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Artwork copyright (c) 1987 Orion Pictures
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2004 James Southall
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CHERRY 2000 Now
you get to see what all the fuss was about A review by JAMES SOUTHALL A very unusual movie, Cherry 2000 is about a
sexually-charged female robot in an almost Mad Max-like post-apocalyptic
(near) future, starring Melanie Griffith. It didn't get much of a
widespread release and I would imagine that most of the people in the world who
have heard of it, have done so because they are film music fans. The score
was for a long time known as the rarest of the rare, the very first release in
the first wave of Varese Sarabande's CD Club, selling in an auction at one stage
for a staggering $2,500. Fortunately, the rest of the world now gets a
chance to find out what all the fuss was about with Prometheus's expanded
reissue, with a special bonus being that producer Ford Thaxton has also included
the score for No Man's Land, another 1987 score by the same composer,
Basil Poledouris. Poledouris has a strong and instantly-recognisable style,
sadly not heard in very many new films these days, but for someone with such a
strong musical personality, it's surprising the level of variety in his
career. OK, the film may be silly, but he crafted an original - if
eclectic - score which he must have spent a lot of time on. The liner
notes to this album say that he once described this score as being "the 3
Ms" - Mozart, Morricone and Moroder. It's not difficult to see
why. The Mozart comes from the delightful orchestration; the Morricone
from the stylised western influences (the movie posits itself as some sort of
futuristic western); the Moroder from the numerous synthesised sounds, carefully
interwoven into the orchestra. The three elements, while creating a sometimes-jarring
listening experience, are each in themselves interesting. Most interest
will probably be taken from the Morricone, with the fabulous spaghetti
western-style theme cropping up numerous times. It still features
unmistakable Poledouris flourishes, but the nod to the Italian maestro is a
delight. The secondary theme is incredibly cheesy, but fun, sounding
almost like the famous opening to A-ha's "Take on Me". Romance
is never far away, with the John Barry-style love theme being particularly
attractive, especially in the standout "Cherry Awakens". And
Poledouris is no stranger to action music, providing a few knockout tracks in
which the blend of orchestra and electronics distinctly resembles Jerry
Goldsmith (though perhaps it even predates his more noteworthy efforts at the
same thing) - "Ambush in the Cave / Truck Fight" is terrific. As
a standalone piece, "End of Lester" is the highlight - one of those
epic-sounding pieces in which Poledouris tries to out-Rózsa Rózsa. After that comes No Man's Land, a rather different
score, for a contemporary police thriller. This time out, Poledouris
sticks almost exclusively to electronics, presumably for artistic rather than
budgetary reasons. It isn't the most interesting of scores, perhaps
sounding a little more like what Mike Post might have written for a tv cop show
at the time, though it is still identifiably Poledouris's work. Slightly
sleazy-sounding, somewhat gritty, it is quite good for what it is, though its
synthesised nature does mean that it now sounds fairly badly dated. It's
not among the more interesting scores by the composer, though is a solid enough
listen for its relatively brief running time (a shade under half an hour), and
the five-minute action piece "Chase" alone is well worth a few
listens. This is an impressive album, a must for Poledouris fans.
It combines two of his earlier scores which show two very different sides to the
composer, and also very different sides from what most of his fans are probably
used to, the ballsy action/adventure scores in which he has so specialised over
the years. It's sad that Poledouris doesn't score too many new movies
these days, but hopefully that will change at some point, and in the mean time
releases like this certainly help to plug in the gaps. Tracks - Cherry 2000
Tracks - No Man's Land
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