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The Last Samurai: Soundtrack Review |
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Hans Zimmer created yet another beautiful and movie soundtrack with the film The Last Samurai, capturing the true essence of the film.
Soundtrack Composer: Hans Zimmer
Length of Soundtrack: One hour
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Tracks:
1 – A Way Of Life
2 – Spectes In The Fog
3 – Taken
4 – A Hard Teacher
5 – To Know My Enemy
6 – Idyll’s End
7 – Safe Passage
8 – Ronin
9 – Red Warrior
10 – The Way Of The Sword
11 – A Small Measure of Peace
Hans Zimmer is one of the most talented music composers of all time. Therefore it should come as no surprise that he easily aces the challenge of scoring The Last Samurai, a movie set in Japan, from the late 1800s, which required an eclectic range of emotions.
For a movie to be a box office success, it needs music that helps the audience believe what is going on. It needs music that engages the viewer versus disengaging them. That’s why Hans Zimmer has scored such successful movies as Backdraft, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide, The Rock, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Gladiator.
With The Last Samurai, Zimmer had to tackle scenes that involved themes of loyalty, honor, respect, shame, purity, self-sacrifice, and battle. In addition, he sometimes has to mix in American themes while creating a bridge of changing attitudes from hating the Samurai to embracing their ways.
Since Zimmer is a popular choice for directors making blockbuster movies, like Gladiator, you may have become accustom to a sweeping fully orchestrated dramatic score to open the movie and soundtrack. The Last Samurai, however, sends Zimmer in a different direction as the opening score, A Way of Life, is very light; softly setting a tone with strings and a flute. Many of the songs in the first part of the CD help set tones of understanding and transition and Zimmer aces these as he does the battle scores, which mostly appear in the second part of the CD.
Zimmer’s use of Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi, koto, and taiko, really help establish the periodic ambience of the time setting.
Zimmer tries something new in one of his scores. In the score Red Warrior (track 9), a series of short Samurai battle cries are incorporated early on into the music. This takes a bit getting use to and while some may find the addition of the cries in the song as making the piece shine, I found it to be a slight distraction. The reason why is because the sudden battle cries pull you out of the song versus allowing you to get lost in it. But even with this slight annoyance, that some may see as an enhancement to the music, the Red Warrior is a great track like Zimmer’s other 10 tracks in The Last Samurai.
Some of the best tracks from Zimmer’s The Last Samurai score are the ones that use Taiko drums. The addition of the Taiko drums really adds flavor to the movement of the score and as a result the scenes on screen better engage the viewer.
Zimmer’s score for The Last Samurai comes closer to the music in The Thin Red Line than it does in Gladiator. And while it may not be his best work to date, it is up to par with his great scores. The key to truly enjoying the music is to first see the movie. By seeing the music in context with the film, you gain a deeper appreciation for what Zimmer has accomplished and the soundtrack will take on new meaning.
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