Basil Poledouris page

'The first 20 minutes is a very difficult time for the audience, because they're making the transition from getting out of their car, sitting down in the theater, and thinking about "where did I put the popcorn" and "did I drop the car keys?" - all as the movie is starting. The first ten minutes of a film are absolutely essential to letting an audience know what kind of world they are entering, musically.'

Personal quote

Basil Poledouris might be one of the best composers who ever lived, but there is that aspect that kept him from hitting the jackpot once a year. Especially his last years Basil had become attached to certain projects, and these almost never brought him any worthwhile material to work with. Apart from the sweet Kimberly and his wonderful The Touch, his music was often surrounding stupid comedies. However in his early years Basil was known for bringing epic to the screen and he brought forward some of the best classics of the '80, in true Conan style. His essential gift was bringing thematic music that flawlessly fitted the screen and genre and Robocop became one of his most recognizable scores and theme. The main part of enjoying a Poledouris score is finding the rhythm and the fun in his sound, it's like he could produce any sound and make it so marvelously. No matter if it was action, drama, fantasy, western or comedy, it was Basil Poledouris that approached the score with the right attitude to make the composition memorable on its own. He was truly one of the best of his generation.

Biography

Basil Poledouris was born on August 21, 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri. Basil soon wanted to learn much of the basic art of filmmaking, so he studied at the University of Southern California. He became skillful in genres such as directing, cinematography, sound and editing. Yet, Basil soon became the master in film scoring and found out that it was his life calling dream. He met acclaimed directors John Milius and Randal Kleiser at USC and without him ever knowing he received the chance to score motion film composition for the big screen. After several gigs for Television, Basil's first major film was Big Wednesday (Milius). Not long after that, Basil received a romantic sleeper hit The Blue Lagoon (Kleiser) and especially his giant step forward in the business Conan the Barbarian (Milius). Both Arnie as Basil became legends of their time. Yet things slowly began to pick pace and Poledouris remained in the B-projects for several years. Conan the Destroyer yet non the success of score and movie started the impressive career of Poledouris for sure. The next years he became connected to Flesh + Blood (Verhoeven's first collaboration with Poledouris), the series The Twilight Zone, Cherry 2000 (holding the record for the most expensive CD ever purchased at an auction), Paul Verhoeven's major hit Robocop and Milius' Farewell to the King (the score is pre epic Dances with Wolves and one of Poledouris' highest achievements).

The next years, Basil began exploring vast new categories and most of his scores became treasured classics. The Hunt for Red October, Quigley Down Under, Wind, Free Willy and The Jungle Book. Still, the years thereafter became less successful and while Poledouris scored his major blockbusters with equally entertaining scores, he became less the composer of the big sound, the attractive melody, the composer people wanted to hear more often. While Starship Troopers (big bold), Les Misérables (attractive melody) and For Love of the Game offered some of Poledouris' best scores for certain genres, it was clear that he maintained to score lesser, and picked up his favorites. This continued to happen and resulted in certain soundtracks, Kimberly (while successful and charming) there were other scores not so successive or appreciated with the fans, Mickey Blue Eyes and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles for instance. One highlight to remember is Poledouris' self composition for the '96 Olympic Opening Ceremonies dance sequence entitled "The Tradition of the Games", it became a major hit and people applauded him for his strong orchestral and choral combination. With his adventurous The Touch he scored his last hit around 2002. Sadly around that time Basil was battling already the decease of cancer, and on November 8, 2006 lost his final battle. Basil Poledouris was 61.

October 8, 1999

The most rewarding part of Mickey Blue Eyes was that even with all those great songs, there were parts in the movie that had to be scored. As a film composer, that was the part where you say, "that validates my existence!" Not everything can be steamrollered with a song anymore, and in a particular comedic situation, which usually has drama attached to it, they need music specifically written for it. And that was cool!
(on Mickey Blue Eyes)

January 23, 1995

I would take as much as four weeks just coming up with the idea for all the thematic material, and that kind of gets crunched. I don't feel my work comes out half-baked, but nonetheless, you can't force gleaning what the various motifs for a film are going to be. Sometimes it hits you instantly. The first time I saw Lonesome Dove I came up with four themes that afternoon. Other times, especially when a film has a more difficult hit on it, it can take longer.
(on Lonesome Dove)