Hans Zimmer's Inception Conception

   Whenever I see "Music by Hans Zimmer" in a film's credits, I always know that I'm in for a treat. His work on "The Thin Red Line," "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Night," not only hold their own as pure audio art but are so integrated with the visuals of these films as to become seamless extensions of their cinematic content.

   His collaboration with Christopher Nolan has produced films of dark and powerful beauty but "Inception" has another conceptual aspect to it's musical score that deserves comment.

   Here we experience a film with a complex and sometimes mind-boggling plot that involves flashbacks, flash forwards, dreams, dreams within dreams and even dreams within dreams within dreams. When I saw the film, once again I noticed the closely knit audio visual connection but when listening to the score by itself, I was struck by the simplicity and apparent lack of thematic material. It seemed to be in stark contrast to my recollection of the film which was so kinetic and "activity driven."

   The music seems to be static and reminiscent of some of the works of Arvo Part (Yet Zimmer seems to write with a sledge hammer as compared to Part's writing with a feather.)

   The juxtaposition between a film that seems to go everywhere and a soundtrack that goes nowhere was a brilliant concept that, although you might not think it, makes for another powerful and seamless work of cinematic art.