Let's talk about Basil Poledouris

Cafe Society
#1

He did the musical scores for several movies. I haven’t seen them all, but Conan the Barbarian and RoboCop (the original) have some of the best scores in all of film, IMO. There are many great film composers, but I think one of Poledouris’s biggest strengths, and one thing that makes him stand out so much, is his range. I don’t think any of his scores are particularly similar (among the ones I’m familiar with), but they’re still really, really awesome.

What other great music has Poledouris done?

#2
#3

Didn’t he do the score for “Lonesome Dove”?

#4

Yeah, but which of his stuff was great?

#5

Starship Troopers
Hunt for Red October
Red Dawn
Iron Eagle
Conan
Robocop

#6

I really loved the music in Quigley Down Under. As the OP said, his scores don’t all sound the same. The Conan scores had an “epic” feel, the Quigley score was overall a lot “lighter”

#7

That IMDB listing is a real eye opener. I always knew I liked Basil Poledouris, but I had no idea he’d done so much or that his movies were so different. I mostly knew him for the sci-fi and fantasy scores he’s done. I have a whole new respect for the guy now.

#8

I don’t really know his scores, but I’m a big fan of his daughter’s band. (YouTube link)

I didn’t realize until just now reading her imdb bio that she’s in Starship Troopers (I’ve never seen it) as the lead singer in a band at a high school dance. It also says she wrote a song that is in the movie, a song called “Into It”, which I assume is the song she performs in the scene in which she appears (though, it’s not clear.)

#9

His other daughter is a talented director.

#10

“Into it” appears (evidently, I had forgotten) in the scene in question; the song she’s seen performing slightly later is a cover of David Bowie’s “I have not been to Oxford Town.”

#11

I have several mixtapes of movie themes; the RoboCop theme is Disc 1, Track 1. What an epic theme. It makes anything you’re doing look badass. “Hymn to Red October” is on the same disc.

#12

The theme to Robocop always kind of bugged me because it sounded like a modernized (by 80’s standards) version of the Policy Story TV show theme.

I love soundtracks, but except for Hunt For Red October I don’t care too much for BP’s stuff.