Intrada announces the 30th anniversary, two-CD set of Hans Zimmer's score for the 1995 political-action thriller Crimson Tide. Zimmer was truly flying high in his career by the mid-1990s. He had successfully made the jump from London to Hollywood and had just won an Academy Award® for his score for The Lion King (1994). His sound was going through an evolution during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it was on Backdraft (1991) that Zimmer fully embraced meshing an orchestra with his trademark synthesizers. It was also the start of the “power anthem” for which Zimmer would become known. Crimson Tide marks the full maturing of this style that would continue to be heard most notably in The Rock (1996) and The Peacemaker (1997). Zimmer won a GRAMMY® for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television for Crimson Tide.
The main theme of Crimson Tide is a signature power anthem that embodies heroism and bravura, and in this expanded presentation of the score one can fully appreciate how it’s used throughout the narrative. The score is a master class in tension building. Zimmer utilizes atmospheric sounds to build a sonic tomb around the characters. Sounds resembling sonar, metallic colors and puffing woodwinds create sustained tension that slowly rises.
This new release features the complete 88-minute score, adding nearly a half hour of music to the program originally released on Hollywood Records. The extras include a demo of a short suite Zimmer and collaborator Steve Mazzaro prepared in 2014 to be performed live in concert.
The Hollywood Pictures film is a tense military thriller directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, taking place almost entirely aboard a U.S. nuclear submarine. When communications with command are cut off during a potential nuclear crisis with Russia, the seasoned captain (Hackman) and his principled executive officer (Washington) clash over whether to launch nuclear missiles based on incomplete orders. Their escalating power struggle becomes a battle of wills.
