Track Listing

1. A Way of Life
2. Spectres in the Fog
3. Taken
4. A Hard Teacher
5. To Know My Enemy
6. Idyll's End
7. Safe Passage
8. Ronin
9. Red Warrior
10. The Way of the Sword
11. A Small Measure of Peace

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4030 in Music
• Released on: 2004-01-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Original language: English, French, Japanese
• Dimensions: .21 pounds
• Running time: 367 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Whether Tom Cruise's portrayal of a 19th century American soldier cum samurai warrior will be remembered with the same pangs of pop-cultural bemusement that befell John Wayne playing Genghis Khan remains to be seen. But its musical soundtrack does mark an auspicious occasion: pop musician-turned-composer Hans Zimmer's 100th score since beginning his film career in 1988. A pioneer of fusing both the electronic and orchestral and the Westernized with the indigenous, Zimmer does both here with skill, drawing heavily on samples of the traditional Taiko (a massive Japanese drum) for its rhythmic action sequences, while constructing a melodic Western motif for Cruise's character that's both centrepiece and counterpoint for the score's transcultural intent. Aside from the brief, ominous thunder of the expected action/suspense boilerplate, Zimmer has constructed passages of gentle, Asian-inflected pastoralism that have parallels with much of his evocative work on The Thin Red Line. Those cues are the score's very soul, a canvas against which his more traditional themes reverberate all the stronger. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Superb, Must-Listen Score From Hans Zimmer
Once again, Hans Zimmer has brought us a score that is well-worth buying, to be listened and savoured for a long time to come. I wouldn't say it is as phenomenal a score as Gladiator or The Thin Red Line, but it is a must for any Hans Zimmer fan.

The Last Samurai, a movie by Edward Zwick, tells the story of a broken and depressed officer who is paid to train the Japanese emperor's soldiers in order to destroy the remaining samurai but is instead caught by the samurai. Interestingly, his life was spared and as he begins to learn the ways of the samurai he learns to become them. All that, and the fact that it is an Edwark Zwick film, points not so much to an action story but to a contemplative drama with action scenes in it. This leads to a score that does not contain as much pounding action music as one would be led to expect.

What Hans Zimmer brought to the score are the depressively haunting ethnic quality of Beyond Rangoon, the intensely contemplative mood of The Thin Red Line and the sense of despair of Pearl Harbor, plus some use of oriental musical instruments, e.g. the inevitable taiko drums for the action scenes.

The score contains a lot of music that makes you 'feel' rather than be excited. If you have enjoyed previous Hans Zimmer scores as mentioned above, don't hesitate to get this too.

A Truly Spectacular Offering
Having seen the film 'The Last Samurai', I rushed out to get the soundtrack, and suffice it to say that I was definately not disappointed. I've had the CD for little less than three days, and it has not left my stereo yet.
The soundtrack offers Zimmer at his best, combining the 'Gladiator's dramatic and beautiful orchestration with more traditional Japanese classical music, this is certainly a CD to look out for.
My personal favourite would have to be 'Red Warrior', a heart-wrenching song that, when I first heard it, made the hairs on the back of my neck satnd straight up. The battle cries heard over the wonderful strings only serve to emphasise the originality and emotiveness of the piece.
The only downside to this soundtrack (and the reason it lost a star) is that there are themes which are repeated a little too often, bringing the calibre of the album down slightly.
That said, this work is a combination of relaxing meditative pieces and strong, spine tingling emotion. I'd recommend this to anyone with a love of classical music.

Beautiful
When I learned Hans Zimmer was scoring The Last Samurai, I expected a re-use of his trend-setting vocals for 'Gladiator'. I was wrong. Then I expected a reworking of pulsing uber-anthems from his classic 'Black Rain'. I was wrong again. What Zimmer delivers here is sheer beauty. The main theme, which features prominently in 'A Way of Life', 'Idyll's End' and 'A Small Measure of Peace' is endlessly listenable and once it starts to take you on its tranquil road, you wish it wouldn't stop - easily one of the most beautiful Zimmer themes ever. The Samurai music 'Spectres in the Fog', 'Taken' and 'The Way of the Sword' is wonderfully percussive and exciting without sounding like an action score. Make sure your volume is turned up for the latter because the musical yelling of the Samurai 'choir' is something of an experience and cements further credit to Zimmer's exceptional technique. As with most of Zimmer's releases, the score is edited into long suites rather than individual cues and this doesn't put a foot wrong: the editing and presentation is perfect. Combine all this with excellent sound quality and you have a very fine CD indeed.