The Dark Knight [Soundtrack]

Chaos sits in a darkened corner of Gotham city, rubs its hands together and smiles. It's almost time. In a little while, the forces of insanity and madness will begin a twisted, enraged march through the town, burning it all to the ground as it offers a full challenge to the "Dark Knight" with a limitless grin and a semi-crazy school girl flicker of the eyelids.

The Joker has arrived to town.

James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense, The Village, Collateral, etc.) and Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, Crimson Tide, The Thin Red Line, etc.) once again have seized the essential musical "nector of the gods" and given us mere mortals another taste of bliss with a score that will certainly rival any action-based film for years to come. Here are the standouts...

#1. Why So Serious?- opens the film. This melody gives us a glimpse of the horror that awaits the city of Gotham as a psychotic clown roams the streets with murder and aimless rage on his devilish mind.

#2. I'm Not a Hero - spells the anguish and darkness that both Batman and his enemies seem to share. A powerful montage of moods which range from a surreal set of ominous strings until being finally eclipsed by by an epic, almost chanting rhythm where we feel the defiance within Batman's soul.

#3. Harvey Two-Face - a Newton Howard piece which illuminates the heroic side of the cities vigilant district attorney, Harvey Dent.

#4. Aggressive Expansion - Zimmer roars out at us with this one. A powerful tune which combines sparse threads of the Batman theme with an otherworldly sense of anticipation.

#5. Always a Catch - Opens with the Joker's delirious theme; closes with a quaint melody.

#6. Blood on My Hands - another Harvey Dent theme. A haunting piece of strings give us the mood for just what Dent represents to the city and his importance to the people as a symbol of justice.

#7. A Little Push - lacking a definitive structure, this song acts as a filler being only 2:42 long.

#8. Like a Dog Chasing Cars - Truly one of the standout pieces to this score, this song attacks the listener with a quick-patterned rise that culminates in menacing dance into the world of both Batman and the Joker. A beautiful tune which shares both the definition of who Joker and Batman truly are, until finally giving way into a melody which stands alone as Batman's, essentially leaving his similarities to the Joker behind.

#9. I am the Batman - short but powerful filler track.

#10. And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad - only 2:30 long, still provides the listener with a concise ride into the realm of Gotham.

#11. Agent of Chaos - Another multi-layered piece which pays initial homage to the Joker's random madness until giving way to the tragic outcome surrounding Harvey Dent.

#12. Introduce a Little Anarchy - if ever there was a Zimmer Batman theme within the film, this would be it.

#13. Watch the World Burn - Captures the horror of what the Joker is capable of doing. Truly one of the gems of the score, if not the most powerful track on the album.

#14. A Dark Knight - at 16:15, acts as the final piece for the film, joining together many of the main themes from the film.

soundtrack grade: A
audibility aside from the film: A
rank among top film scores: top 100
rank among top action scores: top 50

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's score for The Dark Knight is the best soundtrack CD I've purchased in a while. The music is dark and moody but exciting enough to listen to without succumbing to depression. And at well over an hour long, it also delivers its money's worth, and then some. This is no 45-minute selection of background music, this is a powerhouse score that commands your attention.

Especially good is the electronic-esque theme for the Joker, which dominates the first track, "Why so Serious?" and eerily crops up throughout the rest of the score. Zimmer has said in interviews that he based on the Joker's sound on Kraftwerk, an electronica band from his native Germany. When I first read this I wondered what kind of odd sound this would create, but fortunately there's nothing odd about it whatsoever. It sounds something like Kraftwerk and other European electronica, certainly, but also much like Zimmer's work on Black Hawk Down and is not the least bit off-putting. It perfectly mirrors the Joker--jarring, alternately quiet and loud but always moving, and captivating.

The rest of the score expands on themes from the soundtrack of Batman Begins and introduces a lot more new stuff, from the aforementioned theme for the Joker to somber but moving string sections alternating with heavy percussion and brass, especially in the final track, "A Dark Knight." Like I said, the score is very dark but compulsively listenable. I'm going to have this in my CD player for days.

Highly recommended.

The score for The Dark Knight is in one word, incredible. Zimmer and Howard have crafted a complete soundscape for this character and the world he exists in. I love the original Batman Begins score to death and the only way that this score surpasses the previous one is that it feels more grounded. The characters and world are already established so the score has something to build off of.

The two-note motif has already become iconic and synonymous with Batman. With this score we get two new themes. The first one is the new motif for The Joker. It's only one note and Hans spent 3 months fine tuning it to become the perfect sound. The first track is pretty much all of The Joker's music. It's harsh, industrial and gritty and I love it. It works so well even if you are more of a traditional score fan and don't like it one cannot deny how well it works with the image.

James Newton Howard was in charge of Harvey Dent. This music had to represent a fallen idol; someone who was good but became corrupted. So tragic is a word that can be used to describe it. It's very emotional. It stands apart from the intense action music in the score and is really wonderful. The emotional arc of it takes you from light to dark, it's great scoring.

Fans of Hans Zimmer and/or James Newton Howard will be extremely pleased with this score (I very much am). Hans' structure and style is heard well throughout. The score pulses with intensity very much like the original. There is really NO downtime on this entire album. The music carries you every step of the way, the listen on its own is a journey in itself. Now and then you will hear the 1-note Joker theme pop up and it indeed can get your hairs standing on end. It absorbs you and assaults you while leaving you wanting more. Hans and James both share one thing in common in that they score everything for real, meaning they aren't treating this movie as a work of fiction. They are carefully crafting an emotional story arc and building an atmosphere for it to exist in. There is no grandiose and heroic theme. Everything stands on its own and is so much powerful for doing so. The Dark Knight will be one of if not the best score of the year and will be hard to beat in terms of scope and emotional complexity.

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