Reply To: Hans Zimmer
I need to restrain myself a little, because I intend to have a long Zimmer podcast at some point (much in the style of the Vangelis one), and I don’t want to give away ALL the stories and favourites. Even if it will be in Norwegian, so of limited interest to anyone else. It’s been planned for 5-6 years, but it’s been terribly difficult to book the two other guests.
Anyway, as I alluded to above, I think RAIN MAN was my first meeting with the music of Hans Zimmer, even if I didn’t latch on to his name at the time. However, I do remember latching on to his name with DAYS OF THUNDER, which came out right at the cusp of when my film music awareness was born, in 1990.
He’s always been a top 10 composer to me, but moved a little bit up and down over the years. The reason he’s now at no. 2 is not because I think his work has been so spectacular in the last few years, but rather because of a newfound love of his golden period between 1988 and 2003. Especially the ethnic excursions and the power anthems.
In my research period for the proposed podcast, I’ve made a list of ‘early gems’, ‘runner-ups’ and then a proper ‘top 20’. I might possibly save those selections for later, but I’ve made it pretty clear that BEYOND RANGOON is my favourite of his work; in fact, it’s one of my top 10 favourite film scores of all time. I do wish some people that are critical of his work in later years (in many cases I agree with them!), would spend some more time with the 88-03 period.
I’ve met him a couple of times, at film music festivals, and snapped this cheeky selfie in 2011:
