UNDER SIEGE 2

BASIL POLEDOURIS

Rating:

Original Review: How many times can Basil Poledouris keep doing this? Unfortunately, he seems to have picked up the mantle of being the man who is regularly assigned terrible movies, but who nevertheless ends up writing wonderful scores for them, but which then get totally overlooked in the context of the movies (which generally tend to bomb). Steven Seagal's sequel to the enjoyable 1992 actioner Under Siege was dead in the water but, yet again, Poledouris delivers the goods with a generally enjoyable, suitably over the top action score which is far, far better than the movie itself.

The main title, sub-headed 'Dark Territory', begins with one of Basil's traditionally huge orchestral fanfares (Steve Forman's massive percussion being a particular standout here), before moving into a mysterious synth-and-string arrangement to underscore the opening scenes of a satellite in outer space. The score's one tender theme, 'Casey's Family', is gorgeous: a slow, attractive piece for strings and woodwinds which counterbalances the bombast of the main titles perfectly. The following five cues are mainly dominated by action and tension: the fight cues have lots of low brasses, pounding drums and throbbing strings interspersed with some very innovative and unusual touches (like the intense musical competition between the violins and drums in 'Intruder Discovered', and the punchy trumpets from 'Penn's Wish'), while the tense cues, such as 'Access Codes', have subtle woodwind melodies and soft, rhythmic percussion and the finale, 'Casey's Farewell' presents a heroic brass fanfare to end the score.

As is usual with Basil, little touches of other scores make there way into the proceedings, most noticeably Robocop, but whereas a lot of action music tends to be rather bland and samey, Poledouris' flair for writing this kind of stuff shines through time and time again. The only letdown of the score is the concluding song, 'After The Train Has Gone' where (shock! horror!) Steven Seagal sings. I'm sure that, if Basil had had any say in the matter at all, the song would have been cut from the album. It's nothing more than a bland, banal pseudo-gospel ballad with absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Basil is rather unique in that he tends not to write in the leitmotif fashion, instead treating each individual scene, or cue, as a standalone work, only occasionally injecting familiar elements to add a sense of continuity to the score, but it is this aspect of his musical personality which makes him stand out as a true master of his craft in a field of familiarity.

Track Listing: Running Time: 27 minutes 47 seconds

Varèse Sarabande VSD-5648 (1995)

Music composed and conducted by Basil Poledouris. Orchestrations by Greig McRitchie and Lolita Ritmanis. Choral element performed by The Hamilton High Gospel Choir. Chous Master Fred Martin. Synthesisers performed by Michael Boddicker. Specialty percussion performed by Steve Forman. Recorded and mixed by Tim Boyle. Edited by Curtis Roush. Album produced by Basil Poledouris, Tim Boyle and Curtis Roush.


Home Page | Soundtracks | Soundtrack Reviews | Composers | Soundtrack Links

These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1998. 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.