The Last Samurai marked master screen composer Hans Zimmer’s 100th score, and it was and is perhaps his best. The 2003 film starred Tom Cruise as a Civil War soldier who travels to Japan and becomes embroiled in the clash between the Imperial Japanese Army and traditional Japanese samurai culture, lending Zimmer ample opportunity to display his unparalleled ability to fuse orchestral, Westernized elements with indigenous motifs (in this case, utilizing the traditional Japanese taiko drum for action sequences and the shakuhachi flute and koto for more pastoral passages). Fans of his work in The Thin Red Line will particularly enjoy this soundtrack, which, for being a score for an action film, includes long stretches of beautifully contemplative soundscapes (Zimmer liked it too, as “The Last Samurai Suite” appears on his new live album). We at Real Gone Music are proud to bring this soundtrack to LP for the first time, in a double-album housed inside a gatefold jacket and pressed in gold vinyl limited to 1000 copies. Highly recommended!
