Red Sonja Music By Ennio Morricone

Red Sonja

Music Composed, Orchestrated

And Conducted By Ennio Morricone

Performed By The Unione Musiciste Di Roma and Chorus

Produced By Robin Esterhammer

Perseverance Records PRCD035

19 Tracks/Running Time: 37:42

Released July 19, 2011

Red Sonja which was written by Robert E.Howard along with his masterful work, Conan The Barbarian in which he spent a few feverish nights writing his now epic portrayal of the now legendary hero. Red Sonja was another story altogether, but not that quite different from Conan's origins and her main motivation is that of revenge, not the heads roll type that Conan unleashed in Conan The Barbarian. Originally the film was intended to be somewhat of a spinoff as Conan himself was apart of the original script to this film, but since Universal owned (at the time) the rights to the character, MGM had to rewrite Conan's character to Prince Kalidor as the love interest/protector of Sonja on her quest not only to avenge the death of her sister Vanna, as well as her family and the village was slaughtered and recover a sacred Talisman in the posession of the evil Queen Gedren and her stooge Ikol, that could destroy entire kingdoms, but also the entire world and the trick is that it can only be touched by the hands of a woman! The production itself was produced by the same team that was apart of the Conan series for Universal which included Richard Fleischer, who directed Conan The Destroyer, Legendary producer Dino DeLaurenttis, Sandahl Bergman, who played the loving and fighting better half of Conan's in Conan The Barbarian and of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was to have reprised his Conan character for this film and then rewritten as Kalidor. Add the then ravishing and beautiful Brigitte Nielsen and you got one of the 80's in which most would consider a pretty bad film. In all honesty, it really isn't. Sure it's hampered by continuity errors and cheesy villians, but the film has a lot going for it, especially if you don't take it too seriously as most critics did and dismissed it as quickly. The film has loyal fans, which includes myself without any shame.

Adding to this enjoyable mess is the triumphant and exciting score by the lengendary Ennio Morricone. For those who are familiar with Morricone's work, definitely doesn't need any introduction to this score. Those who aren't, well Morricone who has written well over 500 scores in his tremendous carrer that spans five decades and very noteable for his memorable work for films like The Untouchables, Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy (Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and Good, The Bad And The Ugly), Once Upon A Time In America, Cinema Paradiso, The Thing and his triumphant, The Mission to name a few. Morricone easily could've scored anything, even in his sleep and practically did if you see his complete filmography at imdb.com. While Red Sonja is definitely not a title that would really stand out amongst the great titles I've mentioned, but it definitely still is a title that for a lot of the film's fans and also soundtrack enthusiasts love and cherish in their own way.

The score itself is fun and one with very memorable themes quickly established in the opening track "Prologue" with a beautiful angelic chorus with powerful brass and strings as we are introduced to Red Sonja and then segues into the heroic fanfare of the scores' Main Title as we are introduced to Arnold Schwarzenegger's character as he is riding on his horse in a sort of exciting travelogue. "The Talisman", "Temple Raid" and "Touch It" start off with a procession motif with more angelic choir and then quickly turns into a brass chorus of chaos as Queen Gedren and Ikol slaughter the woman at a nearby temple who are planning to banish the talisman into the darkness. "The Gate of Brytag" and "Sonja Vs. Brytag" are very playful cues for woodwinds and strings as Sonja battles the heavy set Brytag so she can pass through and continue her journey. "Sonja And Kalidor" is a great piece of music and establishes the score's love theme for the characters as they have a rather exhaustive sword fight. "Entering The Castle" and "Sonja Defeats The Queen" are more action oriented pieces with some very sinister woodwinds entering the fray after a brass outburst. The album ends with the "End Credits" which is a reprise of the score's love theme in full rendition with the angelic chorus fully backed by the powerful orchestra.

Red Sonja was originally released on LP by Varese Sarabande when the film was released in 1985 in basically two nameless suites which ran close to twenty minutes on each side and was then replicated for their Club release back in 1991 pairing it up with a condensed version of Morricone's score to the 1979 film Bloodline and became an instant collector's item after it sold out. It soon fetched high prices at auctions during the 90's and then eventually on Ebay. (It still is very valuable because Bloodline has yet to be reissued) Perseverance Records does a great job in reissuing this excellent score once again and in a sequence which actually breaks up the tracks individually which is a blessing for fans. The label did try feverishly to expand the score, however the masters of this score are sadly lost and this is what does remain, which definitely is better than nothing and it's a terrific album just as it is.

Red Sonja is still a terrific score that really deserves alot of attention again after twenty-five years. The movie may not be a masterpiece, but like Morricone's score, still a hell of a lot of fun!

Red Sonja is currently available locally at J&R Music & Computer World as well as the internet on Amazon and Perseverance Records' website (www.perseverancerecords.com)

1. Prologue 1:24
2. Main Title 2:22
3. The Talisman 3:15
4. Temple Raid 1:39
5. Touch It 1:03
6. Sonja And The Sword Master 1:49
7. Vanna's Death 2:00
8. The Gate Of Brytag 1:47
9. Sonja Vs. Brytag 1:14
10. Fighting The Soldiers 3:36
11. The Chamber Of Lights 2:02
12. Sorcery 0:46
13. Sonja Teaches Tam 1:33
14. Treasure In The Cavern 2:07
15. Kalidor and Sonja 1:43
16. A Fair Fight 1:50
17. Entering The Castle 2:12
18. Sonja Defeats The Queen 1:36
19. End Credits 3:42