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Filmtracks Recommends: Buy it... if you never owned the out-of-print album from 1987 and you enjoy Basil Poledouris' consistently robust action writing. Avoid it... if you expect to hear his best merging of synthesizers and orchestra; the concurrent Cherry 2000 maintains much better style. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The resulting experiment was suitable for the half-human, half-machine cyborg at the heart of the film, and score collectors should be grateful that the producers of the film ultimately elected for this approach rather than the tempting total-synth (i.e. Tangerine Dream) or hard rock approach. Poledouris' style for RoboCop would be similar in its synthesized accompaniment to Jerry Goldsmith's writing for subsequent Verhoeven pictures. An identical Poledouris reprise would resurface in Starship Troopers nearly ten years later. If you study Poledouris' mingling of orchestra and synthesizer, a marriage he explored on a large scale for the first time in 1987, then you have to consider RoboCop and the concurrent Cherry 2000 together. They share the same fundamental ideas, much of the same orchestration and instrumentation, and the same attempt by Poledouris to find that perfect balance between real and synthesized instruments. Of the two, RoboCop received the bold theme and determination that you often heard in broad brass throughout the Conan compositions. The title theme, appearing after the emergence of the cyborg in the film, is one of confidence and rightful revenge. It is heroic in construction and almost mechanized in its progression. The action music often features early synth rhythms as a pulse in the background, although the standard of excellence heard in Poledouris' action underscores of past and present is strangely absent from RoboCop. While functional, the music for Murphy's slow, painful recollection of his previous life is scored without the kind of emotional depth that appeared in the composer's other works. An intriguing use of the violins is heard in "Home," with only a few notes slurred as Murphy's memories waver, but this use is never repeated. Despite its straight forward marching style and sometimes underdeveloped action material, Poledouris maintains enough volume throughout RoboCop to keep it entertaining, with the "Showdown" cue hinting at the robust nature of Flesh + Blood. Getting back to the comparison with Cherry 2000, however, it would seem that all of the best ideas that Poledouris had concerning electronic and orchestral mingling were realized in Cherry 2000 rather than RoboCop. The propulsive style, thematic diversity, and recording integrity of the synths with the ensemble seemed more mature in Cherry 2000, even though it is easily the more playful score. Both scores were released by the Varèse Sarabande label in the late 1980's, with the limited Cherry 2000 album becoming a top collectible and the commercial RoboCop one eventually going out of print. In 2004, Varèse Sarabande re-released RoboCop in remastered sound, rearranged order, a minute or two of extra score, and with four source cues from television commercials in the film (not on the original album). American television was a prime target for comedic jabs in the film, and Poledouris wrote the source material for several of these pieces. While none is particularly outstanding, the cue "Nuke 'Em" (advertising a video game in which you can blow up the world) has a particularly cute ending. For score collectors, the new availability of the album, along with the clear sound and the additional cues, will make the album a decent addition to the collection. But don't expect to hear Poledouris at the top of his game, and if you enjoy his technique of combining orchestral and synthetic elements, you'd be better served by attempting to find a copy of Cherry 2000. Leonard Rosenman would score RoboCop 2 in 1990, but Poledouris would return for RoboCop 3 in 1993. ***
The 2004 Varèse Sarabande album insert includes detailed information about the score and film. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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