> I wish I had this one in the bag when the 'how come we don't talk about
> Basil Poledouris enough?' thread started a week or two ago. Ah well,
> better late than never.

> Poledouris wrote across a wide variety of genres (family adventure,
> fantasy, modern action, etc.). You could almost always hear his
> distinctive musical voice and his unique mixing of synths in his work, yet
> he had a knack for rarely repeating himself.

> It was fun to revisit a lot of these scores (some of which I hadn't heard
> in many, many years) over a period of about a month.

Another reminder there's so much of his work I haven't heard.

> ***
> 28. The House of God. Short but sweet. A pseudo-baroque palette cleanser.

> ***1/2 (round down to 3) - I will catch some grief for at least one
> of these
> 27. Amanda
> 26. Lassie
> 25. The Jungle Book
> 24. On Deadly Ground
> 23. The Hunt for Red October

> 1994 was a weird year for the guy. All three of the scores listed above
> are decent and technically proficient. but not particularly memorable (you
> could probably swap some tracks from the two animal adventure scores
> without me noticing).

I think(?) I've heard Jungle Book but if there's uncertainty it means I need to listen again.

> The Hunt for Red October is an odd duck. It has at least two tracks that
> belong on any highlights playlist for the composer (the opening Hymn +
> Nuclear Scam). But it also skimps on recurring thematic content, and the
> last 10+ minutes of the score (after they ran out of money) are painfully
> cheap in ways that makes the flimsier-sounding parts of Crimson
> Tide sound like a Bruckner symphony. It's a weirdly compromised effort
> and a terribly overrated score. There, I said it.

Haven't heard it out of context aside from the old MCA album, which probably serves me well enough. I don't think your take is a particularly scorching one, Clem's 5/5 definitely seems like the outlier.

> ***1/2 (round up to 4)
> 22. A Whale for the Killing
> 21. RoboCop 3
> 20. Breakdown (Rejected)

> AWftK is a small-scale score, but it's still a must-hear for anyone who
> likes the man's later seafaring efforts and/or boisterous folk-inflected
> rhythms.

Sold.

> RoboCop 3 has some interesting new themes and a few nice
> variations on the core ideas from the first score, but it doesn't quite
> congeal into something greater than the some of its parts (though writing
> anything half as good for a film this terrible has to count as a minor
> miracle).

Sold?

> Breakdown's alternate early score, disc 2 on the LLL release, gets a
> little too synthy/atmospheric in its late goings to earn a fourth star.
> But the instrumental balance is often quite smart and the action is really
> strong, with the lengthy 'Route 7-North' serving as a late-career triumph.

It's higher than the other two, so sold I suppose.

> **** - I will catch some grief for at least one of these
> 19. For Love of the Game
> 18. Return to the Blue Lagoon
> 17. White Fang
> 16. Conan the Destroyer
> 15. Starship Troopers
> 14. Wind
> 13. RoboCop
> 12. Free Willy
> 11. Under Siege 2: Dark Territory

All of these I've either heard and liked or I know I really need to hear. Except for Under Siege 2, didn't know that was so good.

> For Love of the Game gets here on the strength of its stellar bookend
> tracks, even if the latter one is hilariously overblown for the scene.
> Return to the Blue Lagoon is extremely pretty. Destroyer would be higher
> if there wasn't so much cut-and-paste from the original going on.

> I know some people LOVE Starship Troopers music. Like, REALLY love it.
> Like, it's their second-favorite Poledouris score. Good for them. It's an
> immense, frequently entertaining score that exhausts me; I probably have
> the exact same opinion of it as this site's reviewer.

I wouldn't necessarily say 2nd best, but it is fantastic and perfect for the material.

> Mainlining so many BP works in short succession helped me realize how much
> Wind (or at least its few more orchestral tracks) set the tone for much of
> the composer's action/adventure material over the next decade. Those
> sparkling ostinatos definitely informed Free Willy.

So it's like his Brainstorm?

> SPEAKING of Free Willy...I have no idea how to properly rate Free Willy
> 2 which only has about 10 minutes officially released. Anyone who
> likes the man's music owes it to themself to hear them (as I finally did
> this year). The way he weaves his new theme into the first film's main
> theme in the opening track is sublime.

I think I have that album but I can't remember if I've heard it.

> The varied, train-like action rhythms from Under Siege 2 almost got it
> into the top 10. Thrilling stuff from start to finish, even if I found
> myself thinking at times that greater use of the family theme might've
> helped balance things out (thrill fatigue, perhaps?). The bizarre
> gospel-inflected song from the credits (which Poledouris had nothing to do
> with) doesn't affect my rating.

> Also, while not a film/TV score, The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and
> Sorcery Spectacular belongs in this tier.

> ****1/2 (round down to 4)
> 10. Amerika
> Though a bit on the understated side at times, this work is full of
> Americana-adjacent themes and rhythms that just scream 'perseverance'.

Need another listen

> 9. Les Misérables
> Grim, gorgeous work that deserves a better release. The opening and the
> last few minutes feature some of his finest dramatic material.

Magnificent.

> 8. Big Wednesday
> A superb mix of relaxing hangout music and rousing sports fare. This,
> probably the first of the many scores the man wrote about the sea,
> competes favorably with Soul Surfer for best surf score ever (lol
> is there any other competition?).

I...haven't even heard of this one? Only other surf movies I can think of are Point Break (Isham), The Shallows (also Beltrami lol), and Distance Between Dreams (Holkenborg).

> 7. The Blue Lagoon
> I said earlier that the sequel score is pretty. This is better. The moment
> the main titles starts and the adventure theme kicks in...just...wow.
> Sends shivers down your spine.

> 6. Quigley Down Under
> One of the last great Western scores. 'The Attack' belongs in a museum.

Damn, that's high praise.

> ****1/2 (nearly 5 stars)
> 5. Farewell to the King
> Take The Blue Lagoon, add a dash of the man's epic fantasy action, and
> blend in some of John Barry's mid-career dramatic mannerisms. Special
> stuff.

Yeeeeeee.

> 4. Cherry 2000
> Per Richard Kraft: 'The most involved Basil ever let me get in the
> writing of one of his scores was CHERRY 2000. It was a strange little film
> and everyone involved in it, including Basil, was a bit baffled as to what
> tone it should take musically. He snuck me a video of the film, and for
> several days I would throw different music against it from my soundtrack
> collection to see if anything would stick. Eventually a strange
> amalgamation of Jean-Michel Jarre, Philip Glass and The Wild Rovers began
> to emerge. It was fascinating to hear the final score which was all of
> these disparate influences re-imaged through the magical Basil Poledouris
> filter.'

> That statement is pretty much accurate. It's a weird, gleefully fun,
> wholly unique score that blends 80s electronics, churning strings,
> spaghetti western tones, and Barry-esque romance. And we definitely
> wouldn't have 'Outlands' from Tron: Legacy without it.

> It's a shame the last CD release of this sold out so quickly. Everyone
> should hear this.

As I said on Steven's post, I need to relisten.

> *****
> 3. Lonesome Dove
> Magnificent. Belongs in the conversation of the 10 best western scores
> ever. I really should watch the series at some point.

Damn, guess I need another listen.

> 2. Flesh and Blood
> It's the best Conan sequel score.

> Also, it's one of the rare Poledouris scores with unique material in its
> end credits. Say what you want about Leonard Rosenman's caustic comments
> on Poledouris' work, but the man was spot-on on one point - nearly every
> Poledouris end credits suite was an editorial compilation. BUT NOT THIS
> ONE! Here you get both love themes in counterpoint.

Pretty sure Robocop's is original too.

> Also, this is worth a read -
> https://cnmsarchive.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/basil-poledouris-on-scoring-fleshblood/

That was a terrific read. The comment about folk music was interesting, I feel like there's another Golden Age composer that drew on folk songs a lot but I can't remember who. Also probably not a coincidence that two of the most popular score series in recent memory draw on folk music a lot too (or at least in LOTR's case was accused of lifting folk hymn melodies lol)

> 1. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles
> Just kidding! It's Conan.

Yup.

Great post, thanks for sharing.