This weekend sees the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s deconstruction of the superhero myth, especially that of the Batman/Bruce Wayne duo. I’ve never been a big fan of Hans Zimmer’s work as a film composer though he does have some very good work in his body of work down the years. When I found out that his co-composer from the first two Nolan Batman films, James Newton Howard, wasn’t going to be involved in the third film, The Dark Knight Rises, I was very worried at how the score for that film would turn out.
Fortunately, there was one new piece of music from this Zimmer-composed soundtrack that I found to be great and my latest”Song of the Day”.
“Gotham’s Reckoning” is the leitmotif for the main antagonist of The Dark Knight Rise come in the form of the physically imposing but still devious and cunning Bane. Zimmer uses the now-recognizable ritualistic chanting that has been used over and over in the trailers and tv spots for the film. It’s only in “Gotham’s Reckoning” that we hear the chanting, but the tempo and tone created by the chants become the basis for Bane’s theme and could be heard throughout the film whenever the character enters the scene to do something important.
It doesn’t have the discordant sound that Joker’s theme had in the second film. Bane’s theme has a much more linear and organized quality to it while still retaining the primal qualities that describes Bane as a villain who wasn’t just more than a match for Batman physically actually surpasses him) but also a match for the Dark Knight in intelligence albeit with a huge streak of malice and ruthlessness. For those who have seen the film they might have noticed how Bane’s theme soon becomes a variant on the main theme for the whole trilogy. Will not spoil it for those who haven’t seen, but it’s very hard not to miss.
Through the Shattered Lens 