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The general style of Silvestri's contribution to the film is firmly in his comfort zone, the composer making no attempt to adopt any of the pop sensibilities of the songs into his portions. (Again, this was a sensible choice, as the score represents the far more traditional Costner character.) Interestingly, though, while he manages to capture the vague noir element for the bodyguard, Frank, he struggles to achieve the same convincing personality in the music for the surprisingly inert romance and suspense portions. The latter element is rather stock, emulating the techniques of a work like Ricochet while remaining mostly organic. The passion factor is absolutely zero in the score, too, which compounds the fundamental problem that Houston and Costner exhibited absolutely no screen chemistry whatsoever. Both versions of the cue "How's It Going" are equally tepid, for instance, the piano presence for the love theme sounding about as appropriate for one of Silvestri's Grumpy Old Men scores. Synthesizers provide metallic and glassy ambience to the suspense and terror sequences, but the dissonance in such cues is largely defined by the composer's application of high strings for that purpose. Woodwinds offer the warmest portions of the score as the setting shifts to Lake Tahoe. The solo trumpet for Frank is truly the heart and soul of the score, and its appearances are extremely tasteful but not adapted much into the remainder of the work. Either you hear the trumpet conveying the noir element or the score is occupied by completely different modes, and the lack of literal morphing of that trumpet identity into the romance material that replaces it is a disappointment. Still, Silvestri packs The Bodyguard with themes, and that main one for Frank is a quietly subdued winner. Silvestri immediately chose a trumpet for this theme's voice because of the lone soldier element, seeking its noir effect to bring calmness and poise to the character. It's the only theme from the score that you'll recall after seeing the picture, and it's an appropriate structure for Frank in that it starts almost as if it's already in the middle of the melody, suggesting a feeling of unfinished business that clearly defines the character. The sense of incompletion is tangible. Silvestri might have been wise to adapt this theme more directly into variants for the character's other modes, but he opted for a different strategy.

The main theme for The Bodyguard is formally introduced in "Theme From The Bodyguard," the trumpet primary and piano secondary in conveying its phrasing. Three versions of this cue exist; the main alternate's mix is a little more forgiving in tonality compared to the film mix, while the song album version explores a romantic piano introduction ahead of the trumpet theme. A wet mix for helps this cue immensely. A variant of this idea stews for a moment in "Watch and See," its underlying chords persisting after the melody's closure. Silvestri continues its opening performance in warmer shades during "Can I Help You?," and its chords and thematic fragments create atmosphere in "Frank Unpacks." Frank's theme returns on flute nicely in "Overlay," yields to the love theme in "How About That," and reprises its solo trumpet form in "Do You Mind?" That instrument offers a variant of the theme over the same chords early in "My Bodyguard." Three secondary themes represent different facets of Frank's personality, and they include motifs for duty, worry, and anger. The duty theme is a propulsive rhythmic formation and ambiguous brass melody for Frank in action. It's not a really exciting or appealing theme, far drier than other recordings for the film due to the placement of the percussion. This theme lets rip with snare and timpani under the brass in "On the Job" for an extended performance, becomes twisted with consternation in "Another One" against the score's creep motif, and wanders more freely in the stoic anticipation of "Not There." It's solitary in "I Know Why" before resorting to fuller action and takes an Asian, samurai tilt in "I Don't Approve/The Sword" in the story's weird sword scene prior to the leads' fornication. (The samurai tones in this scene are understandable but still odd.) The duty theme resumes its more ambitious form in "Silly Job" but is very restrained in "I Understand Now" and stripped to its core in the suspenseful "Lunatic." Quietly defining an alternate version of the "Meet Rachel" cue, it explores darker, percussive shades in the unused version of "It Doesn't Matter." Silvestri's worry theme for Frank is an ascending identity anchored by its first four notes, an offshoot of the duty theme. Tentatively explored by solo harp in "Watch and See," it is similarly plucked near the end of "Frank Unpacks" and the start of "Just Dinner." It's carried by piano in "I Know Why," opens "Well, Well, Well" in plucked form again, loses a soft duel with the creep motif in "I'm Through," occupies the first half of "How About That," and punctuates "Coming Thrill."

The third secondary theme in The Bodyguard represents Frank's anger, a descending relation to the duty theme for when the character loses his cool. This motif bursts on strings at the start of the grim "What Are You Doing?," takes the instrumentation of the Tahoe theme at the height of "Where's Fletcher?," and is subdued in "Tell Me About It" until some brief action. It is carried by horns alone initially in "Relax a Little" but eventually turns to the ensemble. Silvestri strips it to sparse string nerves in "This is the Night" but uses it to exclaim that the end is near in "Lunatic." The creep motif for the villains consists of whining high strings with groaning bass chords underneath, debuting in "Weirdo/Someone Was in Here" along with a mysterious piano motif and continuing with timpani rumbles in "Followed." The intensity increases in "Walkman" and continues in "Another One," and the motif reminds of its sickness in "Got You/The Glove/The Locker" but is less sinister. After quietly simmering in "Where is She?," this theme takes hold again in "It Doesn't Matter" and "Tell Me About It" with shimmering effects. It opens "Relax a Little" and extends its dissonant, metallic whines in "Coming Thrill/Portman" prior to devolving into a long crescendo during "The Winner Is/Where's Portman?" Silvestri's love theme is tenderly typical to his romantic dramas of the era, barely touched around the edges in the lightly plucked "Meet Rachel" but debuting fully on very high piano solo at the outset of "Only If You Want To." Its chords alone occupy "The Sword" in a nervous atmosphere, and the theme extends out of the duty theme in the careful "Just One" on strings. Recurring under shades of the main Frank theme in "How About That," the idea struggles to gain warmth on piano in "The Stairs" but manages to do so. The trumpet from the main theme shifts directly into this theme in "My Bodyguard," and it becomes almost heroic and noble on trumpet in "How's It Going?" before retreating to piano. The last identity, representing the Tahoe family home of Frank, is a little, Western-themed flair for the change of location, and it's the highlight of the score because it is so different in tone. Wholesome from the ensemble in the pretty "Snow," in which woodwinds shine with secondary phrases, this theme shifts to varied string layers in "Just One" for throwback country spirit. It's less obvious in "How About That" on strings, dying out as suspense re-enters the equation. Ultimately, the score doesn't quite bring all these themes together into a cohesive whole. The aforementioned solitary score album for The Bodyguard from 2012 contains two comedic piano source cues near its end, one appended to the final track. This soundtrack will never be remembered for Silvestri's music, though. It's a functional score but an easily forgettable one.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Alan Silvestri reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.31 (in 59 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.21 (in 43,064 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 78:18