AIR FORCE ONE
Rating: 
Original Review: A good, solid action score by the ever dependable Jerry Goldsmith, who was called in at short notice to replace Randy Newman, whose efforts had not impressed director Wolfgang Petersen. Goldsmith employs all the old standbys here, building his score around a patriotic central theme somewhat reminiscent of the one he composed for Star Trek: First Contact. Goldsmith's action music is always at the better end of the scale when you hear it: he and Basil Poledouris are filmland's best action composers, mainly because their cues are less dissonant than others, instead following a simple melody throughout.
First appearing in 'The Parachutes', the President's Theme builds with a prominent brass section, a heavy percussion and high strings to a great crescendo before lapsing into long chunks of exciting, rapid, if not particularly innovative, action music which continues throughout the album, interspersed with confident blasts of the main theme whenever Harrison Ford does something heroic. There are also a couple of minor themes which reappear and disappear at irregular intervals: a deep, deadly motif with a certain Soviet flavour for Gary Oldman and his Russian hijackers, and a nice, woodwind and string-based love theme which gets a full airing in the cue 'No Security'. The music builds to a nice finish in 'Welcome Aboard, Sir' with a stirring final rendition of the President's Theme, but I am a little disappointed that there is no 'End Credits' cue with an extended version of the themes.
As it stands, the music seems to stop a little abruptly. As was the case with First Contact, Goldsmith again employed the services of an 'additional composer' to write certain parts of the score, but whereas his son Joel got a supporting role on the First Contact release, none of Joel McNeely's music is included here. As it is, though, Air Force One is a decent action score which is well worth ten quid of anyone's hard earned wages.
Track Listing:
- The Parachutes (5:14)
- The Motorcade (2:40)
- Empty Rooms (4:02)
- The Hijacking (7:30)
- No Security (2:59)
- Free Flight (4:41)
- Escape from Air Force One (5:25)
- Welcome Aboard, Sir (2:06)
Running Time: 35 minutes 40 seconds
Varèse Sarabande VSD-5825 (1997)
Music composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith. Orchestrations by Alexander Courage. Additional music in the film composed by Joel McNeely. Recorded and mixed by Bruce Botnick. Edited by Bruce Botnick and Ken Hall. Album produced by Jerry Goldsmith.
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