George P. Cosmatos's ludicrous Shadow Conspiracy isn't notable for many things, but one thing it most certainly is notable for is its musical score by Bruce Broughton.  Sadly it's one of the last movies scored by Broughton that was released in cinemas (and it's six years old, now) but fans of the composer will not be disappointed by what he came up with.  He's very used to writing music for films way beneath his talent, and this is a case in point.  He scored a string of intimate dramas, westerns and family movies beforehand, and this was really one of the first times he had a pretty straight action thriller to score - the type Jerry Goldsmith does before breakfast.

The resulting score is a showpiece for brass and percussion - especially the latter.  Broughton explains in his liner notes that no fewer than eleven different types of drums - along with various other percussion instruments - were used in the score.  As such, the music has a constantly menacing, growling quality that propels it along with thrilling results.  The only real departure from this is the slightly upbeat main title music, heard in "To The White House", a memorable and invigorating piece that surely stands as one of Broughton's best.  The ten-minute piece "Attempted Assassination" that ends the album is a gloriously unrestrained piece of action/suspense scoring.

I know I say it a lot, but I don't think you can say too many times what a travesty it is that Bruce Broughton hasn't had more high-profile (well, just more) films to score during his career.  Given his age it seems unlikely to happen for him now, but he has written some of the most consistently fine film music of the last twenty years.  Shadow Conspiracy shows a side of the composer with which you may not be familiar, and as such comes recommended, though with the caveat that the wonderful melodies with which the composer is most associated have no place in a film with a subject matter like this one's.

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