Happy almost weekend, folks!
I’m flying to Chicago Friday night for a few days to attend my best friend’s graduation, so for this week’s music break, I choose one of my favorite movies filmed in that city. That Nolan film is extra special as my hubby and I were actually in town when they were filming some of the scenes. I’ve posted the behind the scenes photos when I was on the Wendella’s Architecture Boat Tour along the Chicago River. They actually stopped the boat for about a half hour as they were filming the chopper scenes, and I kept hoping that Christian Bale would actually came down in a harness or something onto our boat. Yeah, dream on, right? 😀 Still it was nice to see all those tanks and cars with Gotham markings on them!
Anyway, I LOVE The Dark Knight soundtrack and the one used in the finale really gives me goosebumps. This music by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard just fits PERFECTLY with the scene of Batman disappearing into the night, cape flowing in the wind, as the Gotham police chase him down. He took on the blame from Harvey Dent in order to restore hope that the city desperately need. It’s such an emotional scene and the music has that morose tinge to it that gets me choked up every time. Though chased like an escaped convict, to Gordon and his young son — and to us watching in the audience — our dark knight certainly exemplifies what true heroism is all about, giving up his reputation for something he truly believes in, for the sake of the people he loves.
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He may be batty, but one can’t accuse him for not giving his all he could to the people of Gotham… though according to the Dark Knight Rises trailer, he hasn’t given ‘everything’ yet. Listening to this makes me anticipate the final film of the trilogy all the more, can’t wait to see how it all comes together.
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Thoughts on the soundtrack and/or the movie? Are you as pumped about TDKR as I am?
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It’s my favorite too! Thanks for posting.
Hello Liz! Always love seeing you drop by. Are you going to take part in the Nolan’s Batman marathon at AMC theaters? 😀
I don’t know about it. Got the details?
Here you go Liz: http://go.amctheatres.com/tdkr I just tweeted you as well 🙂
Have a great trip, Ruth. Fine musical send-off.
Thanks Michael!
It is great music to a great film. Not to detract from the work of Messieurs Zimmer and Howard, but nothing will ever top Danny Elfman’s score to Tim Burton’s “Batman.”
I enjoyed Elfman’s Batman and I agree it’s excellent. I’m partial to Nolan’s version and Hans Zimmer work, though.
Love this track too, I think The Dark Knight was the last time I bought the whole album from any artist. I’m curious as to why Howard’s not back for The Dark Knight Rises, is not like he has to compose M. Night’s new movie this year.
Oh, does Howard work w/ M Night a lot? I didn’t even know that. Yeah, it’d be great to see him collaborate w/ Zimmer again. This whole soundtrack album is so awesome!
Yeah he composed all of M. Night’s films, my favorites are Unbreakable, Signs and The Village, although as a film The Village sucks but the soundtrack was amazing. I wonder if he’s offended that Nolan didn’t ask him to compose Inception and instead just went with Zimmer for that film. Who knows.
Ah interesting. I guess I never really notice the music in M Night’s films other than Unbreakable. Hmmm, interesting theory, that’s entirely possible of course.
This is epic stuff and perfectly fitting to such a brilliantly dark and open ending. Just going to go and check out these behind the scenes photos of yours now!
Epic is right, Pete! I think this last one will be epic as well, can’t wait!!
Have a great weekend Ruth!! PARTY TIME, EXCELLENT!!
You too, matey! Ahah yeah, can’t wait to spend some time w/ my bff in Chicago and perhaps meeting a fellow blogger as well 😀
Excellent choice, Ruth! Hans Zimmer never fails to please.
Hope you’re well and have a lovely weekend 🙂
Hi Claire! Yes indeed, he’s such a talented composer. Enjoy your weekend too!
That’s very neat, you being a witness of the shooting of TDK, one of my favorite movies. I’m jealous. So excited for TDKR as you are. Love Zimmer and Newton’s work, they’re definitely among my favorite score composers. Have fun on your trip!
Hi Fernando, yeah that was pure luck that we happened to be downtown as they were filming. We were ecstatic to see the choppers flying so close above us!
Glad you’re excited for TDKR too, thanks man!
Cool music!!
I love Hans Zimmer…although I am not as hype as you are over the movie 😉
What? Not hyped for TDKR? Even if Cillian might be a part of it? 😉
I enjoy the end score from TDK but I prefer the Batman Begins track as a whole over the TDK one. Hope you are having a great weekend Ruth 😀
Oh indeed I love Batman Begins soundtrack more overall too, especially Molossus, but out of TDK this one is my absolute favorite. Yeah, I’m having a blast spending time in Chicago w/ my best friend. Not much blogging time or watching movies though, but nice to take a bit of break from those things too 😀
Think like Castor, I think Batman Begins works as an overall score better than TDK. Though saying that, TDK’s still one of my all time favourite scores from Zimmer. Got some amazing stand out tracks, like this end credit one.
Yep I agree with you two, but like you said, a few of the tracks are awesome, especially this one. It’s amazing that it sounds so dark and cool, yet poignant as well.
Oh sweet, hope you’re enjoying your time in Chicago! You couldn’t have picked a hotter weekend to come here. 😀
You know, I still haven’t rewatched The Dark Knight since moving to Chicago a few years ago. I really need to do that now that I am familiar with the set locations…
Hi Eric, man I forgot that you live in Chicago too. Yeah it’s super hot here but so is in Minnesota. That’s ok though, I packed light, mostly just t-shirts and shorts, ahah.
I plan to watch Batman Begins & TDK before TDKR comes out, too. I think AMC are re-releasing them on the big screen, though not sure I’d watch ’em there.
I love the soundtrack from TDKR as well! I finally got down to buying it just a couple months ago and have listened to it several times since. My favorite track is “Like a Dog Chasing Cars.” So happy I got to meet you, girl! Looking forward to the next time 🙂
Oh it’s certainly worth buying, Kris. My hubby often plays that in the car as he’s got both this and the Batman Begins soundtrack in his iTunes.
Yes, next time we meet it’ll be at Mall of America 😉
I’d love to see you add Music Break as a regular feature. There are so many wonderful original soundtracks and such artistry involved in creating the perfect score. Much as we love them, many of our favorite movies would be so much less without their music. All hail composers!
Oh it is a regular feature of sort, Liz, I try to do it every other week, you can see all the Music Break posts here: https://flixchatter.net/category/music-break/
All hail composers are right! I LOVE movie music, in fact it’s my second favorite music genre after Classical 😀
Doh! How did I miss that? I was looking, but couldn’t find. Feeling dumb now. But I now have a whole archive of music to re-experience, so that’s great!
I’m thrilled that you enjoy these Music Break posts, Liz. I’ll be sure to include the link to the category at the end of each future posts. Btw, what’s YOUR all time favorite soundtrack?
Boy, that’s a tough one as there are so many. I probably have to go with Apollo 13. In fact, every time we launch a website here, we play Track 7 (All Systems Go). Other faves: Primal Fear, Big Night, Last of the Mohicans, and Solaris — kind of all over the map. And you can never go wrong with The Godfather. Kind of a soundtrack nut, myself.
Oh I LOVE Last of the Mohicans, I also like Apollo 13, who composed that one? The Godfather is great, kind of dark and eerie which is appropriate of course 🙂 Most of my faves have classical-tinge to ’em, that’s why Somewhere in Time is one of my all time faves. I think I like the music more than the film itself, now that’s another blog post idea 😀 Perhaps I could interest you in doing a guest post on movie music Liz? I’d be so honored!
That would be fun!
Woo hoo!! So when do you think you could do one? Sometime this month even? Maybe for the Music Break at the end of the month? Whatever you want to do is fine, list, in-depth soundtrack review, composer spotlight, etc. Thank you!!!
The original Apollo 13 score composer and conductor is James Horner. If you trend toward classical preferences, I think you’d really like the Primal Fear soundtrack, which is a mix of original music from James Newton Howard and classical pieces, including Lacrimosa from Requiem.
Ah I was gonna guess James Newton Howard that did Apollo 13. Boy there are certainly a lot of ‘James’ who are great composers, I also love James Horner who did all the Lord of the Rings music. I’ll certainly check out Primal Fear’s soundtrack, that film was excellent, great performance by Ed Norton.
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I so love you for putting this track up, Ruth. I’ve been blasting THE DARK KNIGHT and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES soundtracks on repeat the last several days. What terrific work. The DKR score is a bit repetitious, with loads taken from both BB and TDK, but it’s so epic and, dare I say, made me a wee tad emotional. That said, I do think, though, that Howard’s absence in this work is noticeable. It feels very much ‘all Zimmer’, which is difficult to describe, but, yeah, his presence is deeply missed.
On the subject of Howard and M. Night, my God, no other score freaks the living shit out of me than that for SIGNS. The opening theme alone… goosebumps!
Thursday night cannot come fast enough. A couple friends and I are going to rewatch BATMAN BEGINS and DARK KNIGHT before we head to the theater. Soo flippin’ excited.
If you have some time to waste, check out my blog. I’ve been going through the Batman movies, the Burton and Schumachers. Tomorrow begins my accolades of Nolan, ha.
Why hello Andy, how’re you doing man? I was having trouble commenting on your site a while ago but I’m gonna try again today.
I do love the Batman Begins soundtrack more than TDK but there are some scores, like this one that are indeed very emotional. I should check out SIGNS soundtrack, I actually like that film, I always like the spiritual message on film, and it’s subtly-done.
Wow, that’s cool that you’ll be seeing all the trilogy in one week! I have to wait until Sat to see TDKR, yeah flippin’ excited is right!!