The most famous soundtrack in movie history, used even today in various cartoons and even Batman lego games… makes the composer angry?!
Yes!
“I could have scored the film with some percussion, a harmonica, and a banjo because all you hear are some percussion hits in big moments, but you can’t really hear what the orchestra is doing,” says composer Danny Elfman.
The hit score, which has become synonymous with the Dark Knight since 1989, apparently strikes a sour note with Elfman. He spoke on the Premier Guitar podcast..
“I was terribly unhappy with the dub in Batman,” Elfman said. “They did it in the old school way where you do the score and turn it into the ‘professionals’ who turn the nobs and dub it in. And dubbing had gotten really wonky in those years. We recorded [multi-channel recording on] three channels — right, center, left, — and basically, they took the center channel out of the music completely.” “It didn’t have any care put into it. I’ve had many scores play in big action scenes that really propelled the scene. And in the end of the [Batman] dub, I realized I could have had the orchestra play anything. I could have scored the film with some percussion, a harmonica, and a banjo because all you hear are some percussion hits in big moments, but you can’t really hear what the orchestra is doing.”
“That was my first lesson in how so-called professionals can take a score and the soundtrack to a movie and just do their thing in a very noncommittal way that is easiest for them; plunk it off to the side and just get the dialogue.”
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All of this critical commentary.. of HIS MOST FAMOUS SCORE!!??!
Perhaps he hears something we don’t.. or something different.
To refresh your BAT BRAIN, here is a the score itself.. in all its glory. (Our opinion only apparently) … Oh, the Youtube video is published on the official Danny Elfman Youtube channel, just an FYI 🙂