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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Guaranteed to be one of the most talked-about scores of the year regardless of how it sounds, The Last Samurai attracted a lot of attention a long time before anybody heard it after Hans Zimmer described the movie as "a Japanese Gladiator"; those people who thought Gladiator's score was inappropriate for that film were already up in arms at the prospect of it being even more inappropriate here in Ed Zwick's movie about an American Civil War veteran going to Japan and becoming embroiled in another internal conflict as the Emperor attempts to wipe out the last of the samurai.

Zimmer's music will, I'm sure, surprise a lot of people.  Let's get one thing out of the way before we go on: this is nothing at all like Gladiator, at least the most famous bits of it (ie the Lisa Gerrard wailing and main waltz theme).  In fact, it's not all that similar to any previous Zimmer scores; elements of The Thin Red Line, certainly, but nothing else that leaps out.  For all the criticism directed at him, Zimmer is probably one of the most versatile and unpredictable of film composers around at the moment, and however long you look through the CD booklet you won't find the credit that almost always signals a second-rate Zimmer album: "Additional music by..." - this would appear to be his first solo effort in a long time.

There's a lot of material on offer on the album, and it never seems to be stretched thin even over the one-hour running time.  The album opens with "A Way of Life", a contemplative, beautifully restrained piece.  An element of action arrives for the first time in "Spectres in the Fog" and fortunately, while it does maintain that horribly cheap, synthetic sound associated with Media Ventures action music, it seems to be almost exclusively orchestral with synths only ever providing augmentation and never being used as a substitute for real instruments.  The most surprising thing about The Last Samurai is, in truth, the relative paucity of the action material - it's spectacular when it comes, but it doesn't come all that often.  Zimmer is left instead offering deeply reflective and unquestionably beautiful commentary for lengthy periods, often using Japanese instrumentation (though always in a 100% western setting) - a great example is "A Hard Teacher", which somehow seems full of history and mystery and in its own way is quite moving.

Of course, no score in Japan would be complete without lots of thunderous percussion, and Zimmer certainly delivers this from time to time.  "To Know My Enemy" is a good piece, with the percussion combining with a fluttering flute going all around it, perhaps a way of showing the might and power of one culture against the dogged persistence of another.  After the calm and relaxing "Idyll's End" comes one of the album's best cues, "Safe Passage".  Opening with some ominous-sounding low-end strings and horns, it develops into the kind of powerful elegy that Zimmer has been so fond of ever since The Thin Red Line and then segues into something else still, a beautiful version of what is I suppose the score's main theme (though it is not heard all that much).  It's really a terrific piece.  "Ronin" is something a little different, a short but effective statement of action material, with that percussion making another appearance.  The standout action piece of the score is "Red Warrior", when strong, long brass lines and percussion are joined by a powerful choir screaming some sort of Japanese, and then strings take over from the choir and drive the piece on further before once more taking a backseat to the brass.  A terrific piece of music.  "The Way of the Sword" continues the action music theme with a couple of minutes of particularly driving and exciting material and then goes into a moving piece in the style of "Journey to the Line" from The Thin Red Line.  "A Small Measure of Peace" then functions as a kind of eight-minute coda, wrapping things up and taking us back to how the album began, in a quiet and calm way.

The Last Samurai is an excellent album.  Those who can put prejudices about the composer aside will surely find a lot that impresses them.  This is not Crimson Tide, it isn't Backdraft, it isn't Gladiator; it's a classy and notable score which very much features traits of Zimmer's past works but which presents them in a new way.  It's a grown-up, respectable Zimmer who brings us this music; and the results are highly impressive.  One of the year's best.

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Tracks

1. A Way of Life (8:03)
2. Spectres in the Fog (4:07)
3. Taken (3:35)
4. A Hard Teacher (5:44)
5. To Know My Enemy (4:48)
6. Idyll's End (6:40)
7. Safe Passage (4:56)
8. Ronin (1:53)
9. Red Warrior (3:56)
10. The Way of the Sword (7:59)
11. A Small Measure of Peace (7:59)