Description
Black Hawk Down is a 2001 American war film directed by Ridley Scott and based on the book of the same name by Mark Bowden. The film tells the story of a U.S. military intervention in Somalia in 1993. Zimmer scored the film, which he completed in just 15 days. The music is largely composed of traditional North African music fused with elements of metal and hip-hop. The soundtrack features performances by Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal, Algerian worldbeat artist Rachid Tara, and Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance), as well as Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros' rendition of Thomas More's "Minstrel Boy." Zimmer's score is highly acclaimed and has been cited as one of his best works.
After the success of Gladiator, it wasn't unusual to see director
Ridley Scott turn to Hans Zimmer again for the score to Black Hawk
Down, his fierce adaptation of Mark Bowden's account of the tragic
1993 American military intervention in Somalia. What was more
surprising was the schedule Scott imposed on the German-born
composer: 15 days to write, arrange, and record the film's nearly
two hours of music. The results of Zimmer's miraculous two-week
musical campaign not only belie those constraints; they instantly
take their place alongside The Thin Red Line as some of the most
compelling music he's produced. The gambit here is simple--portray
the combatants as two warring tribes, with their native musics
locked in a tense dance for domination. Yet the results are
geometrically more complex and artistically rewarding, with thrash
guitar and speed metal/hip-hop/martial rhythms encroaching on, then
fusing with, the timeless indigenous music of North Africa to
become something wholly other. Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal
contributes greatly, as do Algerian worldbeat artist Rachid Tara
and the duet of Denez Prigent and Zimmer's Gladiator collaborator
Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance). Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros'
warm rendition of Thomas More's Minstrel Boy also underscores the
military's brotherhood. But the real star here is Zimmer, who again
takes his quest for music he's never heard to yet another
rewarding plateau. --Jerry McCulley
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