Basil Poledouris has long been a master at writing music that evokes fantasy, exoticism, and action-adventure. This made him the perfect choice for Disney’s new version of “The Jungle Book”, and the resultant score is unsurprisingly one of 1994’s best. While the traditional elements of adventure and fantasy remain, the film mixes in subtle but poignant statements about colonial tyranny and environmentalism, resulting in a new and very different take on the story. Poledouris’s score weaves these different elements together, infusing the film with excitement and romance, the kind of which is not felt – or heard – often enough in movies these days.

Interviewed January 23, 1995, the composer related his experiences working on the film and meeting its various artistic and logistical challenges. My thanks to Basil once again for generously availing himself for this interview.

How did you come to be involved with “The Jungle Book”?

It was an interesting set of circumstances. Jerry Goldsmith had been set to do it originally, and I think what happened was that “Jungle Book’s” schedule had been pushed back; the post-production was taking longer than they had anticipated, and Jerry had commitments to another film. So, I suppose I got it by default. That sort of thing happens a lot in Hollywood. Schedules jam-up sometimes. [Goldsmith was just coming off of his rushed, three-and-a-half-week rescore of “The River Wild”, and didn’t want to tackle a 90 minute score immediately afterwards that had to be done just as fast. – LK]

A number of sequences, particularly in the beginning of the film, have no dialogue, with music providing the dominant voice. In what ways did this influence your approach?

I knew it had to be highly thematic. It is very difficult to drag just underscore along for 20 minutes, also it had to set up the characters. I think the music points out who’s who. Very much the same way that writing introduces the characters in the film, I think the music did that too, by setting the place, the mood, and the period of the film, which is the late 1800s.

The first reel or two of a film, the first 20 minutes, is a very difficult time for the audience, because they’re making the transition from getting out of their car, sitting down in the theater, and thinking about, “where did I put the popcorn?” and “did I drop the car keys?” – all as the movie is starting. The first ten minutes of a film are absolutely essential to letting an audience know what kind of world they are entering, musically.

Did the lack of dialogue in early scenes permit you a greater freedom of expression?

The ear can only assimilate so much, and if you’ve got a melody and dialogue running loudly, they are obviously going to fight each other. If there is no dialogue, you can’t just put up musical wallpaper and expect it to hold anyone’s attention. In such an instance you can’t pad. The absence of dialogue allowed me to speak more fully about what was happening on screen.

Although set in India, the score was not conspicuously ethnic, i.e., no sitar, tambura, etc. Did you feel an ethnic sound was inappropriate?

It was not so much inappropriate as it was superfluous. What the director, Stephen Sommers, wanted was a large, orchestral action-adventure score, and once you start getting into serious Indian ragas and ceremonial music, it becomes very difficult to use them in a dramatic way. The real obvious, stereotypical way to do it would have been to use only the rhythmic instruments, which I did, somewhat, throughout the score. However it was unlike what I did for “On Deadly Ground”, where I used authentic Eskimo drums and patterns and chanting. Such an approach for “Jungle Book” seemed to be out of character with the request for more of an action-adventure romantic type film score.

Did you ever feel any burden that your music would be compared to Miklós Rózsa’s original, or to Disney’s musical version?

No. Frankly I don’t remember the Rózsa score, although I know it’s on his list of favorites. When the original came out in 1942, even though I wasn’t born then, and it wasn’t high on my list of films when I was a young man. I asked the director if he wanted to make any homage to the original “Jungle Book”, and he said absolutely not. This was going to be a new picture with new energies. In fact he himself had not seen the original. Frankly there was not enough time to do the kind of research an homage would have required anyway.

What was your schedule like working on this film?

It was very short. I think I had four and a half weeks to score the entire movie, from the time we spotted until we finished recording in London. We had spotted 88 minutes of music, so it had kind of struck terror into my heart to say the least. What made it possible, however, was the fantastic support I received from Stephen Sommers, Ed Feldman, and Matt Walker and Andy Hill at Disney. All I had to do was write.

Is that kind of a schedule becoming more the norm in Hollywood?

Unfortunately yes. It truly is. Twelve weeks would have been a very comfortable amount of time to have done a picture as big as “Jungle Book” with that much music in it. It was also very large orchestral music. Steven wanted a certain kind of old-fashioned hit on the music, for it to be very melodic, punctuative, and rhythmically quick as well as hitting on a lot of cues. So it was a very tall order. To answer your question, yes. I think it is becoming more and more of a reality. Whereas we used to have eight weeks to score a picture, now it is being chopped to six and sometimes five weeks.

Do you see any sign that this trend will ever be reversed?

I don’t know. I am sure there are still filmmakers around who understand the importance of taking time in post-production. I think it is really more of a function of budgeting. What happens of course is that sound effects editors and picture editors are all on salary until the final dub, so the push to get the final dub going is certainly high on everybody’s mind, in order to get rid of a lot of payroll. The other thing too, which has always been a factor, is the interest on the initial loan for the film itself. It just mounts day by day until the film is released. It necessitates that you’ve got to hit the ground not just running, but flying.

What gets lost in that process is the way I used to work. I would take as much as four weeks just coming up with the ideas for all the thematic material, and that kind of gets crunched. I don’t feel my work comes out half-baked, but nonetheless you can’t force gleaning what the various motifs for a film are going to be. Sometimes it hits you instantly. The first time I saw “Lonesome Dove” I came up with four themes that afternoon. Other times, especially when a film has a more difficult hit on it, it can take longer.

As you are a member of Greenpeace and the Cousteau Society, has it brought you any personal satisfaction to have been involved in environmentally-oriented films like “Free Willy”, “On Deadly Ground”, and now “Jungle Book”?

Yes, of course. First of all, the reason I like to do these films is because I relate to them. Sailing is my first great love, and much of my life is spent on the water and out-of-doors. I respond more to that kind of situation than I would to a room with two people talking to each other. That’s not to say I can’t score the more “interior” kinds of subjects, but I am more in sync with the out-of-doors, I understand and am in awe of it, so it of course affects my music and I enjoy those kinds of films.

For the most part, there are really very few good movies about people, and I love to do those, because the thing that interests me the most in life is people, and how they communicate and how they get along and work out problems (or don’t). There are so few films that really address that very well, that I’d just as soon score a beautiful sunset or a snow-capped mountain peak. At least that’s honest stuff.

What are your upcoming assignments?

“Free Willy 2”, speaking of creature films. That will be followed by Seagal’s picture “Under Siege 2” – I guess this will be the year of the sequel for me! After that I’m doing a picture Simon Wincer is directing for Disney, called “Operation Dumbo Drop”.

What kind of film is that!?

It’s a strange one! It is actually a true story of an incident that happened during the Vietnam War, where some green berets had to procure an elephant and take it to a Montagnard Village. It deals with how they accomplished that, moving through enemy lines.

Have you screened any of these yet?

I’ve seen “Free Willy”. They are still shooting Seagal’s film, and Simon just returned from location this week.

Do you have any plans to work with John Milius again?

I hope so. He’s been writing like a demon, and he’s got a couple of scripts which are just prime Milius. I don’t know if any of them are in production or not, but I would love to be working with him again. There is one in particular called “The Norsemen” which is about Vikings – just a wonderful script. I hope he gets a deal and makes the movie. I miss working with John.