The Last Samurai | Hans Zimmer | WOW!!! A pure work of beauty!

The Last Samurai | Hans Zimmer | This music has made me a new fan to orchestrated music

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The Last Samurai

	The Last Samurai Hans Zimmer Elektra / Wea, 2003 average customer review:based on 88 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Whether Tom Cruise's portrayal of a 19th century American soldier cum samurai warrior will be remembered with the same pangs of pop-cultural bemusement that befell John Wayne playing Genghis Khan remains to be seen. But its musical soundtrack does mark an auspicious occasion: pop musician-turned-composer Hans Zimmer's 100th score since beginning his film career in 1988. A pioneer of fusing both the electronic and orchestral and the Westernized with the indigenous, Zimmer does both here with skill, drawing heavily on samples of the traditional Taiko (a massive Japanese drum) for its rhythmic action sequences, while constructing a melodic Western motif for Cruise's character that's both centerpiece and counterpoint for the score's transcultural intent. Aside from the brief, ominous thunder of the expected action/suspense boilerplate, Zimmer has constructed passages of gentle, Asian-inflected pastoralism that have parallels with much of his evocative work on The Thin Red Line. Those cues are the score's very soul, a canvas against which his more traditional themes reverberate all the stronger. --Jerry McCulley

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WOW!!! A pure work of beauty!

This is my favorite work of Hans Zimmer. Very rarely do I find any soundtrack as emotional and dramatic as this. I remember watching the movie, and the scenes that impacted me the most were part with the powerful music. Highly recommended!

This music has made me a new fan to orchestrated music

I am a medical student and this soundtrack was on my Zune so I started listening to it since it doesn't have words that distract me. However, now after listening to it about 40 times I decided to look it up to try and find more music like it. I listen to it just to relax and am a new fan of orchestrated music (coming from the likes of hard rock). Also, I get emotional and have even teared up (Spectres in the Fog). My description of the composition entailed here is it is a breath of fresh air while it moves and motivates you or relaxes the mind. Funny since that is what the movie pretty much entails.

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A Masterpiece

This music has the capacity to alter ones consciousness and take it to the higher planes of tranquility. Simply a beautiful masterpiece that should be shared amongst all Souls who yearn for something better than what is found in day to day life.

Music works in the movie, not as stand alone

Having watched The Last Samurai many times, I can anticipate almost every musical nuance in the film. I think the music flavors the film almost perfectly. So, naturally, I had to have the CD.

However, as I listen to the collection of songs on the CD, I am left uninspired and disappointed. There are four songs I like very much, but even they don't totally work as a complete thought.

Rather, each of the songs is like a bad paragraph with well written sentences.

I think Hans Zimmer has done some tremendous work and I wish I had seen Cruise and Zwick acknowledge his contribution to the film's artistic elegance. (If they did so, I will stand corrected)

Unfortunately, I don't think most of you who liked the movie and the music are going to be satisfied listening to the CD alone and out of context.

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