Conan was a challenge because I knew the music would be so visible. There was nothing to hide behind. Milius wanted it to drive the movie and to tell the story because so much of it had no dialog. He wanted to make sure the audience had a real handle on what he was trying to get across. To meet the challenge here you have to discover your way out of it. You work your way out.

It was the third feature film I'd ever done. It was the largest orchestra I would've ever imagined using and I got a full choir. It was a 90-piece orchestra with a 24-voice choir that we could overdubbed once. Not only that, here was a movie where the first cue lasts thirty minutes with three minutes of dialog. Twenty-seven of the first thirty minutes of the movie are all music and visuals. It was like scoring a silent film!