Jerry Bruckheimer

Hans Zimmer and Friends: the next level of film music?

At one point during the part-concert film, part-documentary Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert, super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer refers to Hans Zimmer as “the greatest living film composer in the world.” Zimmer, present when such flattery is offered, does not exactly nod in agreement, but nor does he laugh it off. While there are those who would argue that John Williams or Howard Shore have as great a claim to such a title – to say nothing of the equally influential Danny Elfman, Michael Giacchino or Alan Silvestri – there is one incontrovertible reply. Zimmer has a two-and-a-half hour movie dedicated to him and his work, showing in one-off engagements in theaters worldwide at the moment – and the rest of them don’t.

hans zimmer

Style on steroids: the power of Jerry Bruckheimer

This article is in The Spectator’s January 2020 US edition. Subscribe here. Jerry Bruckheimer is a quiet man who produces the loudest movies in the world. Early, arty Jerry was the fixer who put together 1980’s slight neo-noir American Gigolo. Thrusting mid-period Jerry, happily partnered with the 1980s zeitgeist and fellow producer Don Simpson, made the classics Flashdance, Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop. Don died a truly maximal Hollywood death in 1996 — they found 21 different substances inside him — but Jerry, always the sober one, kept going bigger, faster, louder: The Rock, Con Air, Armageddon.

jerry bruckheimer