Director Matt Reeves’ The Batman has been a long time coming. Since it was made official in May 2019 that Robert Pattinson would be playing the titular hero, there was some concern about Reeves’ decision to cast the Twilight alum. However, since the March 4 release of the film, many people have changed their minds about Pattinson and found a new obsession in the film’s soundtrack.
Among the highlights is composer Michael Giacchino’s version of “Ave Maria.” The film opens with a shot of a mysterious figure looking into a family’s living room window as it plays. The song is normally very operatic and beautiful, and while the vocalist makes it sound that way at first, it steadily intensifies throughout its two minutes and 34 seconds.
After about a minute, though, the vocalist leaves the orchestra to play a borderline horror-film-sounding composition. The vocalist comes back in the last 30 seconds and their vocals intertwine with the ultra intense sounds of the orchestra. The song sets the tone for the film right away by getting the audience into the proper mindset and maintaining it by bringing the song back at two other points in the film.
In an interview with Esquire, Reeves discussed the similarities between Kurt Cobain and his version of Bruce Wayne’s iconic alter ego, explaining why another highlight of the soundtrack, “Something In The Way” by Nirvana, was included.
“Early on, when I was writing, I started listening to Nirvana, and there was something about ‘Something in the Way’... which is part of the voice of that character,” Reeves said. “When I considered, ‘How do you do Bruce Wayne in a way that hasn’t been seen before?’ I started thinking, ‘What if some tragedy happened and this guy becomes so reclusive, we don’t know what he’s doing? Is this guy some kind of wayward, reckless drug addict?’ And the truth is that he is a kind of drug addict. His drug is his addiction to this drive for revenge. He’s like a Batman Kurt Cobain.”
“Something In The Way” starts playing after “Ave Maria,” providing an odd sense of reprieve from the already intense beginning of the film. It takes the suspense levels down a few notches, but swaps the anxiety-inducing intensity for a more calm, grunge one to introduce the personality of the winged vigilante/hero. After a whirlwind of trying to put an end to The Riddler’s schemes, “Something In The Way” makes its way into the forefront of the soundscape of The Batman saving the day at the end of the film. It emphasizes the internal feelings and battles of Bruce Wayne as the heroic actions of The Batman are taken in by everyone the latter saved.
The grunge inspirations that Reeves pulled from Cobain are present, of course, in the soundtrack, but are dispersed throughout the film in the form of Bruce Wayne’s smudged black eye makeup, the 62 minutes and 40 seconds of rain throughout the film and the overall suspenseful, creepy feeling the film elicits. Beyond that, the use of classical music throughout the film is more striking than the typical soundtrack of background music. Background music is what pulls a film together by getting whoever is watching it to feel the way a director wants them to, but the unsettling, tense tones of the film make the classical work of Beethoven and Gabriel Fauré included on the soundtrack feel eerie rather than any other emotion that classical music provokes.
While I was beyond impressed by DC’s latest take on one of it’s most famous characters, I was pleasantly surprised by the The Batman soundtrack. “Something In The Way” has not left my headphones since I saw the film in theaters and the genius of every other song included or composed for the film has warmed my music-nerd heart. I am a huge fan of Marvel so I did not expect to be so wowed by a DC film. Whether or not that’s any indication of how good The Batman is, I encourage anyone to at least listen to a bit of the soundtrack (but seriously, go see this film).
Tate Raub is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Tate know by tweeting her @tatertot1310.
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