Heat (With Dark Knight music)

[phantom stranger]

I thought these edits worked pretty well:

[Azrael]

Yeah, good edits.

It's funny when you do the connections - Heat's score was done by Elliot Goldenthal, Val Kilmer is in it, and came out the same year with BF. It's really a shame we'll never hear a Goldenthal score for a proper Batman movie, it would be interesting (see: Interview with the Vampire, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within).

[phantom stranger]

Well, I really like what Howard/Zimmer did. It's rare for two A-list composers to work together. In fact, I'm not sure it's ever happened before.

I will admit that my initial reaction to the action music at the end of BB was that it was generic Michael Bay movie-type music. But it's grown on me.

[The Dark Knight]

With the BB and TDK scores, I don't feel anything really helps to distinguish the films from each other although the action on the screen does.

I would gamble to say if you played a random track from any of the Nolan Batman film scores, people would not be able to guess which it is from. And that seems to be the problem with the music for me.

My mind begins to drift, I look at the track run time and 10 minutes later it's still the same track droning on and on.

It leaves me wondering how a scene that was so intense and a rush in the cinema and on video can have the opposite affect when left with just the music

I think the action themes especially go nowhere with just beats and nothing to accentuate the action.

I can listen to Elfman's soundtracks time and again.

[phantom stranger]

I think it depends on the scene. I have the complete score and listen to it quite often in the car. There are some tracks which I've listened to a million times and others which get skipped so often I should just make a CD without them on it.

For example, the music in the scene where Harvey is interrogating that guy. It's nothing special. But then the scene doesn't call for anything special.

Now I'm sure Elfman or Walker would've done something interesting in that scene but maybe that wouldn't be appropriate?

[Azrael]

Well, I really like what Howard/Zimmer did. It's rare for two A-list composers to work together. In fact, I'm not sure it's ever happened before.

I will admit that my initial reaction to the action music at the end of BB was that it was generic Michael Bay movie-type music. But it's grown on me.

I also like what they did, and I've noticed that there's few of us that consider these scores "listenable". I don't know if I'm biased because I really like Zimmer's work.

My comment was more of the "what if" type - since Goldenthal already did Batman and his name is associated with a certain Batman theme and sound, I doubt he'd be offered the job for future movies after the current crew moves on, while his style would be perfect.

[phantom stranger]

Yes, he's clearly a talented composer.

I actually came across an interview the other day where Shumacher talks a bit about him.

His Batman music is fantastic! I hate to use this word because it?s so overused, so we?ll use it with a small ?G?, but Elliot is a genius. I think that the reason I haven?t asked Elliot to do another film is that he had a huge entourage. Elliot is a very spontaneous, emotional artist and so he needs many people. He?ll write in the middle of the night and then someone has to get that together by the next day when we?re going to record. So I never worked with Elliot where we weren?t able to afford it. Both Batman films and A Time To Kill had very handsome budgets. It was a lot, I had to fly him from New York, plus his producers and all his arrangers. Nathan, like me has done some films that are shot on shoestrings. I?d love to work with Elliot again if he would work with me ?cause I think he?s a genius but you also have to be able to support his entourage. It?s not an entourage like a ?posse?, no they?re artists. Like Andrew Lloyd Webber, he needs his team. You have to be able to afford the team because all those people have to get paid!

http://soundtrackgeek.com/2009/11/24/ischia-global-film-music-fest-interview-6-joel-schumacher/