As Horner would have done with the picture, Zimmer assembled an array of specialty instruments native to the region and combined them with an orchestral ensemble (of strings and brass), an adult chorus, and his own electronics. Zimmer, however, handles his native instrumentation differently than Horner usually does. Instead of glorifying each individual element in its compositional role and mixing at the forefront, Zimmer is more concerned with the overall package. Thus, you are much more likely to hear all of Zimmer's elements together at once, even at lesser volumes, than have a shakuhachi flute, for instance, howl over the top of all the other performers. The shakuhachi is joined by other ethnic woodwinds, a fiddle, Navajo voice, koto, and, most importantly, the Taiko drums, which pound throughout The Last Samurai with determined resolve. Through these elements, Zimmer creates a score that revolves around textured layers of sound and only slips into an overtly melodic mode during battle sequences. The themes exhibit Zimmer's usual neo-classical style of melodrama, but they never rise to the level of nobility that was heard in Gladiator. This is a welcomed move, because the largely Western ideas are usually presented through Japanese instrumentation. The two melodies that develop in their most attractive forms during the moments of reflective underscore exist in the same harmony as in Beyond Rangoon, and, as heard in The Thin Red Line, there is almost always a major-key cello expression underneath the remaining lines in order to elevate that nobility to achieve a greater cinematic effect. The music is pleasantly accessible for most of its length, following simple harmonies that Western listeners can identify with. The way Zimmer handles the integration of the Eastern instruments and sensibilities into his own styles is similar to the way Basil Poledouris did the same in 2002's little known The Touch. The music for The Last Samurai is immediately recognizable as being composed by Zimmer while also stepping through new territory at the same time.

It could be argued, however, that the same detractions from Gladiator also plague, to a lesser extent, The Last Samurai; that is, Zimmer's insistence on supplying dramatic weight in his music by layering his strings and brass in such a heavy mix, with or without synthetics, that the tone takes on the oppressive weight of an electronic environment. Sometimes, as in Invincible just previously, this technique is superbly rendered. In The Last Samurai, the mixing of the orchestra's fuller performances to sound like its electronically sampled counterparts is clearly the weakness. When Zimmer kicks the full ensemble in gear with all of the soloists, the added electronically aided depth to each chord is less noticeable and convincingly does its job. But when Zimmer either uses his synthetic programming to assist the ensemble alone or, as per usual, mixes the bass string elements with such weight that they sound electronically derived, the package becomes troublesome. This is because you end up with an environment like that of Toys or Crimson Tide, a more blatant, synthetically enhanced sound, in circumstances that don't fit that style of rendering. The Los Angeles orchestra hired for The Last Samurai was relatively small, perhaps necessitating the use of programming to flesh out their sound, and why the group couldn't have been fuller or more dynamically orchestrated for is another reasonable question to ask. Zimmer collectors knew at the time, if even only from the likes of Hannibal, that the composer could write spectacular music for a recording largely without the assistance of the synthetics, and The Last Samurai could have been a similar project. Zimmer and Zwick might argue that the Japanese culture was rigid and strict at the time and thus the music followed suit, and yet the flat, synthetically boosted sound in parts of this score doesn't mesh as well with the dynamically recorded specialty instruments. The male chanting in "Red Warrior" and female vocals in "To Know My Enemy" are presented with the same clarity as the metallic clanging of swords in the battle sequences, and the vivacious recording quality of these fantastic cues is offset by the dull, melodramatic cues of heavy-handed mixing.

Such emphasis on weight is the Zimmer's career mode of operation, however, and at least this simplistic technique of cranking up the bass region doesn't affect this score in the film as much as similar techniques would partially drown the elegance of The Da Vinci Code a few years later. One curious synthetic effect that conversely works in this score is the echoing sound of Chariots of Fire-style metal tapping at the end of "To Know My Enemy." The use of source-like vocals in battle mode in "Red Warrior" is actually quite effective and well integrated. Most of Zimmer's other, more varied cues also inspire repeated listens, and the Taiko drum alone is an impressive inclusion in any of its cues. But be forewarned that if you had any qualms about Zimmer's use of synthetic-sounding depth in Gladiator, then you may be disappointed by the same application in the equally inappropriate context of The Last Samurai. Additionally, some of the battle material is extremely reminiscent of Zimmer's Japanese-related cues for the immensely popular Pearl Harbor, a circumstance that will inevitably bother some listeners looking for only a fresh approach to the assignment (not to mention that this material was never the most authentic historical sound to begin with). The fact that Zimmer stays relatively close to his comfort zone here, despite a strong rendering, yields questions about originality that ironically would likely have resulted had Horner written the music instead. 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. The emotional power in the score resides in its cues of lesser intensity, although the album is split about half and half between action and reflection. That product uses the composer's usual preference for a continuous presentation of the music, overlapping the beginning and conclusion of each track. A rare solo score by Zimmer during this time, The Last Samurai earned him a Golden Globe nomination, though competition from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was too steep. Despite Zimmer's lack of reinvention for this distinctly fresh assignment, the resulting adaptation of his normal methodology more than suffices.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download