This is the sound most people are accustomed to.  From the booming cannons in Pirates of the Caribbean to the endless seam of machine gun fire on the beaches of Normandy in Saving Private Ryan, diegetic sound is vital to not only one’s physical life, but to filmmakers as it is their way of setting a scene.  

However, that’s not sounds only responsibility in film, as the non-diegetic noises work to emotionally connect audiences to a film’s particular scene, theme, or character.  Like in James Cameron’s Titanic, composer James Horner crafts together a score that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of first witnessing the “unsinkable ship” with “Southampton.”

In the 21st century, no composer has affected his movies in such a way other than Hans Zimmer.  Zimmer has recently been nominated for ‘best original score’ at the Oscars for his work in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.  In memory of his ongoing fantastic career, here are his 10 current best scores: 

10. “Variation 15”- Dunkirk

None of Zimmer’s soundtracks are more vital to a movie than his work in Dunkirk.  “Variation 15” is played at the film’s close, as the soldiers of Dunkirk beach are miraculously rescued by Operation Dynamo that called on the Royal Navy and British civilian boats to cross the English Channel at a time when Great Britain was on the brink of a Nazi invasion.  The score is uplifting and moving, however, ironic since the soldiers failed in France and retreated back home; establishing one of Dunkirk’s main messages: survival is victory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUpUUeqSsSo

9. “Drink Up Me Hearties Yo Ho”- Pirates of the Caribbean At World’s End

Pirates of the Caribbean: the 21st Century’s adaptation of Peter Seller’s hilarious, slapstick Pink Panther classics.  In “Drink Up Me Hearties Yo Ho”, Zimmer integrates all the best musical elements from the trilogy and combines them in a four minute anthem centered around the first movie’s theme, “He’s A Pirate.”

8. “Time”- Inception

“Time” is to Zimmer as “Creep” is to Radiohead.  No doubt the composer’s most well-known song, but not his best.  At the end of Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Cobb, wakes up from an elongated dream state where he was able to achieve Inception, but more importantly got the much needed closure he so desperately desired from his dead wife.  In a building fashion, the score illustrates Cobb’s emotional state as he lands in LAX and slowly lets the situation sink in as he’s finally able to live a normal life and be with his kids again.

7. “No Time for Caution” -Interstellar

Interstellar is no doubt Zimmer’s best overall ensemble of scores with “No Time for Caution” perfectly capturing the intensity and high-stakes of the scene, as Matthew Mcconaughey’s Coop and Anne Hathaway’s Brand attempt the impossible by docking onto the rapidly rotating Endurance.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV1767i8X4Q

6. “Elysium”, “Honor Him”, “Now We Are Free”- Gladiator

Yes, this is not one score, but three.  However, the scores build off one another as “Elysium” evokes a celestial feeling as Russell Crowe’s Maximus lies in the sand, looking out at his dead family he’ll soon join.  “Honor Him” takes a step back from the mind of Maximus by illustrating the emotion of the Coliseum and sorrow of the audience as the great gladiator’s life is coming to an end.  Finally, it all comes together at the film’s close when Lisa Gerrad’s vocal harmonies increase in pace as does Zimmer’s sound inducing a melancholy, but more uplifting feel as Maximus reunites with his dead family.

5. “A Watchful Guardian”- The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy is hands down the magnum opus of the superhero genre.  Arguably the best moment in the entire series, besides any scene with Heath Ledger, is the end of The Dark Knight.  It’s here that Batman becomes, as Commissioner Jim Gordon describes, “the Silent Guardian, Our Watchful Protector, A Dark Knight.”  Throughout this ending scene, it’s Zimmer, not Oldman, who makes this moment the best of the trilogy.   

4. “160 BPM”- Angels and Demons

Back in sixth grade I went on a summer vacation with my family to Michigan.  In the previous weeks leading up to the trip, my family was consumed by Dan Brown’s religious thriller Angels and Demons.  As someone who grew up Catholic and was fond of the historical aspect of Catholicism, I instantly fell in love with Brown’s book as the story’s pace rapidly shifts around a series of murders in Vatican City.  Director Ron Howard adapted Brown’s book, and picked Zimmer to score the film.  Zimmer flawlessly mimics the pace of the book in “160 BPM” with a raucous chorus and bombastic instruments.

3. “S.T.A.Y.”- Interstellar

Before telling Zimmer any of the major plot points of Interstellar, Christopher Nolan tasked him with scoring a thematic piece for the entire film based on a note Nolan delivered to Zimmer illustrating a father-son relationship.  From there, Zimmer crafted the entire ensemble of scores by himself while Interstellar was in production.   This thematic piece is S.T.A.Y., the cornerstone of the father-daughter relationship in Interstellar.  It’s in this song that the audience truly connects with Cooper.  Regardless of being lost in dimensions, the simple-heartfelt, consistent back and forth rhythm is extremely touching.  

2. “The Oil”- Dunkirk

Structurally, Dunkirk can be a confusing movie.  Nolan tells the evacuation through three different narratives that are distinguished by location and time.  Throughout the movie, the narratives oscillate back and forth sometimes revealing events in one narrative before they’ve yet to surface in another.  The climax of Dunkirk occurs when all three narratives sync in location and time resulting in arguably the most cathartic moment in cinematic history.  Zimmer’s score, “The Oil”, brings this unprecedented moment to life with a steady horn that exponentially gets louder as the narratives become solely one storyline.  When that moment comes alive on screen, I recommend turning your volume up to full blast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SpdtWx8__s&t=135s

1. “Chevaliers De Sangreal”- The Da Vinci Code

After I read Angels and Demons, I quickly got my hands on the closest Dan Brown book I could find.  Luckily, one was easy to obtain after a controversial appearance in the national spotlight: The Da Vinci Code.  Unlike Angels and Demons, this book represents more aspects of the psychological thriller, questioning topics that for many Christians are absolute facts: Christ’s divinity.  People were angry with Brown for trying to undermine the Catholic Church with conspiracy theories, but they’re missing the point.  Instead, The Da Vinci Code encourages readers to question things in life that are structured as certainties.  

Growing up Catholic, this story opened my eyes to a world where faith wasn’t black and white, but instead a never ending cycle of doubt. But that’s okay, as Zimmer’s score “Chevaliers De Sangreal” in Ron Howard’s film adaptation perfectly captures the idea that faith isn’t believing in historical truths, but rather a feeling.     

The post Breaking the Fourth Wall: Best of Hans Zimmer appeared first on KRUI Radio.

With that said, there was one movie I was anxiously anticipating to see in 2017: Christopher Nolan’s war drama, Dunkirk.  Nolan is frankly my favorite director, so it’s no mystery as to why I pinned his upcoming film in my calendar almost seven months before it came out.  

I first heard of Dunkirk back in 2016 when I frequently searched Nolan’s name on IMDB hoping to get some clues about his next movie. Over the course of many searches, I gathered he was working on a World War II movie about the evacuation of allied troops from France’s Dunkirk. The process of figuring out details to a Nolan upcoming movie is rather difficult, he hardly hands out hints.

It wasn’t until I watched Dunkirk’s trailer that I got a glimpse of the plot or characters. I was covered in sweat with my shirt soaked and forehead dripping like a kitchen faucet. It was mid-day August 2016 and I was helping my sister, Megan, move furniture into her new apartment and let them well cleaned by miami cleaning company. After I carried an extremely heavy cardboard box up four flights of stairs, I escaped into the bathroom for some peace and quiet.  

Like any millennial, I got on my phone and pulled up Twitter to aimlessly scroll through my feed in search of something interesting. Next, a sense of euphoria and relief settled in as Nolan released the first Dunkirk trailer. I turned it up to full blast and sat back as the instantaneous sound of a stopwatch reverberated through my sister’s bathroom.

Flash forward to the end of Summer 2017, after a collection of disinteresting movies I almost began to forget about Dunkirk.  It pains me to say, but it took a student discount and my roommate to get me out of the house to go see the movie I once obsessed about.  

Before the opening scene of Dunkirk, I leaned back in my comfy seat and wondered how Nolan was going to craft his non-linear storyline and perfectly connect the pieces of the puzzle at the end. With Memento, it took me about three watches and endless internet articles to fully grasp the bizarre, mind-boggling, and ambitious as hell narrative and storyline.

If you are not familiar with Nolan’s form of storytelling, it’s usually non-linear, but not in a sense like Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. There’s an array of substantive reasoning behind it.  

Unlike Nolan’s previous works, he establishes overt narration in the beginning by letting the audience know there will be multiple narratives and the times in which they occur relative to the story.

The first narrative, titled the Mole, follows a group of British soldiers fighting not to defeat the Nazis, but rather for survival.  

The group of soldiers first start out alienated from the rest of the world, as they walk in the abandoned-ruined streets of Dunkirk.  Nolan offers up no dialogue early on, yet the audience is still able to feel desperation, isolation, and fear through the lens of these six hopeless soldiers.

After the first five minutes, the group of soldiers are ambushed by German forces leaving only one alive out of the small pack, a young British private named Tommy.

Although that’s his name in the credits, it’s briefly spoken throughout the movie demonstrating Nolan’s focus on tension and suspense rather than the relationship between the characters.

This is not a conventional strategy for war movies, most people are familiar with heavy dramatized plots and characters, for example Saving Private Ryan. Instead, Nolan wants the audience to solely target the spoils of war.  

Like most stories, the plot advances by the characters’ actions. What separates Dunkirk from the genre of war is that Nolan brilliantly crafts the events of Dunkirk together with his ambitious attempt to shoot the entire film in IMAX 65 mm and traditional 65 mm film. The technical one-two punch of Dunkirk is completed by Hans Zimmer’s Oscar-worthy soundtrack.

This might not be Zimmer’s best soundtrack when working with Nolan (Nothing can top Interstellar), but it definitely has the greatest effect on any Nolan movie in that Zimmer’s sound behaves like another character in the plot with its ability to signify tension and foreshadow impending doom for the soldiers on the beach. The soundtrack is also not a conventional one for a war movie. It lacks the dramatic-heroic score, like Zimmer’s “Tennessee” in Pearl Harbor.

Above all, what solidifies Dunkirk as a Nolan movie is the three separate narratives oscillating perfectly back and forth, while also working to resolve one another in the end. The first narrative, the “Mole”, lasts one week. The second narrative, the “Sea”, lasts one day and is headlined by star performances from Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy. Coming in third is the “air”, an one-hour story arc that follows a British pilot played by Tom Hardy who defends the beach of Dunkirk from Nazi aircraft.  

I remember leaving the theatre with my friend, Matt, both at a loss of words other than, “That might have been the best movie I’ve ever seen.”

I won’t spoil the feeling of relief, but yet daunting images at the film’s close. Rather, I will say Dunkirk is estimated to hit the streaming services and be available on DVD sometime in December. So, giddy up.  

The post Breaking the Fourth Wall: Summer Saved By Dunkirk appeared first on KRUI Radio.