Shattered

This little known thriller was Wolfgang Peterson's (Das Boot and Air Force One) first Hollywood film about car crashes, comas and infidelity and was, by most accounts, a credible, taut piece of cinema despite an unpromising tag line, 'a love he can't forget, a murder he can't remember.' Despite his name being carefully hidden on the outer packaging, Alan Silvestri has created a well wrought, if not exceptional score.

The Opening Title is actually quite appealing, with a cyclic motif carrying the fairly lyrical main theme, but this being a thriller, it doesn't remain that way for long. Silvestri does keep the obbligato bass through many of the tracks, usually as a bed for suspense or, as in the exciting The Chase, to propel the action forwards. The trademark Silvestri brass hits are in evidence, if a little more subdued than usual. The central passages almost reach the level of horror scoring, with tense strings and shock stingers, although they are underplayed enough to avoid unwanted melodrama. Hacienda is a curious, quasi exotic source cue which is neither good on its own terms, nor fitting within the score and there why it wasn't placed right at the end of the album, I'm not entirely sure. Fortunately the End Credits forms a nice bookend for the underscore, reprising the Opening Title material and the other major ideas.

The final track is, rather surprisingly, Nights in White Satin which is a semi-classic and actually makes a quite reasonable coda to the album. A difficult score to recommend as it's neither terrible, nor particularly outstanding; it is the kind of score that just passes by and never really sticks in the mind. Also, there is the distinct and unfortunate feeling that it could have been composed by any number of composers, most notably Jerry Goldsmith, particularly the use of piano ground bass, a favourite Goldsmith device. Still, an efficient thriller score with well sustained tension and occasional bursts of excitement.