Hans Zimmer's Scores (1 Viewer)

[Lewis Besze]

Thin Red Line by far!Not surprisingly it was the best film he was involved IMO.He certainly rose to the challenge.
I wish he would stay away from the Bruckheimer crowd,as this produce the same type of music again and again.

 

[Matt Stone]

Yep. That may be my all-time favorite score.

 

[Paul.S]

"You Hungarians always disagree," indeed. This statement's not really fair to any involved and sounds like the beginnings of (typical) anti-Bruck sentiment. I'll skip responding to that/defending my man Jerry B. (at least for now) and say that . . .

Of course there have been persistent accusations of ghost-writing at Media Ventures (that's part of what the $10M suit between HZ and Jay Rifkin is about). But some of these accusations of HZ homogeneity are partly a result of a conflation by some listeners of HZ's work with the strong influence he's had on his many proteges (Powell, Badelt, Glennie-Smith, Gregson-Williams, et al.). It's not his fault if they wanna be like The Man.

Be that as it may, there's enough noteworthy difference between HZ's work on various Bruck projects, and significant arrangement similarities between his work on one Bruck project and another that isn't Bruck to make a statement that all HZ's Bruck work is "the same type of music again and again" sloppy.

I think Jerry has enough respect for HZ to not impose some homogenizing edict on him. IMO BHD is enough to entirely discredit the notion that all his Bruck scores are next to interchangeable.

-p

 

[Lynda-Marie]

The problem with the "homogenizing" could lie with the sound editors, with HZ scores. Sometimes, it seems like you hear the same thing over and over again, but it may be ignorance on the part of an editor, or maybe the editor/director/other-power-that-be happened to like the particular sequence.

As for some HZ music sounding like Holst's "The Planets," as far as I am concerned, that is a huge compliment. I'd love to be able to finance HZ to perhaps finish "The Planets" suite by composing a piece for Pluto, which had not even been discovered at the time Holst composed it. Maybe even something for the major moons that Voyager II and other probes have since discovered.

 

[Shawn_McD]

Yes this guy rocks...you can hear his music on www.radiorivendell.com ALOT

 

[Ted Lee]

for me, it's all about "point of no return". it introduced me to both zimmer *and* nina simone.

his score on this one is great. it's not as orchestral as his later stuff, a little more electronic, but it's just wonderful. it's still one of my fave cd's.

also, did anyone mention "you're so cool" (from true romance). i just *love* that tune!

 

[Michael Martin]

While I like his work, like Horner, Zimmer tends to reuse a lot of his own stuff.

Soundtracks by Zimmer that I own:

Gladiator
Backdraft (fantastic, moody score)
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Rock

I've borrowed Black Hawk Down from the library and *ahem* ripped a few tracks from it. I was blown away by the score, especially given that he essentially had two weeks to do it.

I've debated on buying Last Samurai score....will probably get it sooner or later. And I've been hearing for a long time that Crimson Tide is the creme de la creme in regards to action scores.

 

[GeorgePaul]

Zimmer's a fine modern composer, but the trouble is, nobody really knows how much of his compositions are really HIS, exclusively. The Film Score Monthly staff refers to most Bruckheimer/Bay films jokingly as being scored by "Team Zimmer" (Hans Zimmer, Klaus Badelt, Harry Gregson-Williams, and others). Apparently, those composers have been quoted in interviews as having "assisted" with the scores to such films as POTC, the two Bad Boys movies, and others that were initially credited to Zimmer, Gregson-Williams, or Badelt individually.

 

[Richard Kim]

The Thin Red Line is also my favorite of Zimmer's scores.

I always think of Iron Chef when I hear the score for Backdraft though.

 

[Paul.S]

Horner's a worse/different kind of offender. Whereas HZ often uses generally similar arrangements (and let's not forget orchestrator Bruce Fowler's role in that process) to play entirely different moving lines, Horner often uses strikingly similar arrangements to play the same moving line. Above and beyond anvil-clanking, there are passages in Titanic in which the moving line is essentially identical to bits in Far and Away and Searching for Bobby Fischer. Same for Star Trek II/The Rocketeer.

And get Samurai sooner, Michael: it's a good 'Exhibit A' for the argument that the degree to which HZ has lately incorporated new sounds (Lebo M on Tears, sakahachi flutes and taiko drums on Samurai and all sortsa craziness on BHD) far outweighs HZ's 'recycling.'

-p

 

[Lewis Besze]

It's not a n anti Bruck sentiment,it's what I noticed while I was watching those movies. Don't read too much into the lines!

 

[Paul.S]

"ounds like the beginnings of" and 'IS' are a little different. I still maintain that (paraphrasing) 'it's the same noise again and again' is more than in the ballpark of what we often hear decried about Jerry Bruckheimer's movies (see the Bad Boys II thread).

Regardless of however you may feel about Jerry B., I would argue that if you listen to HZ's CDs (as opposed to relying on the just the often visceral impression one has of a score while watching the film it accompanies), you'll have more than enough evidence to not feel comfortable saying that his Bruck scores are "the same type of music again and again."

-p

 

[Aaron Cooke]

Definiately True Romance. Although I like The Rock a lot too.

 

[Rhett_Y]

I love hanz..... I have quite a few of his sound tracks.......

R~

 

[Paul.S]

According to today's Hollywood Reporter, "longtime friends" HZ and James Newton Howard may collaborate on the Batman Begins score. Wow.

Ironically, I just finally bought the Vertical Limit CD earlier this week.

-p

 

[Chad A Wright]

I thought a lot of Pirates of the Caribbean sounded a little like Zimmer's work.

POTC, Gladiator, and The Last Samurai practically dominate the playcount on my iPod. Absolutely love those scores.

 

[Paul.S]

Chad:

Silvestri's work was rejected and then Media Ventures was hired to put rogether a score in about two months with mixed results: of about 14,000 votes at FilmTracks.com about 4,300 give it one star and about 4,100 give it five stars.

Their review pounds the score about as hard as HZ detractors say his music does. Some funny excerpts:

"Disney presented Hans Zimmer with enough money to unleash his Media Ventures artists on the project, restraining his own contribution to some synthesizer programming and consultation. . . .

"With one music supervisor, eight composers, nine orchestrators, three conductors, and Zimmer serving as the "Overproducer," you immediately get the impression that this is a frightening Media Ventures job. The result of this combined effort? A monumentally disappointing mess of a score. Stop for a moment and consider the days when a single man would write, orchestrate, conduct, and produce a score. Now imagine two-dozen people trying to do the same thing all at once, and the product is a useless, meandering collection of stock action cues and no cohesive elements of any significance. Badelt's coordination efforts serve as a sampler of Media Ventures cues from the last seven years, with hardly any original ideas, no deviation from their norms, and no indication that they took Pirates of the Caribbean seriously enough to give it a personality of its own. . . . If you hear synthesized cellos in your nightmares, then be aware that they are relentless in Pirates of the Caribbean, chopping through extremely overused rhythms by the Media Ventures artists. Brief respites of thirty seconds or so in length break up these non-descript action explosions, leaving a person scratching his head and wondering if this music really does make Gladiator sound like a masterpiece."

-p

 

[Artur Meinild]

Thought I'd like to revive this thread, since I found this pic of one of Zimmer's synths... Roland System 100M.



http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/rolsys100m02.html

Except for the keyboards that is in fact ONE synth. Unbelievable!

 

[Tim Glover]

Holy crap Artur, that is one piece of equipment!

I'm sure he owns a power surge protector

 

[Lewis Besze]

Yes that could be true,however I wasn't inspired to buy those CD based on what I've heard on those movies.That is how I buy movie soundtracks,if it was "memmorable" from the film I seek them out,if it wasn't I won't,simple is that regardless who produced the film.