While predicting the future is something we can only dream of, I have always found that digging into the past reveals recurring patterns that tend to point in a particular direction. Even so, with this year’s Oscar race for the Best Original Score, I have to admit, predicting a winner has proven particularly difficult because, as we shall see, there seem to be two strong contenders for the prize: Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar and Jóhann Jóhannsson’s The Theory of Everything. But by considering several relevant factors I discuss below, I predict that the score that will take home the Oscar on Sunday night will be The Theory of Everything.

Double Nominations

It sometimes happens that more than one score by the same composer is nominated in the same year, as this year with Alexandre Desplat for both The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Imitation Game. Some may feel that such double nominations dash the hopes of such composers due to a splitting of votes in their favor. Whatever the reason, Oscar history shows a distinct pattern. If we omit the early years of the Oscars and begin with 1946, when the list of nominees for Best Original Score (or its equivalent) was shortened from twenty (yes, twenty!) to only five, then there have been twelve years when double nominations occurred. The composer to receive the double nomination lost in eleven of those twelve years, the only exception being 1977, when John Williams won for Star Wars and was also nominated for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (Ironically, Williams has been on the losing end of a double nomination in seven other years.) This statistic does not bode well for Desplat, especially since it took a film of monumental impact to overcome the disadvantage of the double nomination, and while the films Desplat scored are both highly acclaimed, neither is the phenomenon that Star Wars was. Thus, one could almost eliminate both of Desplat’s scores on this point alone.

Past Oscar Wins

As I noted above, one of the best ways to make an Oscar prediction is to consider recent winners. Over the past ten years, the film that won the Best Score Oscar was also nominated for Best Picture in all ten years. This year, there are three films nominated for both Best Score and Best Picture: The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, and The Theory of Everything. But also consider that in 2009, the number of nominees for Best Picture was expanded from five to ten, then in 2011, changed to between five and ten. With so many nominees, it becomes more likely for a film to receive nominations for both Best Picture and Best Score. So when a Best Score nominee does not also fetch a Best Picture nomination, it appears to be more of a strike against the score in question. This year, there are eight films nominated for Best Picture, meaning that, although there was still room for two more films, no others were esteemed highly enough to make the grade. This includes the two Best Score nominees that did not make the Best Picture list: Mr. Turner and Interstellar. I believe this will be an especially important factor come Oscar night.

It is also significant that of the last ten winners for Best Score, seven of the films have also been nominated for Best Director. This year, only The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Imitation Game are in this category, but they are already at such a disadvantage, this probably means very little.

Other Awards

While not as significant an indicator as Oscar history, the BAFTAs and especially the Golden Globes are also useful to consider. This year, the BAFTA for Original Music went to Desplat’s Grand Budapest, though it is important to note that he was not a double nominee for that award (nor was anyone else). This year’s Golden Globe went to Jóhannsson’s Theory of Everything, and again, there were no double nominees. Over the past ten years, the Golden Globes have been a more reliable predictor of Oscar success than the BAFTAs, the former agreeing with the Oscar winner seven times and the latter only five. From these trends, The Theory of Everything would seem to have the advantage.

Box Office

Of the past ten Best Score winners, all have been from the year’s 100 highest grossing films (domestically). This year, only Mr. Turner does not fit this bill. But we can go somewhat further and note that seven of the last ten winners have been in the highest 50 grossing films, which in this year’s race would leave only The Imitation Game (44th) and Interstellar (16th). By this measure, Interstellar has the clear advantage. (Recall that last year’s winner, Gravity, another space-themed film, was even stronger in this respect, being the 6th-highest grossing film.)

Comparison of the Nominees

What about the scores themselves? How might they help predict a winner? The more distinctive a score is in some way, the more likely it is to be remembered by the voters, and when it comes to music, memorability is certainly a benefit since it is easy not to consciously notice music in a film (well, except for enthusiasts like us). Last year’s Gravity made its mark on most viewers with its use of what I called a “clipped crescendo”, where the climax of a crescendo would be suddenly cut off in synch with an important event onscreen. This made the music hard to miss.

This year’s Grand Budapest Hotel is a very memorable score with its unusual instrumentations and perky rhythms. The Imitation Game is more traditional in its construction and somewhat less prominent, though finely tuned to the film. But in my view, the double nomination will be nearly impossible to overcome for both of these scores. The score for Mr. Turner is distinctive in its chamber-music instrumentation and its dissonant but tonal harmonies, but is probably the least conspicuous score because of its sparing use, at only a half hour in total, and its placement largely in scene transitions, where strong emotions are infrequent. Though it is a highly effective score for the character study that is the film, it will likely be overshadowed by the greater prominence of the music in the other films.

The one score that stands out from the others in terms of its prominence is Interstellar. Although it is often rather soft music, its prevalent use of the pipe organ, an instrument not usually given such a large role in a modern film score, almost demands that the viewer takes notice of the music. The score also made conspicuous use of a clock-like percussion sound in scenes when time was of the essence, drawing attention to the music in an appropriately narrative-driven way.

Despite the prominence of Interstellar’s music, I would argue that the score that made the greatest emotional impact in relation to the film’s narrative was The Theory of Everything. Admittedly, this score does not have the prominence in the film that Interstellar does, but the emotions of its narrative run deeper since it vividly conveys Stephen Hawking’s physical deterioration and the ensuing difficulties it causes between he and his wife Jane. But the film also explores Stephen’s remarkable impulse to continue on in the face of adversity. In these respects, there are many scenes that stand out for their musical contribution. When Stephen tries to climb the stairs for the last time before becoming wheelchair-bound, the music expresses not Stephen’s struggle, but our sympathy for him in witnessing his still young body giving out. Or consider the scene where, while watching the fireplace through a sweater that is stuck over his face, Stephen becomes inspired with his next great idea, which, as I noted in the analysis of this score, is made clear with striking visual imagery. In both of these scenes, the music is soft and understated, yet profoundly effective in communicating the emotional content of the scene. For these reasons, I would place The Theory of Everything at a slightly higher level than Interstellar concerning more subjective aspects.

Conclusion

In deciding between Interstellar and The Theory of Everything to win the Oscar for Best Original Score, I have chosen the latter. To be sure, Interstellar has blockbuster status, being near the top of the year’s highest-grossing films, and its use of the pipe organ encourages viewers to listen consciously the score. But The Theory of Everything has the all-important Best Picture nomination, some momentum from its Golden Globe win, and a highly emotional narrative that allows Jóhannsson’s subtleties to shine at key moments in the film.

Then again, as I have said in previous years, this is the Oscars we’re talking about, and there is nothing preventing any of the other scores from winning. But if we’re going to go with the most probable winner, then The Theory of Everything it is.

When director Christopher Nolan first approached his regular composer, Hans Zimmer, to write the score for Interstellar, he wanted to avoid the clichés associated with the science-fiction genre and “engage Hans in a very pure creative process.” To do this, Nolan sent Zimmer a single typewritten page with snippets of dialogue Nolan had written for the film along with some general ideas that, he said, described the relationship between a father and his son. (Only later was Zimmer told the son was actually a daughter, probably to avoid film-music stereotypes of femininity.) The genre and scale of the film were deliberately withheld from Zimmer and he was given one day to write his initial ideas and present them to Nolan. These ideas, which can be sampled below, certainly suggest a more intimate and emotional film than comes to mind when one thinks of the sci-fi genre.

But the score for Interstellar is also notable for its prominent use of the pipe organ, an instrument that, in film, is normally reserved for scenes involving religion in some way. As Nolan explains,

“I also made the case very strongly for some feeling of religiosity to [Interstellar], even though the film isn’t religious, but that the organ, the architectural cathedrals and all those, they represent mankind’s attempt to portray the mystical or the metaphysical, what’s beyond us, beyond the realm of the everyday.”

Thus, while the score’s use of the organ is not associated with religion, it does conjure up similar feelings of striving for levels of existence that lie outside of everyday experience (a narrative theme that Interstellar shares with one of its obvious influences, 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film in which the organ can also be clearly heard, for example, at the end of the main title cue with Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra.)

In its structure, however, Zimmer’s Interstellar is like many of his other scores, relying on a few thematic ideas that are applied in a non-traditional way. That is, rather than simply being associated with a certain character or group of characters, Zimmer’s themes tend to emphasize the emotions a particular character or group is feeling at various points in the film. The following film music analysis explores these broad associations in the film’s four most prominent themes.

Murph and Cooper

This theme is generally heard when the focus is on the relationship between Murph and her father Cooper. Its first appearance is in fact with the studio logos before the start of the film proper, suggesting the importance of the theme’s association to the narrative. (Indeed, Murph and Cooper are the first two characters to interact in the film.)

Perhaps the most obvious signal of the theme’s association occurs in the emotional scene when Cooper, a former NASA pilot, says his goodbyes to the child Murph before leaving his family to join the interstellar mission to save humanity. Murph begs Cooper to stay, telling him that even the mysterious “ghost” that inhabits her room seems to be saying the very same thing. The theme is also heard when, after waking from his cryogenic sleep on the Endurance spacecraft, Cooper hears that Murph refused to make a video message to send him, and occurs once more when Cooper is told that Murph is on her way to see him again after learning of his return.

Musically, the theme’s melody begins with a long note that lies a seventh above the bass, creating an interval that has a feeling of vastness to it and thus suggests the great distance that will long separate Cooper from Murph. (Recall that this same interval was also used in last year’s blockbuster space-themed film, Gravity, as a suggestion of the vastness of space.)

More subtly, the theme is supported by a sustained bass note, or pedal point, that sounds the fifth, or dominant, note of the scale. Since dominant bass notes create an expectation that they will, at some point, resolve to the first note of the scale, or tonic, to sustain a dominant pedal at length as this theme does gives an impression of a prolonged avoidance of resolution. Indeed, given the enormous length of time that elapses during Cooper’s absence, this is an entirely appropriate sentiment.

The theme also implies both the loving and hurtful aspects that comprise Murph and Cooper’s relationship through its juxtaposition of major and minor. While the theme begins in the major mode, suggesting the loving aspects on which the relationship is built, it is immediately followed by a statement in the minor mode, implying the grudge Murph holds against Cooper for feeling abandoned by her father. Hear the theme below from 0:41 to 1:45:

One other place the theme recurs is the scene where Cooper detaches his shuttle from Endurance to give it the “push” it needs to escape the black hole’s gravitational pull. Though Murphy is neither onscreen nor even mentioned here, Cooper’s decision to detach is a crucial one that leads to him making cross-dimensional connections with Murph that are pivotal to the film’s narrative. The Murph and Cooper theme is thus played in grandiose style to mark the importance of this decision, as heard below (from 3:48 to 4:53):

Love / Action

This might be considered the score’s main theme as it embodies the kinds of emotional ideas that are suggested by the description of Nolan’s one-page letter to Zimmer. As a main theme, it is not confined to a single association but rather has two disparate uses, each of which is reinforced by its orchestration. It also is divided into two components: a melody based on a repeating two-note motive (played on the organ), and a repeating harmonic progression with a bass that rises by two steps then falls by one.

It first enters when Cooper and his two children (Murph and his son Tom) chase down an automated plane-like drone flying over the farm in order to capture its solar cells. This is one of the only times in the film that we see the family united in a common action, and reasonably happy to be so. The love comes more into focus when Cooper, who is viewing messages from the last twenty-three years on Earth, is moved by the major events to have occurred in his family and sobs uncontrollably. We hear the theme with this association of love again when Cooper makes the cross-dimensional connections with Murph, which are guided by the love between the two characters. One final appearance of the theme occurs when Murph is happy to see Cooper again nearly a century after he left Earth. Common to all these forms of the theme is the melody composed of two-note figures, heard below from 0:09:

In the above situations, the theme occurs in a lightly orchestrated form, with the delicate melody played on the organ. At other times, the theme acquires a “bigger” effect by omitting the melody and adding a more massive orchestration, a sound that is associated with scenes of heavy action. The two instances this occurs are on the first planet the interstellar crew visits, where they meet gigantic tidal waves, and when Cooper and Brand are re-docking with Endurance after it is set spinning out of control. Below is this version of the theme from 2:35:

Though the theme’s two uses are opposing in meaning, its musical structure helps to understand why it works in both cases. The theme is set in a minor mode and is supported by a bass line that progresses from scale degree 6, up to 7, and up once more to 1. In minor keys, scale degree 6 typically falls down to 5 since the latter exerts a kind of gravitational pull that attracts 6 towards it. The pull is especially strong in minor since the distance between 6 and 5 is a mere half step, or semitone. Listen, for example, to a version of the minor-mode Frank/Harmonica theme from Ennio Morricone’s score for Once Upon a Time in the West, paying particular attention to the way that scale degree 6 in the bass seems to be “pulled” down to 5 at 5:04 (start from 4:50):

As with gravity in the physical world, breaking free of a gravitational pull requires a good deal of energy, and with the bass motion from 6 to 7 (which is two half steps, or one whole step), there is a sense that a substantial amount of energy is being exerted, an energy that we could even say continues in the rise from 7 up to 1 (another whole step).

This sense of struggling to escape some great obstacle is present in both the “love” and “action” forms of the theme. In the former, this occurs emotionally by demonstrating that love, although challenged, transcends vast expanses of space and time. In the latter, the obstacle is clearly physical, be it a tidal wave or a spiralling spacecraft.

Wonder

Interstellar is a film that tackles such ambitious ideas as space travel, wormholes, black holes, and Einsteinian time dilation. Given this focus on scientific wonders, it is no surprise that one of the film’s musical themes—which I simply call the Wonder theme—expresses a sense of fascination with one’s surroundings. The theme enters at several points in the film: when Cooper’s farm machines “go haywire” and start heading north instead of maintaining the crops, when Cooper observes what appears to be a message in dust written by an unknown being, when Cooper and the crew first enter Endurance, when they reach the distant galaxy through the wormhole, and when Cooper and Mann explore one of the potentially-habitable planets. Hear the theme in the cue below:

The most prominent features of this theme are its sustained, shimmering accompaniment and the continual recurrences of a single melodic pitch. The accompaniment sustains a major chord along with a dissonance created by the raised 4 of the scale. As I have noted before, this scale degree (whether in major or minor) has long been associated with the mysterious or inscrutable, other examples being Morricone’s Frank/Harmonica theme, Hedwig’s theme from Harry Potter, and in the classical world, “Aquarium” from Saint-Säens’ Carnival of the Animals. Not only is this raised 4 in the accompaniment of the Wonder theme, but it is also the single melodic pitch that enters repeatedly. The scenes in which this theme occurs in Interstellar certainly qualify as invoking a sense of mystery. It is also worth noting that the theme’s major-mode setting is well matched with the positive outlooks of the characters in the scenes described.

Striving / In Control

Like the love/action theme, another of Interstellar’s musical themes has a dual meaning. Hear it below in one of its many forms below:

It is first heard when Cooper manages to direct the flying drone by remote, clearly demonstrating its association with the “good guys” in control. This application of the theme is also heard when Cooper is shown around the NASA base and it seems that things are under control despite the desperate situation, and the first portion of Murph’s discussion with Prof. Brand on his death-bed, as she feels confident that she will continue where his work left off.

But more often, the theme is heard in scenes where the protagonists are striving towards some immediate goal. This goal can be the understanding of a scientific concept, as when Murph is discussing possible problems of Prof. Brand’s physics equation, when Murph is striving to understand the nature of the “ghost” in her room that she says felt “like a person”, or when Cooper is trying to figure out how to communicate with Murph across the dimensions. But striving may also take a more physical form, as when Murph is trying to convince Tom to leave the farm for his own safety, when Cooper is struggling to overcome the noxious gas flooding his helmet on one of the prospective planets, when Cooper and Brand are trying to convince Mann not to open the airlock on Endurance before he has secured an airtight contact, or when Cooper and Brand are attempting to dock with the out-of-control Endurance. Despite the differences in the individual scenarios above, they all share the feeling of striving to achieve a clear and immediate goal.

Notice how the theme is structured so as to suggest a slow ascent, as though struggling to climb a musical mountain: it begins on the first note of the scale as a kind of home base, and the next note moves to the second note of the scale before it stops in its tracks. The next phrase reaches a note higher to scale degree 3 before it seems to lose confidence and fall back down to 2. The third phrase actually launches the melody up to scale degree 5, but suffers the same fate as the previous phrase as it sinks from 3 to 2 at its end. Only with the fourth phrase does the music reach up to 4 and finally 5 as a concluding summit to the theme. This sort of progressive back-and-forth between rising and falling motions is typical of themes used to depict a sense of struggle, another prominent example being the Force theme from the Star Wars saga. And like the Force theme, Interstellar’s Striving/In Control theme is in a minor key, which intensifies the sense of struggle in the theme through its veil of negativity.

Conclusion

Unlike most science-fiction films, Interstellar has at its core an emotional story of love between a father and his daughter. Appropriately, Hans Zimmer places the Murph and Cooper theme front and center in the score, and further emphasizes the relationship with another theme that can signify familial love. Of course, since the film also includes some riveting action sequences, the score does make use of an action theme, but in typical Zimmer style, this theme serves two different functions as it is also the familial love theme. Similarly, the Striving/In Control theme can signal two different but related states in the actions of the protagonists. And Zimmer also captures Interstellar’s focus on the wonder of the natural world in a separate theme. Thus, the score provides an effective glue for the film by drawing emotional links between various events, character motivations, and visual spectacles that might otherwise seem rather disconnected. In short, Zimmer’s score helps to communicate more clearly the emotional crux of the film.

Coming soon… My 2015 Oscar Prediction for Best Score.

2013’s Man of Steel takes quite a different approach to the Superman story than 1978’s well known Superman: The Movie. The latter film is largely optimistic in tone, lighthearted, and includes touches of humor. Indeed, when John Williams scored the film, he remarked that one of the things he liked about it was that “it was fun and didn’t take itself too seriously.” Williams’ vibrant score certainly reflects this element of fun while also capturing the film’s optimism in grand heroic fashion.

Man of Steel, on the other hand, deals more with the philosophical questions of being an outsider. Desperately wanting to fit in with the rest of society, Superman is continually faced with a dilemma: if he reveals his powers to the people of the world, then he’ll no longer be considered one of them. But if he is to retain his “fit” with society, then he can no longer rescue anyone with the help of his powers. This different kind of Superman film calls for a different kind of Superman score, and that is exactly what Hans Zimmer provides.

Although Zimmer’s score does not make use of strict leitmotifs, which correlate a short snippet of melody with a certain character, place, object, and the like, it does exhibit a loose coordination between certain themes and situations involving certain characters. For this reason, it can be difficult to put a label on Zimmer’s themes and they must often be given a more descriptive title than simply the name of a character or place in the film. Another feature of this particular score is the way in which many of its themes are given dual meanings that are either opposites or complements of one another. Below is a film music analysis that examines these aspects of several themes in the film.

Jor-El / Kal-El

This ostinato is the first theme we hear in the film as it sounds over the production credits, before the film proper is underway. The theme reflects a duality in meaning since, with practically every instance of the theme, we see either Jor-El (Superman’s biological father from Krypton) or Kal-El (Superman, as he is called on Krypton), even though the theme is not associated with any particular type of action they take. Near the start of the film, for example, as Jor-El heroically escapes on a dragon-like creature with the “codex” (an object that contains the genetic code of the entire population of Krypton), we hear this theme stated boldly in the brass (from 1:18):

The theme also appears in some scenes where Jor-El’s focus is on Kal-El, as when the baby Kal-El is raised into the escape pod near the film’s start (from 1:42):

…and when Jonathan Kent (Superman’s foster father on Earth) shows Clark (Kal-El) the escape pod in which he arrived on Earth (from 1:49):

The association between this theme and the characters is therefore quite loose—it doesn’t always signify any one particular emotion or situation with these characters. Rather, it seems to be more of a main theme for the film to be used flexibly in relation to Jor-El and Kal-El. In fact, one could even read into it an attempt to reinforce the Christ-like portrayal of Superman (a god-like being whose goal is to save humanity) by sounding the theme with the “holy trinity”: Jor-El (the father), Kal-El (the son), and Jor-El’s ghost (the “holy” spirit). This connection is strengthened by the fact that this theme is closely related to the Superman “heroic” theme in its triplet-based rhythms, its rising motifs, and the relatively large intervals. Compare the two below:

The relationship between these two themes is even further strengthened by sometimes having one directly follow the other within the same cue, as in the first two minutes of “Look to the Stars”, in which Jor-El/Kal-El is heard over the production credits then Superman Heroic (described below) enters with the start of the film proper at 1:03:

Superman Heroic

In addition to Jor-El/Kal-El, Superman has two other themes that are essentially different forms of the same theme, hence forming another of the score’s dualities. One of these generally accompanies Superman in positive situations in which he is overcoming some sort of obstacle, either internally as he struggles to fit in with humanity, or externally in his battles with General Zod. For this reason, I call it Superman Heroic.

This theme opens the film proper as the baby Kal-El (Superman) is being born. Though Kal-El is not performing any heroics at this particular moment, the music acts something like a prophesy: one day, this child will accomplish great things.

Other instances of this theme can function in a similar way, as when Kal-El gets his first glimpse of his iconic outfit, given to him by Jor-El. Kal-El’s donning of the suit takes him a big step further towards “an ideal to strive towards” that Jor-El believes he can become for the people of Earth.

In some instances, the theme is heard in a more overtly heroic context when Superman is battling Zod, although in these cases, the usual C major key of the theme is altered to C minor, giving the music more of a sinister sound that suggests the evil of Superman’s opponent (from 4:11):

At other times, it functions more as a theme to signify a victory for Superman over his own internal struggles. Examples include Superman’s voluntary surrender to the military (symbolically restrained in handcuffs that he could, and later does, easily snap in two), and his being hired at the Daily Planet as Clark Kent at the end of the film. In both cases, Superman is attempting to fit in more with society by complying with human expectations, first by turning himself in as the alien General Zod is looking for, then as a “typical” guy joining the workforce.

Emotionally, the theme evokes feelings of heroism, security, and hope, each of which can be attributed to an aspect of the music itself. The sense of heroism is evident in its prominent use of a rising perfect fifth. Its feeling of security derives from the use of a tonic pedal point, or the repetition of the key note of the scale (the tonic) throughout the theme, which anchors the theme to familiar musical ground even when the chords become strange and chromatic (at the entry of the synthesized voices at 1:46). And a sense of hope arises largely from the scoring of the theme’s melody for French horns, trombones, and cellos, which combine to give a plaintive yet strong sound when played softly as they are here.

Superman Introspective

The other form of Superman’s dual-natured theme is a close cousin of Superman Heroic, as the phrases involve the same intervals (fifths, sixths, and fourths) in the same dotted rhythm. Compare them below:

Here’s what the Superman Introspective theme sounds like:

And yet, despite these connections, the two forms of the theme differ greatly in meaning. Whereas Superman Heroic tends to accompany Superman in situations where he accepts the expectations placed on him and thus is fitting in with society, Superman Introspective tends to accompany him in opposite situations, when his own thoughts and desires are at odds with societal expectations, as for example when Clark:

• As a child, is overwhelmed by the abundance of stimuli his super-senses give him
• As a child, discusses with Jonathan (his foster father) Clark’s saving of a school busload of children and how to better “fit in” with society
• As a young adult, follows Jonathan’s signal not to save him from a fatal tornado because Jonathan believed the world was not ready for Clark’s superpowers
• As a full adult, discusses with a priest whether he should reveal his alien identity and turn himself over to General Zod (Superman’s enemy)
• Has his final memory of childhood, remembering his father (implying a recall of the tornado dilemma)

At these moments, Superman becomes introspective as he searches for a way to satisfy both his own desires and those of society. This emotional quality is created not only by the slow, contemplative rhythm of the theme, but also by its scoring for piano, which lends an intimacy to the sound, as though we are privy to the character’s tender, private thoughts.

Krypton’s Old Ways

This is another of the film’s dualistic themes that depicts Krypton’s opposing forces, one negative, destructive, and of the planet’s old way of thinking in which every Kryptonian is born for a specific societal purpose (as personified by Zod and his crew), the other positive, constructive, and of the new way of thinking in which Kryptonians are free to choose their own path in life (personified by Jor-El, his wife Lara, and Kal-El). The different emotional character of each is largely a result of the scoring. What I call Krypton’s Old Ways is an ostinato generally heard in the mid to low strings with rapidly repeating notes, suggesting something aggressive, as in the score and audio clip below (from 2:10):

This theme appears when Krypton’s old ways are being threatened, as when:

• Jor-El explains to the Council (which has not heeded his warnings up to this point) that the planet’s destruction is imminent due to their excessive mining of the planet’s core
• A machine under Zod’s authority tries to prevent Jor-El from escaping with the codex
• Zod breaks into Jor-El’s lab to retrieve the codex
• Lois and Jor-El’s ghost fight Zod and his crew on Zod’s ship (after Jor-El has changed the atmosphere on the ship from that of Krypton to that of Earth)
• Superman destroys Zod’s ship in the final battle

Krypton’s New Ways

This form of the Krypton theme is always scored much more lightly than the Old Ways theme. It features synthesized sounds in a higher register and in longer notes, a combination which suggests something benign, yet otherworldly, and even exploratory—all aspects of the new way of thinking. Hence I call this ostinato theme Krypton’s New Ways. We hear this theme in several scenes showing the effects of this new mode of thought, as when:

• Jor-El dives into the water and in search of the codex
• The baby Kal-El is launched off of Krypton in an escape pod
• Kal-El’s pod heads out to space towards Earth
• Superman floats (in Christ-like pose) in the water after the destruction of an oil rig (having saved the humans on board rather than killing them or letting them die as Zod and the “old way” would dictate)
• Lois examines a photo of Clark Kent going to the Kryptonian scout ship in the arctic (where he will meet Jor-El and obtain the new mode of thought directly from his father)
• Superman talks with Jor-El in the scout ship

Notice the close similarity between this and the Old Ways theme (from 0:07 in the clip below). Like the Jor-El/Kal-El theme, the Krypton themes also are juxtaposed—hear the Old Ways theme enter below at 0:48:

Suffering – Lament

Yet a third theme to exhibit a dual nature is one that suggests suffering of one kind or another. Its primary feature is that its melody is constructed largely out of a series of rising sixths, which, in a minor key (as here), are often used to depict tragic or troubled situations. I call the first form of the theme Lament since it is always scored plaintively in the French horn, or cello with voice, lending the scene a feeling of grief. It appears, for instance, when:

• Jor-El convinces Lara to part with their son and send him to Earth
• Lara mourns Jor-El’s death
• Lara utters her last words just before the destruction of Krypton

Here is the score and audio of the theme (from 0:55):

Suffering – Burden

The second form of the theme accompanies Superman’s second flight as he tests the limits of his powers in the desert. Just before he takes off, Jor-El’s voice is heard telling Superman that the people of Earth will follow his lead as an ideal to strive towards, but that it will take time. The sense of a psychological weight on Superman is clear not only from these words, but from his facial expressions as well. Hence I call this form of the suffering theme Burden. Although Zimmer leaves the melodic line as it was in the Lament theme, he does change its scoring, which is now much like Superman Heroic in that the melody is played by French horns and cellos, giving it a more uplifting sound (no pun intended). A new rhythmic accompaniment is also added, giving it a powerful sound. Hear it in the clip below from 2:59:

General Zod

This short ostinato has the tightest association of any theme in the film as it is connected only with General Zod and is almost always heard when he is onscreen or is being directly discussed. Its appearances include when:

• Zod enters the council chamber at start of film (where he is introduced to us)
• Zod and his crew are imprisoned and taken away
• Lois agrees to be taken captive in Zod’s ship
• Superman beats Zod up when he attacks Superman’s mother
• Zod and Faora (Zod’s second-in-command) have a standoff with Superman
• Zod and Superman fight for the last time

Here’s how it sounds (from 1:49, played in the strings):

The theme’s most distinctive feature is its use of what’s called the Phrygian mode, a kind of scale that’s like a minor scale but with a lowered second scale step—this is the characteristic sound of the Phrygian mode, and it gives the theme a dark, sinister character.

Comparison with John Williams’ Superman Theme

While the sound of Zimmer’s Man of Steel score is almost nothing like that of Williams’ famous score for Superman: The Movie, there are a number of resemblances that bear mentioning. Most obviously, Zimmer’s Superman Heroic theme opens with the same rising fifth as Williams’ Superman March, and in the same key of C major. But more subtly, the goal notes of the Heroic theme create melodic lines that are found in the March. The first five goal notes of the Heroic theme, for example, are G-A-G-F-G. These are the very same notes found in the opening of the March theme, as shown below:

Now compare the sound of each. Listen to the Williams March from 0:40-0:44:

Then listen to Zimmer’s Heroic theme from 1:03-1:32, which is much slower than the Williams, but still constructed with the same notes:

But there are more similarities to be found. In the Heroic theme, beginning from the second G, the goal notes are then G-A-B-C. This very same line underlies Williams’ March theme:

Now compare the sound of these passages. Hear the Williams from 0:45-0:57:

And hear Zimmer’s Heroic theme from 1:28-1:50, which, again, is much slower than the Williams, but retains the same goal notes in the melody:

More subtly, the two even share a common metre, with beats arranged into four groups of three (here, notated as 12/8 in Zimmer’s theme, which was transcribed by ear).

Even though the two themes have a very different feel, these striking relationships create a connection between them that one could rightly call homage. In short, there seems to be no doubt that, consciously or subconsciously, the Williams March had an influence on the creation of the Zimmer’s Heroic theme.

Conclusion

Many of the themes in Hans Zimmer’s score for Man of Steel are given dual meanings, generally one positive, the other negative, a distinction made clear by the instrumentation and rhythmic setting of the theme. In addition, the associations that the themes have are rather loose in that they signify the same character (or set of characters) in similar situations rather than simply signifying the character in the manner of traditional leitmotifs. While themes in films are usually altered in some way to reflect the changing emotions of the story, the two forms of each of the themes in Man of Steel are employed in such contrasting ways that they actually signify something different, at least on the surface. On a deeper level, the dualistic themes represent two aspects of the same idea, like two sides of the same coin. This is quite a different approach to film scoring, especially for a blockbuster such as this, but then, this is quite a different Superman film.

“I think the thing that he really taught me was, you gotta have a tune. If you don’t have a tune, you have nothing. You’re just grazing like cows in the field. … Dark Knight [the Joker’s Theme] is one note, and then the Batman thing is really two notes. So a tune doesn’t have to be a lot of notes, but it has to have purpose. … It has to be somehow intellectually defensible for it to resonate emotionally.”

As I have attempted to show through these posts, the Dark Knight soundtracks are indeed full of memorable themes when we listen to them closely. In this final post, my film music analysis will introduce one more theme that Zimmer uses in The Dark Knight Rises before giving a musical breakdown of the themes heard in the film’s explosive finale.

“Succeeding” Theme 4

In the second post of this series, I discussed three more or less interchangeable themes that are associated with Bruce or Batman being in the process of overcoming some sort of difficulty. This is why I called them “succeeding” themes and not simply “success” themes, as though victory has already been claimed.

There is a fourth succeeding theme that is actually introduced in the second film, The Dark Knight, when Batman kidnaps Lau, an accountant for the mafia, from Hong Kong in order to return him to the jurisdiction of the U.S. and bring him to justice. We hear the theme just after Batman and Lau are carried off on Batman’s “skyhook”, a gadget that connects him to his plane flying overhead via suspension cable. Here’s the theme itself:

And here’s the “skyhook” scene – the theme appears at 3:25:

As with the other succeeding themes, Batman is in the process of accomplishing a goal. He only reaches that goal in the following scene, when we see Lau tied up outside the Gotham police station, having been delivered by Batman. Appropriately, the succeeding theme ends at this point. This is a different situation from, say, the scene in which Bruce climbs out of the prison pit. There, reaching the top is actually success, so instead of a succeeding theme, we hear Batman’s “heroic” theme. This particular succeeding theme (#4) becomes an important of the film’s finale.

The Finale

Zimmer’s adherence to thematic writing in film scores is particularly evident in the (literally) explosive final thirty minutes of The Dark Knight Rises since several of the themes from this and the previous two films reappear throughout. I give a breakdown of four excerpts from this lengthy sequence below.

Batman Saves Blake

Detective John Blake is captured by the villain Bane’s men, one of whom raises a gun to Blake’s head. Just as Blake is on this verge of meeting his demise, Batman leaps down and single-handedly beats up each of the men to rescue Blake. The music we hear is Succeeding Theme 4 since Batman is in the process of overcoming an obstacle here. Appropriately, the theme ends when he has knocked out all of the men.

When Batman then frees the city’s police force from the sewer tunnels with rockets from his Batwing, we hear the “Batman Troubled” theme. Why? As Batman says, he needs Blake to get people across the bridge and out of the city “in case we fail”. Clearly, he’s not entirely confident he’ll be able to stop Bane’s plan to destroy Gotham, so we hear his “troubled” theme.

Watch the scene here from 2:25:

Truck Chase

The intense chase scene during the finale involves Batman and Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) chasing after the military truck containing a powerful bomb that is minutes away from detonating and destroying the entire city.

The clip below begins with Commissioner Gordon looking worriedly at the bomb and follows with the other villain Talia (Marion Cotillard) getting into the truck carrying the bomb. Later in the scene, Blake tries in vain to convince his fellow cops to open the bridge and let him and a busload of children through to safety, then Talia’s envoy of tumblers are seen racing through the streets alongside the bomb-carrying truck. Through all this, we hear the “Batman Troubled” theme and accompaniment, which may seem puzzling since we don’t actually see Batman onscreen here. But the overall situation is one that poses significant obstacles to Batman if he is to save Gotham from destruction. Hence we hear his “troubled” music. We do, however, hear this music once accompanying Batman in trouble when he is attempting to elude some heat-seeking missiles following the Batwing.

Zimmer also returns to a couple of other themes in this scene. Selina’s “action” theme enters when Batman is asking Selina for her help from the ground when he takes to the air, and again later when Selina destroys one of Talia’s tumblers. In both cases, the music helps us to focus on Selina rather than Batman and on her contributions to the success of the “good guys”.

At the end of this clip, Batman in his Batwing is finally in an advantageous position over the truck. Thus, after all the “troubled” music we have heard with the scene, the emergence of the more heroic sounding Succeeding Theme 2 comes as welcome sigh of relief and signals that Batman is about to take control of the situation.

Here are the entrances of the above themes in the clip below:

• 0:00-0:31 – Batman Troubled Theme and Accompaniment
• 0:34-0:40 – Selina Action Theme
• 0:40-1:00 – Batman Troubled Theme and Accompaniment
• 2:09-2:20 – Selina Action Theme
• 3:22-3:25 – Batman Troubled Theme
• 4:01-4:13 – Succeding Theme 2

Batman Saves the City

In the last two minutes of the bomb’s countdown to detonation, we hear three of Zimmer’s previous themes make a return. First, appropriately enough, we hear Batman’s “troubled” theme as he struggles to take the Batwing, which now suspends the bomb below it, high enough to clear a building under construction. Batman instead decides to carve a path through the building with rockets.

When Blake sees the explosion, he believes the bomb has been detonated and frantically shouts for the children to keep their heads down. Watching from the bus, one of the children then proclaims, “No, that’s Batman!” Here, the music makes an abrupt shift to a slower, more confident sounding beat that usually accompanies one of Batman’s succeeding themes. And sure enough, we hear Succeeding Theme 4 as Batman carries the bomb to the bay outside the city.

The focus of the scene then changes to Blake, who watches on as the Batwing recedes into the distance. At this point, the percussive beats fall away and we hear the “Thoughts of Death” theme, which has not appeared in these films since Batman Begins. The poignant emotional quality of this theme fools us into thinking that Batman has actually perished in the explosion.

Here are the entrances of the themes in the clip below:

• 1:20-1:31 – Batman Troubled theme
• 1:48-2:04 – Succeeding Theme 4
• 2:04-2:33- Thoughts of Death

Farewell to Batman

The final five minutes of The Dark Knight Rises are devoted to tying up loose ends and bidding farewell to Batman as we have known him. Despite Batman’s apparent death, he has managed to achieve success in a number of ways. First, there is the statue of him that is unveiled and applauded. Thus, Batman has regained the admiration of Gotham’s citizens since the end of the last film, when he was deemed an outcast and murderer. Second, through his will, Bruce passes his wealth on to Alfred and designates that the Wayne house and grounds become an orphanage for Gotham. Third, there is the reveal that Blake’s full name includes “Robin” (how this is a success of Batman’s is explained below). And finally, we learn that the Batwing’s auto-pilot had been fixed months before by Bruce Wayne, implying that it flew to its destruction without Bruce’s piloting and in turn that Bruce is still alive. Through all of this, we therefore hear several statements of Succeeding Theme 4 in a more somber setting without its driving percussion.

The next section of this final sequence implies that Batman’s legacy will continue to live on through two individuals who were particularly inspired by him: Blake and Gordon. Blake travels to the Batcave, finds his way inside and begins to explore it, the implication being that he will become the next Batman (as Bruce Wayne himself says before carrying the bomb away, “a hero can be anyone”). Meanwhile, Gordon is seen admiring the Batsignal on a rooftop while looking up at the skies, as though hoping that Batman will return someday. For these scenes, the Bat-accompaniment is heard as a sign that Batman, at least as a masked hero who “can be anyone” has not actually died, but that he will continue to appear when Gotham needs him.

The big reveal, however, comes when we see Alfred nod to someone in a Florentine café. The reverse shot then shows Bruce with Selina at another table. Upon seeing Alfred just before his nod, heavier percussion kicks in and we soon hear Batman’s two-note “signifying” theme, driving home the surprise that Bruce is alive and well after all.

The final scene of the film shows Blake still in the Batcave, now suddenly raised up on a platform. The music here is Batman’s “heroic” theme, which, together with the image, suggests the rise of a new Dark Knight and brings the film and the entire trilogy to a satisfying close.

Here are the timings of the entrances of these themes in the clip below:

• 4:23-4:36 – heavier percussion on Bat-accompaniment, then Batman signifying theme
• 4:37-4:49 – Batman heroic theme

Hans Zimmer worked alone for the trilogy’s final installment instead of collaborating with James Newton Howard, who claimed that, although he had contributed much to the music of these films, Zimmer was really “the mastermind behind the Batman scores.”

Like the second film, The Dark Knight Rises has three main characters who are all given their own theme. A striking contrast is set up, however, between the themes for Batman and Bane, the film’s villain. After laying out the themes for the film’s two new characters, Bane and Selina Kyle, I will demonstrate how Zimmer takes advantage of the opposition between the Bane and Batman themes in Bruce Wayne’s three attempts at climbing out of the pit prison.

Bane

Unlike traditional Hollywood film scores, which tend to focus their attention on melody, harmonic progressions, and varied repetitions of musical motives, Zimmer’s film scores tend to rely more on timbre, texture, and rhythm. In fact, it is rhythm alone that defines the theme for Bane as Zimmer employs a four-note rhythm in an unusual 5/4 time:

Usually, though, the rhythm is filled out with eighth notes like this:

This 5/4 rhythm is quite similar to another famous theme in the same meter: the title music from Mission: Impossible. Although there the meter is associated with the “good guys”, both themes are used in the context of thrilling action narratives. Compare the two rhythms here:

Bane’s rhythm also has much in common with the Joker’s accompaniment from the previous film in that groups of three beats are juxtaposed with groups of two beats. Compare these two below:

The main difference here is that, unlike the Joker’s theme, Bane’s theme does not fit into a regular 4/4 time. But like the Joker’s theme in The Dark Knight, Zimmer sounds Bane’s theme not simply to signify that character’s presence in the scene, but more importantly to indicate that Bane is the one in control of the situation onscreen. A good example is the film’s opening scene, in which a number of captives with hoods over their heads (whom we soon realize are Bane and a few of his men) are threatened with being shot and pushed out of a high-flying plane unless they provide the captors with information. Although in the visuals and dialogue, it appears that the captives have no hope of escape, the music suggests otherwise. In the following film clip, notice how Bane’s 5/4 rhythm is heard as soon as we see the plane in flight at the very start of the clip, and how it becomes much more prominent once Bane and his men take over the plane at 2:13:

The uneven quality of Bane’s 5/4 rhythm suggests an instability that stands in marked contrast to the stability of Batman’s themes, which are all in an even 4/4 time. In this way, the themes for Bane and Batman establish a clear musical opposition not just between the two characters but, on a broader level, between good and evil. A clear example of this opposition occurs in the scene where Batman makes his first appearance after eight years of absence. At the start of this scene, Bane has just escaped from the stock exchange after bankrupting Bruce Wayne. Since it is Bane in control here, we hear his 5/4 rhythm during the escape. Hear it in the film clip below from 3:48:

Once Batman returns for the first time, the music shifts into a regular 4/4 time and sounds a familiar four-beat accompaniment pattern associated with Batman. Naturally, it is also in D minor, Batman’s key. Although Batman does not manage to stop his bankruptcy, he does alert the city to his presence again and demonstrates his ability to slip through the fingers of the police even when his arrest seems, to them, inevitable. Batman can therefore be said to be in control of at least his own personal situation (if not Bane’s), and for that reason, we hear Batman’s reassuring 4/4 music. Hear the appearance of this music at 0:30 in the following clip with Batman’s return:

Selina Kyle

Signifying Theme

There are two themes associated with the cat burglar, Selina Kyle. The first is rarely heard in the film and is a graceful signifying theme that indicates her presence in the scene:

Generally, most character themes in films at some point sound the first note, or tonic, of the scale. If the tonic occurs near the start, it gives the theme a solid base from which a distinctive melody can take shape. If it occurs near the end, it gives the theme a goal that it can head toward. Selina’s theme does neither. Instead, it hovers on the fifth note (A), or dominant, of the scale, making us wonder whether the theme will move up or down to produce some kind of melodic arc, as is typical of themes. This stasis on the dominant note appropriately expresses Selina’s ambivalent moral attitude. On the one hand, she is a jewel thief who willingly turns Batman over to Bane, yet on the other hand, she desperately wants to eliminate her criminal record and live a crime-free life.

The theme also has quick motions around this dominant note by semitones (the shortest distance between two notes). Along with the soft scoring in the piano, these motions suggest not only Selina’s mysterious nature, but also her skills of stealth that led to her being labeled a cat burglar. This suggestion of stealth through semitones is also a prominent part of the famous theme for The Pink Panther, which Henry Mancini composed to represent the film’s jewel thief known as “the phantom”.

You can hear Selina’s signifying theme in her first meeting with Bruce Wayne in this clip from 1:51:

Action Theme

Selina has a second more frequent theme that is heard when she is engaged in some sort of dangerous action. This theme consists of a rising scale played in repeated, or tremolo, notes, giving it an agitated sound:

Notice that as the theme rises up, each note returns two beats later. In this way, the theme hovers around each note in a way similar to Selina’s signifying theme, closely linking the two themes. And because this theme is usually repeated several times when it is heard, it creates a sense of stasis similar to Selina’s signifying theme despite the actions theme’s rising contour. The action theme also retains part of the mysterious quality of the signifying theme by being scored in a soft, subdued manner for the violins.

Hear this theme in the clip above as Selina makes her escape from Bruce Wayne’s mansion with the necklace she stole from him (from around 1:10):

The Climbing Scenes

Through these scenes, Bruce Wayne makes three attempts to climb out of a pit prison in which Bane has incarcerated him, the last of which is successful. With each attempt, the music differs and in fact subtly predicts each outcome.

First Attempt

In Bruce’s first attempt, we hear a repeated figure, or ostinato, of four notes in the bass:

While this ostinato has a rising contour, and therefore implies climbing, it always skips back down after only three rising notes. In much the same way, Bruce, secured with a rope, only manages to climb up to the first ledge in the pit before failing to make the jump to the next ledge and plunging back down to the bottom (the rope catching him before he hits the ground). At the same time, the other inmates chant “deshi basara” (meaning “he rises”) to Bane’s 5/4 rhythm. Thus, the music suggests that Bruce will not be able to rise enough to escape from Bane’s prison.

Now watch and listen to the scene here:

Second Attempt

After failing his first attempt and seeing some of Bane’s destruction of Gotham on a television, Bruce becomes angry and makes a second attempt to climb the pit. This time, the ostinato is absent and is replaced with continual instrumental statements of Bane’s rhythm. When Bruce is about to climb, the inmates begin their chant again, and as he scales the wall, the instruments and the inmates’ chant suddenly align in their rhythm and state Bane’s rhythm together. With nothing but Bane’s theme sounding, the music clearly implies that anger is only going to keep Bruce within Bane’s control (recall that Bane’s rhythm tends to indicate that he is in control of the situation onscreen). Accordingly, Bruce’s hand slips on a loose rock and again he falls to the bottom secured by the rope.

Watch and hear this short scene here:

Third Attempt

After failing his second climb, one of the inmates tells Bruce that if he wants to escape, he needs to have a fear of death, for, as he says, “how can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible, without the most powerful impulse of the spirit: the fear of death?” Consequently, he advises Bruce to climb without using the rope; then, he says “fear will find you.” As the inmate tells Bruce this, we begin to hear the ostinato from the first attempt again. As before, the ostinato skips downward after rising through three notes and continues to do so as Bruce climbs up to the ledge.

Once he reaches the ledge, however, the ostinato does something it didn’t do before—it continues rising up the D minor scale, going from D all the way up to the D an octave higher. As we hear this, a flurry of bats streams over Bruce’s head from a hole in the wall in much the same way as when he fell down the well as a child and developed a fear of bats in Batman Begins. The symbolism here is clear: Bruce’s fear has indeed returned, and the music follows suit by repeating the rising scale, now with a fuller and more active orchestration. While the inmates once again chant in Bane’s rhythm, the rising ostinato gradually overpowers it, indicating that this time Bruce will make the leap. Just before Bruce jumps, the ostinato dramatically halts before its final note. Musically (and perhaps literally) we are holding our breath while Bruce is in the air.

When he successfully grasps the other ledge, making the jump, we at last hear the ostinato’s final note, D, which merges with a statement of Batman’s “signifying” theme (see Part 1 of these posts). Having conquered the pit, the music suggests that Bruce has turned his mind towards Batman once more. After throwing down the rope for the other prisoners, Bruce then crosses the terrain atop the pit, a free man on his way back to Gotham. At this point we hear a climactic statement of the Batman “heroic” theme (again see Part 1 of these posts) to close off the scene in a way that is both appropriate and enormously satisfying.

Watch and hear this scene here:

Although the score for The Dark Knight was a collaboration between Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, the composers divided up the music for the two main villains of the film, Zimmer writing the music for the Joker, Howard that of Harvey Dent / Two-Face. Accordingly, the style of these two characters’ music is entirely different. Below is my film music analysis of these themes.

The Joker – Accompaniment

Like Batman, the Joker has an accompaniment figure that plays behind several scenes, notably the bank robbery at the film’s opening. The figure often sounds the dissonant interval of a major second in the violins, but more consistent is its rhythm, which is an irregular series of 3s and 2s within a bar of 4/4 time:

Sometimes the figure is slightly varied by elongating the third group to 4 pulses:

In either of its forms, the irregularity and dissonance in the figure suggest the kind of unsettling feeling the Joker’s schemes evoke in us. For this reason, this accompaniment appears precisely when one of his psychotic schemes is underway. Hear each variation in this clip at 1:14 and 2:15:

The Joker – Theme

In writing the main music for the Joker, Zimmer recorded, distorted, and combined many unusual sounds. The resulting “theme” is really more of a tone colour that fuses metallic buzzing and scratching sounds with a distant, airy sustained note. Eventually, out of the sustained note a second note emerges that gradually slides upward, giving the theme an appropriately eerie and haunting flavour:

The sustained note we hear in this theme is the note D, which is also the first note of Batman’s two-note theme. Furthermore, the upward-sliding note of the Joker’s theme is analogous to the rise up to F in Batman’s theme, and a similar crescendo is also present. The two themes therefore suggest a duality in that Batman and the Joker are in fact two sides of the same coin – both characters are “freaks” that flout society’s laws for their own ends, one for the sake of good, one for evil. Harvey Dent carries this idea of duality further since, once he becomes Two-Face, he is literally split between good and evil, as is his lucky coin, which is now tarnished on one of its two formerly identical faces.

The Joker’s theme is more than a simple musical reminder that the Joker is onscreen or being discussed. It signifies that the Joker is in control of the situation being depicted. And when you think about it, he is nearly always in control when we see him or are about to see him. For example:

• The bank robbery at the opening
• His speech to the mob bosses
• His “Why so serious?” speech to the mob boss Gambol
• When the armoured car is escorting Harvey away and is forced by the Joker to take the tunnels
• When he tells Batman where Rachel and Harvey are being held

In each of these situations, we hear the buzzy timbre of the Joker’s theme, reminding us who is in charge here. Here’s a sample of the theme for the cue, “Why so serious?”:

Harvey Dent / Two-Face – Theme

Howard was given the task of writing the music for Harvey Dent / Two-Face. It differs greatly from the Joker’s music in that it contains a melodic six-note theme for the character, usually scored for piano and/or strings:

Once Dent has transformed into Two-Face, his theme retains the same melody but is scored for the more menacing low brass. Like Batman’s theme, Dent’s theme outlines the interval of a third, but here the third falls rather than rises, and does so twice, perhaps suggesting that, unlike Batman, Dent will not be successful in his endeavours. A stepwise falling third also begins the prominent melody from the love theme I mentioned in my second post on these films. This similarity between the Dent and love themes no doubt signifies Dent’s romantic relationship with Rachel since the love theme signified Rachel and Bruce’s relationship in Batman Begins. Incidentally, you can hear the opening of the love theme in Howard’s suite for Harvey Dent below (see given timings).

Notice also that the theme is in a minor rather than a major key, a surprising detail given that Dent is such an optimistic and morally upright character at the start of the film. Perhaps Howard is insinuating that Dent’s ideals are flawed from the outset and doomed to fail.

Hear the theme in the clip below at these timings:

• 1:23 – low strings
• 2:12 – mid strings + horn
• 2:43 – mid brass
• 3:20 – mid piano
• 4:12 – low strings
• 5:14 – opening of love theme (from Batman Begins)

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