Buy it... if you are curious to hear Basil Poledouris' triumphant arrival to the realm of feature films with a rousing, largely symphonic score that foreshadows several of his more famous works to come.

Avoid it... if archival sound and the efforts of a smaller orchestra, paired with intimate guitar performances, does not meet your expectations for the beefy depth you hear emerge in Poledouris' music shortly thereafter.

Poledouris

Big Wednesday: (Basil Poledouris) There haven't been many dramatically weighty films in the genre of surfing throughout Hollywood's history, but director John Milius wanted to present the public with just that in 1978. An avid surfer during his developmental years in Southern California, Milius sought to change the perception of surfing films that had been dominated by pop culture music and had neglected the serious and professional aspects of the sport. While Big Wednesday accomplished its goal in providing drama both on and off the waves, the film earned its niche in small cult groups across the world while being sadly forgotten by most mainstream viewers. Its extremely long soap-opera diversions into the lives of a group of young men at the center of its tale ultimately caused Big Wednesday to drag significantly in many sequences. Another surfing enthusiast and one of Milius' close friends, composer Basil Poledouris, was also studying film in the same area in the 1970's. Poledouris' knack for musical whimsy, composing impromptu themes on the piano for Milius' initial film projects, led to an early and fruitful collaboration on Big Wednesday. With the story centering on a subject matter close to their hearts (and shying away from major stars and their accompanying budgets), both Milius and Poledouris tackled the project as a labor of passion, and their ideas about the musical identity of Big Wednesday surfaced before shooting on the film even began. Unlike the pop culture surfing films of previous decades and the Beach Boy sound often associated with them, Poledouris was instructed to offer his services to this film with the intent of a largely orchestral approach. The composer had already been writing music for television and disappointing B-rate films for a few years, and the opportunity to work on a feature film such as Big Wednesday led to not only a noteworthy career for Poledouris, but also a continuing collaboration of much success with Milius through the formative years of that career. To emphasize the serious treatment of surfing, Poledouris would not only employ a 55 to 65 member orchestra, but also a pair of slack key Hawaiian guitarists to provide the heartwarming material for the central characters and their bonds with each other. A significant amount of lightly swaying romantic material was conceived as well to accompany the love interests in the film.

The most fascinating aspect of Big Wednesday is how accomplished Poledouris had already become in establishing the prevailing symphonic style that would define his works for decades to come. Even if you add to the equation the enthusiasm inherent in the topic for Poledouris (a sea-worthy, sailing spirit that would flourish once again many years later in his scores for Wind and Free Willy), you still receive a score for Big Wednesday that is significantly better than what you would expect to hear from a composer in his first feature assignment. As the tale of the four primary characters passes through the years, Poledouris sets a dramatic backdrop with lush string themes and pulsating brass for the crashes of the waves, always pleasant in tone and rooted at the level of personal perseverance. So heroic is the sound of "Matt's Rite of Passage" that Poledouris (likely unintentionally) writes a reflection of the same bravado heard in John Williams' Superman. The many softer guitar cues are likely to be dismissed by fans of Poledouris' larger ensemble recordings, but their personality is vital to Big Wednesday's tale. Also important are several divergent cues for individual quirks in the story, such as the militaristic barrage of percussion in the induction center scene and a recording of "Crumple Car" (both in film edits and the extended version) for some cultural pizzazz. The somber inclusion of the traditional melodies from "Taps" and "We Shall Gather at the River" in key dramatic cues, seamlessly integrated with his own themes, is an exhibition of Poledouris' musical knowledge even at that time. The "Liquid Dreams" cue is a spoof of early surfer movie music, with pop electric guitar work imitating some of Poledouris' real life early assignments. Outside of some source Mexican music, there really is no major detraction from the score's overall focus. Despite this diversity, the deeper swells of the orchestra produce the true magic in Big Wednesday for any Poledouris enthusiast, from the opening performance of the score's surfing theme in "March of the Hawaiian Kings" to the heartfelt transitional music in the "Passing of the Years" cues, and, of course, the momentous three cues that highlight the film's "big wave" finale. With a larger ensemble and a better recording quality, these three climactic cues, along with "Jack Surfs Alone" prior in the score, are early symphonic marvels for Poledouris, rivaling the intensity of his later works.

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For casual Poledouris collectors, there are several direct hints of music to come later from the composer. The progressions of the melodies in the highlights of Big Wednesday will resemble familiar shifts heard in his Free Willy scores. Some of the heavier brass techniques in the three major symphonic cues during the finale foreshadow Poledouris' knight and barbarian-related scores of the mid-1980's (and Flesh + Blood most specifically). Although not clearly evident in the soundscape, close listening will reveal some applications of Poleoduris' eventual trademark synthetic tones as well. On the whole, the score for Big Wednesday, despite some slower passages, is like a friendly snapshot in time, a work as effectively dramatic as it is intellectually engaging. While the score never received an official release for more than two decades, scarce bootlegs of the score (with decent sound quality) circulated during the 1990's on the secondary market. In 2004, Film Score Monthly's Silver Age Classics series producer Lukas Kendall collaborated directly with Poledouris to organize a legitimate release limited to 3,000 copies. While the 1978 score stretched the limits of the series' boundaries at the time (and some critics argued that FSM releases had been redundant during the same period), there should be no complaint whatsoever about this treatment of Big Wednesday. As usual, the assembly of the score by FSM was outstanding, with an impressive presentation both on CD and in the packaging. Poledouris' original trailer cue for the film, for instance, featuring the surfing theme that the composer would expand upon for the main score itself, is an intriguing addition. Likewise, listeners receive both film and alternate edits for several cues, filling the album to nearly the maximum length possible on a CD. The sound quality of the album is very good considering its recording in early 1978, and the higher-quality master tapes for tracks 20 to 22 provide music that is comparable in sound quality to much of what you heard a decade later. That said, the remainder does have an archival feel to its soundscape. It was not uncommon for FSM's Silver Age titles to sell out rather quickly in the early 2000's, and while there was speculation that the appeal of Big Wednesday to both the older and younger generations of film score collectors would cause it to disappear, the product surprisingly remained available for many years. It's a highly satisfying dramatic listening experience, and a fascinating one in particular for collectors of the composer's music. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.47 (in 33 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.27 (in 32,977 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.