STARSHIP TROOPERS

BASIL POLEDOURIS

Rating:

Original Review: Director Paul Verhoeven generally only uses two composers for his films: Jerry Goldsmith, when he wants intimacy and beauty (like in Basic Instinct) and Basil Poledouris, when he wants old-fashioned blood and guts action (like in Robocop). And with Starship Troopers, Poledouris really delivers on all counts in terms visceral musical power. In Jeff Bond's liner notes, Poledouris says that every cue in Starship Troopers is like a Main Title, and this is very true. Virtually every cue introduces a new theme or melody, each one trying to outdo its predecessor with more and more over the top heroics and glorious patriotism. If you listen carefully, there is a recurring theme in there somewhere: a bold, heroic brass melody first presented in 'Klendathu Drop' - a huge, dominant cue which is punctuated by tense section featuring a woodblock and percussion - which is restated in 'Destruction of Roger Young'. The rest album is chock full of all those things that a good action score should have: deep brasses, heavy percussion, swirling strings, a quick tempo and an overall feeling of breathlessness and power.

Basil revisits some of his and other people's most famous action scores in many cues, with snippets from Robocop, Conan and even Aliens making their way in there. 'Punishment/Asteroid Grazing' presents the first slow section, a soft, meandering violin piece which eventually erupts into a pulsating string frenzy two-thirds through; and 'Tango Urilla' restates James Horner's wonderful Futile Escape/Bishop's Countdown theme to great effect. I really like 'Dizzy's Funeral', another slow and thoughtful cue which provides a welcome break from the heartstopping action of the preceding five cues: this contains a lovely, bit slightly sad string and horn melody, and 'Brainbug' is a much more tense and dissonant cue, building up an air of menace and tension over the course of three minutes using a climbing brass melody before presenting a full restatement of the main theme.

The final cue, 'They Will Win' is almost Basil's answer to Independence Day - an unbelievably patriotic, flag-waving epic which builds and builds to a wonderful crescendo finish. The only letdown is 'Into It', the dismal song tagged on at the end, written and sung by Basil's daughter Zoë. It's just - well - weird, and doesn't really seem to bear any relation to the rest of the score. I personally would have preferred to hear Blur's "Song 2" (woo-hoo!) which was used to great effect in the trailer, and would have been much more in keeping with the rest of the album, with its do or die attitude. Overall, a solid buy for action fans, and Basil's best for a while.

Track Listing: Running Time: 36 minutes 26 seconds

Varèse Sarabande VSD-5877 (1997)

Music composed and conducted by Basil Poledouris. Orchestrations by Steven Scott Smalley, Steve Bramson and Grieg McRitchie. Recorded and mixed by Tim Boyle. Edited by Curtis Roush. Album produced by Basil Poledouris, Tim Boyle, Curtis Roush and Eric Colvin.


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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.