This score is ain't subtle, but boy, is it fun! The tripled amount of brass and the separeation of the trumpet players into three groups makes for some incredibly exciting action. How about you guys, any of you heard this?
I'll second that. This is the type of score McNeely needs to do more often. If you haven't heard anything else by him, I'd suggest Virus, Terminal Velocity, or his work on Air Force One. He should definitely be scoring big budget summer movies.
I'll second that. This is the type of score McNeely needs to do more often. If you haven't heard anything else by him, I'd suggest Virus, Terminal Velocity, or his work on Air Force One. He should definitely be scoring big budget summer movies.
This is another one of those CD's I used to have, but then traded away. At the time, I remember thinking that it was a bit too derivative of Goldsmith and others, and that it was bombastic, yet not really with any direction. Perhaps I would have felt differently today, and I actually regret trading it away, since I really like McNeely's work and I'm sure it would have grown on me.
It's a good score to a flawed movie, but what really pisses me off is the lack of the opening titles/montage. I bought the cd specifically for that track.
Bumping this thread because I watched the movie last night. Its a dumb, fun b-movie - the kind of thing they haven't made since the 1990s.
McNeely's score is amazing. I remember seeing a picture of him standing with the brass players from the recording sessions and those people alone were the size of a good studio orchestra. I also love the weird placing of the brass throughout the orchestra, so when the fluttertounge trumpets hit, it comes off as this bizzare question-and-answer thing that sounds like nothing I've ever heard in music before.
Great muscular work. A lot of people seem to bemoan McNeely for being a Williams or Goldsmith copy, but when he's given free reign on something (like this or Samantha) he really delivers the goods.
Just wanted to point out again that there are extra cues not on the disc available on McNeely's website
I'd love to see this get a larger release. The movie isn't even 100 minutes, so I think making it "complete" would be just as easy (relatively speaking!) as making an expanded album.
Wow..thanks for that. These are really good cues, too! Kudos to McNeely for sharing them.
EDIT: Listening to "The Bad Soldiers"...incredible it's not on the CD.
EDIT #2: Anybody else ever notice the subtle reference to Horner's Aliens in some parts of the score? Not that I'm complaining..just seemed to stick out for me.
McNeely's score is amazing. I remember seeing a picture of him standing with the brass players from the recording sessions and those people alone were the size of a good studio orchestra.
Great score. Varese's press release back then:
"Kurt Russell stars in Soldier, a mega-budget science fiction blockbuster from Warner Bros. Joel McNeely's marshal score features an orchestra of military proportions: 12 sets of percussion, 18 horns, 12 trumpets, 12 trombones and 6 tubas plus strings. Fasten your seatbelts!"
Fun score for a fun movie. From the moment I first listened to it on CD, I could instantly detect a heavy temp track influence, but it didn't really bother me. It was just a fun little score that, in a way, I remember thinking didn't sound like typical action movie scores at the time. I would definitely go for an expanded/complete version.
It's McNeely doing his very best Goldsmith impersonation and I love it! The score also has a Matrix vibe to it... but what's very interesting about that little observation is that Soldier came first.
