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If there's a time that a full release for Starship Troopers and Hunt For October is needed...now is this time.

RIP Mr. Poledouris.

I've known he was not well, but my understanding of the severity was greatly diminished when reading of his travels to Spain this summer and the most recent scoring assignment for Igor, a new animated film from Weinstein and Exodus Films.

The heart of this man was so big. If not already, you'll read countless memories of score fans meeting him and reporting back with all kinds of tales of the great humanness inside this man. His scores reflected his soul; as you can hear, there is heart on the sleeve of a great majority of his compositions.

His wishes for others' success is as grandiose as the largest orchestras playing his most sweeping themes. He once told me upon hearing of the planned "The MovieMusic Company" (aka moviemusic.com), his wish was something to the tune of "I hope you have great success like Bill Gates!" Of course, no one on the planet will have even the remotest of success as Gates in my lifetime - other than Bill Gates - but it this genuine heart that will cause me to remember those words forever. Naturally, this all goes hand in hand with his music. I hear them, I hear him.

I asked him once what he thought of all these scores of his, how he remembered them. This was my "same question" that I asked all composers when compiling interviews for SilverScore, and while everyone had some unique answers, Basil's was most beautiful. "I remember them like my children."

Farewell to the King...

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Originally posted by Timmer:
I'm still finding this hard to take in,

NP : Les Miserables - Basil Poledouris

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I was going to listen to Les Miserables, but I couldn't find it, so I'm playing Farewell to the King now - which I haven't heard in years. I never liked it that much, but as I hear now, there's much beauty in it.

Generally, while Poledouris was a great composer for bombast, and scores like Conan, The Hunt for Red October or Starship Troopers are among my favourites of his (and not only his), it's the lyrical bits of those and his other scores that are some of the standout moments - that wonderful little bit in Asteroid Grazing from Starship Troopers for example. Theology/Civilization and The Search are my favourite bits from Conan. And that's what they have in common with his less action-oriented scores like Les Miserables.

I feel for his family and their loss.

Having been fortunate enough to have met Mr. Poledouris a couple of times (once at a concert he put on at his old high school in Garden Grove, CA) I will always remember his generosity, kindness and enthusiasum for the music and the people he encountered.

He was a wonderful composer and the sense of loss that he will no longer be with us is overwhelming to me. It just seems so sudden as many of us had no idea of the battles he faced in recent times.

To have lost Goldsmith, Bernstein, Raskin, Small, Karlin, Kamen and now Poledouris is beyond words.

I will always remember him with fondness whenever I hear his music which will live on forever.

James

P.S. To those who were fortunate enough to see him conduct CONAN in concert in Spain last summer, you were truly blessed. That was something I know he always wanted to do.

I listened to The War at Home yesterday after I found out. I was not prepared for how much it affected me. For some reason, I hadn't listened to Poledouris in quite a while, but going through his other scores in the time since then has really put this into perspective. He will be agonizingly missed.

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Originally posted by Camillu:
Wow I'm impressed - our little local paper carried the story this morning, including a mention of his most famous scores and his Emmy win.

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I was also taken aback when I arrived at my sister's house yesterday and the first question she asked was how I was handling such an important loss in my film music life. She's usually the one to buy me score soundtracks from my family and she's bought two Poledouris scores for me (Starship Troopers and Farewell to the King). Apparently, it was discussed on a radio station she listens to. Something like that always leaves a good feeling in your heart, that people can acknowledge such a triumphant, talented individual and not be that familiar with his work (aside from how great it makes Verhoeven sci-fi films and Milius films).