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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Red Sonja (Ennio Morricone)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on any album only if you are an Ennio Morricone
completist or seek one of the quirkier but still effective scores to
grace the sword and sorcery age in the early 1980's.
Avoid it... if you never cared much for Basil Poledouris' music for the Hyborian Age and wouldn't want to hear it romanticized in sometimes awkward fashion, especially as it caters to 1980's pop culture at its conclusion.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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 and re-issued in 2025, 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.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1990 Varèse Album:
Total Time: 65:15
2010 Perseverance Album: Total Time: 37:42
2022 Quartet Album: Total Time: 76:17
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
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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 Red Sonja are Copyright © 1990, 2010, 2022, Varèse Sarabande, Perseverance Records, Quartet Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/26/97 and last updated 6/22/25. |
