"Batman Begins Movie Score"

Okay, so I’m reviewing a movie score. Not a movie soundtrack, usually featuring the latest pop, rock or rap stars doing songs loosely, if at all, connected with the movie they are part of in order to make said movie more commercially viable. No, a movie score, the music that has been composed and orchestrated specifically for, and woven into, the movie itself. Movie scores are as integral to movie making as cinematography, editing, special effects and sound effects. They are part of the framework that makes up a whole and finished product.

I have to admit that I am a big fan of movie scores, from Elmer Bernstein to James Horner, from Ennio Morricone to Yoko Kano and all points in between. I have dozens of movie scores on my iTunes player and in my CD changer and my iPod and when writing I work almost exclusively with a movie score playing in the background. So I decided that since I love movie scores so much I might as well review one or two for the website. Now enough of that, let’s get on with the review.

Batman Begins Score by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

The score for Batman Begins is as different from the original Batman score, by Danny Elfman, as Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins movie is different from Tim Burton’s original Batman.

Where Elfman’s score for Batman had a definable theme, which was prevalent throughout, the Batman Begins score seems to intentionally avoid having any sort of theme whatsoever, and that’s not a bad thing. True, there is nothing you could whistle while you work, like the original Batman or Superman themes, but that is part of what makes this score enjoyable. It doesn’t rely on a prevalent theme, but rather functions as a whole, letting the music create a rich and evolving atmosphere. No one track could work without the next and each track leads perfectly and fluidly into another.

I have rarely seen a movie score in which two well-known composers, in this case Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, The Rock) and James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense), have worked in tandem to create a single piece. It is hard to tell which of these composers had more influence over the score as it combines the best of both, from Zimmer’s dramatic and heart-wrenchingly emotional work to the more low-key and somewhat spooky style of Howard.

Just as Elfman’s score perfectly complemented the original Batman by playing to the quirky, overly dramatic, gothic sense of wonder that is so much a part of that film, so too does the Batman Begins score complement its movie. It is dramatic, tense, powerful and emotional. It is also, at times, downright frightening. For the most part the score seems to spend its time trying to move you, to put you in the emotional mind-set of the haunted (and haunting) characters of the movie and I think it is rather successful in this regard. But it also does its fair share of conveying the action and excitement of the film. And there are also times when the music, like the movie, can be truly scary, mixing instrumentals with sound effects such as rattling chains, tape manipulations and human voices. This is used to the most spectacular effect in track number six, Tadarida. Not a piece I would recommend listening to alone in the dark.

Some interesting trivia that makes this score just a bit more atypical is the naming of the tracks on the album. Rather than signifying a specific event, character or setting, each track is named, cleverly, after a different species of bat. And the nerd in me couldn’t help but notice that the first letters of tracks three through eight spell BATMAN.

All in all I think that the Batman Begins score is one of the better scores I have heard in some time. I’m glad that it is something different and nothing at all like that original score. Much like Batman Begins is a very different beast from the first Batman movie, this score stands on its own. It is touching, powerful and a joy to listen to. Unfortunately in the long run it won’t be as memorable as the original Elfman score, but I’d say it did its job just as well.

Still, it’s no “na-na na-na na-na na-na Batman!” But what is?

Four out of Five Stars

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