By A movie’s score is the beating heart of any film. Without music, some of the best moments in film wouldn’t have the same (or sometimes any) impact. Imagine Jaws without that John Williams track creeping up on unsuspecting swimmers or Marty McFly driving in Back to the Future without Alan Silvestri’s score kicking in to reinforce the urgency of the scene. They would be severely lacking in theatrical impact without those scores accompanying them. Every piece of music that accompanies a movie has to match it and enhance it as much as it can. This year we’ve decided that the 2022 Golden Cages award for Best Score goes to The Batman simply because it does this best.
Michael Giacchino is a name you might not know, but you’ve definitely heard his work. He’s done things from Up to the Star Trek reboot and with The Batman score, he knocked it out of the park again. The score of The Batman perfectly captures the dark and brooding nature of this most recent iteration of the caped crusader. More so, it captures the soul of Gotham City. It lurks in the background of every scene. Sometimes it announces its presence with firm intent, never letting you forget that this is Gotham City and it is home to much darkness.
The pounding of these compositions does a lot to convey this new, somehow darker version of Gotham. While much of the score lies in its darkness, but in its smaller moments and toward the end, Giacchino lets moments of hope and levity creep in to emphasize that Batman is growing. He is shown to understand that he isn’t just vengeance and can be a symbol of hope for the city when he puts his effort in the right places. This is most felt in the track called simply “The Batman”. That final build elevates The Batman into something else and makes it our choice for Golden Cages Award for Best Score of 2022.