German composer Hans Zimmer (born 1957) grew up in London, where he began his musical career in the early 1980s as a keyboard player for several New Wave bands. Zimmer also teamed up in London with film composer Stanley Myers, and the two explored ways of blending synthesized sound with that of the instruments of a traditional orchestra. The mixing of acoustical and synthesized instruments has been a hallmark of Zimmer’s compositional style throughout his career in film.
Zimmer’s first great Hollywood success came with Rain Man (1988), a film that received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Original Score for Zimmer. Rain Man brought home four Oscars that year, including Best Picture, Best Director for Barry Levinson, and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman. The following year Zimmer provided the score for Driving Miss Daisy (1989), a film that also won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Jessica Tandy.
Over the last two decades Hans Zimmer has composed steadily for film, receiving seven Academy Award nominations. Noteworthy films include The Lion King (1994), for which he won the Oscar for Best Original Score. More recently he has tended toward collaborative composition. Zimmer teamed up with composer James Newton Howard on two recent blockbusters directed by Christopher Nolan, Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), the latter which won two Oscars. Zimmer's most recent Academy Award nomination came in 2011, for Best Original Score for the film Inception (2010), another collaboration with director Christopher Nolan, which won four Oscars.
English director Ridley Scot (born 1937) has a background in graphic design that has served him well in the medium of film. BBC television provided a proving ground for the director before he made the jump to Hollywood in the late 1970s. Scott had his first hit with the science fiction thriller, Alien (1979), which won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. His futuristic science fiction fantasy, Blade Runner (1982), although not initially a hit at the box office, has since become something of a cult classic.
Nearly a decade later, Scott found a fresh take on the “buddy” film, with Thelma & Louise (1991). The film demonstrated the director's expanding dramatic and comedic range, and it helped him break out of the typecast as a director of science fiction films only. Thelma & Louise received six Academy Award nominations and won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film also marks the initial collaboration between Ridley Scot and Hans Zimmer, who composed the original score.
Nine years later, director and composer teamed up again for their most critically acclaimed film, Gladiator (2000). The film received an impressive twelve Academy Award nominations and won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Russell Crowe. Among the nominations were those for Ridley Scot, for Best Director, and for Hans Zimmer, for Best Original Score.
Gladiator is an epic film. The protagonist, Maximus, is bigger than life. He is an extraordinary man, as is his story. A general serving the ailing Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Maximus commands the respect of his soldiers because he is the bravest and fiercest fighter on the battlefield, and he knows warfare.
With an epic story to tell, the film’s screen time of two-and-a-half hours is not surprising, but the film does not drag. The “setup” itself unfolds progressively over the first forty-five minutes. We will examine five clips from this extended setup that demonstrate the effectiveness of music in this film, while also providing the broad narrative outline that sets up the remainder of the story.
Let’s start with the opening thirteen minutes of the film, which includes a decisive battle between Maximus’ Roman army and a horde of rebellious Germanic tribes. Let’s watch. Gladiator: The Opening Notice, right out of the gate, that the customary “Dreamworks” music is absent, and that both the Dreamworks and Universal logos appear in a brownish tinted black-and-white, as opposed to their normal color presentations. The film’s underscore begins almost immediately and sets the tone of the film, in the key of D minor. A high wood flute-like instrument playing an exotic sounding melody (A – F – Bb – A, G# – C – A) conjures a distant time (180 A.D.), even as we are being presented with the familiar Dreamworks logo. A resonating string drone begins (0:20) and is soon reinforced with a deep double bass-like pedal point on D.
A cello enters (0:30) with a thematically related melody to accompany the Universal logo. Flute and cello join together as the logo fades out and the first of the film’s titles fades in. A smoky, non-descript background, still bearing the brownish tint of the earlier logos, suggests a dream-like quality. With the film’s title, “Gladiator,” new instruments and a new theme enter (0:54). The plucked strings of harp and guitar accompany a voice-like synthesized melody that continues in the key of D minor. The music continues in this vein as we are presented with the prologue.
The first diegetic scene (1:41), of a hand moving gently through the grain in an Elysian Field, we will soon recognize as Maximus’ vision. The synthesized melody gives way to a real human voice, humming. It is the distinctive sound of Australian Lisa Gerrard, who, like Zimmer, has a history in alternative rock, as a member of the band, Dead Can Dance. This sound recurs periodically throughout the film, and it might well be called the “Elysium” theme. It is also distinguished by a sustained dominant pedal point (here, the pitch A), most often in the key of D minor.
A cut to a view of Maximus (2:08) presents us with the first “real” diegetic scene. A Spanish flamenco-style guitar can be heard in the underscore, and we will soon learn that Maximus is a Spaniard. With the cut to galloping horses and the title “Germania” (2:42), a new theme is introduced in brass that will be prominent enough that we can call it the “Gladiator” theme. It is a harmonically driven theme in D minor that reflects Zimmer’s background in popular music and contemporary tonal practices. Its effectiveness in conveying the heroic character of the protagonist demonstrates that Austro-German tonal idioms are not a necessity for audiences that have grown up since the advent of rock and roll.
A repeat of the theme (3:18), with a hint of vocal chorus support, accompanies General Maximus’ walk through the lines of his troops. We see that the general is a leader and well regarded by his men. The mise-en-scene, together with the sound effects and music, lends the moment an epic quality. “Lean and hungry,” says Maximus to Quintus, providing an anachronistic literary allusion to Shakespeare’s Othello.
The diegetic shouts of the tribal leader usher in a marked change in the underscore (4:16), distinguished by unnerving sound effects as much as by sparse musical interjections. The underscore is effectively cued out by the shouts of the hordes, and then cues in again as Maximus picks up a handful of soil—a ritual preparation for battle that we will see him repeat on several occasions. A strong, broad melodic line played by double bass provides the underscore for the next half-minute. As Maximus rides off to join his cavalry, a percussive chord marks a change in tempo and mickey-mouses his dog’s reflexive move to follow his master (5:38). With preparations for imminent battle, higher strings enter, agitated, soon to