Jerry Goldsmith's score for Walter Hill's gritty modern day western features one of the composer's most striking orchestral/electronic integrations. Scored at the height of the composer's flirtation with the Hungarian orchestras, the score for Extreme Prejudice in a way harks back to the 60's when Goldsmith found himself scoring numerous violent westerns set south of the border. Back in 1987 Extreme Prejudice proved Goldsmith had lost none of his touch in defining location and character for these kinds of picture but with his palette of electronics was able to dramatically enhance and modernise a familiar story.

Goldsmith's association with Hill seems to have been a happy one but of course Ry Cooder, Hills preferred composer, was originally going to score, but thanks to producers Kassar and Vajna Goldsmith got the gig and the necessary support. Though Goldsmith did have to re-write the lengthy cue for the Plan back in L.A. with an inferior electronic alternate to appease a director not keen on traditional orchestral forces.

This impressive new release features the complete score, kicking off with a cue that remained a curio from the first album release; Extreme Prejudice actually turns out to be an un-used trailer score cue and introduces us to Goldsmith's militaristic soldier theme by way of an upbeat workout.

The score begins proper with one of the composer's coolest openings. Arrivals/Main Titles introduces us to the special forces operatives arriving at an airport, all officially listed as dead. Goldsmith provides percussive and brass exclamations as each soldier's records are shown to camera, each time building in intensity before launching into the relentlessness main theme. Dramatically benefiting from La-La Lands re-mastering, the soundstage for this piece in particular finally has breadth. The strings are no longer being beaten into submission by the electronics, though they too are enhanced.

Cash explores three themes. The first is a lament for Benteen and Sarita and reveals their faltering relationship and the inevitable loss of Sarita to Cash. Electronic manipulations capture the stifling heat and dust of the border and lead into the malevolent Cash theme, and finally by way of muffled vocalisations on to a suspenseful variation of the soldier's theme.

Next Time is a new but short cue that briefly states the Cash theme during Benteen's cross the border confrontation. The Set Up follows as Goldsmith deploys his 'squelching' synth beat with layered strings for the soldier's theme before evaporating into the love theme and a haunting trumpet solo.

Though only partly used in the film, Dust deals with the aftermath of a bloody gun battle in which Benteen loses his friend and mentor Sheriff Pearson. The second portion recalls the love theme but this time it's more elegiac for the sense of loss suffered by Benteen, before the soldier's theme returns for Hackett's dealings with Benteen. While A Nice Fellow, another new cue, provides a short reprise of the Cash theme as he slips into town to claim Sarita and take her back over the border.

Goldsmith's superior nine minute album version of The Plan was replaced by a series of electronic cues, presented here at the end of disc one. The first is titled The Plan and mainly deals with the soldier's elaborate diversionary plan to lure the police out of town and away from the bank by detonating a tanker truck in an abandoned warehouse. Goldsmith essentially provides a synth action beat but combines it with his main theme as the truck is delivered and spectacularly destroyed in a huge explosion. The next cue, stupidly titled The Bank Parts 1 to 3, features some string backing but is essentially a synth driven suspense cue with Goldsmith's penetrating sound design augmented with all manor of synthesised bells and whistles for the tense Bank robbery itself. Bank Part 4 deals with the violent and botched getaway in the border town streets in which two of the soldiers are eventually captured by Benteen. Goldsmith builds on the previous cue but a pounding synth beat intensifies as desperation ensues.

The Plan is the original version which Goldsmith scored for orchestra and electronics. Goldsmith's stunning cue consistently impresses as it steadily raises the excitement quotient, recycling and intensifying as the events above play out. By the time you reach the 'getaway' Goldsmith's robust orchestration has become a brilliant blaze of sound in the brass for an elaborate finish.

Identities deals with Benteen's discovery of whom the captured soldiers really are and interestingly includes a echoing Pattonesque fanfare. While To Mexico adapts both the love theme and Cash's theme for Goldsmith's south of the border tour, later joined by the trumpet motif for the soldiers, notably here much in the style of an earlier Goldsmith effort;Twilight's Last Gleaming.

No Friendlies allows for a full statement of the Mexico theme replete with castanets as Benteen makes his way through Cash's town and a confrontation to reclaim Sarita. While Positions is a previously unreleased but short cue for synth, brass and snare drums as the soldiers position themselves for their assault on Cash's strong hold.

They Don't Care deals with the final act and a classic duel between hero and villain surrounded by his henchman. Goldsmith's brooding and tense cue utilises Cash's music with synth beat ticking away the seconds before the showdown. But before they can shoot all hell breaks loose in Fighting, that employs atmospheric and distorted sonics for the bloodbath, ala The Wild Bunch.

The Funeral on the album is revealed as intended for an earlier exercised scene in which Sheriff Pearson is buried. Goldsmith utilises both a solemn reading of the love theme here and a trumpet motif akin to a military burial.

A Deal/End Credits closes Goldsmith's score in impressive fashion with a chance to savour the composer's gloriously melodic theme for Mexico. Goldsmith focuses on orchestral forces for this 'barn burner' of a cue but keeps the Latin pop tempo up with the synth beat utilised throughout the score. As the theme is recycled Goldsmith adds further layers as it's stated powerfully for keyboards, strings and brass.