AMG Review of Pacific [Original Score]

James Christopher Monger
All Music Guide

Credited to composers Hans Zimmer, Geoff Zanelli, and Blake Neely, the soundtrack to the HBO mini-series #The Pacific owes more than a courtesy nod to the late Michael Kamen’s elegiac work on the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks-produced 2001 companion series #Band of Brothers. Appropriately melancholy and drenched in French horns and sepia-toned nostalgia, The Pacific yields a more reflective tone than its older brother, although Zimmer makes sure to toss in a few of the bold, heavily percussive military themes that have become his forte over the years. This uniquely American, stoic, brass-heavy approach to scoring historical military drama may feel well worn (the main theme could be applied to nearly every WWII film, documentary, or video game released since #Saving Private Ryan), but that’s because it works so remarkably well, acting as a cooling agent for the horrific images that war so deftly burns into our collective psyche.