Basil Poledouris: His Life and Music

Lush, yet poignant. That would be my three-word definition of film composer Basil Poledouris's scores. Of course, not everyone would agree that Starship Troopers and Conan the Barbarian are touchy-feely scores, but how about Free Willy or Lonesome Dove or Wind? Lovely stuff. In this, the first volume of the Film Composer Interview Series, viewers get a rather unmeasured portrait of the artist, as the film opens with what feels like a promo piece on Starship Troopers, segues into a home interview with Poledouris and his wife, cuts to shots of Poledouris conducting pieces of his own music (often with no hint of the actual movie from whence it came), plays a truncated music video clip from his daughter's band, and so on. While Poledouris is an interesting interviewee (and truly gifted composer), the program is decidedly scattershot and low-budget. Viewers won't learn how many scores Poledouris has created or see many clips from the films for the excerpts played (with the exception of Starship Troopers). Without the accompanying visuals to anchor the music, it's very hard to keep track of what you're listening to--a problem that could have been solved with a very inexpensive special effect: on-screen titling. Optional. (R. Pitman)