If you’ve picked up the DVD of “The Dark Knight,” then you’ve probably already seen the great featurette on Hans Zimmer’s musical vision of the Joker in the film. The studio has made the six-minute feature available at the film’s FYC website, but I tracked it down on YouTube below. I love watching this creative process. Despite some moaning that the score is merely flat background acoustics, I remain of the mind that Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s work is powerful aural storytelling of the unconventional sort, fully deserving of awards consideration.
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9 responses to “‘Dark Knight’: “The Sound of Anarchy””
Thank you for posting that, Kris. Where is that on the TDK DVD? I have the Blu Ray disc and, though I haven’t exhausted all the special features, I don’t remember seeing this one. It seems the feature is called “The Sound of Anarchy,” but which edition of TDK is it on?
It’s on the special features disc. Should be the same on Blu-ray.
I have the DVD and Blu Ray, and I gotta admit the Blu Ray has the best special features. You get your money’s worth.
Kris, I am not seeing the Sound of Anarchy feature on my Blu Ray SF disc. Basically, the SF are broken down into Behind the Story, Extras, Trailers and More.
The extras portion is the Gotham Tonight stuff, the Behind the Story is the two documentaries, and the Trailers and more section is trailers and TV spots. Help!!???
Nevermind, Kris. The feature is on Disc 1 with the film. I’m an idiot- mercy.
Thanks for helping me to discover what I have on my TDK Blu Ray. : )
Great work by Zimmer… But, coincidentally or not, a lot of the same musical ideas were experimented with before by Jonny Greenwood in his THERE WILL BE BLOOD score, no?
Oh, sorry Mark. I totally forgot it was on the first disc.
Kevin: Uh, not really. I mean, you can certainly draw some parallels here and there if you want to look for them, but on the whole, I think it’s a creative springboard from Zimmer’s work on the first film into a different atmosphere. I certainly never thought about “Blood” and I listen to Greenwood’s work on it frequently enough.
I didn’t think of it while I was watching THE DARK KNIGHT either, but hearing the little razorblades-on-strings bits in the video above just gave me this visceral Daniel Plainview vibe.
I think Kevin’s correct in saying that Zimmer’s work seems influenced by Greenwood’s on There Will Be Blood. Zimmer’s reasons for his Joker music is similar to Greenwood’s reason for his score, to give the audience an uncomfortable, visceral feeling that Daniel Plainview is unstable, slowly going completely insane, and is capable of anything