Hello, Cinematic Attic community! I have come to (hopefully) entertain and delight you, to show you things you never thought possible and to display amazing feats of aural strength! Prepare to feast your eyes and ears on the very first music entry to grace this dashing website. For my first trick, I will both amuse and offend the audience!

Hi, I’m Hans Zimmer and this is my head shot

Now, before I dive into what I’m sure some readers will regard as “Zimmer-bashing”, let me first address some semantics of the film music world. I am often asked what the differences are between “score”, “soundtrack” and “original soundtrack”. A score is when music is written specifically for certain scenes, characters or story lines in the movie (e.g., Howard Shore’s scores for the LOTR trilogy). In other words, it is written with the movie. The term score can also refer to the physical, written-out music itself. This is confusing, I know.

A soundtrack is pre-existing music cut to film (O, Brother Where Art Thou?, Donnie Darko). Some films can have a score AND a soundtrack (or a soundtrack and an original soundtrack…see more below).

Finally, an original soundtrack is music written by a composer for various moods or “sounds” then cut to film afterwards by director, producer or editor. Hans Zimmer very rarely writes scores, he writes original soundtracks. This is not a bad thing! I am not saying that the film score is the end-all be-all of movie composing. There are so many incredible original soundtracks (The Social Network, Amélie, etc.) and I am not one of those music snobs who claims that only the pure movie score is a work of art.

Why am I discussing word usage so much? I’m not really sure. If anyone were to take a look at my genres on my iPod, the only film music is listed as “Soundtrack”. It doesn’t really bother me in casual speech if someone asks me what my favorite soundtrack is when they mean film score. What does bother me is the Academy’s award for “Best Original Score” being given to an original soundtrack composer. But there are a great many things that bother me about the Academy, so I’m not going to get into that.

I am not alone in my dislike of Hans Zimmer. In fact, so many people criticize him for being lazy or incompetent, referring to him as Hans “the Hack” Zimmer. I do agree to some point that he is a lazy composer (more on this later), but I don’t loathe the man. I admire the fact that he is completely self-taught. I recognize that yes, he does have talent. I love that he gives money to charities, musical and otherwise, and that he has said when he retires he wants to help young composers by producing their scores. These are all great attributes!

There are also those who bash his poor use of leitmotifs. In making the claim that he is inferior because he does not utilize motives the way John Williams or Howard Shore does is ridiculous. Who ever said a leitmotif is a necessity in film music?! There is no rulebook somewhere that claims “all good film music must have themes for all its characters”. These are not the problems I have with Hans Zimmer.

Coming back to Zimmer’s so-called “laziness”. I find it hard-pressed to find evidence that he is lazy if one simply examines his body of work. The man is CONSTANTLY working. If anything, he seems to bite off more than he can chew. I do, however, find some of his actual composing to be lazy. Sometimes I wonder if you can take any Hans Zimmer soundtrack and plop it into another film he has “scored” (semantics!) without disrupting the harmony of the flick. Some of his music can be so monotonous. There’s a difference between having a voice or style in music and everything sounding the same (e.g., Radiohead has a certain style, Green Day sounds the same in every song).

For example, listen to this excerpt from Pearl Harbor, while watching…

…this scene from Gladiator with the sound turned down. It totally works.

Here it comes. The kicker. The number one reason why I don’t exactly like Hans Zimmer: he relies on other people to finish his scores and yet his name is still the only one plastered on the film. Okay, okay, he did give credit to Lisa Gerrard for her work on Gladiator, but guess who else composed for that film? Klaus Badelt. He was not only an additional composer, but he co-produced the score as well. Oh and his score for The Thin Red Line (his best, in my opinion)? No one ever mentions that Francesco Lupia and John Powell were additional composers. Not enough proof for you? Here are some other notable “Zimmer” soundtracks that were crafted with the help of additional composers:

1. Inception- Lorne Balfe
2. Rango- Lorne Balfe, Tom Gire, Dominic Lewis, Adam Peters, John Sponsler, Geoff Zanelli
3. Sherlock Holmes- Lorne Balfe
4. The Dark Knight- Lorne Balfe
5. Batman Begins- Ramin Djawadi (also composes for Game of Thrones), Mel Wesson
6. Last Samurai- Trevor Morris, Blake Neely, Geoff Zanelli
7. The Lion King- Alex Wurman (uncredited)

So, why can’t movie producers put these nice folks’ names in the credits under “Music By”? Also, why hasn’t Mr. Zimmer pushed for them to do so? The short answer is because the movie industry is greedy. Hans Zimmer is a huge name and they know he sells; they don’t want other names muddying up their screens and billfolds. I understand this isn’t just a Hans Zimmer problem; it’s a Hollywood problem. BUT Zimmer is a notorious repeat offender. He has regular collaborators such as Lorne Balfe and Geoff Zanelli, so why are their names not with his? I would even be happy to see “Music by Hans Zimmer and Friends” or something of the like. Trent Reznor doesn’t take all the credit for The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Of course not. Atticus Ross’ name is in the credits, right next to Reznor’s. Same goes for any collaboration of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. I think it’s time Zimmer took a hint from his fellow rockers-turned-film-composers and give credit where credit is due. Even if it means making his producers angry.

Mmm, Hobnobs…