The wonderful thing about Basil’s score to Quigley Down Under is that it has a sense of fun.
– Simon Wincer, director
Intrada announces a 35th-anniversary edition of Basil Poledouris' rowdy score to the 1990 MGM film Quigley Down Under. When Intrada released its first edition back in 1990, it was quite an event. Released five years after their first release—Red Dawn—the project gave them the opportunity to work again with Poledouris. Only this time it was for a new film from a major studio. Intrada president Doug Fake fell in love with the score immediately and simply would not stop talking about it or playing it. Poledouris’ music had to capture Quigley’s character and circumstances, and the composer managed to do it while both capturing a classic cinematic western style and expressing his own native romanticism and dramatic power. It was not the first western the composer had scored for the director, having previously worked on the acclaimed miniseries to Lonesome Dove.
While a later reissue from Prometheus in 2006 featured the largely complete score (minus an overlay here and a correct take there), it was taken from a 16-bit, 44Khz CD-R of the additional tracks Intrada had retained but had to cut out due to the AFM policy in place at the time. For this new release, MGM provided us access to the master sessions on 24-track 2˝ tape, which we had transferred into 24-bit, 96Khz high resolution. We turned these over to Grammy-nominated producer Mike Matessino to mix, assemble and master to create the definitive release of one of Basil Poledouris’ finest scores. To cap off the release, the album features liner notes by Jeff Bond.
Watch the album trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bqDKmwhfB0
The film stars Tom Selleck, Alan Rickman and Laura San Giacomo. Matthew Quigley (Selleck) is an American sharpshooter who travels to Australia after being hired by a wealthy cattle baron, Elliott Marston (Rickman). Upon arrival, Quigley learns that Marston wants him to use his long-range rifle skills to hunt and kill Indigenous Australians. Disgusted, Quigley refuses and violently opposes Marston, which leads to him being beaten and left for dead in the Outback. With the help of Crazy Cora (Giacomo), a woman struggling with past trauma, Quigley survives and begins a quest for justice, using his sharpshooting skills to take down Marston and his men.
