Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... on any album only if you are an Ennio Morricone completist or seek one of the quirkier but still effective scores to grace the sword and sorcery age in the early 1980's. Avoid it... if you never cared much for Basil Poledouris' music for the Hyborian Age and wouldn't want to hear it romanticized in sometimes awkward fashion, especially as it caters to 1980's pop culture at its conclusion. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Red Sonja: (Ennio Morricone) It was with great fortune that composer Basil Poledouris was able avoid an assignment on Dino de Laurentiis' Red Sonja in 1985, though Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't as fortunate. The actor was contractually bound to appear in three Conan films, but by 1985, Schwarzenegger's career was headed elsewhere and the stunningly poor quality of Conan the Destroyer was enough of a deterrent for anyone. Amazingly, director Richard Fleischer from the failed sequel was brought back for a third installment of adventure from Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age, and to satisfy the reluctant Schwarzenegger, the contract for another Conan film was dissolved in return for the Austrian appearing in a supporting role in Red Sonja. While the Red Sonja character never appeared in Howard's novels, she was a spin-off character written by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney in their six "Red Sonja" novels "based on Howard's Hyborian Age" in the early 1980's. In this film, she is represented by Danish model Brigitte Nielsen in her American film debut, long before her freakishly large breast implants. Between her emotionless performance, Schwarzenegger's bumbling attempts to be a romantic in the story, and production values that were so bad that they included boom microphones in the picture, Red Sonja turned out to be even worse in some regards than Conan the Destroyer. The only highlights were the return of actress Sandahl Bergman from Conan the Barbarian, who plays the evil lesbian Queen Gedren here, and an often overstated symphonic score by Ennio Morricone. With the film shot in Italy, it's no surprise that Morricone would be a convenient choice for this assignment, and you have to give him credit for doing what he could, like Poledouris in many regards, to compensate for the film's obvious flaws with a significantly overblown score. The composer had already dabbled in the genre by writing a predictable score for the Conan spin-off Hundra in 1983, and much of that score's style carries over into Red Sonja. Morricone also retained some of the common melodic structures that Poledouris proved for the Hyborian Age, though he handles the identity of his interpretation with vastly different instrumentation in some areas. Listeners familiar with Conan the Barbarian will note the consistent use of prominent woodwinds, large symphonic blasts of noise, layers of brass (led by trumpet highlights), and, most notably, an accentuated adult chorus. A few phrases in the score's themes also recall Poledouris' template. Morricone handles brute force relatively well in Red Sonja, producing propulsive sections with bashing, deliberate statements of theme over progressively quicker timpani rhythms. His battle sequences for sword-slashing action are sometimes as impressive as similar cues in Conan the Barbarian, and they easily eclipse the often sparse and tepid performances by the ensemble in Conan the Destroyer. Unfortunately, the actual theme for Schwarzenegger's character here is extremely inappropriate. As he's seen riding during the credits ("Main Title") and in a handful of other scenes ("Varna's Death" and "Sonja and Kalidor"), Morricone assigns him a trite little march that sounds like it would be more comfortable in a Monty Python film than here. Using, oddly enough, a solo trumpet as the title instrument, Morricone offers a somewhat ridiculous demeanor to represent the famed locale and character, and the high pitch of that instrument along with the lightly prancing rhythm under the theme is difficult to tolerate. By its fifth consecutive rendition without a satisfactory interlude, the march makes you want to strangle a small animal. The theme for the title character is based upon rising three-note phrases heard in "Varna's Death," "Sonja Teaches Tarn," "A Fair Fight," and in broader treatment as the score reaches its climax. While this theme approaches the idea of respect for which it was aimed, it suffers from a few problems of its own. First, it doesn't really feature the sense of gravity to suit a female warrior seeking revenge for being raped and her family's murder. Secondly, its interlude directly references Poledouris' main theme for Conan, a substantial distraction (heard first at 1:40 into "Varna's Death"). Morricone's only other major recurring theme is one for battle heard in "Temple Raid" and "Fighting the Soldiers," among others. While effective, this theme does contain similarities to "Dies Irae" in its melody that are difficult to ignore as well. A lesser motif is one representing the magical element in the tale, growing out the John Barry-like brass in "Prologue" to its final ethereal form for chorus late in that cue and again in "The Chamber of Lights." Morricone rotates between these themes in Red Sonja for most of the score's short running time (while more music was heard in the film, it consisted of butchered edits and repetition of cues in multiple places) but does stray occasionally into distinct directions, including the challenging Alex North-like broken chords in "The Talisman" and the obnoxious source-like material in "Sorcery." In general, the tone of the score is lush and romantic, as to be expected from the composer, and all the highlights are generously repeated with great beauty throughout. The only real diversion from the score's personality is Morricone's choice to translate Sonja's theme of respect into one of pop sensibilities for the "End Credits," electronic bass and drum pads mixed in front of the orchestra in a way that oozes with the "coolness factor" of the 1980's fantasy/adventure genre. Overall, Red Sonja has all the right ingredients for the genre, and Morricone for the most part satisfies expectations. But the score has always had that quirky element to it as well, led by the pop-styled "End Credits" and the absolutely silly march for Schwarzenegger's Conan-turned-Prince Kalidor. Still, the soundtrack has maintained a moderate cult following that has long been frustrated by the album situation for the score. Varèse Sarabande released Red Sonja first on LP and then as part of its original CD Club in 1990. The latter product suffered a few major faults, however, aside from the fact that the 1,000-copy run (low even for the Club CDs) caused it to become a top collectible almost immediately. The arrangement of the music for the LP existed in 17 minutes on "side 1" and 19 minutes on "side 2," and for whatever reason, Varèse simply took the music from each side of the LP and combined it into two lengthy suites. This format fails to correct several unfortunate cue mixes that plagued the second side of the LP, and on CD, the second suite of music will disappoint with its hasty edits. Likewise, the suites present the cues out of film order and with obvious silence in between them, negating the purpose of suite presentations in the first place. Also of note is poor sound quality on the Club CD; ironically some fans in the 1990's preferred the commercial Varèse cassette release of Red Sonja, which offered arguably better clarity. That CD Club album did partially redeem itself by including Morricone's three-star score for Bloodline as well, thankfully featuring significantly better sound quality. A few years before Red Sonja, Morricone composed the score for Bloodline, the only R-rated Audrey Hepburn film and a project she was dissatisfied with because of its unnecessary subplot involving snuff films and the subsequently gratuitous nudity it involved. Hepburn plays the sole heir to a pharmaceutical company after her father is assassinated, and her life is the only thing separating the board members of the company from a piece of the wealth. The snuff film subplot weaves in and out of several attempts on her life, and while the film's direction by Terence Young lacks cohesion, the ensemble's star power led it to moderate success. Signing on for the ride was Morricone, whose thriller score is sophisticated for the era, exhibiting many common characteristics of urban mystery and thriller scores of the 1970's. His instrumentation is extremely broad, ranging from a decent orchestral ensemble to modern light rock elements and occasional soft choral use. Cues such as "Almost Perfect Indiscretion" and "Dinner at Maxims" present an almost Georges Delerue-inspired light jazz atmosphere, while the murder investigation cues turn 180 degrees to minimalistic brooding on strings and piano crashes. The highlight of the score is the title theme for Hepburn's character, appearing three times on album (including the opening and closing titles). A lonely female voice performs over a lofty string theme that elegantly and romantically sways with the spirit of Elmer Bernstein's softer Silver Age classics (the voice even sounds like Bernstein's trademark use of the ondes martenot). The eleven cues from Bloodline were rearranged from the LP release for inclusion on Varèse's Club CD, and while both composed by Morricone, Bloodline and Red Sonja really have nothing in common and are better appreciated separately. Long overdue for an overhaul on album from a superior source was Red Sonja; the Club CD disappeared from the market, fetching in the hundreds of dollars at the peak of rare CDs in the late 1990's. Identical bootlegs popped up but included no new material and arguably worse sound quality. In 2010, Perseverance Records finally supplied all significant material from the score in a much better presentation and improved sound quality (though artifacts from room noise do remain, especially in "Sonja and Kalidor"). Morricone fans will delight in this dedicated release of 2,000 copies, for it brings new light to a flawed, but still interesting and engaging piece of the composer's vast and often fruitful production from the early 1980's era.
Music as Heard on the 1990 Varèse Album: ** Music as Heard on the 2010 Perseverance Album: **** Overall: *** Track Listings (1990 Varèse Album):
Total Time: 65:15
Track Listings (2010 Perseverance Album):
Total Time: 37:42
All artwork and sound clips from Red Sonja are Copyright © 1990, 2010, Varèse Sarabande, Perseverance Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/26/97, updated 1/3/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 1997-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
1990 Varèse