 |
|
 |
|
 | |||||||||
| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
| . |
1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
 | ||||||||
|
|
|
Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you want one of most powerful fantasy adventure scores in the history of film music. Avoid it... if dated sound quality and a difficult album situation outweight your interest in the fantasy adventure genre. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The resulting effort would be a complex score that sounded surprisingly primitive and brutal, and Poledouris would reinforce this approach by utilizing the sheer power of an awesome orchestral and choral ensemble. He would utilize players from two orchestras and combine them with a chorus for a monumental recording in Rome. Unlike other modern composers, Poledouris successfully took Milius' suggestion of adapting the sounds of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" and the Gregorian chanting of "Dies Irae" and provided similar emotional construction without allowing the score to sound like an imitation. He accomplishes a consistent Middle Age atmosphere by utilizing powerful arrays of brass and percussion throughout several different suite-like motifs that carry the film along as though it was a concert piece with several distinct parts. First, the film begins with the theme that many associate with Conan incorrectly; rather, the "Anvil of Crom" cue is more of a representation of the time period and primitive human behavior. It follows the prologue in the film with a powerful performance by timpani drums and 24 French horns. In the interlude of that title theme, Conan's true theme is introduced; it would be offered during the "Riddle of Steel" cue and would accompany Conan on his journey of revenge throughout the film. The third theme (or motif) utilized by Poledouris is the Orff-inspired "Riders of Doom" composition to represent the evil Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) during his attacks. This stunning piece, often performed poorly in concerts by modern performing groups, is a continuation of unabashed percussion and brass, with a Latin chorus providing the horror. This theme would return during the climactic battle between Conan and Doom's warriors near the end of the film. For Thulsa Doom's more hauntingly pleasant side, Poledouris worked with a simple theme inspired by the musical tinkering of his daughter for "The Orgy," a simplistic, but effectively rolling representation of the barbaric sexual environment of the villain. The love theme for Conan is performed with a heroic and lush heart by woodwinds, which often act as the soul of the characters in the film. Among the smaller motifs are the stunningly grinding rhythms of "Wheel of Pain" and the light-hearted "Civilization" theme that accompanies Conan's Mongol friend and flourishes in grandeur as Conan is rescued from "The Tree of Woe." To finish the commentary about Conan the Barbarian at this point is an insult to the score, because nearly every cue by Poledouris contains an equally effective motif. While the score is never completely integrated so that all of the themes come together in a suite format, Poledouris does manage to restate most of his themes throughout the film, providing the perfect musical canvas for the predictable characters. The score is rich is exotic percussion, heart-pounding rhythms, and mesmerizing instrumentation, proving what kind of magic can result when a composer and director work towards a common goal with a massive ensemble of performers in mind from the outset. On album, Conan the Barbarian has had another storied history. A very early CD was issued not long after the identical LPs hit stores in 1982. Most of the early Milan/MCA Records pressings came outside the United States, with the only CD representation for many years being a Milan album from France. This album contains the prologue from the film by the wizard (Mako), the classic text of which you can view at the bottom of this review page. The Milan album, with about 48 minutes of score, has been reprinted several times, in 1992, 1999, and 2003, and all feature identical contents. In 1992, however, Varèse Sarabande released both Conan the Barbarian and its sequel, Conan the Destroyer, with the album for Barbarian adding 20 minutes of previously unreleased material to the original LP and CDs. Among the extra cues are the fantastic "Tree of Woe" and "Recovery" cues back to back, both of which feature strong extensions of the civilization and love themes and are not to be missed. Also added are lengthy cues from the latter half of the film, including the orgy scene and Doom's execution by Conan. Unfortunately, these Varèse Sarabande albums for the Conan series have fallen completely out of print and are only available used (for an often hefty price). The Varèse Sarabande release of Conan the Barbarian, although it is missing the prologue, features slightly more vibrant sound quality and an excellent 20 minutes of extra score, and it should be sought at all costs. The shorter Milan album may suffice for a few, but the out-of-print Varèse Sarabande album is the definite product for any collector of film music. It is a classic album for a classic score.
Score as Heard on the Milan Album: **** Score As Heard on the Varèse Sarabande album: ***** Overall: *****
The Milan Records insert includes no extra information about the score or film, but the early Milan albums were pressed on solid gold-colored CDs. The out-of-print Varèse Sarabande album, like Conan the Destroyer, had detailed notes about both the score and film. The dialogue as heard in the track "Prologue" on the Milan albums is as follows:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
