From Amazon.co.uk
Black Hawk Down is the fifth collaboration between composer Hans Zimmer and director Ridley Scott, and following
Gladiator (2000) and
Hannibal (2001), their third in fewer than two years. Though set two millennia after
Gladiator,
Black Hawk Down's unrelenting African warfare has much in common with the former blockbuster. Zimmer opens with comparable Arabic flavoured atmospherics leading to his trademark pulsating percussion and razor-sharp digital production values. The Andalusian colours of his
Mission: Impossible 2 inflect the catchy world music/dance ballad "Barra Barra" before the score diversifies through textures that blend moody American (blues) and African folk elements with passages of programmed suspense underscore and electronic, sequenced fury. With so many elements fused into polished, perfectly organised musical landscapes, the result is occasionally like a compilation of elements from all Zimmer's recent hit scores. In battle cues such as "Tribal War", relentless rhythm takes over, but it is for the hymnal "Gortoz a ran", the haunted pure beauty of "Still", and the lament of "Mogadishu Blues" that this release is more likely to be remembered. As with
Pearl Harbor, Zimmer concentrates on emotion over action, though here his work is influenced by the real folk music of the people involved, and hence the more moving for it.--
Gary S Dalkin
![Pearl Harbor [Music from the Motion Picture]](http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EFkMmym4L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Black Hawk Down [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VB7NJXDZL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
