Not Without My Daughter is based on the harrowing true story of Betty Mahmoody, an American woman who escaped from Iran with her daughter after her husband tricked them into visiting his family in Tehran for two weeks, but instead forcing them to permanently live there and follow their oppressive customs. Jerry Goldsmith provided an economical score, performed by the renowned National Philharmonic Orchestra, doing away with the brass and scoring only for strings, winds, percussion and electronics.

The score centres on two themes. Firstly a hostile middle eastern theme for electronics and tom-toms depicting the Iranian sequences and secondly a beautiful love theme for Mother and daughter (The Lake) which Goldsmith later develops to underscore the escape attempts from the Iranian family. There are moments when this theme is highly dissonant and chromatic especially in scenes between Betty and her husband (Threats) but it's also there sounding hopeful with its main role reflecting Betty and her daughter's yearning to return home to America (The Promise). Goldsmith uses plenty of electronics with an effect sounding like tablas and other sounds that colour the score depicting the bleak desert landscape and ominous atmosphere. One of the highlights of the album is First Break which starts with an oboe idea emulating the Muslim call to prayer then building to an exciting development of the middle eastern theme that follows Betty's struggle to escape.

As with so many Goldsmith scores the centre piece is another strong theme, providing the hook to hang the remainder of this tense score on and give the picture the momentum it needs. It's interesting to note that this theme provides Betty and her daughter both hope and despair as it alternates between melancholy, reflecting the sadness of a family breaking apart and a somewhat bittersweet ending to the story as Mother and daughter escape to freedom. Home Again starts ominously but contains a warm piano, strings and flute solo statement of the main theme as Betty and her daughter come across a US Embassy. Although the album version omits the movie version of this cue features an heroic rendition for trumpet as the Stars and Stripes are sighted fluttering in the wind. With the story resolved the cue then segues into the end credits with thumping electronica before returning to the gorgeous main theme and closing the score.

The score was originally released by Intrada in the US at the height of the label's interest in the composer and produced a good looking package with score notes. Edel Germany released a poor looking version for the European market. Stupidly this version had the film's title in German with a silly black sticker to cover the bungled artwork.

Now we have an almost complete score CD from La-La Land Records that includes the odd missing cue,  the non Goldsmith source music and most interestingly a 20 minute suite of score with orchestra only. This new version is limited to 3000 copies. Unfortunately La-La have been unable to source the pickup of The Flag sequence featuring the trumpet.