Starship Troopers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the film score composed and conducted by Basil Poledouris and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony to the 1997 film Starship Troopers directed by Paul Verhoeven. It was released through Varèse Sarabande on November 4, 1997, and featured 11 tracks. The complete score was later released as a double CD "deluxe edition" in June 2016.
Contents
Background
Basil Poledouris had previously worked with Verhoeven on Flesh and Blood (1985) and RoboCop (1987). He intended to score it as an action film, but as Verhoeven wanted the music to offer a realistic background for the characters, Poledouris focused on creating excitement, passion and poignancy through its music. The basis for the score was derived from the theme of the Rodger Young spaceship, titled "Klendathu Drop" which Verhoeven had chosen. Poledouris developed themes for specific characters and relationships, including the one between Rico and Dizzy which was considered the "heart" of Starship Troopers, but did not create a theme for the Arachnids as he wanted their distinct noises to contrast with the score.
Poledouris wrote the film score within a span of six months. It was recorded at the Sony Pictures Studios recording stage between June and September 1997 with a full orchestra of 97 musicians using acoustic and percussion instruments. Evelyn Oz, a band including Poledouris' daughter, Zoë, performs two songs during the prom scene: an original song, "Into It", and "I Have Not Been to Oxford Town", composed by David Bowie.
Reception
Thomas Glorieux of Maintitles wrote "This is not only an amazing action score, this is a thematic action score with hardly a dull moment in sight." James Southall of Movie Wave called it as "epic, glorious, Basil Poledouris at his very best." Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks wrote "Starship Troopers is ambitiously rowdy ear candy, taking the heroic style from Robocop and magnifying it to nearly silly degrees that are engaging if only in their volume." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote "Although it doesn't hold up particularly well when its removed from the sci-fi film, Starship Troopers is an appropriately rousing and melodramatic score, perfectly suited to Paul Verhoeven's dizzying action flick."
Original release
The Starship Troopers score was distributed by Varèse Sarabande which released through compact discs (CD) on November 4, 1997. The album did not include the complete score; it had only 36 minutes of music featured in the album. Bootleg copies which were made from the additional material using the score from the film's DVD release were surfaced thereafter.
Deluxe edition
On June 3, 2016, Varèse Sarabande unveiled the deluxe edition of the film's score in double CDs pressed to 3,000 copies. The album consisted of the complete score as heard in the film with materials which were unused partially or in full were included. Zoë's performance of the original song "Into It" and "I Have Not Been To Oxford Town", were included in the album. The album was further issued in a double LP on August 4, 2023.
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.