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•	2010 Album

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•	2004 Album

For RoboCop, Poledouris was able to tinker with a trend that would soon become a passion of his: combining synthesizers with hugely orchestral constructs. The resulting experiment was suitable for the half-human, half-machine cyborg at the heart of the story, and score collectors should be grateful that the producers of the film ultimately elected for this approach rather than the tempting, totally synthetic (i.e. Tangerine Dream) or hard rock alternative. In fact, the recording of the electronics was made live with the symphonic ensemble in London, mirroring the techniques of Jerry Goldsmith, Poledouris observing the hybrid result in the control room rather than conducting. Ultimately, however, RoboCop remains a somewhat overrated score that doesn't really merit its long history on album and consequent fervor from collectors. Poledouris' style for RoboCop proved to be similar in its synthesized accompaniment to Goldsmith's writing for subsequent Verhoeven pictures. A mostly identical reprise of this Poledouris style eventually resurfaced in Starship Troopers nearly ten years later. If you study Poledouris' mingling of orchestra and synthesizer, a marriage he explored on a large scale for the first time in 1987, then you have to consider RoboCop and the concurrent Cherry 2000 together. They share the same fundamental ideas, much of the same orchestration and instrumentation, and the equal attempt by Poledouris to find that perfect balance between real and synthesized instruments for a robotic lead. Of the two, RoboCop received the bold theme and determination that you often heard in broad brass throughout Conan the Barbarian and its sequel. The main theme, appearing after the emergence of the cyborg in the film ("Drive Montage," "Helpless Woman") and featuring pairs of distinct phrases in true "call and answer" form, is one of confidence and rightful revenge. It is heroic in attitude and almost mechanized in its progression. The rambling synthetic rhythms Poledouris is best known for from his later years are a bit rough here, improved in the composer's RoboCop 3 recording.

The action music often features early Poledouris synthetic rhythms as a pulse in the background, though the standard of excellence heard in the composer's action underscores of past and future is strangely absent from RoboCop. While functional, the music for Murphy's slow, painful recollection of his previous life is scored without the kind of emotional depth that appeared in the composer's other works. That said, an intriguing poignant use of the strings is heard in "Home" (a.k.a. "Murphy Goes Home"), with only a few notes slurred as Murphy's memories waver, but this application is never repeated. A three-note phrase heard immediately over the opening title is a better structured representation of this material, as is the interlude sequence in the "Across the Board" re-assembly of the end credits on the 2010 Intrada album. Despite the rest of the work's straight forward marching style and sometimes underdeveloped action material, Poledouris maintains enough volume throughout RoboCop to keep it marginally entertaining, with the "Showdown" ("Looking For Me") cue hinting at the robust nature of Flesh + Blood. That final cue, however, does expose a potential problem with the score as heard in context; Poledouris' use of that bold identity is so wholesomely optimistic in its performances here, especially with trilling flutes, that all of the suspense is eliminated from the scene. For such a martyr, Robocop's thematic identity is arguably too enthusiastic, adding another level of cheese to an already potentially ridiculous picture. It creates an environment suitable for a comic book hero when one may not have been called for. Getting back to the comparison with Cherry 2000, however, it seems that all the best ideas that Poledouris had collected concerning electronic and orchestral mingling were realized in Cherry 2000 rather than RoboCop. The propulsive style, thematic diversity, and recording integrity of the synthetic elements with the ensemble sound more mature in Cherry 2000, even though it is easily the less demanding score. Also a detriment to RoboCop by comparison to its close cousin is the relative lack of consistent development of theme or instrumentation for secondary elements of the plot. No identity for the clear villains of the tale can be heard in this score, with the cue "Directive IV" missing a significant opportunity for such exploration.

Both scores were released by the Varèse Sarabande label in the late 1980's, with the limited Cherry 2000 album becoming a top collectible and the commercial RoboCop offering eventually going out of print. The contents of the original American and European pressings of RoboCop were unsatisfying in their mismanagement of the cues, arranging them poorly and in some cases providing incorrect track names. In 2004, Varèse partially solved the problem by re-releasing RoboCop in remastered sound and with a rearranged order, reduction of redundant material, and four source cues from television commercials in the film (not on the original album). These source cues are remarkably entertaining. (Anyone familiar with Verhoeven's films knows that fake commercials are a favorite of his.) American television was a prime target for comedic jabs in RoboCop, and Poledouris wrote the source material for several of these pieces (as well as the bright nightly news rhythm in "Main Title"). While none is particularly outstanding, the cue "Nuke 'Em," advertising a video game in which you can blow up the world, has a particularly cute ending. Despite new availability, better sound, corrected mistakes from the previous issues, and the additional cues, the Varèse pressing was eventually surpassed by a 3,000-copy Intrada expansion in 2010, for which the score was finally made totally complete (adding most importantly the fire extinguisher-banging "Drive Montage" cue) and remastered from more recently discovered sources. In 2015, Milan Records took the same contents commercial in an indistinguishable, subsequent remastering, and the label provided an LP alternative for vintage enthusiasts. No matter the album, don't expect to hear Poledouris at the top of his game in RoboCop, and if you enjoy his technique of combining orchestral and synthetic elements, you'd be better served by finding a copy of Cherry 2000. Leonard Rosenman wrote the music for RoboCop 2 in 1990, but Poledouris would return in 1993 for RoboCop 3, an arguably better rendering of the general idea in its evolved electronics and symphonic depth. The Latin-flavored music by Norman Orenstein for the "Robocop: Prime Directives" television show was an embarrassment that still disgraces the memory of the late Poledouris. Approach RoboCop with diminished expectations and you might be pleasantly surprised.  ***   @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 3.29 (in 36,752 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.