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Toy Soldiers
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Composed, Co-Orchestrated, Conducted, and Produced by:
Robert Folk
Co-Orchestrated by:
Randy Miller Peter Tomashek
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LABELS & RELEASE DATES
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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The 1992 Intrada album was a regular U.S. release, but it fell completely
out of print and was valued in the 2000's at $80 on the secondary market. The 2021 Intrada
album is limited to an unknown quantity and available initially for $20 through soundtrack
specialty outlets.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... if you're prepared for a surprisingly entertaining and
upbeat action score seemingly inspired by the thematic and stylistic
tendencies of Jerry Goldsmith.
Avoid it... if you tend to exhibit little patience for scores that
overplay their emotional appeals, Robert Folk pushing the score's two
major themes to levels of importance not supported by the film's
quality.
BUY IT
 | Folk |
Toy Soldiers: (Robert Folk) Badly beaten by critics
at the time of its release, 1991's Toy Soldiers is the tale of a
Virginia prep school taken over by Colombian terrorists. Those
terrorists are targeting the son of a judge overseeing the case of their
leader in America, but they can't take the school before the judge's son
is pulled by authorities. But the siege happens anyway, and the rest is
predictable. The angry, machine gun-laden men still want their leader
released from American custody, so they plant explosives around the
school and threaten to blow up the sons of famous and wealthy citizens.
But, as to be expected, those sons are deviant brats, and they are
eventually more effective at foiling the terrorists than the horde of
American military outside the school. Debuting director Daniel Petrie
Jr. gives audiences nothing that they don't expect to see, and in the
end, only Robert Folk's militaristic score stands out as a refreshing
element. Even with that said, though, some critics commented that Folk's
large-scale orchestral score did more to expose the film's ridiculous
nature than provide a convincing musical backdrop for the suspense.
Regardless, among the tragedies in the bronze and early digital age of
film scoring was the career of composer Robert Folk, whose work
qualified him for assignments far better than those he has received.
Composing and conducting dozens of film scores since the early 1980's,
Folk's career began to be noticed by film score collectors in the early
1990's, when several of his better-known scores began appearing on the
Intrada Records label. In the public eye, his longest-standing
affiliation in film scoring was with Police Academy and its
numerous sequels and spin-offs. His output continued past 2000 with more
B-rate comedy and action films, including Kung Pow: Enter the
Fist and its sequel. His other works, though, were less glamorous
and confined by the small screens of television or video projects.
Meanwhile, Folk continued his writing for concert works, conducting
several of the most famous ensembles in the world.
In Folk's sparse, somewhat frustrating collection of
film score assignments, there is little argument that Toy
Soldiers ranks among his best. The composer's usual high-brow sound
is exactly how Folk and Petrie Jr. conceived the score: from a "large,
rich, classically motivated orchestral approach." There had been
discussions amongst the filmmakers about requesting that John Williams
write this score, and he did express interest in the script despite his
schedule not allowing the work. If Folk's Toy Soldiers does
suffer a weakness, it is the hopelessly upbeat nature of much of his
writing when emulating that Williams sound, possibly stemming also from
the endless assignments on silly comedies that he received at the time;
this perpetually positive aura extends through even the style of the
action and suspense cues in this score. In the film, the score is almost
too over-the-top in its dramatic reach, seemingly taking symbolic and
thematic cues from Jerry Goldsmith's The 'Burbs and elevating
them to space opera heights. Indeed, Folk's music here, outside of the
perfectly preppy main theme for the school, could accompany a science
fiction picture of epic proportions, and at times the music overwhelms
the quality of the film. But apart from the flawed picture, the Dublin
Symphony Orchestra's performances remain an engrossing listening
experience, their force of will unsullied by many electronic sweeteners
and the trumpets a particular attraction. Folk employs synthetic
elements in "Narrow Escape" that mirror Goldsmith's use, though the rest
of the instrumentation in Toy Soldiers is held strictly to
symphonic traditions. The aforementioned main theme is slightly trite in
its handling of the setting, but its trumpet solos genuinely mirror the
appropriate environment and move at a pace brisk enough to keep us
listening. The idea is extremely malleable, bridging the dramatic
sensibilities of James Horner and Alan Silvestri of the 1980's when
presented at its fullest, a secondary bridge sequence flowing with a
downright lovely and romantic tone and a hint of nobility. This theme,
bookending the score in its major performances, does figure throughout
the work in various guises, from deviousness to suspense.
For the Colombian terrorists in Toy Soldiers,
Folk doesn't attempt a blatantly Latin influence, instead supplying them
a series of additional motifs that extend directly from some of
Goldsmith's best, propulsive action material, often with layered brass
and relentless percussion that is largely indistinguishable from the
more famous composer's extroverted action methods. This villain material
consolidates into an ascending march-like theme of menace that comes to
dominate the score once the school is taken. The final action sequences
take this theme to maximum volume and a nearly constant presence, its
demeanor and structures never much wavering in their representation of
two-dimensional characters. The incorporation of the school's theme into
subtle battle with the militaristic identity offers a strong balance
between major and minor, Folk constantly shifting key and maintaining
forward rhythmic movement to retain momentum. The pacing of his music
for the boys' counter-insurgency is commendable. The recording quality
is very strong, exceeding many of its peers in 1991, though one
significant flaw exists; the overmixing of the snare drum during action
sequences is flat and distracting at times. Aside from that one issue,
the spread between strings and brass is particularly excellent. On
album, most of Toy Soldiers was released commercially by Intrada
Records in 1992, but the product fell out of print and remained
difficult to find for over years. That album did suffer from a total
resequencing of the cues that left the experience narratively useless,
however. Some collectors instead sought a 13-minute suite from Toy
Soldiers on one of the composer's equally-sought promotional albums.
In 2021, Intrada revisited Toy Soldiers for a remastering and
chronological ordering of the cues, providing a definitive presentation
of the score. This limited product adds only a minimal amount of missing
material, but that six minutes includes a teaser of the main theme at
the very start of the score and a noteworthy alternate end credits
sequence (albeit with an unfortunate brass flub). Hearing the full score
in the proper sequencing is a treat, and the renewed availability for
this overachieving orchestral action romp is highly welcome. The style
of the work may seem overblown at times, but it makes for a very
engaging listening experience.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
1992 Intrada Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 66:09 |
1. Regis School (1:51)
2. Escape From Barranquilla (3:43)
3. Closing In (2:28)
4. All's Well (2:00)
5. Billy Escapes (1:46)
6. Joey's Death (3:43)
7. Regis Captured (3:51)
8. Reflections (2:19)
9. Demands (3:14)
10. Removing the Chips (3:59)
11. The Cellar (1:34)
12. Jack Gets It (1:38)
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13. Uneasy Quiet (2:11)
14. Back to Regis (2:29)
15. Border Killing (4:03)
16. Narrow Escape (2:58)
17. Snap Out of It (4:06)
18. Mouthwash Incident (1:51)
19. Interrogation (1:45)
20. Regis Surrounded (1:32)
21. The Plan (2:11)
22. The Wrath of Joey's Father (1:14)
23. The End of Cali (4:08)
24. Toy Soldiers (4:57)
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2021 Intrada Album Tracks ▼ | Total Time: 72:15 |
1. Prelude*/Escape From Barranquilla (4:01)
2. Regis School (1:52)
3. Sneaking to the Cellar (1:34)
4. Border Killing (1:25)
5. The Mouth Wash Incident (1:51)
6. Billy's Caper*/** (2:03)
7. The Capture of Regis (3:52)
8. Interrogation (1:45)
9. Surrounding the School (1:32)
10. Cali's Demand (3:14)
11. Uneasy Quiet (2:13)
12. Beginning of the Plan (2:11)
13. Billy's Escape (1:47)
14. Billy's Mad Dash*/Billy Meets the Army (3:44)
15. Running Back to School (2:31)
16. In the Nick of Time (1:16)
17. The Boys Reflect (Joey's Death) (3:44)
18. Father's Pain (2:20)
19. The Wrath of Joey's Father (1:15)
20. Billy Snaps Out of It (4:06)
21. Billy Changes the Chip (4:06)
22. Narrow Escape/Closing In/Jack Gets It (5:49)
23. The End of Cali (4:09)
24. Toy Soldiers End Credits (4:59)
The Extra:
25. All's Well (Toy Soldiers End Credits - Alternate)*** (4:21)
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* previously unreleased
** not in the film
*** includes music not in film |
The inserts of both albums provide notes, including reflections by
the composer and producer, about the score and film.
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