The last film Bruce Broughton worked on that was released in cinemas was the 1998 big-screen retelling of Irwin Allen's tv show Lost in Space, with Gary Oldman, William Hurt and Matt le Blanc; sadly for Broughton, who surely saw the movie as a way of gaining more exposure and therefore more work, it tanked and became as critically-lambasted as other event movies from the time like Batman and Robin and The Avengers.  Originally Jerry Goldsmith was down to score it, but delays caused the movie to clash with US Marshals, which he chose to do instead, recommending Broughton for the job (as he had done five years earlier when he was forced to pull out of Tombstone) - though before they got to him, both David Arnold and (bizarrely) Mark Isham were attached at various points.

Initially the score was released by TVT Soundtrax - well, sort of.  About thirty minutes of it were put on an album alongside some techno songs.  Fortunately, a few months down the line, the enterprising Intrada label - who have released most of the Broughton albums out there - took the opportunity to put out the majority of the score on this disc.  It's becoming hard to find now, but fans of Broughton should make every effort to track down a copy!

If anything, Broughton treated the movie as a kind of western in space, and thus imbues his music with a rich sense of Americana, heard most obviously in the warm, upbeat main theme (fortunately, Broughton eschews any use of John Williams's camp, naff music from the tv series).  It doesn't stay warm and upbeat forever though, and Broughton uses it as a motivic bridging device through much of his action material - a technique most commonly associated, of course, with Goldsmith.  In fact, you may be surprised by the sheer amount of action on the album - these days most of Broughton's scores tend to be much more low-key and introspective, but here he just let rip and came up with some colossal material.  The 25-minute sequence spanning "The Launch" - "Robot Attack" - "Into the Sun" - "Spiders" is a thrilling excursion highlighting precise, highly-detailed orchestrations and a great performance by the Sinfonia of London.  "The Launch" is a particularly satisfying piece.

After such a relentless section, some element of respite was clearly called-for, and this arrives with the somewhat shorter tracks that immediately follow.  Featuring shimmering synths, they act as a kind of romantic view of the wonder of space.

It's really good to hear a score for a movie like this coming from an actual composer of music, rather than most of the clueless types who are scoring big-budget films at the moment.  But however good that feeling is, it is dwarfed by the annoyance that in the five years since, Broughton hasn't managed to get a single high-profile assignment.  Shame on you, Hollywood.

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