Being a film composer usually means a life away from the limelight, their important work remaining behind the scenes. And then there’s Hans Zimmer. In recent years he’s become arguably the most front-facing composer we’ve ever had, his ‘Hans Zimmer Live’ tour selling out stadiums all over the world. If you weren’t able to make it to one of those thrilling events, Diamond In The Desert is more than just the next best thing; Zimmer and director Paul Dugdale have turned his stage act into an immersive, toe-tapping, head-bopping experience in its own right, complete with a bounty of funny, inspiring creative insights to boot.
It all starts with the music. Multiple smartly arranged gems from Zimmer’s envious, 40-year-plus catalogue are present and accounted for across the film’s two-hour-and 38-minute run time, including Gladiator, Dune, Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, and more. It’s a veritable embarrassment of riches, the dynamic camerawork and editing making sure to showcase the talent of each musician. One minute you’ll be marvelling at Guthrie Govan’s exquisitely elaborate guitar solo for Man Of Steel, and later you’ll be jamming along with Tina Guo’s electric cello in the fast and furious Wonder Woman 1984 medley.
Not all of our time is spent on the stage. Zimmer and his merry band make good use of their Dubai surroundings, the on-location performances adding a bit of spice to proceedings. In the case of the big, cinematic opening number — ‘A Time Of Quiet Between The Storms’ from Dune: Part Two — that may be literal, with singer Loire Cotler setting the tone by walking across the expansive desert dunes as her naked vocals soar.
It’s difficult to imagine any other composer — past, or present — putting on this type of show.
Where Dugdale really switches things up from the usual concert-movie format is in the interviews with Zimmer’s friends and collaborators that are interspersed with the performances. Filmed in black and white and cropped to 4:3, they’re intimate affairs that give us a deeper understanding of the work that went into various scores and why they’ve resonated with so many over the years. We get Christopher Nolan humorously recalling days of “proper Zimmer madness” when the composer toiled away on Interstellar, Jerry Bruckheimer reminiscing about how Hans “saved Pirates Of The Caribbean” by figuring out the instantly memorable theme in one day, and yet more anecdotes and insights from the likes of Billie Eilish, Denis Villeneuve, Pharrell Williams, an impressively informed Timothée Chalamet, and more. It’s all enlightening, fascinating stuff, so much so that there’s a pang of frustration each time we cut away from an engrossing conversation to another performance.
But such feelings quickly evaporate once Zimmer and his band hit their stride. There’s a short list of composers with discographies that are comparable to the hitmaker behind The Lion King, Crimson Tide and more. But it’s difficult to imagine any other composer — past, or present — putting on this type of show. Bouncing from piano to guitar and at one point jamming with his live audience in the front rows, there’s a gleeful showmanship to Zimmer that makes this experience that much more entertaining. We’re all the better for it.