Review
Well, it doesn’t get much more iconic than this. All of you know the theme for Pirates. Some of you even know that Klaus Badelt, yet another Hans Zimmer understudy, worked on Gladiator with Zimmer, and thus we get this cool carry over of themes. Hans Zimmer was busy for this first Pirates soundtrack, so he composed some of the main themes and set Badelt to take care of the rest. He didn’t do half bad. The Curse of the Black Pearl soundtrack set the stage for a worldwide phenomenon, and it’d be hard to argue that Johnny Depp plus this score are the main forces behind the series. Hans Zimmer, who went on to score the next two films, states that they did not approach the score as a pirate film, likely because pirate films hadn’t done well in the past (the screenwriters wrote the script in the early 90s and Disney didn’t give the green light until the early 2000s). The result is a fresh score that embodies what we now think of as “pirate music.” It’s very thematic, with clear motifs for Jack (“The Medallion Calls”), Will and Elizabeth (“One Last Shot”), and Barbossa’s pirates (“Swords Crossed”). Then there’s the general “good guys” pirate theme made famous in “He’s a Pirate” but arguably most epic and pirate-y in “Barbossa is Hungry” (in which you also get the Medallion motif played on a wind instrument). Just an all-around eminently listenable score. And if, like us, you can’t get enough of this music, here’s an ambience video for your listening delight. AND, if you really can’t get enough, there’s a complete recording of the film’s music on Klaus Badelt’s website!
Review by the_strong_writer.