While some people complain bitterly about the lack of innovation in contemporary film scores, it seems that anything straying too far from what is expected is greeted with even more trepidation and complaint than something somewhat predictable. I admit that innovation is more likely to mean innovation musically; a score that doesn't sound a bit like its temp track these days is a rarity. However, after last year's Thomas Crown Affair and Bill Conti's strange flamenco, hand clapping thing, we have Hans Zimmer's Gladiator. Probably the first historical epic for about 30 years; the way it was made was going to be a point of contention and this extends to the music as well. As I've stated enough times, Hans Zimmer is a fine composer whose ability to sound nothing like what we expect him to sound like is actually quite impressive. I would wager anything that, on a blind test, almost nobody would name Zimmer as the composer of As Good as it Gets - it just sounds unlike nothing he's written that I've heard. However, the accusations against Zimmer are usually as a result of his action scores and an historical epic is going to have lots of action, although Gladiator still as a large number of more lyrical moments. Yes Gladiator does sound like what might be deemed "typical" Hans Zimmer, but because it doesn't sound like Miklos Rozsa or Alex North doesn't particularly mean it's any less valid and in the context of the film, found that it worked well against all expectations.
Firstly, it is not unresaonable to suggest that Gladiator is possibly one of the most unoriginal Zimmer scores, but all the disperate elements are mixed together effectively and that makes it one of those scores that is hard to rate fairly. The two lengthy action cues could easily be from The Rock, along with the a harmonic progression from the over plagurised Mars from Holst's Planet Suite. Mars was the Roman God of War, so the use is not totally unreasonable, works in context, but I would have been more impressed if Zimmer had perhaps credited it as such, but I suppose that would lead to legal complications. The quieter moments veer somewhere between the more sombre moments of both The Thin Red Line and The Prince of Egypt, while those co-written by Lisa Gerrard (who wrote the score to another Crowe film, The Insider) are very new-agey, somewhere between Enya and the Ofra Haza portions of Prince of Egypt. The final two cues are particularly new-agey and lend the film a weirdly spiritual finale that was often a point of contention amongst those watching the film.
Gladiator is derivative, but diverse - elements of this and that run into each other like some rambling synth symphony, conjuring up moments of great drama, a few lighter moments, but also a few somewhat simplistic, but engaging battles. One thing that struck me about Gladiator more than any other Zimmer score was how much the music sounded like it was just being played and made up as he went along, most notably in the action pieces. It's a difficult reaction to articulate, but one that I had none the less. The music doesn't jump in style from one cue to the other and actually build quite effectively, perhaps it's the synth orchestra that makes it sound incomplete.
As usual, I can't tell where the real instruments (apart from the Gerrard vocals) end and the synths begin, but I'd suggest that a majority is performed on synths, which doesn't sound bad at all, but maybe a proper orchestra would have given it a more credible performance and made it sound less like The Rock or whatever. It is perhaps this fact that makes Zimmer action scores all sound the same, the equipment they are rendered on always has a very metallic twang which means that even if the music is different, the "instruments" sound the same - the nuance in performance offered by a conventional orchestra isn't there. Anyway, I doubt Zimmer is going to change the way he writes scores for me or anyone else, especially when he's been so hugely successful and Gladiator will undoubtedly win him quite a few new fans, but those opposed to the whole Media Ventures sound will perhaps still remain unimpressed.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 61:40