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The Dark Knight – Original Score Review

Composers – Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

Zimmer and Howard’s score for Batman Begins was both hopeful and dark. Yes, the night was long and the dangers vast, but our hero was there, willing and able to fight the darkness, to stand by us until the coming light. In Zimmer and Howard’s score for The Dark Knight, the darkness returned on the back of chaos from the bowels of Arkham’s deepest abyss of insanity. We don’t even get the heroes theme when we hit "play".

The Joker is waiting...

With the opening track, Why So Serious, Zimmer and Howard set the stage. As dark and brooding the Batman Begins score might have been, at least the listener knew the hero would be triumphant. Taken as a freestanding work of art, we don’t know how Batman will fair upon listening to The Dark Knight. No horns. No drums. No guitar. Just a painfully out of tune violin assaulting your ears. The bow drawn hard across the strings you expect it to snap at any moment. Indeed, you will find yourself wondering when (if ever) Zimmer and Howard will give you any form of auditory release. Alas, when that relief finally arrives, is does so with tension and paranoia. This isn’t a superhero movie score. This is a hostile crime drama score. One that happens to have a man in a bat suit and a scarred clown with knives.

Thankfully, all is not dread, horror, and tension in The Dark Knight. Batman’s familiar theme resurfaces, albeit with slight changes. The music, like the character himself feels secure with the role of hero. Still, there is always the underlining current of worry. Is Batman doing the right thing? Just as the music raises you to levels of excitement, it quickly brings you back down to the mean streets of Gotham. This is still a city ruled by crime and it is about to get much, much worse. Indeed, if The Dark Knight score has a central theme, it is that of the dangers of duality. Harvey Dent’s theme is perhaps the lightest and most hopeful within the score. Yet, always brimming just under the surface waits the rage and hate of Two-Face. Zimmer and Howard’s music suggests that no one is safe from his or her own nature. When we feel at peace, there is a war within. When we are filled with hate and rage, hope and love plead for escape. A flip of the coin is all that separates us at times with our own shadow.

At its core, that is the strongest element within The Dark Knight score. Hero and villain. Order and chaos. Violence and mercy. The music does not ask you to choice. The music does not judge your decision. Like a Chorus in a Greek Tragedy, Zimmer and Howard’s score reminds you of your own choices in life.

Die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.

The Dark Knight Score is Distributed by Warner Brothers Music
Learn more at www.TheDarkKnightScore.com