[Руслан32]

I’ve also been listening to Basil a lot this week. As always, my favorite is Under Siege 2. It’s an incredible piece of craftsmanship. It’s a truly epic and explosive soundtrack that makes it hard to sit still. Every track is just bursting with energy and power. It’s hard to pick just one, but I absolutely love listening to tracks like “Intruder Discovered,” “A Billion Dollars/Modem Time,” “Kitchen Fight,” and “Dane Starts Final Count” on repeat (the opening trumpet solo is so beautiful—it sounds so proud and noble, it gives me goosebumps…)
I also listened to Robocop. It’s very powerful and dramatic music with a very epic and strong main theme. Robocop 3 is also good and strong in its own right. You can really feel Poledouris’s style and powerful delivery in it.
Spelbinder might scare off his fans, since it’s composed entirely in electronic form. As a big fan of electronic music, I like it.
I also really like Flight of the Intruder – a very beautiful main theme. The rest of the score is pretty good, too. I’ve always been amazed at how Basil managed to create such beautiful and powerful music for rather mediocre films. I think the same was true of Jerry Goldsmith…
And finally, On Deadly Ground – another hidden gem of his. The main theme is very beautiful and memorable. I overlooked this score for quite a while. And I shouldn’t have!… Only now, after listening to it in its entirety, do I realize just how great this score is – in many ways, it’s every bit as good as his biggest hits!
I also like Breakdown, Blue Lagoon, Conan the Destroyer, Conan the Barbarian, The Hunt for Red October, Free Willy, Flesh+Blood, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, No Man’s Land, Starship Troopers, and Wind.
Here are my top 5 favorite scores of his that I listen to often:
1. Under Siege 2
2. On Deadly Ground
3. Robocop
4. Flight of the Intruder
5. Breakdown

P.S.: Basil Poledouris incorporated electronic elements into his scores quite regularly, and he did so very appropriately and beautifully.
He was a very talented and underrated composer!

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Good topic! I’ll respond later, just came back from a party. 🤪

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Speaking of which… IT’S MY PARTY is definitely a favorite Basil Poledouris score of mine.

Great composer.
My favorites? Hard to say, but “set in stone” are the two CONAN scores, STARSHIP TROOPERS, FAREWLL TO THE KING, and the aforementioned IT’S MY PARTY, the latter a demonstration that while Poledouris could write full blown orchestral scores, he was just as great small scale with just a piano.

[Malte Müller]

two CONAN scores, STARSHIP TROOPERS, FAREWLL TO THE KING, and the aforementioned IT’S MY PARTY,

Those as well and also would list also HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, FLESH & BLOOD, LONESOME DOVE, QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER, CHERRY 2000. But there is no score I know by him I totally don’t like I think.

[KMCG]

Basil Poledouris has always been a top favourite of mine too. Big Wednesday and Blue Lagoon were the first scores I heard by him and that was enough for me to realise this was a major talent emerging.
Of course, Conan came soon after and blew me (and everyone else) away.
Then I remember loving Red Dawn and longing for some kind of release (I supported the Intrada introduction campaign for the LP. $40!!!! And that was way back when).
Like Malte says, I haven’t heard a BP score that I don’t like.
He was such a strong solid composer of power and beauty, with a real distinctive voice.
I had the honour of meeting him and chatting with him, in beautiful, informal surroundings at Ubeda in Spain, where he also conducted a concert of his music (the Conan Suite is amongst the finest I have ever seen/heard).
Sadly, he would be taken from us mere months later 😥
He has always been in my Top 5-10 favourite/best composers ever.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

That was actually my first inclination to post up there; indeed, there isn’t a Basil Poledouris score that I don’t like.

[Jon Aanensen]

NO MAN’S LAND

[Malte Müller]

NO MAN’S LAND

Of course 😉

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Basil Poledouris sits in “waiting room nr. 2” in my mental ranking system, which is very, very high. Always been a big fan, have about 20 albums. Can’t remember what my first was, though — it was either CONAN, LONESOME DOVE or STARSHIP TROOPERS. I think possibly CONAN, which is a score that is seemingly liked by every film score fan on the planet. Doing a top 5 is always tricky, but maybe something like this:

1. CONAN THE BARBARIAN
2. Flesh + Blood
3. Les Miserables
4. No Man’s Land
5. Starship Troopers

Or something. Next week, it will be something different. I’m envious of those who saw him live in Ubeda, and even got a chance to chat with him, like Kev above. Alas, that was long before I started going to film music events around the world. But I did do this podcast special on him in 2015 (in Norwegian, but you can look at the selections I chose in the “playlist”), with his Ubeda performance as top photo.

[GerateWohl]

I don’t know. I really really like CONAN THE BARBARIAN and enjoy the Tadlow recording a lot. Apart from that I have two albums: STARSHIP TROUPERS and THE JUNGLE BOOK. Both are fine. But I never really fell in love with his music apart from CONAN. Half a year ago I rewatched ROBOCOP and actually disliked the score. The main theme rather annoyed me. Also HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER doesn’t do much for me.
Somewhere I have read that in the 80s he was the go-to composer for rough b-movie action. Is that so?

[Thor Joachim Haga]

Half a year ago I rewatched ROBOCOP and actually disliked the score. The main theme rather annoyed me. Also HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER doesn’t do much for me.

I absolutely love the ROBOCOP theme, but the rest of the score leaves me cold (lots of metallic clanging and buzzing). Similarly, I love the Russian anthem in HUNT FOR THE RED OCTOBER, but the rest – mostly suspense music – doesn’t do much for me. So I suppose both of those would have qualified for your thread about “soundtracks where you only like one track”. I’ve owned both of these on CD, but have since traded them away. For once, not really something I regret very much.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

When it comes to THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, I’m the opposite. The Russian anthem is ok and does its thing, but what I really “dig” about the score is the layered and striking orchestral and electronic suspense music, that’s more up my alley.

[Руслан32]

@Nicolai P. Zwar, I have the same impression of The Hunt for Red October score.

[Руслан32]

@Jon Aanensen, A great synth score. It’s a bit repetitive, but the main theme is magnificent, with powerful drums.
I hope it gets re-released someday.

[Руслан32]

I haven’t noticed anyone mentioning Red Dawn. Hmmm…
Apparently, it’s one of his more or less popular works. I remember it being discussed quite often on FSM. But personally, with the exception of the main theme (which is simply magnificent!), I don’t find the rest of the music particularly interesting to listen to. It’s kind of like Thor’s case (regarding Robocop).

[KMCG]

Although this might make Thor’s toes curl, I could never quite get into the score for RED OCTOBER on the original CD (the way many others seemed to), despite being a huge Poledouris fan.
Even the expanded Intrada edition left me slightly cold. Still dull and muffled and faraway sounding.
But the recent LLL edition, with the much improved sound, really made it shine the brightest I’ve ever heard it and appreciate the whole thing much more.
It’s still a mixed bag, with the cold electronics clashing with some warm orchestral moments and the Russian hymn, but I enjoy playing it a lot more now than I ever did.

[KMCG]

“Then I remember loving Red Dawn and longing for some kind of release (I supported the Intrada introduction campaign for the LP. $40!!!! And that was way back when)”
———————–
I mentioned RED DAWN just further up, PYC32.
I loved that score when I first heard it in the film.
I was quite shocked, when I got the Intrada LP, to discover how much synth work there was alongside the orchestra.
When I had listened to it via my cassette tape recorded off the video, the electronics were buried a bit in the mix.
Apart from the majestic Main Title theme and RAMBO-like Invasion sequence, I really liked the heroic Wolverines theme and the sad/tender scoring for the various character deaths and the lovely Denouement/Finale cue.

[Руслан32]

@KMCG, sorry, I didn’t notice…

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