'The Dark Knight' Soundtrack Review
Brooding, Functional, and Controversial Score from Zimmer and Howard
Jul 27, 2008
Christopher Nolan’s new Batman films have garnered almost universal praise, and well they should: they are superlative productions in almost every respect. One element of the films, however, has been mired in controversy, and that element is the music, co-composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. Their music has a primal, brooding texture which couldn’t be more opposed to the grandly thematic, orchestral-gothic nature of Danny Elfman’s scores for the Tim Burton Batman films.
Zimmer and Howard: A Radical Departure
The new style of music for Batman was first heard in Batman Begins (2005). Instead of Elfman’s dark fanfare, Batman’s new musical representation is a deep swooshing sound effect (almost like wings flapping), a percolating ostinato for low strings, and a rising two-note motif for brass.
The quieter moments have some simple but lovely melodies for high piano and strings, and the chase scenes have Zimmer’s trademark pounding percussion-led anthems. The music, while functional and even effective in the sparse, intimate context of the film, is far more textural than melodic in construct and thus not nearly as memorable as Elfman’s material.
Added to this, the new scores are almost completely devoid of heroics. There’s little in the music to indicate that Batman is a champion of justice. All the music for Batman is brooding, dark, and murky.
New Music in The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight, although containing much recycled material from Begins, is a much more rounded and interesting score than Begins. In addition to Batman’s signature sounds (which receive some very welcome variations and expansions in terms of melody and complexity, including some suspiciously Elfman-like motifs), distinctive new material is developed for the characters of The Joker and Harvey Dent.
The Joker’s music is the most blatant new addition to Zimmer and Howard’s musical canon for Batman, but many people may hesitate to call it music (indeed, Zimmer himself even predicted it!). It consists of a simplistic, siren-like one-note signal, harsh and static, always growing higher in pitch.
Assisted at times by a grungy, exceedingly harsh percussion sample, it is safe to say that this is certainly something that has never been heard in any Batman film before. Whether it is listenable or not is another question. Although not a musical ‘theme,’ per se, as a representation of the constantly nasty character of the Joker (as portrayed in the new film), it is most effective, although worlds away from the carnival-waltz approach taken by Elfman for the same character.
Harvey Dent’s music, by comparison, is astonishingly low-key, elegant, and thematic. Patriotic brass over high strings conveys the nature of Dent as a heroic White Knight, while the dismally fractured conclusion of his theme effectively denotes the tragedy of his character’s corruption and downfall.
Summary
There’s quite a bit of music on the soundtrack album for The Dark Knight: about 73 minutes. Whether one can sit through all of those minutes and enjoy themselves depends on how willing one is to accept an essentially standard Zimmer action score for a character with as rich a musical history as Batman. The music is certainly functional: it accomplishes its goals and it’s far deeper and more enjoyable than the score for Batman Begins. But is it memorable? Is it heroic? Is it Batman?
Many will be sorely disappointed with this album: it’s certainly not a return to the symphonic grandeur of Elfman’s Batman scores, but it is a much more interesting and multi-dimensional evolution of the music from Batman Begins. Listen with an open mind, and don't be afraid to enjoy it. But beware the hype: it’s not that exceptional.
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