Filmmaker Ridley Scott has long been intrigued by historical events and their contemporary echoes, a fascination that evinces itself again here in the violent tale of Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom), a Jerusalem blacksmith who rallies his people against foreign invaders during the Crusades of the 12th century. Breaking with a successful modern collaboration with Hans Zimmer that yielded such ...
Mansell previously worked with director Darren Aronofsky on Pi where the electronica was powerfully raw. Enlisting the Kronos Quartet, this is proof of a far more intellectual process to create a through-scored piece. Both on screen and album, the music undergoes a perceivable development. Here it is given three sections ("Summer", "Fall" and "Winter"), and therefore attempts an almost ...