Buy it... if you appreciate strong, harmonic integration of African rhythms, orchestral instrumentation, and ethnically charged vocals.

Avoid it... if the striking multicultural sound of dynamic, stylistically-African scores in 2003 saturated your tolerance for that genre's often lamenting tone.

Final Solution: (John Sponsler/Tom Gire) With high praise from both within the international Christian community and from mainstream critics, the 2002 apartheid film Final Solution is a tale of personal transformation, redemption, and confrontation of past crimes. Its premise revolves around the character journey of a young, white South African whose childhood circumstances led him to adopt the idea of genocide as a solution for South Africa and its "black danger." After training paramilitary white groups to viciously strike at blacks, the man is slowly shown and cured of his prejudices by his love interest, as well as a pastor. The film presents a mob scene confrontation that allows the story of this man to unfold, and a fairly expected amount of religious discovery offers him the ultimate opportunity for salvation. Produced for showings in film festivals, on PBS, and in churches, Final Solution was a film created by a partnership of Christian filming and distribution companies. Despite the mainstream theatrical limitations that typically arise for films distributed by such religious organizations, the high quality of Final Solution extended the film beyond that restrictive nucleus. One example of this expanded reach exists in the form of the soundtrack release for the picture. Composed by John Sponsler and Tom Gire, the score for Final Solution was recorded in South Africa with a moderate orchestral group, a local chorale, and several instrumental and vocal soloists. Some veteran collectors of John Debney's soundtracks may already own a snippet of John Sponsler's work, as he collaborated with Debney to provide music for the television show "Doctor Who" in 1996. Since then, Sponsler continued to provide music for television and video films, and Tom Gire had often composed additional material for Sponsler's assignments of the early 2000's. It is likely that Final Solution was their most emotionally charged challenge to date, with a recording process that the composers unequivocally recounted in 2003 as among their very best professional experiences. The score foreshadows an interesting trend in film music in 2003, a year that was surprisingly rich in the integration of authentic African elements into the environment of a traditional, Western orchestra.