Filmmaker Ridley Scott has long been
intrigued by historical events and their
contemporary echoes, a fascination that
evinces itself again here in the violent
tale of Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom),
a Jerusalem blacksmith who rallies his
people against foreign invaders during
the Crusades of the 12th century.
Breaking with a successful modern collaboration
with Hans Zimmer that yielded such eclectic
riches as Gladiator, Hannibal, Black Hawk
Down, and Matchstick Men, Scott turned
here to fellow Englishman/former Zimmer
associate Harry Gregson-Williams for his
new film's music. The composer, perhaps
weary of the electronica-suffused action
film cliches he's so often been associated
with, rises admirably to the occasion
with a sweeping orchestral score that
masterfully trades on a wealth of disparate
historical and stylistic influences.
Gregson-Williams echoes the film's religious
and cultural conflicts via the tense musical
axis at the soundtrack's core, one that
sets the invading Church's medieval choral
ecclesiastics on a collision course with
the ancient Arabic modalities of the film's
hero.
The resulting score may occasionally
trade on hoary Hollywood romantic traditions,
but the composer infuses them with such
bracing doses of historical/ethnic antecedents—and
his own decidedly contemporary instincts—as
to create a compelling new whole. Even
the obligatory, pop-oriented version of
Ibellin's Theme ("Light of Life")
by Natacha Atlas shimmers with Middle
Eastern-inflected enticement. --Jerry
McCulley |
