Published on Apr 24, 1998
In case some don’t remember–and I’m sure a few don’t–
Starship Troopers was a big sci-fi, action-adventure,
special-effects fest. Sure, the movie was not the greatest of all
time, but it was good fun. Director Paul Verhoeven asked soundtrack
composer Basil Poledouris to write the soundtrack to the movie due
to their past history between them–which includes
Robocop. The soundtrack does not dissapoint.
The best track in the soundtrack is the second track, “Klendathu
Drop.” As the main track of the film, it builds you up in a frenzy
and takes you through peaks and valleys. The track returns in
several other moments–“Destruction of the Rodger Young” and
“Brainbug.” But that’s not all, other high moments include “Tango
Urilla” and “Bugs!” This is almost classical music for those
metalheads and headbangers.
There’s also some slower moments. “Punishment/Asteroid Grazing”
features some lovely, quiet music that is interrupted right in the
middle by another wave of sonic bombast–only to return to its
quiet self at the end. It works great. Meanwhile, “Dizzy’s Funeral”
is very melancholic and touching. Which not only works great alone,
but takes another life within the movie when Dina Meyer’s character
is laid to rest.
About the only problem I have with the soundtrack is the final
track, “Into It.” Written and sung by Zoe Poledouris–Basil’s
daughter–this song does what no album-closing track should
do–makes you turn off the album. I understand that they were
trying to make some futuristic pop, but this is as out-of-place as
Dennis Rodman in
Titanic. The album comes to a screeching halt when I reach
this track. Fortunately, that is the only bad thing about the
album.
Finally, the album works great in establishing some of the
fascist themes that Verhoeven was sprinkling throughout his movie.
“Fed Net March” comes in sounding like a clarion call and secedes
into a little march which–if you saw the images in the movie it
went with–was both funny and disturbing. Finally, “They Will Win”
whips the listeners into a frenzy. It makes you want to go out and
join these troopers.
Overall, this is a very good album. If you can, give it a try.
You may just like it. While the final track prevents me from giving
this album the A it deserves, I think it’s still one of the better
albums you can pick up. Hey! Beats up picking up a second copy of
the
Titanic soundtrack.