For Yimou Zhang' s epic Asian adventure Hero, award-winning composer
Tan Dun elegantly blends the traditions of his Chinese homeland with the cinematic flair of the American Western. For his score for the award-winning soundtrack to
Ang Lee's crossover hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,
Dun built the work around the talents of cellist
Yo-Yo Ma, resulting in a rich and meditative fusion of classical and Asian folk. On Hero,
Dun finds his muse in Israeli violin legend
Itzhak Perlman, a versatile artist in his own right who played the role of
John Williams' muse on the Academy Award-winning soundtrack to Schindler's List.
Perlman's themes are strikingly similar to those in CTHD, which would be disappointing if it weren't for the thunderous male voice choir and the primal war cries of the Kodo Drummers that surround them. This is
Dun at his most
Morricone, and it lends an air of excitement and grandiosity that was lacking from the latter film. Like the film, Hero's score resembles an old-fashioned Hollywood epic, and its players respond to
Dun's simplistic melodies with ferocity, tenderness, and stamina, but it has enough of an original voice to rise above the more predictable constrictions of its genre. ~ James Christopher Monger