The dominant, militaristic side of Executive Decision is the kind of good-guy/bad-guy action style that the composer likely heard in his own sleep, with the expected orchestral and synthesized ensemble tones, including very tired drum pads, ready to pump out familiar Goldsmith techniques at every turn. Luckily, the feeling of constantly rehashed material was restricted to this film rather than overflowing into Air Force One, leaving Executive Decision as a faint shadow of the other score. Strangely, Goldsmith would not do his best work for director Stuart Baird, with whom the composer would also collaborate on U.S. Marshals and Star Trek: Nemesis. If there is one consistent aspect to Goldsmith's work for Baird's films, it's the lack of great steps in creativity. Almost in opposite fashion to his work on Joe Dante's more quirky projects, the comparatively straight-laced action of Baird's endeavors, including Executive Decision, seems to leave Goldsmith without much inspiration. Despite some tepid attempts to address worldly tones for the villains of the story, the themes and orchestration in Executive Decision are extremely familiar, with the ensemble's performances often dull and lacking vibrant character. There is little enthusiasm to be heard out of these performers, Goldsmith's brass fanfares here missing the bounce and dynamic energy that they exhibit in his similar scores, especially those that came in the next three subsequent years. The structures are also weak, reminding of Twilight's Last Gleaming in both their percussive suspense rhythms and occasional militaristic outbursts. The main fanfare is structurally very similar to that of First Knight, and trumpets seem content to perform a very faintly echoing sub-motif for the American military that once again raises memories of Patton. For the many action sequences, Goldsmith's rhythmic material lets rip with a light snare and tingling electronics, but the flat ambience and average-at-best primary theme severely restrict the score's ability to interest you beyond the vast collection of other Goldsmith works. Even the processed motif for the Arab terrorists is conceived in a half-assed manner, very underdeveloped and stereotypical in its use of Middle Eastern progressions over oud, sitar, and other token instruments.

For collectors of all of Goldsmith's action material, portions of the Executive Decision score will remain a solid experience apart from the film. There are some small motific elements of the work that are intellectually engaging, such as the dirty bomb's own synthetic motif, as well as the theme for the terrorist leader in "The Abduction" that heavily foreshadows the villain's identity in Star Trek: Nemesis. The adaptations of the rising military motif, ranging from the standard echoing trumpets early to suspenseful woodwinds later, are better suited for the film than its major heroic theme. The middle, suspense portions of the score often rumble through ambient rhythmic minimalism that greatly hinders the listening experience. Discontent long followed Executive Decision because of its insanely short 1996 soundtrack album, only the opening three and closing three tracks on that Varèse Sarabande album providing ten to fifteen minutes of reasonable but underdeveloped music with familiar origins. Outside of context, the score suffered more than most other Goldsmith projects because the of short cue lengths that required merging into longer presentations. Although Goldsmith recorded over 80 minutes of music for the film, the 1996 commercial album woefully presented less than 30 of those minutes due to disadvantageous union re-use fees at the time, with mostly the lengthier recordings chosen for inclusion on that product. Despite the licensing reasons that justified this length of the presentation at the time, Goldsmith fans continued to use Executive Decision as a point of complaint for many years. Unfortunately, some of the more interestingly nuanced music from the film existed in those short cues that were not provided, sending fans in search of widely distributed bootlegs of the score. The label eventually made the score one of its Club entries in 2016, offering more than 74 minutes of material in film order, including all three recorded variants of "The Abduction." This fuller album is long overdue, but even it will require Goldsmith's enthusiasts to rearrange and trim the presentation down to a more engaging 20 to 25 minutes of all available highlights. The recording remains more flat in ambience than the composer's other entries from the time, including the vastly superior The Ghost and the Darkness. By comparison, Executive Decision is a decent but occasionally boring auto-pilot work that should be approached cautiously on album unless you are a fanatic Goldsmith action collector.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download