The score for the 1989 Punisher film, starring Dolph Lundgren, sat unreleased for more than fifteen years after Dennis Dreith composed, orchestrated, and conducted it that spring, before it finally reached CD in 2004 on Perseverance and Tarantula Records. The music swings between tense, ominous cues and full orchestral action writing, with Japanese-influenced percussion worked in for the Madame Tanaka scenes. AllMusic and other reviewers who've gone back to it rate it above the score for the 2004 reboot.
