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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Conan the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek one of the most powerful, robust fantasy
adventure scores in the history of film music, especially on the
incredibly faithful and resounding 2010 re-recording that will exceed
your highest expectations.
Avoid it... on all the pressings of its original recording if archival sound quality and questionable performances outweigh your already marginal interest in the fantasy adventure genre, though the comprehensive 2012 Intrada set is as polished as any presentation of the score could be.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Conan the Barbarian: (Basil Poledouris) "And on to
this Conan..." When director John Milius and his college buddy
Basil Poledouris collaborated to produce their first fantasy adventure
film, little did they know that they would be catapulting their own
careers, as well as that of emerging muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger,
into the bright lights of both cult and mainstream attention. Hollywood
was hitting the peak of its "sword and sorcery" phase (which some
instead termed the "swords and steroids" phase) when Conan the
Barbarian hit the theatres in 1982, and producers and directors
struggled to create authentic representations of a fantasy mould of
Earth from the Middle Ages on limited budgets and do so during a time
when audiences were being awed by the special effects of stories of
galactic proportions. The story of a boy's ascension from slave to king
during the Hyborean age was the creation of pulp writer Robert E.
Howard, and the concept was greeted on screen with enough enthusiasm to
warrant a sequel (albeit frightfully inferior) a few years later. Film
scores were also undergoing a renaissance in the early 1980's, pointed
by John Williams' orchestral adventure works back towards large,
symphonic representations of the fantasy genre. The producer of Conan
the Barbarian, Dino De Laurentiis, was an advocate of experimenting
with pop scores in the epic fantasy genre, and he recommended such an
approach for this film. Milius and Poledouris were on a different page,
though; the friends were so loyal to each other that the composer would
turn down the assignment of Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves to
score the director's Flight of the Intruder. The two men
recognized that a rock/pop score would not function for Conan the
Barbarian because of the production would rely on the music and
cinematography to take the place of dialogue in painting the correct
canvas for the film's depiction of the Hyborean age. De Laurentiis, of
course, would take his pop score ideas to Dune instead, with a
surprisingly effective result. Nothing but Poledouris' heavy symphonic
and choral approach would function for Conan the Barbarian,
however, and the composer would have to dig deep into Middle Age musical
construction (abandoning modern, lyrical strategies) in order to achieve
a convincing pre-historic score.
The result of Poledouris' efforts is a complex score that sounds surprisingly primitive and brutal, and the composer reinforced this approach by utilizing the sheer, awesome power of a huge orchestral and choral ensemble. He employed players from two separate orchestras and combined them with a chorus for a recording of monumental proportions in Rome. Unlike other modern composers, Poledouris successfully took Milius' suggestion of adapting the sounds of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" (already popularly utilized in Excalibur) and the Gregorian chanting of "Dies Irae" and provided similar emotional constructs without allowing the score to sound like a cheap and unaccomplished imitation. Thrown into the mix, of course, is Poledouris' own knowledge of ancient folk music, a style that would inform his subsequent score for Flesh + Blood to an even greater degree. He accomplishes a consistent Middle Age atmosphere by utilizing powerful arrays of brass and percussion throughout several different memorable motifs that carry the film along as though it were a concert piece with several distinct parts. First, the film begins with the theme that many associate with Conan incorrectly; rather, "Anvil of Crom" is meant as a representation of the period in time and its primitive human behavior. It follows the prologue in the film with a powerful performance by timpani drums and 24 French horns. In the string interlude of that title theme, Conan's true theme is introduced. This more heroic idea is also developed during the "Riddle of Steel" cue and would accompany Conan on his journey of revenge throughout the film. The third theme utilized by Poledouris is the Orff-inspired "Riders of Doom" composition to represent the evil Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) during his attacks through the land to collect slaves and followers. This stunning piece, while bothering some listeners with its Orff-like qualities and often performed poorly in concerts by undersized performing groups, is a continuation of unabashed percussion and brass, with a Latin chorus providing an intriguingly melodic sense of horror. A monumental solo sequence for the timpani in this cue (at 4:25) is extremely engaging. This theme, tracked artificially for the "Orgy Fight," returns in different arrangements but with equal force during the climactic battle between Conan and Doom's warriors near the end of the film, and a disappointingly shallow and fragmented version of the idea would carry over to Conan the Destroyer. For Thulsa Doom's more hauntingly pleasant side, Poledouris worked with a simple theme inspired by the musical tinkering of his young daughter, Zoe, for "The Orgy," a basic, but effectively rolling representation of the barbaric sexual environment of the villain. The love theme for Conan, sometimes included as a passage within Conan's own similarly rendered theme, is performed with an appealing, lush heart by woodwinds, instruments that often act as the soul of the characters in the film. Among the smaller motifs are the relentlessly grinding rhythms of "Wheel of Pain" and the light-hearted, percussively festive "Civilization" theme that accompanies Conan's Mongol friend and flourishes in grandeur as Conan is rescued from "The Tree of Woe." To finish a commentary about Conan the Barbarian by suggesting that these are the only superior ideas in the work would be an insult to Poledouris, because nearly every cue contains an equally effective motif of some kind, culminating in the harmonically lovely and chorally lamenting "Orphans of Doom" at the conclusion of the film. While the score is never completely integrated so that all of the themes come together in a suite format (outside of artificial editing of sequences in the film to collect the best portions for multiple uses), Poledouris does manage to restate most of his ideas consistently throughout the film, providing the perfect musical canvas for the rather predictable characters. The score is rich in exotic percussion, heart-pounding rhythms, and mesmerizing instrumentation, proving what level of magic can result when a composer and director work towards a common goal with a massive ensemble of performers collected from two orchestras and a broad, expansive scope in mind from the outset. Because most of the constructs in the score maintain accessibility through their common, harmonic foundation, Conan the Barbarian translates very well to album, where the music has had another storied history. A very early CD was issued not long after the identical LPs hit stores in 1982. Most of the early Milan/MCA Records pressings were sold outside the United States, with the only CD representation for many years being a Milan album originating from France. This album contains the rather silly and disjointed (but still inexplicably cool) spoken prologue from the film by the Mongol wizard (Mako), the classic text of which you can view at the bottom of this review page. Featuring about 48 minutes of score, the Milan album has been reprinted several times (in 1992, 1999, and 2003), and all of these products feature identical contents at a low retail cost for casual listeners. In 1992, following Milan's initial offering, Varèse Sarabande released the scores for both Conan the Barbarian and its less impressive sequel, Conan the Destroyer, on their own CDs, with the album for the first score adding 20 minutes of previously unreleased material to the contents of the preceding CDs and LP. Among the extra cues are the fantastic "Tree of Woe" and "Recovery" back to back, both of which featuring strong extensions of the civilization and love themes that are not to be missed. Also added are lengthy cues from the latter half of the film, including the orgy scene and Doom's classic head-rolling execution by Conan. Unfortunately, these Varèse albums for the franchise fell completely out of print and hit $100 apiece in value on the used CD market. All the early CDs, largely assembled from unsatisfactory tapes held by Poledouris himself, exhibit the archival sound quality to be expected for the era, reflecting the same consequent harshness in brass that is typically heard in James Horner's early recordings. The Varèse release of Conan the Barbarian, although it is unfortunately missing the catchy prologue, features slightly more dynamic sound quality and an excellent 20 minutes of extra score, and this product was for a long time considered highly preferable. In 2012, Intrada Records finally obtained the studio's original tapes and produced a 3-CD set of the complete score with newly-released alternate takes, many of which raw and interesting in their revelations about the score's evolution. While this presentation suffers from the inclusion of the lengthy source-like usage of solo percussion and oboes, it's a tremendous treat for any enthusiast of the score. Be aware that the new mix of the score by Intrada may sound awkward at first to those very familiar with the previous albums, and a fair amount of archival sound issues inevitably remain. That said, it is a classic album for a classic score, presenting the early highlight of a career sadly cut short just two decades later. When Poledouris was nearing the end of his battle with cancer in 2006, he set his focus on traveling from America to a film music conference in Ubeda, Spain, in July of that year. Despite his scars from brain tumors and the effects of chemotherapy, he managed to miraculously make the trip so that he could conduct a significant portion of reconstructed music from Conan the Barbarian (albeit transcribed for a smaller orchestra) for adoring fans. Upon returning to the United States after that successful and widely publicized concert, the composer ceased his chemo and passed away within months. This score stands, therefore, as not only a highlight of Poledouris' career in a technical sense, but also as a tribute to his own spirit of adventure. One of the only lingering elements of serious dissatisfaction involving Conan the Barbarian that will forever haunt its original recording is its uncorrectable issue of sound quality. That problem was compounded when many ensembles failed to capture the score's brutal tone in re-recordings of individual cues. Poledouris himself had never been pleased with how his score was performed and preserved, fueling long discussions about reconstructing the score and re-recording its entirety in vibrant digital sound. Through a partnership between James Fitzpatrick and Luc Van de Ven in 2010, Tadlow Music and Prometheus Records were able to give this monumental score a second life. The assembly of the score included the use of Poledouris' original manuscripts and a precise, careful assembly of the right instrumentation, including percussive effects not rendered as intended in the original recording, to constitute the City of Prague Philharmonic (joined by its usual choral supplement). The Eastern European tone of the 100 singers of the chorus was an additional fortune given the weightier force of sound they could naturally supply to the Latin texts. The reconstruction of the actual lyrics used by Poledouris was another painstaking detail not overlooked for the recreation. This ensemble, conducted by Nic Raine, consists of veterans of many film score recreations, and their recordings are well known for their outstanding balance between detail and a wet ambient mix that gives the impression of a live performance. All of the best attributes of the group's top efforts through the years, from their memorable performance of John Barry's Raise the Titanic to their rousing rendition of Jerry Goldsmith's theme from Capricorn One, are matched for Conan the Barbarian. It is often said in reviews of music from the fantasy renaissance of the 1980's that a precise re-recording of the full scores would be their own form of fantasy, and Conan the Barbarian has always been among such deserving candidates. To actually hear such an endeavor executed so well is stunning in a practical sense, not only from the technical performance aspect, but also given how expensive such prospects are. Thankfully, the 2010 re-recording of Conan the Barbarian is everything you could hope it to be. It's a rare case in which your high expectations are actually exceeded, with perfect execution across the board and a collection of extras on the second CD of its set that includes a fantastic hidden gem in the form of seven minutes from Conan the Destroyer. To hear over two hours of Poledouris' music for the franchise in this fashion is the kind of treat that every film score should greet with an open wallet. Simply put, no better film score album debuted in all of 2010. Between the albums from Intrada and Prometheus, now is the time to appreciate the music of Aquilonia.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1984-2003 Milan/Warner Albums:
Total Time: 49:05
1992 Varèse Sarabande Album: Total Time: 67:52
2010 Prometheus Album: Total Time: 121:54
* previously unreleased 2012 Intrada Set: Total Time: 187:17
NOTES & QUOTES:
The Milan Records/Warner International insert includes no extra information
about the score or film, but the early Milan albums were pressed on solid
gold-colored CDs. The out of print Varèse Sarabande album, like Conan
the Destroyer, had detailed notes about both the score and film. The insert
of the 2010 set contains detailed analysis of the film, composer, and score. A
video of the 2010 recording sessions was available at Tadlow's website at the
time of their album's release. In the notes of the 2012 Intrada set, documentation about
the technical aspects of the release is abundant, but cue-by-cue analysis is slim
and residents of Vashon Island near Seattle may not be pleased. The dialogue as heard
in the track "Prologue" on the Milan/Warner albums is as follows:
"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of
Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And on to this Conan... destined to wear the
jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who
alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!"
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Conan the Barbarian are Copyright © 1984, 1992, 1999, 2003, 2010, 2012, Milan Records, Varèse Sarabande, Warner International, Prometheus Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/16/03 and last updated 12/2/12. |
