Conan the Barbarian

I sometimes visit Score Reviews and their forum and today I noticed they are discussing Conan the Barbarian and its enduring greatness. Perhaps nobody but soundtrack fans care about the score (and who cares about the film?), but it's been almost 25 years (!) since it came out and it really still commands the attention and appreciation. As someone on the forum pointed out, the fact it was recorded in mono is just part of its appeal.

For my money, Basil Poledouris is the only composer who ever was able to approximate a truly Golden Age feel without it sounding like homage or pastiche. This is really a Golden Age score that just happens to have been written in the Silver Age, as they call it (or is that the early Bronze Age?) The only score not by Rozsa that gets near his sound — although I am sure Poledouris was not consciously trying for that. The music lends the film, and particularly the character of Conan, a huge amount of dignity.