Black Hawk Down

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After the success of Gladiator, it wasn’t unusual to see director Ridley Scott turn to Hans Zimmer again for the score to Black Hawk Down, his fierce adaptation of Mark Bowden’s account of the tragic 1993 American military intervention in Somalia. What was more surprising was the schedule Scott imposed on the German-born composer: 15 days to write, arrange, and record the film’s nearly two hours of music. The results of Zimmer’s miraculous two-week musical campaign not only belie those constraints; they instantly take their place alongside The Thin Red Line as some of the most compelling music he’s produced. The gambit here is simple–portray the combatants as two warring tribes, with their native musics locked in a tense dance for domination. Yet the results are geometrically more complex and artistically rewarding, with thrash guitar and speed metal/hip-hop/martial rhythms encroaching on, then fusing with, the timeless indigenous music of North Africa to become something wholly other. Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal contributes greatly, as do Algerian worldbeat artist Rachid Tara and the duet of Denez Prigent and Zimmer’s Gladiator collaborator Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance). Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros’ warm rendition of Thomas More’s “Minstrel Boy” also underscores the military’s brotherhood. But the real star here is Zimmer, who again takes his quest for “music he’s never heard” to yet another rewarding plateau. –Jerry McCulley

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CD > POPULAR MUSIC > MOVIE SOUNDTRACK