Every time Brad Pitt’s Sonny Hayes tries with a circuit in F1the public warns its freedom. As a character, in fact, it is seen without the problems and fears of “old age”, as well as the flashbacks of the disastrous accident suffered in the 90s and who still persecute him in dreams. When he turns on the engines it is only Sonny, ready to measure himself with the road, as he has always been and will always be. And you can breathe this in the soundtrack created especially for F1 From the legendary Hans Zimmer, a real electronic work, perfect to dance in a place saturated with vapus, but also ideal while driving on the highway to run to the sea. In the face of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The comparison is not accidental, just as it is not done lightly.
In fact, the synthwave shades that characterize F1 They evoke precisely that typical sound of the Nine Inch Nails, particularly dear to those who watch them first of all on Letterboxd.
And in fact, the stylistic choices are also noticeable in the synthesizers that Cliff Martinez wanted to use in his Drive. These are very similar pieces in spirit to those chosen by the rewarding company Reznor-Ross to give life to the soundtrack of Challengers, who won a Golden Globe, despite having been snubbed without reason to the Oscars.
Returning to F1it is probably the best of the soundtracks are able to offer, since the time of the film of Guadagnino and its love triangle between tennis players, released in theaters last year. F1 He has all the trappings of music that has made Hans Zimmer great, especially for the harmonies and arpeggios that envelop and support everything. In just three minutes, he manages to unravel all his epic being. And it is a crazy and beautiful stuff.
As a song, you have the opportunity to listen to it for the first time when the eye of the camera, during the first sequences, shows us the Joshua Pearce of Damson Idris as it darts along a circuit designed specifically to practice, without forgetting the majesty of the asphalt, which can sometimes intimidate. F1 is a place where pilots go to challenge death, in an attempt to become immortal. Sonny Hayes, Joshua Pearce, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and all the other pilots are today’s gladiators, with the various circuits to act as a Arena. Even without going so much in depth, F1always understood as a song, reminds us that the pilots and their evolutions have nothing to envy to the rock stars, complete with wind in the hair.
It is the same feeling that the soundtrack of Top Gun: Maverick He wants to evoke. Not surprisingly, this too was composed of Hans Zimmer, with the realization of male fantasies in mind: only the steering wheel and the fuselage can make truly free, but also aviator glasses and the “Dad Rock” make their figure. And in fact it is a music of which F1the film, exactly like Joseph Kosinski himself has decided to “season” Top Gun:Maverick With different pieces of the WHO, Foghat and T. Rex.
