Buy it... if you want a surprisingly entertaining and upbeat action score seemingly inspired by the genre's thematic tradition of Jerry Goldsmith.

Avoid it... if the cost of acquiring this rare, out of print album is not worth a pleasant, but hardly earth-shattering surprise.

Folk

Toy Soldiers: (Robert Folk) Among the tragedies in modern film scoring has been the career of composer Robert Folk, whose work has qualified him for assignments far better than those he has received. Composing and conducting dozens of film scores since the early 1980's, Folk's career began to be noticed by film score collectors in the early 1990's, when several of his better known scores began appearing on the Intrada Records label. In the public eye, his longest-standing affiliation in film scoring has been with Police Academy and its numerous sequels and spin-offs. His output continues past 2000 with more B-rate comedy and action films, including Kung Pow: Enter the Fist and its sequel, with some his other works confined by the small screens of television or video projects. A promotional compilation of his usually overachieving orchestral scores has been a hot item for ten years. Meanwhile, Folk also continues his writing for concert works, conducting several of the most famous ensembles in the world. In his sparse, somewhat frustrating film score assignments, there is little argument that 1991's Toy Soldiers is among his best. The same, unfortunately, can't be said of the film itself. Badly beaten by critics at the time of its release, Toy Soldiers is the tale of a Virginia prep school taken over by Colombian terrorists. The rest is predictable. The terrorists want their leader released from American custody, so they plant explosives around the school and threaten to blow up the sons of famous and wealthy citizens. But, as to be expected, those sons are deviant brats, and they are eventually more effective at foiling the terrorists than the hoards of American military outside the school. Debuting director Daniel Petrie Jr. gives us nothing that we don't expect to see, and in the end, only Robert Folk's militaristic score stands out as a refreshing element. Even with that said, though, some critics commented that Folk's large-scale orchestral score did more to expose the film's ridiculous nature than provide a convincing musical backdrop for the suspense.

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This high-brow sound is exactly how Folk and Petrie Jr. conceived the score: from a "large, rich, classically motivated orchestral approach." If Folk's Toy Soldiers does suffer a weakness, it is the hopelessly upbeat nature of much of his writing (stemming likely from the endless assignments on silly comedies that he receives), and this perpetually positive aura extends through even the action and suspense cues in this score. In the film, the score is almost too over-the-top, seemingly taking symbolic and thematic cues from Jerry Goldsmith's The 'Burbs and elevating them to space opera heights. Indeed, Folk's music here (outside of the perfectly preppy title theme) could accompany a science fiction picture of epic proportions, and at times the music overwhelms the quality of the film. But apart from the flawed picture, the Dublin Symphony Orchestra's performances remain a fantastic listening experience. The aforementioned title theme is slightly trite in its handling of the school, but its trumpet solos genuinely mirror the appropriate environment and move at a pace brisk enough to keep us listening. As the terrorists take the school, Folk introduces a series of additional motifs that extend directly from some of Jerry Goldsmith's best action material, often with layered brass and relentless percussion that is largely indistinguishable from the late Goldsmith's extroverted action styles. Folk even employs synthetic elements in "Narrow Escape" that mirror Goldsmith's use, though the rest of the instrumentation in Toy Soldiers is held strictly to symphonic traditions. The incorporation and adaptation of both the equally-militaristic themes (in major and minor), especially in the subtle uses of the prep school's title theme for the boys' counter-insurgency, is commendable. The recording quality is very strong (probably better than average for 1991), though one significant flaw exists; the overmixing of the snare drum during action sequences is flat and distracting. On album, Toy Soldiers was released commercially by Intrada Records, but the product fell out of print and has remained difficult to find for over ten years. A 13-minute suite from Toy Soldiers appears on the composer's equally-sought promotional album. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download