff regardless of whether Simpson is gone or not.

I have no problem with the music Zimmer puts out from these mostly dumb films he's attached to, since I tend not relive anything about the film a score is "attached" to; but, in all seriousness, I still think he should go after more worthy projects like I said: things like Thin Red Line or The Pledge.

As Good As It Gets: I don't enjoy watching old men trying to pick young women; tell me that there are countless films where a woman as old as Jack Nicholson could do the same with a young man (Helen Hunt's age). I don't think you'll find any, if at all. Personal preference, I guess, since I don't find that kind of material very interesting, even if the score is really good.

quote:

---

Originally posted by sean:
Hans also did the Jerry Bruckheimer production Black Hawk Down in addition to Pearl Harbour, and even wrote several themes for The Rock, right after Don Simpson's death; on top of that, he also composed music for Pirates of the Caribbean (according to his funny interview at SoundtrackNet), and will also be scoring Jerry Bruckheimer's King Arthur movie (directed by the awful Antoine Fuqua—that guy was really on fantasy island with Tears of the Sun, and even admits it; yuk!).

So, I think, that his resumé is chalked full of Bruckheimer stuff regardless of whether Simpson is gone or not.

I have no problem with the music Zimmer puts out from these mostly dumb films he's attached to, since I tend not relive anything about the film a score is "attached" to; but, in all seriousness, I still think he should go after more worthy projects like I said: things like Thin Red Line or The Pledge.

As Good As It Gets: I don't enjoy watching old men trying to pick young women; tell me that there are countless films where a woman as old as Jack Nicholson could do the same with a young man (Helen Hunt's age). I don't think you'll find any, if at all. Personal preference, I guess, since I don't find that kind of material very interesting, even if the score is really good.

By the way, Hadrian, what do you mean about the "glaring omission" of a longer "Spectres in the Fog"? I was under the impression that the whole thing is there on the CD.

---

Gotta clarify something...
I dont' consider BHD to be a Bruckheimer film because it is too intelligent to be one
I didn't count The Rock because I was referring to scores for Productions that occurred After Simpson's death. The Rock was made during, thus we can assume that Bruckheimer probably had Hans in mind to score it. Bay played Crimson Tide on set to help Michael Biehn get in the mindset of his character. And Crimson Tide, which, like Black Hawk Down, was way better than it could have been.
And with POTC, just chalk that up to me typing away the message at 3am.

I like as Good As It Gets because the script was witty and smart and the performances were believable. The score wouldn't have existed without the movie's intelligence. Something's Gotta Give has some similarity to this, but it's mostly a movie about old people trying to understand themselves and get together. Good stuff really .

For any movie, actually, Bruckheimer always goes to Hans first... and then Hans, more often than not, hands it over to someone else—like with The Rock, Nick Glennie-Smith was supposed to score the entire film, but had a lot of trouble with it, so Zimmer wrotes some themes for it, including the main theme, and then Harry Gregson-Williams went in and wrote a large portion of that score; so, it's kinda messy.

quote:

---

Originally posted by sean:
Everything on the CD is in the movie. The beginning of "Spectres in the Fog" is cut short in the film, which is dumb, since it's such a good piece. What's on the CD is suited for the most part: like "Ronin" appears after "Red Warrior" on screen; "A Way of Life" is a combination of the opening music, some parts in the middle of the film, and Algren's theme where he gets beat down by one of the samurai; "Taken" appears right before "Red Warrior" and is intact in its film version; "A Hard Teacher" is intact in it's film version; "To Know My Enemy" is a combination of three different sections in the film and should actually be titled "Idyll's End"... and there's many more, but you'll know them all when you see the movie.

---