Intrada Soundtrack Forum

I see many chats on other forums that consist of a number of film score enthusiasts who denigrate Hans Zimmer's entire body of work, rather than particular segments of his efforts.

Personally, I think it is unfair to entirely discount much of his early, pleasantly melodic and rhythmic works like Radio Flyer, Rain Man, A League of Their Own and Driving Miss Daisy. I must admit that his latest scores usually don't do much of anything for me, but I do find charm and emotional value in a large number of his scores from the late 80s through the late 90s. This is in reference to as the scores work with their respective films and as albums.

I guess I just wanted to see other people's opinions about Hans Zimmer's career in this forum.

My two-cents: Most opinions are based in personal bias regarding taste, emotional experience watching a film, etc. Back away and look at the body of work from the beginning until now. Rational thought coupled with honest analysis will demonstrate that Hans Zimmer is a brilliant composer. First of all, he brought an entirely original sound to film scoring. Second, he has influenced a school of musical composition not only in film scoring but that of television, pop music and classical. Because film scoring is such a high profile form great ideas can and have been generated from his influence world-wide.

I had a conversation with one of the show hosts I worked with a couple of years ago and even though he was hosting a home makeover television show, he is a huge fan of film scoring. We talked about how film scoring is one of the last bastions of commissioned orchestral work that exists today. Thanks to modern recording technology and archiving luckily a lot of this stuff will survive well into the future. Only a handful of good source recordings from the "old days" survive and even less sheet music. That's a huge bummer... but I've digressed a bit.

Hans Zimmer's music has brought film scoring into a different stage of evolution much like the advent of recorded soundtracks emerging from the silent film / wulitzer organ days, etc. His talent and army of composers / musicians are worthy of accolades and praise for the quantity of music they have produced for film. Every score can't be a home run but then again, a "home run" in film scoring is very heavily influenced by personal taste.

Just like other professions (ie: business, education, technology, politics, etc) cast a judgement based on the resume and achievements of a composer on his overall influence and advancement of the artform not only personal likes and dislikes. In the end, I think Hans will be regarded like unto composers such as Waxman, Williams, Goldsmith, the Bernsteins and Newmans.

I have very mixed feelings about Hans Zimmer.

It's no wonder that he's a brilliant composer, as it's been rightfully said. He just came from nowhere in the 80's and got to the top in the mid 90's, thanks to the praises he got from Steven Spielberg in the early 90's (He was the musical star in Jurassic Park's trailer in 1993, before we could hear anything from John Williams, with bits of his Backdraft score) AND the huge success of The Lion King in 1994 that led him to get the oscar.

That's when the machine got faster and stronger, and perhaps went a bit too far for my taste : tons of action scores, armies of composers, the same sound everywhere... You know what follows.

I like some of his works, but I'm bothered to find his style in every movie his "clones" composed. It's like everyone was doing James Horner's music, it wouldn't be as special anymore... Every movie, from any composer would sound like James Horner and film music would become absolutely sterile...

Back in the 80's, we asked composers to do LIKE John Williams. But these composers had a strong personality : Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Alan Silvestri, James Horner, Bruce Broughton, etc. Today, I don't think we have many composers capable of doing their own music when they're asked to emulate Zimmer. John Powell is the only name that comes to my mind...

Can`t get into to is music,not heard loads of it away from films ,but i can tell i don`t go much on it,i would`t consider him a real composer like others he`s more like a technician.

I like most of his scores from 1986 (The Zero Boys) to 2001 (Pearl Harbour) after that it's pretty much been downhill.

Favourites include:

Black Rain (1989)
Days Of Thunder (1990)
Backdraft (1991)
K2: The Ultimate High (1991)
Toys (1992)
Beyond Rangoon (1995)
Broken Arrow (1995)
The Rock (1996)

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Most Wanted Unreleased scores:
Howard Shore's AN INNOCENT MAN (1989) Touchstone/Buena Vista
Richard Halligan's THE OCTAGON (1980) American Cinema
Sante Maria Romitelli's GOD'S GUN (1976) MGM/Cannon
Trevor Jones' FREEJACK (1992) Morgan Creek

I dearly loved THE RING and also really like Zimmer's collaborations with JNH for Christopher Nolan's films. INCEPTION worked really well, too. Overall, though, I prefer the more golden and silver age styles of that came into their own back in the 70's.

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Randy Wilson
Dallas, TX

I have a soft spot for Crimson Tide.

I've been kinda disappointed with his more recent scores, but he still remains one of my #1 favourite composers (the other being John Williams). At the very least, I'm forever indebted to him for introducing me to the world of film music with his scores. The influence of his style on contemporary scoring is debatable, but he has a gift for melody and, if you read his interviews, a very good understanding of what the director wants and what the film needs.

I'm waiting with bated breath for the day when a complete score album of The Lion King is finally announced here at Intrada. It's been almost 18 years of waiting... it's time now!

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WISHLIST: The Lion King - complete score (Hans Zimmer), DuckTales TV Series (Ron Jones), Mulan - complete score (Jerry Goldsmith)

Honestly, I've never been a fan of his and even when I try to keep an open mind when listening to his music (or from anybody at RCP) I'm unimpressed. Initially I would have said that his music is not my cup of tea but now I tend to find much of his music (along with his RPC associates) to be too homogenous. At least as far as his action cues go be it from films or video games. As a non-fan of his work, the fact that I can quickly distinguish his music almost instantly to me at least speaks to his limited imagination. It's only gotten worse over the years.