SoundtrackNet

Gladiator just won a Golden Globe for Best Score, and recently got nominated for an Academy Award for the same category.  While Zimmer freely admits to being influenced by Wagner, his lack of a mention of Holst (and more specifically, "Mars: Bringer of War" from "The Planets") can be a bit frustrating at times.  Enough so that I keep flipping back and forth whether or not it was Zimmer or collaborator Lisa Gerrard who wrote more "original score".  In any case, in what might be an effort to capitalize off of the award season push, Decca Records is releasing a second album of music from the hit film.

It seems to be an interesting trend: a soundtrack is successful, so a few months later they release an album of "more music" from that film.  Unfortunately, they always do the same thing: add new "remixes" of some of the more popular tracks, and have a few other tracks of score intermingled with dialogue.  This album is no exception.  It starts out with an ethnic-sounding track, "Duduk of the North".  It's a nice ethereal cue didn't make it into the final film.  The end title track from the first album ("Now We Are Free") is next, but with a twist.  This is labeled as "Juna's Mix" (Juba is played by Djimon Hounsou in the film), and features more rhythms and even some African chanting backgrounds.  Uh, okay.

Now we get two tracks ("The Protector of Rome", "Homecoming") that feature more enjoyable music - but this time they are slightly marred by the inclusion of dialogue.  In some cases, mixing dialogue over music works, and in this case, it really doesn't work at all.  In "Homecoming", the dialogue is used from the first confrontation between Commodus and Maximus in the colloseum ("My name is Gladiator….").  It's a powerful dramatic moment in the film, and Zimmer's score work well at underscoring the tension and power ("Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife….").  Unfortunately, the music used here isn't from that scene - and the power of the words get lost in the low guitar work, which doesn't fit at all.

"The General Who Became A Slave", "Rome is the Light", and "Maximus" are noteworthy cues.  The guitar work by Heitor Pereira in "Maximus" is emotional and moving.  While seven of the 18 cues do feature dialogue, the remaining cues that don't aren't that bad.  But they really don't add anything to the first album.  (Unlike The Prince of Egypt, I didn't feel as though I were missing vital cues!)  What it does do, though, is allow us a glimpse inside their working process.  Many of the cues aren't in the final film, and some of them are raw takes.   A very interesting track is "The Gladiator Waltz".  Featuring a snipped of dialogue, but for the most part speech-free, this is Zimmer's original synth demo of the major fight sequence at the beginning of the film.  It's interesting two-fold: for one, we can see how similar and different his mockup is from the final music, and secondly, we can see that Zimmer's synth mockups sound almost as good as the final product.  (Guess that approach of sampling an entire orchestra really does pay off!)

The album ends with the "Maximus Mix" version of "Now We Are Free".  Supposedly all the rage in dance clubs in Europe, it's certainly an upbeat way to end the album, but thoughts of Meco and his famous Star Wars quote come to mind: "Then I just got this idea that since everything then was disco, why not be able to dance to Star Wars?".  Similarly, do we really need a dance-mix of a Gladiator music cue?  Apparently enough people thought so, and the album ends on this note.

In total, there is really about 40-minutes of music from the film that haven't been released before.  That's good, but most of those cues have some sort of dialogue.  Not so good.  Granted the dialogue doesn't run for very long; it's just ill-placed for the most part.  The liner notes feature some very interesting comments by Zimmer, and he even talks (briefly) about the Holst issue.  If you have the first Gladiator album, you probably don't need to run out and get this one.  But if you're a die-hard fan, and can overlook the dialogue, then I say go for it!

Director Ridley Scott has always been known for making somewhat "visionary" films. From Blade Runner and Alien to 1492: Conquest of Paradise and Legend - he has always had a unique vision of the story, and has always expertly realized that vision on the screen. While some of the films he's made haven't been exactly critical or box-office successes, there is little doubt that he commands a talent for the craft of filmmaking. His recent film venture revisits the "sword and sandals" genre of film with Gladiator. While early rumors during production hinted that Scott might re-team with composer Vangelis, it was later announced that he would actually re-team with Hans Zimmer. The resulting score that Zimmer created, in collaboration with Lisa Gerrard, is a rather powerful one that hints strongly of Holst and Wagner, while at the same time keeping the same "feeling" that is present in many of Zimmer's action scores.

The story loosely parallels The Fall of the Roman Empire - Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) is dying, and wants to leave the Empire to his best general, Maximus (Russell Crowe). However, Marcus' slightly power-hungry son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) has other plans. He kills Marcus, and proclaims himself to be Caesar. He has Maximus enslaved, and kills his wife and son. (That's a rather simplified recounting of the events...) Maximus is picked out by Proximo (Oliver Reed) to be trained as a gladiator - and it is there that Maximus begins to plot his revenge.

The score that Zimmer wrote is rather detailed - lots of action cues that are heavy on the brass, and are plainly inspired by the works of Holst and Wagner. But there are plenty of softer dramatic cues. This is where Lisa Gerrard clearly applied her talents. Her vocalizing in cues such as "Sorrow", "The Might of Rome" and "Now We Are Free" is really enjoyable, and her talents are obvious from these cues. But I did have to wonder about the "Now We Are Free" cue - it didn't really fit into the film, and reminded me just a tad of "Cirque du Soleil"! But it's still enjoyable to listen to.

For me, the best track on the album is "The Battle". Not only does it contain very strong action cues, but the various moments of brass fanfares and "Roman"-esque music* are powerful and memorable. I think that my love for this cue probably stems from its excellent use in the trailer for the film. As it appears in the movie, this cue worked really well, but the moments of heroic fanfare were drowned out by the sound effects. It also seemed at times that these moments didn't match any of the action on screen. It's as if Zimmer was working musically on a certain form, and the film was on another level - they almost matched, but not quite. I think these parts of the score work better on the album than in the film.

The dramatic choral music (again evoking Wagner) at 4:50 in "Am I Not Merciful" appears twice in the film - once with choral, and once without choral. The first time (without choral) happens when Maximus reveals himself to Commodus, and lays out the plans for his revenge. This cue was on the advance CD of the soundtrack (which contained 3 tracks) but I couldn't find it on this album. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough? The second time the music is used (with choral) is when Commodus proclaims himself to be as a brother to Maximus - just before the climactic fight scene at the end of the film. Both moments in the film are powerful and enhanced by this Wagnerian moment - a perfect use of film scoring.

The album runs about an hour long. It was said that they had recorded approximately 2-hours of music, so there is plenty not presented on the album. But it's a satisfying listen that blends from track to track seamlessly in a manner like a "suite". If you haven't seen Gladiator, go do so. I think you'll find it to be a highly entertaining (although not perfect) film. The score works rather well at times, but the soundtrack is better.

*What is Roman music? We have no recordings from 150 AD, yet we have a preconceived notion of what "sounds" Roman! It is probably because of the older films created back in the 1950s and 60s that set the standard of what sounds Roman. Composers like Dimitri Tiomkin and Miklos Rozsa set the standard, and our comparisons of "Roman" music will probably always be based off of scores like Ben-Hur and The Fall of the Roman Empire.