Basil Poledouris (1945-2006) - Conan and Robocop

Although of Greek descent, Basil Poledouris (originally Basilis Konstantine Poledouris) was born and brought up in the US. Nevertheless he seems to have picked up some musical qualities from his Greek heritage including powerful melodies with a strong rhythmic drive. He started learning the piano as a boy of age 9 and joined a folk group while at High School. He later studied both film and music at the University of Southern California, the latter under David Raksin. It was also as a student that he met aspiring film maker John Milius, and it was with Milius that Poledouris achieved his initial breaks into the film music business with "Big Wednesday" and "Conan the Barbarian".

The music of Basil Poledouris is traditional in approach, and Poledouris has mentioned Miklos Rozsa as one of his influences. Following on from "Conan the Barbarian" which got him widely noticed, he found a niche within the worlds of Science Fiction and Fantasy, where at times he partnered with director Paul Verhoven. The music for example gets into the tongue in cheek spirit of Robocop when the robotic hero spins his gun before holstering it like a gunfighter from the Wild West. He also created authentic Western music for the TV mini-series "Lonesome Dove". In addition to his fantasy output, Poledouris has produced successful scores for other more conventional movies too, such as The Hunt for Red October, where the bold repeated rhythms and dramatic chord progressions give the movie a strong suggestion of Russian character traits and music traditions. He composed a large-scale choral piece called "The Tradition of the Games" for the Opening of the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, and has won critical acclaim for his music to the television series "Lonesome Dove".

Zoe Poledouris, one of the daughters of Basil, has also contributed to his film scores. A theme used in "Conan the Barbarian" is based on something she played on the recorder, and she also a song for "Starship Troopers". Poledouris lives in California and often relaxes there sailing his yacht or surfing with family and friends.

Sadly Poledouris lost his battle with cancer on 8th November 2006.

Film music by Basil Poledouris:

• Big Wednesday - with director John Marius
• The Blue Lagoon
• Return to the Blue Lagoon
• Conan the Barbarian - also for John Marius, this early soundtrack shows a remarkable talent for portraying archetypal characters and employs 24 French horns and a large percussion section
• Conan the Destroyer - the inevitable sequel
• Red Dawn
• Robocop 1, 3 - a thumping good tune! Leonard Roseman did number 2 in the series
• Hot Shots - Part Deux
• Farewell to the King
• The Hunt for Red October - very dramatic and Russian sounding with full orchestra and choir
• Quigley Down Under - a Western set in Australia with some wonderful western-style music though different in character to "Lonesome Dove", make sure you get the full version called "The Complete Original Soundtrack" or "Expanded Edition"
• White Fang
• Starship Troopers - similarities to the Robocop tongue-in-cheek style
• On Deadly Ground - a typically over the top Steven Seagal film set in Alaska, the percussion in the music seems to suggest the machinery of the oil industry there and there is some native Inuit music
• The Jungle Book (1994)
• Lassie (1994)
• Free Willy
• Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home
• Serial Mom
• Under Seige 2
• Les Miserables - a non-musical film version of the story
• Cecil B. Demented
• Kimberly
• Mickey Blue Eyes
• Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles

TV themes by Basil Poledouris:

For television Poledouris has scored some long mini-series, and dabbled in a few other classic series.

• The Twilight Zone - an episode of this
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents - and at least one episode of this
• Amerika - long and controversial mini-series
• Lonesome Dove - winning an Emmy award
• Return to Lonesome Dove - sequel to the mini-series
• The Legend of Butch & Sundance

Recommendations:

There are many good soundtrack CDs of music by Basil Poledouris, and we recommend the following:

• Robocop - Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
• The Hunt for Red October - Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
• Lonesome Dove - (music from the TV series) Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
• Quigley Down Under - (expanded edition) Amazon.com

For web-sites dedicated to Poledouris, we recommend Poleworld, a fan-site in Spanish and English with much material related to Poledouris and other film composers. There is also a site known as as The Official Basil Poledouris site which has soundclips in MP3 format and photographs of the composer.