Buy it... if you are an avid Basil Poledouris collector, and enjoy his trademark synthetic rhythms under bold and brass themes.

Avoid it... if you agree that Poledouris' action writing doesn't receive due treatment from undersized ensembles and poor mixing.

Poledouris

On Deadly Ground: (Basil Poledouris) If somebody in the room with you starts laughing when he or she hears actor Michael Caine's voice in real-life commercials for petroleum companies, then that person will have watched On Deadly Ground. The wretched film marked the directorial debut of crotch-kicking martial arts specialist (and actor, though some wouldn't go that far) Steven Seagal, who saw the project as an opportunity to insert his liberal ideologies into a film in which he could also be seen doing what he enjoys in his spare time: punching and kicking other grown men in painful places. When not invading other peoples' personal bubble space with his fist or foot, he delivers dialogue that only the mother of the writer could love, and On Deadly Ground is filled to the brim with such banter. On the political front, Seagal delivers a short docudrama against oil companies at the end of the film that the studio forced him to cut in length dramatically. Scenes of explosions, death, and bar fights are interspersed between lengthy moments of religious mysticism and discovery, something also important to Seagal personally. But that leaves only the explosions (including a whopper at the end... miniatures have never been so abused) and Caine's pale and bloated portrayal of an evil oil tycoon as guilty pleasures for this late night usual on cable TV. Caine's scene filming a pro-oil commercial with live animals, and his vulgar, distasteful reaction to those animals, is the reason for irony in the real-life TV counterparts. It's not entirely clear what would attract veteran composer Basil Poledouris to Seagal's directorial debut, or even to Seagal's sequel to Under Siege thereafter. But Poledouris seems content with these odd assignments, and in the shadow of the success with Free Willy comes the score for On Deadly Ground. In the end, he easily overdelivers for the film.

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In its basic construct, Poledouris' score has the same style as his other big action scores. A deliberate theme in straight-forward brass is accompanied by rolling timpani and tingling electronic rhythms, with bold harmony and generous light percussion throughout. But the depth of the components is lacking in On Deadly Ground, with the orchestra less muscular than usual for Poledouris, rendering his music a bit punchless. While the intent to create a broad, epic action score is obvious, the ensemble is unable to generate anything even remotely close to the power of the opening launch sequence in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, and a dull, muted recording quality contributes to the problem. Poledouris does compensate for poor depth with his usual array of synthesizers, but nothing on the scale to the just previous Free Willy. The rambling rhythmic synth effects are all familiar, however, from that score, and remain a trademark of Poledouris' 1990's writing. Interestingly, they slowly and consistenly increase in tempo from the first cue to the end credits. Striking synthetic bass notes assist the "Aegis Flameout" cue in achieving the density that the rest of the score lacks, utilizing several effects from Wind. Because the film fights for the native peoples of Alaska, and thus contains a fair amount of mysticism, Poledouris addresses this need with Inuit throat singers Qaunaq Mikkigak and Timangiak Petaulassie, who contribute to the "Journey" cue with subtle performances. While the mysticism is a central element in the film, Poledouris' use of these singers is so undermixed with the orchestra that their effect on the score is sadly minimal. Likewise, for Seagal's lecturing documentary sequence at the end of the film (birds covered in oil, etc), Poledouris responds with a rather mundane statement of pleasant harmony where some genuine orchestral kick could have helped. Overall, the score is better than the film deserved, but still somewhat flat due to a lack of depth. ***   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.