The Last Samurai (soundtrack)

The Last Samurai (Original Motion Picture Score) is the soundtrack to the 2003 film The Last Samurai directed by Edward Zwick and starring Tom Cruise. The film's original score is composed by Hans Zimmer and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony under the supervision of conductor and orchestrator Blake Neely. The score was released through Warner Sunset Records on November 25, 2003.

Reception

Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com wrote "Zimmer's supplemental ethnic instruments, though, along with his genuinely interesting contemplative work for the film, make The Last Samurai one his better efforts of the 2000's." Thomas Glorieux of Maintitles.net wrote "if Gladiator was powerful, raw and relentless (while equally moving at times), then The Last Samurai goes deeper so it can touch the soul." Tamara Sue Crews of Soundtrack World called it as "most enjoyable to simply allow the music to unfold its power to draw me into a certain state of emotion without considering the whos, hows and whys."

Simon K. of Sputnikmusic summarized "if you're a fan of OSTs, this is definitely worth checking out." Heather Phares of AllMusic called it as "a somber but expertly crafted score that ranks among Zimmer's finest work." Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Hans Zimmer's score works a little too hard. He might have mixed Eastern and Western musical themes to greater advantage, but instead Zimmer sticks mostly to Western motifs and instruments." Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote "Hans Zimmer, whose 100th motion picture score this is, occasionally inflects the instrumentations of his industrious compositions with Japanese motifs." Matthew Wilkinson of Screen Rant listed the album as one of the iconic scores of the composer and summarized "Blending Japanese cultural music in with a high-paced action score when the film needs it, this soundtrack has everything."

Live performances

Zimmer produced a rearrangement of the film's themes and released as "Last Samurai Suite" for his live album that featured "reimagining" of his themes from The Lion King (1994), Gladiator (2000), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017). He performed the score live at concerts in London.

Track listing

Awards and nominations

References