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| Poledouris |
Quigley Down Under: (Basil Poledouris) One of the
more vibrant modern Westerns,
Quigley Down Under represented a
continuation of a character that was played by Steve McQueen in his
final film, 1980's
The Hunter. Replacing McQueen as American
sharpshooter Matthew Quigley is Tom Selleck, this time journeying to the
outback of Australia, where he has been hired to train and serve a
British landlord played with typical sneer by Alan Rickman, whose career
was being defined by such entertainingly wicked roles. Once Quigley
learns that the landlord only wants to sharpen his shooting skills to
better enjoy Aboriginal natives as target practice, he teams with a
crazy but beautiful local woman and the Aborigines to fight back against
both the landlord and British Army forces. Keeping the film alive during
its slow moments are its campy attitude, quirky characters, and spirited
Western score by Basil Poledouris. A man of the sea, Poledouris was an
avid sailor, and his enthusiasm for ocean-related films was reflected in
such scores as
Wind,
The Hunt for Red October, and
Free
Willy. Even though Poledouris had won acclaim for his Emmy
recognized music for the same director's
Lonesome Dove, the
desert Western genre was still not an obvious choice for the composer at
the time, but the film did offer him a superb sailing scene at the
beginning with which to get his main theme's multiple sections rolling.
As it would turn out, Simon Wincer's choice to stick with Poledouris for
Quigley Down Under was a fantastic success, for the composer
produced an upbeat, solid genre score with the same vigor and outlaw
style that fans had clamored to hear in
Cherry 2000. The opening
clarinet solo sets the pace for the entire score, performing a
ragtime-influenced, Western-styled theme that eventually grows to
encompass the entire orchestra. The woodwinds continue to convey this
happy-go-lucky attitude of the film and its characters through the very
end despite some interludes for the deeper political aspect of the tale,
when the same clarinet bounces along as the score fades away. In
between, however, is a hidden gem of the 1990's and a generally
undiscovered and underappreciated entry in Poledouris' career.
The composer's appreciation of folk rhythms is clearly
evident in this score more than many of his others that were only
touched in the periphery by this traditional sound. The sense of
rhythmic enthusiasm that Poledouris obtains from both the folk and
ragtime structures produces a score as infectious as
Cherry 2000
but with a weightier depth that represents the serious context of the
geo-political subplots explored by the film. Poledouris conjures five
themes for
Quigley Down Under, though only two of them will leave
a lasting impression. The title theme that Poledouris creates for
Quigley himself is a mutation of a folk-inspired Western foundation to
include a touch of Australian swing and tapping performance aspects of a
ragtime march. A decade after its composition, this theme ranks with
Bruce Broughton's
Silverado fanfare among the best of modern
Western identities. Its spirited banjo, tuba, and percussion
performances add spark to a theme that is already heavy on grand French
horn statements in the major key. The lazy trumpet performance of the
idea opening and closing the film is reminiscent of the brightest days
of steamboat casinos. The "Main Title" renditions of this idea's
prominent A and B sections remain among the most infectiously positive
of the composer's career. A separate adventure theme, bursting forth
with typical Poledouris militarism, highlights "The Stabbing," "You'll
Be Back," and especially "The Attack." Its horn performances and minor
key power often mingle with a variant to represent the landlord's thugs,
eventually yielding to interludes of Quigley's theme as the American
blows them away one by one. This adventure theme engages the listener so
well that it could very well serve as an excellent primary identity for
another film. With the engaging personality of these themes guiding
several lengthy cues, the remainder of the score features solid Western
underscore, with tender melodies explored (but never really sweeping you
off your feet) for the love interest and the native peoples. The former
borrows pieces from the traditional and pretty lullaby "Hush Little
Baby." The clarinet and banjo from the two primary themes add accents to
several cues, the latter exploding with an enhanced, rambling presence
in "The Attack." The only weak idea that Poledouris inserts into
Quigley Down Under is the dainty, snare and flute-led march for
the British forces, heard in "The Redcoats Move On" and "Freedom," more
of a source application in personality.
Texturally, Poledouris doesn't let the opportunity pass
without including some of his typical electronic accompaniment. While he
employs a deep sound that resembles throat singing as a stereotypical
representation of the natives in "The Aborigines Return," he usually
applies his synthetics in light rhythmic pulses or other tingling
effects per usual for him. A few cues in the middle portions of the work
begin to explore keyboarded sounds that would define the composer's
collaboration with Wincer for the upcoming
Free Willy. In the
end, the title theme's two wonderful sections are what sell
Quigley
Down Under, both in the film and on album. By combining the main
titles cue and "The Attack," you'll be hearing the best survey of the
two primary ideas in their best light. If the ragtime character of the
opening performance doesn't brighten your day, then you should explore
prescription pills. The score was released on album by Intrada Records
near the time of the film's debut, but it became difficult to find after
about a decade. In 2006, Prometheus Records provided an expanded product
that pushed the running time from 41 minutes to 75, offering a
significant portion of the music from the middle sequences of the film
that was previously unavailable. One of the interesting aspects of the
press for the Prometheus album was Intrada's somewhat harsh description
of the expanded product on their own store at the time, noting that it
"duplicates [the] Intrada CD in sonic quality," adds cues that are "not
significant" and offers a "muted variant on original artwork" in its
packaging. Indeed, Prometheus used the same CD-quality source that
Intrada originally had, but the added tracks did uncover several robust
cues that explore in greater detail Poledouris' electronic textures and
all five of the score's major themes. Not only was this supposed
"filler" material quite good, but the non-limited release from
Prometheus finally put the score back into reasonable availability. The
sound quality on both albums was reasonable, especially in the struck
wooden and metallic percussion elements, but it wasn't not quite as
enveloping as
Free Willy. Ironically, Intrada eventually released
almost an identical presentation to the 2006 one from superior sources
in 2025, adding one solo fiddle source piece. With the better source
tapes come livelier sound quality on the 2025 product, making it the top
option of all. For Poledouris and Western enthusiasts alike, and even
for the general film music collector who enjoys rhythmically quirky,
noble themes with fine structure and zest,
Quigley Down Under is
a safe choice.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Basil Poledouris reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.54
(in 35 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.31
(in 36,880 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The inserts of all the albums include information about the
composer, score, and film.
