Zanobard Reviews

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s The Dark Knight is an impeccable showcase of how soundscapes can really work for a superhero score, with Batman’s intensely determined two-note led style being just as recognisable and thunderously action-driven as the Joker’s imposingly eerie mirror. It’s just a bit of a shame that, like with many early 2000s Zimmer works, the album presentation isn’t the best.

While we await an expansion for James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer’s Batman Begins – one that I sincerely hope is coming soon, because the original album presentation for that score is utterly abysmal – I felt it was high time that I tackled the thankfully slightly better presented The Dark Knight on this site. Before we get started though, please don’t take the above as an insult to either score, far from it – I’m actually a huge fan of Zimmer and Newton Howard’s work for the trilogy. I just think that they are amazing scores let down by sub-par, oddly non-chronological, confusingly-track-titled and irritatingly long suite-heavy albums (seriously, trying to find any particular cue for Batman Begins is maddening, all those bat-titled tracks and non film versions). But as I say, The Dark Knight is slightly better than the trilogy’s first entry in this regard, being more-or-less chronological (until you get to the bonus tracks section anyway) and containing the majority of the film’s standout soundtrack setpieces. So, with that all in mind, let’s get started with the album’s first track; “Why So Serious?”.

A high-pitched, dread inducing ring of electronics opens the nine minute cue, introducing the ‘theme’ of sorts for Heath Ledger’s iconic Joker; the ringing rises in both volume and intensity for the first few minutes, cementing a feeling of utter dread and eeriness – which, despite the motif’s lack of traditional ‘memorability’, is pretty perfectly fitting for the character – alongside some similarly aggressive electronic percussion. As the track continues, a dramatically imposing two-note electronic stab also starts to repeat itself, joining forces with the eerie ringing to overall cement this incredibly intense soundscape for Joker. “I’m Not A Hero” up next is then where things really start to get interesting, as the material for Christian Bale’s Batman starts to appear. Moody strings and electronics occupy the first minute of the cue, setting a mood of quiet intensity with the occasional interspersion of the two-note Batman motif and resulting dark action soundscape from the first film. Much like Joker’s ‘motifs’ this sound isn’t a traditional theme either, the primary motif only being two notes long, but the dramatic imposingness of it is very fitting indeed for this version of Batman so it’s hard to argue. The building action then simmers quietly for much of the rest of the track, finally exploding at just past the four minute mark for a tremendous crescendo victory led by the Batman theme.

“Harvey Two-Face” then introduces the last of the major themes in play for The Dark Knight, this time an initially quite bright, noble and rather hopeful piece on gentle strings, brass and piano. As the track continues however the music starts to get an almost tragic feel to it, with anxious percussion rising to bring the new theme to a series of intense orchestral crescendos with even some material from Batman Begins reprising as well – the gentle motif for Rachel Dawes. Batman’s theme suddenly returns on tremendous drums and brass at the start of “Aggressive Expansion”, with the music then quieting into moody ambience until thunderous action material crashes into centre stage towards the end with the Joker’s aggressive soundscape in tow. The short “Always A Catch” then also harkens back to the eerie Joker sound, with “Blood On My Hands” afterward utilising gentle strings and low-pitched brass to play a rather solemn rendition of Harvey Dent’s theme. The darker Two-Face aspect of his motif then takes over for “A Little Push”, with loudly horror-like strings playing abrasively alongside thunderous blasts of brass and electronics.

The next major action setpiece is “Like A Dog Chasing Cars”, and it begins with wary brass and strings as they build a dramatically tense orchestral picture in the first minute alongside moody murmurs of the Batman theme. With volume and intensity now at deafening levels, thunderous drums then lead the Batman theme through several grandly determined charges against the ever-malevolent Joker soundscape, with the tone of the music reaching some pretty impeccably epic levels as a result. With the action fading for now, “I Am The Batman” plays serenely with some rather downtrodden strings as the focus before the Joker motif ominously overtakes, with “And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad” then leaning back into the Batman action style with tense low-pitched brass and angry drums in its first half before the aggressive two-note Joker theme reprises in the second. I have to say, I do love how kind of similar both the Joker and Batman soundscapes are at times – both are led by two-note action motifs, and have such aggression in their atmospheres too – musically it’s really intriguing, and it really helps to showcase how the characters are very much mirrors of eachother in the film itself too.

The seven minute action setpiece “Agent Of Chaos” doesn’t falter with utilising the aforementioned character soundscapes either as both the aggressive Batman and eerie Joker styles go orchestrally and electronically head-to-head, though now with an added element of tension as gentler material for Rachel from Batman Begins also hangs in the balance – right up until the cue’s sadly tragic end. The Batman theme then intensely thunders back into centre stage with its two-note motif held dramatically high for “Introduce A Little Anarchy”, with imposing electronics briefly interjecting with Joker’s sound before the music then practically soars with heroism as Batman retakes the stage on triumphant brass and drums. This heroic moment is short lived however, with the track returning to intense percussive action interplaying Batman’s action material alongside Joker’s for the remainder of the cue’s runtime. Harvey Dent’s theme then echoes with moody Two-Face-esque tragedy for “Watch The World Burn”, before the conclusive sixteen minute “A Dark Knight” brings the score full circle, firstly surging the Batman theme heroically into the forefront before running through an excellent suite of the album’s action highlights, both Joker and Batman material alike – though irritatingly, despite its excellence, it’s not the film version of the movie’s finale.

We’re not done yet though, as the Collectors Edition of the score (available on Spotify) also offers a series of bonus tracks. They’re annoyingly out of order with the rest of the album, but I’m still very grateful to have them so – the first, “Bank Robbery (Prologue)”, is a further action exploration of the Joker’s ever-malevolent sound, with “Buyer Beware” afterward echoing with whispered intensity – for the Scarecrow – before Batman’s aggressive soundscape then crashes back into the fray for a tense action sequence. “Halfway To Hong Kong” afterward simmers with serene orchestral ambience accompanying quietly thoughtful renditions of the Harvey Dent theme, with “Decent Men In An Indecent Time” following suit initially with gentle piano also evoking Rachel’s material before sinister brass and electronics start to overtake in the back half. “You’re Gonna Love Me” returns to Dent’s motif initially on its now typically solemn instrumentation before a sudden jumpscare of strings shifts the tone dramatically with Joker’s sound aggressively taking over. It isn’t long though before Batman returns as well, with the entire action ensemble then rapidly building to a deafeningly anxious crescendo.

A horror-like crescendo opens “Chance” before the music then quickly settles, returning to the solemn strings from the back half of “Agent Of Chaos” with Harvey Dent’s theme also reprising morosely. The more threatening side of Batman’s soundscape then reprises in the first half of “You Complete Me” alongside some rather sinister Joker-styled ambience, before dramatic drums usher in Batman’s theme in full action form. Ten minute “The Ferries” then focuses on the darker Two-Face side of Dent’s theme together with some aggressive Joker reprisals and the occasional dramatic burst of Batman’s two-note motif, with “We Are Tonight’s Entertainment” continuing in a similarly intense action vein with Batman and Joker’s themes aggressively circling eachother. Final cue “A Watchful Guardian” then happily gives us the actual end titles piece from the film – albeit in edited form – bringing the album once again thematically full circle for its end. All-in, these bonus tracks are a welcome addition to the album; they’re all actually from the film and help fill some annoying gaps, and a little playlist TLC will get them into their actual chronological placement – more or less – though that said, would it have killed them to order the album properly in the first place? I think not.

Overall then, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s score for The Dark Knight is an intriguingly soundscape-focused approach to a superhero soundtrack, and that’s what makes it so genuinely brilliant. Much like its predecessor Batman Begins, the music here, unlike more traditionally thematic superhero works, utilises style more than anything else to represent both the title hero and his arch nemesis, the Joker. Batman’s ‘theme’ is led by two dramatic notes but actually goes much deeper than that, with intense drums, blaring brass and soaring strings leading a determined and at times intensely heroic charge for the Caped Crusader all across this album – and the best part is that you always know when Batman’s there, even with no actual theme present – that’s how recognisable his soundscape is, and there’s no praising the work that went into that enough. Joker’s by comparison is an intriguing dark mirror of Batman’s, being also led by a two-note motif but an accompanying soundscape that’s much more malevolent and eerie than the Dark Knight’s. These two styles then do intense orchestral/electronic battle all across the score – with action highlights “I’m Not A Hero”, “Like A Dog Chasing Cars”, “Agent Of Chaos” and “Introduce A Little Anarchy” highlighting just how well the composers’ superb stylistic approach here works – while also accompanied by a more traditionally notational theme for Harvey Dent/Two-Face, and a gentler piece for Rachel Dawes that reprises from Batman Begins.

The compositional style here is so interesting as well, it’s odd in that I would usually hate the idea of using soundscapes over traditional themes for a superhero score, but it somehow works so well for The Dark Knight trilogy, fitting the dark intensity of it all pretty much perfectly. Batman’s aggressively heroic sound fits the title character like a glove, and the Joker’s contrastingly eerie style also works impeccably well, with both styles making for some truly fantastic musical storytelling as a result. Genuinely my only criticism of The Dark Knight is the poor album assembly; all the tracks are great but combined with the bonus tracks they’re not in the right order, many track titles don’t correspond to the film events they represent anyway, and there’s a lot of not-quite-film-version going on as well – which seems to happen a lot with Hans Zimmer scores – all of which I find extremely frustrating for such a stellar score, and it sadly plagues both its predecessor and sequel too. I’m genuinely not touching Batman Begins on principle until that gets an expansion – seriously. Having to sort through a series of lengthy out of order suites just to find one moment from the film you want is not a fun time.

All-in, a Perfect Score this genuinely might be – once it gets a proper album presentation. Until then, we’ll just have to suffer with some slightly out of order and not quite film version cues for one of the best superhero soundtracks around. That really sounds negative, it’s not meant to be – I love this score. It’s just that when something is almost perfect, you so desperately want that final thing to make it just so.

Score: 9/10

Standout Cues: I’m Not A Hero, Like A Dog Chasing Cars, Agent Of Chaos, Introduce A Little Anarchy, A Dark Knight, A Watchful Guardian

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