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Review of Quigley Down Under (Basil Poledouris)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek an enthusiastically infectious merging of Basil
Poledouris' Western and folk sensibilities with a distinctive ragtime character
that yields melodic bombast and swinging style.
Avoid it... if you're one of those types who can never get a catchy theme out of your head, or if the sound of rambling banjos causes you to jerk awake in the middle of the night in cold sweats.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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 sharp-shooter Matthew Quigley is Tom
Selleck, this time journeying to the outback of Australia, where he has been
hired to train 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 Poledouris
at the time, but the film did offer him a superb sailing scene at the beginning
with which to get his themes 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 Western 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-style 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, 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 score 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 scores. 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. A lazy trumpet performance of the idea opening and closing the film is reminiscent of the days of steamboat casinos. 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. The 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 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." Texturally, Poledouris doesn't let the opportunity slip to include some of his varied 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 very standard in his career. 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 is what sells 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 title theme 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. At the end of 2006, Prometheus Records of Belgium 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 at their site, 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. While the Intrada product remains a good snapshot of the score and indeed sounds just as good as the later Prometheus product, the 2006 expanded edition does indeed uncover several robust cues that explore in greater detail Poledouris' electronic textures and all five of the score's major themes. So not only is 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 is dynamic, especially in the struck wooden and metallic percussion elements, but it's not quite as enveloping as Free Willy. For Poledouris and Western enthusiasts alike, and even for the general film music collector who enjoys rhythmically quirky, noble themes with fine structure, Quigley Down Under is a safe choice. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1990 Intrada Album:
Total Time: 40:54
2006 Prometheus Album: Total Time: 75:07
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of both albums include information about the composer, score,
and film.
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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 Quigley Down Under are Copyright © 1990, 2006, Intrada Records, Prometheus Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/29/03 and last updated 4/2/09. |
