Which are your Top 5 Basil Poledouris scores?

[Josh500 1,615]

So far, I have two scores by Poledouris, and I like them a lot! 

 

The Hunt for Red October and Starship Troopers. 

 

What else are must-haves from this talented late composer? Give me a Top 5, if you're familiar with his works!

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Josh500 1,615]

Just now, BloodBoal said:

01. Conan The Barbarian

 

Do you actually have this score? What's so great about it?

[crocodile 8,000]

Conan the Barbarian

Starship Troopers

Les Miserables

Flesh+Blood

RoboCop 3

 

Honourable mention: Sword and Sorcery: The Adventures of Conan

 

Karol

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Josh500 1,615]

1 minute ago, crocodile said:

Les Miserables

 

I recently saw this score in a store....

 

I should get it.

 

[mstrox 6,651]

Basil is a pretty big blindspot for me - I only have three.  I love the one, and think the rest are pretty good family scores, so I'm not sure why I haven't bothered further.

 

Anyway,

 

1. Conan the Barbarian

2. Lassie

3.  Free Willy

 

I also think the original Conan OST is one of film scoredom's most perfect presentations - both in sound and arrangement.  I have the rerecording and the expansion, but the OST is my choice from this point forward.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

The Blue Lagoon

Conan the Barbarian

Wind

Starship Troopers

Les Miserables

 

That's in chronological order. I'd say the two that are fixed are Conan and Starship Troopers. There's a lot of candidates for the other spots that aren't quite competition for these two, so tomorrow's list might look different. There's Farewell to the King and Flesh+Blood to consider, for example. 

[Quintus 5,399]

Conan There Barbarian

Starship Troopers

Robocop 

[Nick1Ø66 4,711]

1. Conan

2. Red October

 

Though sometimes it's...

 

1. Red October

2. Conan

 

Or if I'm feeling indecisive...

 

The Hunt for Red October/Conan the Barbarian (tie)

 

 

1 hour ago, Josh500 said:

 

Do you actually have this score? What's so great about it?

 

To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And hear the lamentations of 'da women.

[Jay 37,346]

1 Starship Troopers

2 Robocop

 

Haven't listened to any others I don't think

[Bilbo 3,709]

What are your top 5 Josh500 polls?

[Holko 9,517]

1 Conan

 

Is it time for a "Which are your Top 5 favourite "Which are your Top 5 favourite..." threads?" thread?

[Josh500 1,615]

Amazing how everybody without exception mentions Conan!

 

I don't remember this movie, but the score must really be something!

 

Put Conan on my wish list.... Check!

 

1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

The Blue Lagoon

 

I saw this score for 4 bucks. This, and Return to the Blue Lagoon!

 

I will get them this weekend! 

[Incanus 5,714]

1. Flesh+Blood

2. Conan the Barbarian

3. Les Miserables

4. Hunt for the Red October

5. Starship Troopers

[Josh500 1,615]

3 minutes ago, Incanus said:

1. Flesh+Blood

 

Never seen the movie, but since Verhoeven directed it, I think it's worth getting a hold of it.

 

I'll try to get the score as well.

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

17 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

I saw this score for 4 bucks. This, and Return to the Blue Lagoon!

 

I will get them this weekend! 

 

Be advised, it's not all that well preserved, the sound quality has suffered. As far as I recall, the Intrada expansion fares a bit better (it's still hissy, but I think it has fewer instances of warbling).

 

Return is mostly more of the same. I've only listened to it twice so far and can't tell how much merit it has in addition to the first score.

[Incanus 5,714]

19 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

 

Never seen the movie, but since Verhoeven directed it, I think it's worth getting a hold of it.

 

I'll try to get the score as well.

 

 

The score is really fun faux-Medieval swashbuckling romp, kind of Conan the Barbarian in the Middle Ages sans the choral element. LLL still has copies of their 1200 batch.

 

The film in true Verhoeven style is in part about shocking the viewer in one way or another. It is very much flesh and blood imagining of late Middle Ages warts and all. I just recently saw it and it was a curious experience and it has to be said Verhoeven's gritty take on Medieval times comes close to the Game of Thrones in aesthetic of showing the harsher realites of life and the times but with a lot less political maneuvering.

[Josh500 1,615]

Is the music in this trailer Poledouris? 

 

https://youtu.be/2PWx8lRNpwQ

[Fancyarcher 350]

Conan The Barbarian
Flesh + Blood

Farewell to The King

Lonesome Dove

Robocop

 

Honorable mentions to Cherry 2000, Quigley Down Under, and Iron Eagle

 

2 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

Is the music in this trailer Poledouris? 

 

https://youtu.be/2PWx8lRNpwQ

 

Yes. It's the main theme. 

[Josh500 1,615]

"The secret of desire.... and something inside her stirs!"

 

This trailer! 😂 

 

https://youtu.be/KFm4411ViOk

 

But the music seems nice enough....

 

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Its a lovely score. Really romantic.

[Fancyarcher 350]

Yeah, it's a beautiful score. The movie is beyond silly and dumb though. Poledouris was even involved with the even dumber sequel, Return to The Blue Lagoon, which finally got a score release last year.  

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Brooke Shields looked lovely.

[Fancyarcher 350]

Yes, and I liked her in the swimming scenes. The rest of the film I could do without. 

[Josh500 1,615]

Here's a lovely scene, with wonderfully lovely music. For some reason, I kept expecting the music to turn suddenly menacing, and the shark theme to start.... I guess, that's conditioning. 😂 

 

 

[Wojo 2,453]

Conan the Barbarian 

Flesh+Blood 

Robocop 

Starship Troopers

Conan the Destroyer 

 

Honorable mentions:

Big Wednesday 

Free Willy 

[publicist 4,643]

Conan The Barbarian

Conan The Destroyer

Starship Troopers 

Flesh & Blood

either Lonesome Dove (precursor to Legends of the Fall) or A Whale for the Killing (sadly synth)

[Pawel P. 738]

Why only five? I would prefer fifteen.

 

Conan the Barbarian

Free Willy

Lonesome Dove   

Farewell to the King

Wind

 

Honorable mention:

The Hunt for Red October

Les Misérables

Starship Troopers

The Blue Lagoon

It's My Party

Flesh & Blood

RoboCop

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

For me, The Hunt for Red October and Starship Troopers are two Poledouris scores which are amazing in their respective films (Red October may be Poledouris's best work, in film) but ones which suffer a little bit in complete form on album. Rare cases where I might prune a complete presentation of music by a favorite composer. In other words I think there is better stuff of his out there for you to hear on album, and you've got a lot of exploring to do!

 

My personal favorite Poledouris score is Les Miserables, but I've found that some people have trouble connecting with it without seeing the film first. I saw the film, loved the score in it, and bought the album. You may want to hold off on picking it up unless you can find it really cheap though. It's kind of a notorious album because instead of individual cues, it smushes them together in four big suites (all but the first are over 10 minutes long) which is rather annoying. Thankfully for me I love the score so I just listen to it all the way through anyway, but it would really have been nice to skip to favorite tracks when trying to play for others. The track times on the back of the album are also all wrong and make the album look much longer than it actually is. I have some hope that Intrada will get around to tackling a complete version some day, since they love Poledouris and the original album was on Hollywood Records (Disney-owned).

 

 

Now as you can already tell, you NEED to get Conan the Barbarian as it is one of the greatest fantasy scores of all time...maybe *the* greatest. I personally recommend the Tadlow recording if you're only going to get one. It is superbly performed, and includes instruments that Basil intended and wrote into his score, but didn't have the budget to accommodate  when it was recorded in Rome. I cherish the original tracks release on Intrada as well but I don't listen to it as often, to be frank. Here is a music video of one of the key opening tracks (sans choir since that was recorded separately -- you'll have to get the disc for that!)

 

 

But this is such a (justifiably) beloved score that if you explore YouTube you'll see that it's regularly performed in concert around the world:

 

Just this past year:

 

Not great quality, but conducted by the composer himself just a few weeks before he passed away:

 

You'll find even more if you look. It is a truly great score even if I have as my personal favorite Les Miserables over it.

 

It sold so well for Prometheus Records (one of the few re-recordings to ever make its money back) that they also tackled the sequel score Conan the Destroyer, which has some good new thematic material including this new main title (though my favorite new theme is in the Hall of Mirrors sequence, included as a bonus track at the end of their recording of Barbarian):

 

 

For me though, the best thing about the Tadlow/Prometheus Conan the Destroyer album is that they also did a brand new recording of Poledouris's 20 minute score to the live show, The Adventures of Conan: Sword and Sorcery Spectacular. For me that is better than Destroyer because unlike that score it does not re-use and recycle any portions of the first score; it is all original and great all the way through. (To be fair, Poledouris had a ridiculously short amount of time to do the inferior sequel.) That short score I can't find on YouTube in the Tadlow recording, but here is the original recording which is actually probably the best original recording of Basil's original three Conan scores (it was done with a much better orchestra):

 

Oh well, chew on those samples for now. I'll give you a more varied list of his best scores shortly.

 

Yavar

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I adore Conan and was there when Poledouris conducted the suite in Ubeda. One of the best concert ive been to.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

4 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

Conan The Barbarian is better than everything.

 

Quoted for future reference.

[Ollie 1,059]

Conan

Starship Troopers

Hunt For Red October

Lonesome Dove

Flesh And Blood

[Josh500 1,615]

@Yavar Moradi

 

Great post, thanks! Now I definitely feel like I have to get Conan! 😂 

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

Both Blue Lagoon scores are quite good, but they frankly wouldn't make my top 5. The first might make my top 10 or 15, and it was important because it was the first album ever produced of his music. The recent Intrada complete release has far superior sound quality to all previous versions so make sure that's the one you get. (They also released the first official album of the sequel score, which is actually underrated and rather different from the original in style because it was written 11 years later when he was at a much different place in his career...the early 90s! In fact the sequel score has all new thematic material and only reuses one theme from the original film, and very briefly.)

 

I'm probably in the minority that also finds his work for Verhoven on Robocop overrated. Yes, it's a catchy theme but the whole score isn't on that level. Though in the interests of full disclosure I've never seen the film. Starship Troopers is better but my favorite Verhoven score is easily Flesh & Blood, and luckily LLL still has it in print for you because the Intrada release I have sold out in record time and went for big $$$ on the secondhand market. It's superficially Conan-like but actually feels pretty different IMO, being influenced a lot more by Gregorian Chant (imagine passages of that blown up for full orchestra and treated in action settings). It was also performed by the LSO so much better performed than the two Conan film scores originally recorded in Italy. You've already heard the main theme in that trailer, so I'll provide one of two great love themes in that score:

 

Let's see...next up in your Poledouris education I'd say is a couple of westerns he did (one of which is technically set in Australia, but the main character is an American cowboy):

 

"The Attack" from Quigley Down Under is one of my favorite action cues of all time, right up there with the best of Goldsmith. I love the relentless percussion, and especially when the banjos (yes, banjos!) kick in a little over a minute in.

 

Then there's the "sci-fi western" Cherry 2000, which is something of a Morricone homage but still awesome and unique (you have to not mind some synths though). Incidentally before it was reissued a couple times, the original Varese Club release of this score was one of the most sought-after rare soundtracks of all time, with one selling on Ebay once for thousands of dollars:

 

 

 

User publicist referred to A Whale for the Killing as "sadly synth" -- this is not true. It is a fantastic seafaring orchestral score, one of Basil's earliest masterpieces, and BSX recently released it complete in great sound quality as part of their two for the price of one Basil Poledouris Collection Vol. 1 (previous releases were taken from a poorer sounding half hour bootleg):

http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/26744/THE-BASIL-POLEDOURIS-COLLECTION-VOL-1-2-CD-2000-EDITION/

 

He may have been thinking of another excellent seafaring Poledouris score, Wind, which is fairly heavy on synth although it also has orchestra:

 

Along similar orchestra-and-synth lines are his two excellent Free Willy scores. The first one had a decent score release with around a half hour of score but I still hope it gets a complete version some time. Pick it up if you find it cheap though. Free Willy 2 is actually a superior score in complete form, and relies less on synths, with a more acoustic feel...sadly it only got three cues on the sound track album, totaling only a little over 10 minutes! So that's virtually unreleased but keep your eyes open if a specialty label tackles a complete release; it's better than the first score.

 

Poledouris was so amazing with these ocean-inspired scores because he was an avid surfer and sailor himself. In fact his very first large orchestral score was for a surfing movie, Big Wednesday! Thankfully FSM did a superb release of that one some years back, before Basil passed away.

 

Whew...let's take another break and then I'll submit some great Poledouris that's more off the beaten path.

 

Yavar

[publicist 4,643]

2 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

"The Attack" from Quigley Down Under is one of my favorite action cues of all time, right up there with the best of Goldsmith. I love the relentless percussion, and especially when the banjos (yes, banjos!) kick in a little over a minute in.

 

It IS a Goldsmith copy and frankly, apart from the first 30 seconds nothing much of interest happens.

[Josh500 1,615]

Okay, my next purchases will be...

 

Robocop

Conan

Blue Lagoon 

Free Willy*

Flesh and Blood*

 

* if I can find it

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

There are some other good "epic family entertainment" sort of things he did in the 90s, i.e. The Jungle Book, White Fang, Lassie...I doubt they'd make my top list but they're very very good. Maybe after Jungle Book and Lassie get complete releases down the line they will grow further in my estimation.

 

Remember how Cherry 2000 was Poledouris channelling Morricone? Well Farewell the the King is Poledouris channelling Barry, with some cool ethnic touches...wouldn't make my top 10 though:

 

But Amerika is a definite top 10 Poledouris score for me; I think it's even better than Lonesome Dove and it was an even longer miniseries so there is tons of variety:

 

There are also a handful of good straight action scores he did, like Under Siege 2 (recently released as a complete Deluxe Edition from Varese), Hot Shots Part Deux (kind of a Rambo parody), and On Deadly Ground. The latter two I would hold out for Varese to expand like they did with Under Siege 2/Starship Troopers/Robocop 3, because the existing albums are those half-hour jobs from the mid-90s.

 

One of his very best scores though was an intimate one for solo piano (performed by Basil himself) which he did for free as a favor to the director:

 

I'm also quite partial to his late career score to The Touch (recently reissued by BSX I think, it was only available as a rare foreign import before):

 

I forgot to provide a Youtube sample for Whale for the Killing before, so that you can hear that it's not synth heavy:

 

Yavar

 

 

6 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

Okay, my next purchases will be...

 

Robocop

Conan

Blue Lagoon 

Free Willy*

Flesh and Blood*

 

* if I can find it

 

Flesh and Blood is in print from LaLaLand (you can also get it from Screen Archives/Intrada/MovieMusic of course):

http://www.lalalandrecords.com/Site/FleshAndBlood.html

 

Free Willy is available used for a PENNY (or new for only $3.99):

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Willy-Original-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B00000299N

Keep in mind you're getting a lot of songs on that with the half hour of score though.

 

Honestly think you're likely to be disappointed by Robocop...Quigley Down Under is much better.

 

publicist -- in what way is The Attack from Quigley Down Under a Goldsmith copy? I challenge you to supply a single Goldsmith action cue it copies. And trust me, Goldsmith is my favorite composer so I've heard them all. It doesn't do his mixed-meter style at all, though it has some cool rhythmic accents. And for me it really kicks into gear with the banjos over a minute in, so your saying "nothing much of interest happens" after the first 30 seconds is kinda nonsense to me.

 

Yavar

[nightscape94 965]

Strangely, I've only heard two of his scores all the way through:  Quigley Down Under and Lonesome Dove.  Conan is one of those scores I've caught in bits and pieces, loved everything I've heard, but never sat down with fully.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Flesh + Blood

Hot Shots! Part Deux 

Starship Troopers

The Hunt For Red October

Conan The Barbarian

 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Thor 7,492]

Geez, so many loooong, Youtube-heavy posts!

 

Basil Poledouris is also one of my favourite composers. He's been in (or just slightly outside) my top 10 for as long as I can remember. Although there are some scores of his I really dislike (like ROBOCOP).

 

1. CONAN THE BARBARIAN

2. Starship Troopers

3. Farewell to the King

4. Wind

5. No Man's Land

 

Honourable mentions to THE BLUE LAGOON, FLESH+BLOOD, THE HUNT FOR THE RED OCTOBER, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER, LES MISERABLES, LONESOME DOVE, THE TOUCH, FREE WILLY, WHITE FANG.

[James 119]

1. The Hunt for Red October

2.  Conan: The Barbarian

3. Robocop

4. Starship Troopers

5. Freewilly

 

Unfortunately the films that Poledouris worked on are not very familiar to me. Here is my promise to look further into your work in the future.

[Josh500 1,615]

Update: I now own 5 Basil Poledouris scores... And I like what I hear a lot!

 

Starship Troopers 

The Hunt for Red October 

Les Miserables 

The Jungle Book

Free Willy 

 

Still looking for Conan, Robocop, Flesh and Blood, etc.

 

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

33 minutes ago, Josh500 said:

Update: I now own 5 Basil Poledouris scores... And I like what I hear a lot!

 

Starship Troopers 

The Hunt for Red October 

Les Miserables 

The Jungle Book

Free Willy 

 

Still looking for Conan, Lonesome Dove, Cherry 2000, Quigley Down Under, Flesh and Blood, etc.

 

 

Fixed that for you.  Eh, but if you think BTTF is one of Silvestri's best, compositionally speaking, you might love Robocop. For me they are similarly overrated because of their respective films being nostalgic 80s classics. On the other hand his work on Conan (hell, even the sequel score which was a rush job) far transcends the films.

Yavar

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1. RoboCop

2. Starship Troopers

3. Flesh + Blood

4. 

[Josh500 1,615]

8 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Eh, but if you think BTTF is one of Silvestri's best, compositionally speaking, you might love Robocop. For me they are similarly overrated because of their respective films being nostalgic 80s classics. 

 

I think nostalgia is part of why we love these scores.... And music in general, if you think about it.

 

Music helps us to remember and go back to the good times of our lives.

[Yavar Moradi 2,598]

Fair enough, but I try to rate the music independently on its own as a composition, irrespective of nostalgia for the films. Otherwise I wouldn't rate even the first Conan very highly because I actually don't like that movie!

 

I've got no nostalgia for CutThroat Island, the movie, either...but the score is amazing and I've loved it for over 20 years now!

 

Yavar

[Josh500 1,615]

2 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Fair enough, but I try to rate the music independently on its own as a composition, irrespective of nostalgia for the films. Otherwise I wouldn't rate even the first Conan very highly because I actually don't like that movie!

 

I've got no nostalgia for CutThroat Island, the movie, either...but the score is amazing and I've loved it for over 20 years now!

 

Yavar

 

 

Yes. Well, it's not ALL nostalgia, of course, but I think it always plays a small part nonetheless. We are all humans with feelings, and I think we all tend you make associations in our minds even if we're not consciously aware of them.

 

But yes, technical aspects and quality of the music itself play a very big part as well!