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| Poledouris |
The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery
Spectacular: (Basil Poledouris) In the early 1980s, Americans were
consumed by the need for adventures from the mythical age of sword and
sorcery. With films such as
Dragonslayer,
Excalibur, and
Beastmaster came audiences' desire to see even more of such
fantasy epics. The most successful film of the genre was, of course,
Conan the Barbarian, and not only did the 1982 film inspire a
full-length motion picture sequel two years later in the form of the
substandard
Conan the Destroyer, but it also led to the creation
of a live-action Conan stage show located at Universal Studios in 1983.
The Landmark Entertainment Group show, formally titled "The Adventures
of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular," ran for ten successful years
in Hollywood before being replaced by newer, more technically
sophisticated attractions such as "Jurassic Park: The Ride." The Conan
show was produced in between the two feature films starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger, and it was therefore logical to ask the franchise's own
compositional powerhouse, Basil Poledouris, to score the live-action
version as well. The production wasn't all that long in its duration,
lasting for about 20 minutes, but its intense Hyborean Age action
required almost constant underscore of sufficient volume to give the
audience a consistent rush of Conan-related fever. Poledouris tackled
the assignment with the same seriousness as he had for the original
film, employing orchestrator Greig McRitchie and the large London Studio
Symphony Orchestra and Voices to duplicate the pounding depth of the
music from
Conan the Barbarian, though with a switch from the
brutally cold demeanor of that film to a lighter, fantasy-oriented one
for the franchise's continuation, the composer was forced to take the
concept's music down a somewhat new path. That said, at least he did not
have to contend with the nightmarish budgetary constraints that would
ruin
Conan the Destroyer for him and many listeners.
The resulting quarter of an hour of music by Poledouris
remained a difficult item to obtain on album for quite a while. A
limited album from Super Tracks, the quickly-defunct soundtrack
specialty label, was released in 2000 and is devoted to only this Conan
show. It includes two tracks: most of the music alone and a shorter
selection of material with the original dialogue from the live action on
stage. The suite which comprises the second track on this album had
previously appeared on a few compilation bootlegs of Poledouris' work,
some of which selling for hundreds of dollars at online auction houses.
The music itself is a viable extension of
Conan the Barbarian but
more closely resembles parts of
Conan the Destroyer. While
neither the title nor love themes from the prior motion picture score
are directly translated into the show for lengthy statements, bits and
pieces do appear in mutations throughout. For instance, a bar of the
title theme from
Conan the Barbarian is inserted at 6:50 and the
finale in the second, score-only track, and the pulsating rhythm of Crom
occurs at 8:30 in the same track. Avid fans of Poledouris and the Conan
franchise will recognize many of the composer's woodwind and brass
styles carrying over from the film as well. A strong presence of timpani
and a few new thematic ideas keep the live-action score distinct enough
to enjoy apart from
Conan the Barbarian (unlike the "Back to the
Future: The Ride" score, for which Alan Silvestri just took his original
film themes and pieced them together into a suite for the ride). In
fact, a lovely new theme of romance is introduced at about 4:20 into the
score-only track that translates into a couple of extremely attractive
performances throughout the piece. The evil dragon receives an
appropriately hypnotic theme heard at 2:30 and 5:10 into the same track.
The primary new uplifting theme for Conan would be reprised in full for
a couple of minutes near the climax of
Conan the Destroyer. In
general, the score is easily accessible, with only the wildly shrill
scoring for the slaying of the dragon at the end providing a dissonant
weakness in its musical content.
Taken from analog originals for digital mastering onto
the 2000 Super Tracks CD, the recording does feature some tinny sound
all around (not abnormal for a 1983 recording). The first track features
select portions of the dialogue and music together, while the second one
includes only the expanded score of over 16 minutes by itself. The
digital transfer has caused a few notes of interest for those running
their audio through larger stereo systems. On a smaller setup, the CD
sounds much more uniform, but audiophiles will notice that the music is
of slightly poorer quality on the track with the dialogue, a greater
amount of treble hiss present throughout. Making this artifact more
apparent is the comparatively booming, superior quality of the dialogue.
On the whole, however, the album is a grand addition to the collection
of any Poledouris collector. It's like traveling back in time to the
early 1980's and living in the age of Conan mania all over again, with a
fresh, obscure Poledouris score to enjoy. In 2011, when the City of
Prague Philharmonic re-recorded the complete score for
Conan the
Destroyer for release by Prometheus Records, producer James
Fitzpatrick opted to also record the entirety of "The Adventures of
Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular" (without dialogue). Expanding
the music available and dividing it into palatable cues, this
re-recording includes full choir and really excels in the massive choral
passages within "The Dragon/Mordor's Death" (speaking of Mordor, parts
of this cue do resemble Howard Shore's
The Lord of the Rings
classics in intensity). The allusions to the motifs of
Conan the
Barbarian are more pronounced in "The Flight" here as well. Overall,
it's an extra bonus on the re-recorded
Conan the Destroyer set
that will, for some, be the highlight. It's hard not to keep coming back
to the dialogue version on the 2000 CD, however, with a rumbling,
majestic narrator and wildly animated and equally deep vocal performance
by the villain, both of whom will be certain to awaken your neighbors at
any hour of the night. The death screams of the villain in particular
are the kind of material that any sound effects collector will desire.
The man portraying Conan definitely needed to work on his Austrian
accent, though.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.52
(in 33 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 34,659 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 2000 Super Tracks album contains notes about
Poledouris, Landmark Entertainment Group, and the show itself. That of
the 2011 Prometheus set contains a brief analysis of the show, composer,
and score.
