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| Morricone |
Red Sonja: (Ennio Morricone) It was with great
fortune that composer Basil Poledouris was able avoid an assignment on
Dino de Laurentiis'
Red Sonja in 1985, though Arnold
Schwarzenegger wasn't as fortunate. The actor was contractually bound to
appear in three
Conan the Barbarian films, but by 1985,
Schwarzenegger's career was headed elsewhere and the stunningly poor
quality of
Conan the Destroyer was enough of a deterrent for
anyone. Amazingly, director Richard Fleischer from the failed sequel was
brought back for a third installment of adventure from Robert E.
Howard's Hyborian Age, and to satisfy the reluctant Schwarzenegger, the
contract for another Conan film was dissolved in return for the Austrian
appearing in a supporting role in
Red Sonja. While the Red Sonja
character never appeared as such in Howard's novels, she was an
associated spin-off character in 1970's comics and was better developed
by David C. Smith and Richard L. Tierney in their six "Red Sonja" novels
"based on Howard's Hyborian Age" in the early 1980's. In this film, she
is represented by Danish model Brigitte Nielsen in her American film
debut, long before her freakishly large breast implants. Between her
emotionless performance, Schwarzenegger's bumbling attempts to be a
romantic in the story, and production values that were so bad that they
included boom microphones in the picture,
Red Sonja turned out to
be even worse in some regards than
Conan the Destroyer. The only
marginal highlights were the return of actress Sandahl Bergman from
Conan the Barbarian, who plays the evil lesbian Queen Gedren
here, and a frequently overstated symphonic score by Ennio Morricone.
With the film shot in Italy, it's no surprise that Morricone would be a
convenient choice for this assignment, and you have to give him credit
for doing what he could with the material, like Poledouris in many
regards, to compensate for the film's obvious flaws with a significantly
overblown score. The composer had already dabbled in the genre by
writing a predictable score for the Conan spin-off
Hundra in
1983, and much of that score's style carries over into
Red
Sonja.
Morricone, intentionally or otherwise, retained some of
the common melodic structures that Poledouris proved for the Hyborian
Age in this score, though he handles the identity of his interpretation
with vastly different instrumentation in some areas. Listeners familiar
with
Conan the Barbarian will note that Morricone continues the
use of prominent woodwinds, large symphonic blasts of noise, layers of
brass (led by trumpet highlights), and, most notably, an accentuated
adult chorus. A few passages in the score's themes also recall
Poledouris' template. Morricone handles brute force relatively well in
Red Sonja, producing propulsive sections with bashing, deliberate
statements of repetitive melodic phrasing over progressively quicker
timpani rhythms. His battle sequences for sword-slashing action are
sometimes as impressive as similar cues in
Conan the Barbarian,
and they easily eclipse the often sparse and tepid performances by the
ensemble in
Conan the Destroyer. Unfortunately, the actual theme
for Schwarzenegger's Conan-inspired character here is extremely
inappropriate. As he's seen riding during the credits ("Main Title") and
with more deliberation in "Varna's Death," Morricone assigns him a trite
little march that sounds like it would be more comfortable in a Monty
Python film than here. Using, oddly enough, a solo trumpet as the main
instrument, Morricone offers a somewhat ridiculous demeanor to represent
the famed locale and character, and the high pitch of that instrument
along with the lightly prancing rhythm under the theme is difficult to
tolerate. By its fifth consecutive rendition without a satisfactory
interlude, the march makes you want to strangle a small animal. The
theme for the title character is based upon rising, three-note phrases
heard in "Varna's Death," "Sonja Teaches Tarn," "Sonja and Kalidor," "A
Fair Fight," and in broader treatment as the score reaches its climax.
While Sonja's theme approaches the idea of respect for which it was
aimed, it suffers from a few problems of its own. First, it doesn't
really feature the sense of gravity to suit a female warrior seeking
revenge for her rape and her family's murder. Secondly, its interlude
directly references Poledouris' main theme for
Conan the
Barbarian, a substantial albeit enjoyable distraction heard first at
1:40 into "Varna's Death."
Morricone's only other major recurring theme in
Red
Sonja is one for the evil queen and battle heard in "Temple Raid"
and "Fighting the Soldiers," among others. While effective, this theme
does contain similarities to the famed "Dies Irae" in its melody that
are difficult to ignore as well, not to mention a few
Hundra
references in related material. A lesser motif is one representing the
magical element in the tale, growing out the John Barry-like brass in
"Prologue" to its final ethereal form for chorus late in that cue and
again in "The Chamber of Lights." Morricone rotates between these themes
in
Red Sonja for most of the score's short running time; while
more (or different) music was heard in the film, it mostly consisted of
butchered edits and repetition of cues in multiple places. The work does
stray occasionally into distinct directions, including the challenging,
Alex North-like broken chords in "The Talisman" and the obnoxious source
material in "Sorcery." In general, the tone of the score can be lush and
romantic at times, as to be expected from the composer, and the
highlights featuring Sonja's theme are generously repeated with
attractive renditions throughout. The only real diversion from the
score's personality is Morricone's choice to translate Sonja's theme of
respect into one of pop sensibilities for "End Credits," electronic bass
and drum pads mixed in front of the orchestra in a way that oozes with
the cheesy "coolness factor" of the 1980's fantasy/adventure genre.
Overall,
Red Sonja has many of the right ingredients for the
genre, and Morricone for the most part satisfies expectations. But the
score has always languished with that quirky element to it as well, led
by the pop-styled "End Credits" and the absolutely silly march for
Schwarzenegger's Conan-turned-Prince Kalidor. Listeners expecting the
gravity of Poledouris' Hyborian music don't receive the same brutal
depth, either. Still, the soundtrack has maintained a moderate cult
following that has long been frustrated by the album situation for the
score. Varèse Sarabande released
Red Sonja first on LP and
then as part of its original CD Club in 1990. The latter product
suffered a few major faults, however, aside from the fact that the
1,000-copy run, a low pressing total even for the Club CDs, caused it to
become a top collectible almost immediately.
The arrangement of the music for the LP existed in 17
minutes on "side 1" and 19 minutes on "side 2," and, for whatever
reason, Varèse simply took the music from each side of the LP and
combined it into two lengthy suites. This format fails to correct
several unfortunate cue mixes that plagued the second side of the LP,
and on the 1990 CD, the second suite of music disappointed fans with its
inartful edits. Likewise, the suites present the cues out of film order
and with obvious silence in between them, negating the purpose of suite
presentations in the first place. Also of note is poor sound quality on
the Club CD; ironically, some fans in the early 1990's preferred the
commercial Varèse cassette release of
Red Sonja, which
offered arguably better clarity. That CD Club album did partially redeem
itself by including Morricone's three-star score for
Bloodline as
well, thankfully featuring significantly better sound quality. A few
years before
Red Sonja, Morricone composed the score for
Bloodline, the only R-rated Audrey Hepburn film and a project she
was dissatisfied with because of its unnecessary subplot involving snuff
films and the subsequently gratuitous nudity it involved. Hepburn plays
the sole heir to a pharmaceutical company after her father is
assassinated, and her life is the only thing separating the board
members of the company from a piece of the wealth. The snuff film
subplot weaves in and out of several attempts on her life, and while the
film's direction by Terence Young lacks cohesion, the ensemble's star
power led it to moderate success. Signing on for the ride was Morricone,
whose thriller score is sophisticated for the era, exhibiting many
common characteristics of urban mystery and thriller scores of the
1970's. His instrumentation is extremely broad, ranging from a decent
orchestral ensemble to modern light rock elements and occasional soft
choral use. Cues such as "Almost Perfect Indiscretion" and "Dinner at
Maxims" present an almost Georges Delerue-inspired light jazz
atmosphere, while the murder investigation cues turn 180 degrees to
minimalistic brooding on strings and piano crashes. The highlight of the
score is the title theme for Hepburn's character, appearing three times
on album, including the opening and closing titles. A lonely female
voice performs over this lofty string theme that elegantly and
romantically sways with the spirit of Elmer Bernstein's softer Silver
Age classics, even sounding at times like Bernstein's trademark use of
the ondes martenot.
The eleven cues from
Bloodline were rearranged
from its LP release for inclusion on Varèse's 1990 Club CD, and
while both composed by Morricone,
Bloodline and
Red Sonja
really have nothing stylistically in common and are better appreciated
separately. Long overdue for an overhaul on album from a superior source
was
Red Sonja; the Club CD disappeared from the market, fetching
hundreds of dollars at the peak of rare CDs in the late 1990's.
Identical bootlegs popped up but included no new material and arguably
worse sound quality. In 2010, Perseverance Records finally supplied all
significant material from the score's proper album arrangement in a much
better presentation and improved sound quality, though artifacts from
room noise did remain, especially in "Sonja and Kalidor." Long after the
2,000 copies of this pressing disappeared, Quartet Records debuted the
film version of the score alongside the album arrangement, which
remained identical with the exception of the separation of the two
Talisman-related cues into distinct tracks appearing at different places
in the narrative. (The brief "Sorcery" source music is also moved to the
very end of the presentation.) This 2022 product, still fitting onto a
single CD, provides cleaner but still somewhat archival sound quality
for that album arrangement. The film versions are unfortunately
presented in really poor mono sound, however, and due to this
diminishment, they are really only targeted at dedicated devotees of the
film or composer. The film's actual use of music was far worse than the
album arrangement would suggest, with the final ten minutes of the film
version containing absolutely no closure for any of the score's themes.
(Most of these sequences were either left without music or used the
ambient "Duel Continues.") Nothing remotely like the album's "Sonja
Defeats the Queen" is actually heard in this part of the film. Many of
the film and album versions of cues are substantially redundant, with
perhaps an additional percussive accent or other slight addendum that
doesn't yield much merit to the film variant. Regardless of sound
quality, the album arrangements remain vastly superior. As such, casual
listeners already in possession of the 2010 Perseverance album will have
little incentive to explore the 2022 Quartet expansion. Still, Morricone
fans will appreciate Quartet's inclusion of everything possible from
Red Sonja without reported pressing limits, for it shines new
light on a flawed but still interesting and engaging piece of the
composer's vast and often fruitful production from the early 1980's
era.
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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on the 1990 Varèse Album: **
- Music as Heard on the 2010 and 2022 Albums: ****
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Ennio Morricone reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.18
(in 11 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.28
(in 9,836 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 1990 Varèse album includes no extra information about
the score or film. That of the 2010 Perseverance and 2022 Quartet products include
detailed notes about both.
