AUTHOR: SARAH PALMER
The best movie soundtrack always goes unnoticed – the first time you watch a film, the music should blend seamlessly with the emotions and actions of the main characters, providing an auditory correspondent to the splendid visuals capturing the majority of your attention. On your second or third watch, however, you may start to unearth some of the hidden gems stored within the soundtrack of your favourite movie.
When Christopher Nolan’s 2014 science-fiction drama Interstellar was released, most critics sought to discuss in great depth the complexity of the film’s scientific plot. Through this lens, the writing involvement of now Nobel-Prize winning astrophysicist Dr. Kip Thorne was a primary concern – Interstellar became well-known as the most scientifically accurate film in Hollywood.
A fundamental facet of Interstellar that I believe went amiss upon the film’s release is its soundtrack. Composed by the renowned Hans Zimmer, Interstellar’s soundtrack of 30 musical pieces – with consistent piano melodies, swelling orchestral climaxes and minimal percussion – is certainly easy to pass off as that of a typical Hollywood drama.
Interstellar spends almost three hours unpacking the one fundamental truth of the universe that humanity cannot overcome – time, and our relationship with it. This tragedy is embodied in the plight of NASA pilot Cooper, the film’s protagonist. When he undertakes his mission to find a habitable planet for humanity, he must grapple with the fact that he may not ever return to Earth, missing the inevitable passage of his daughter Murphy’s life. To complicate things further, Cooper must account for time dilation; large astronomical bodies, such as black holes, generate immense gravitational forces that slow the passage of time. If Cooper does return to Earth after spending time near the black hole, he may be the same age as his daughter, or, more tragically, she may have already grown up and passed on without him.
Zimmer has taken this thematic premise and elevated it through his musical composition. The soundtrack as a whole follows a steady 60 beats per minute. Each beat that passes is exactly a second – the same manner of time humans use day-to-day to document our existence. The entire film is underlined with a steady reminder that human beings cannot outrun the passage of time, regardless of how it may be distorted or tampered with.
During the second act of the film, Cooper explores Miller’s planet, which is so close to a black hole that each hour spent on its surface is equivalent to seven years on Earth. Time becomes an important and finite resource – by investigating the planet’s habitability, Cooper must face the risk involved: can he still complete the mission before Earth’s inhabitants starve? The tension of this scene is paramount. Zimmer uses a ticking clock as a percussion instrument, reminding the audience of what is at stake. As the piece, titled Mountains, continues, the clock becomes louder and louder, drumming up tension through thematically-appropriate means. Since Interstellar was released, eight years ago, only one hour has passed on Miller’s planet.
During the film’s climax, Cooper must communicate with Murphy through space-time via a watch he gave to her as a parting gift. The track playing during this moment, Tick-Tock, again harnesses the sounds of a clock as percussion, drawing attention to the significance of time upon both the characters of the film and the audience ourselves. The noise rings heavy in our ears as the film draws to a close.
A good film soundtrack is indistinguishable from the film it accompanies. It is a work of art created in tandem, using a different medium to establish the same themes in the plot, and emotions in the audience. Hans Zimmer has created a remarkable thing in his composition for Interstellar, making excellent use of the film’s thematic concerns in his musical work, and elevating the material it is inspired by as a result. Interstellar would not be the same film without such a well-constructed and emotionally impactful score.