This score is one of my all time favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores. In a nutshell, it embodies what I like about Goldsmith as a composer. When he composes music it is with an understanding of what the purpose of a scene is. In action films it is easy to merely throw in some wild uncontrolled cues because the audience is generally more enthralled with the action. In the case of Goldsmith, he enhances a scene like few other composers can. When listening to his music you get a sense of when the hero is ducking, shooting or kicking the bad guy's butt.
For Total Recall, Goldsmith doesn't hold back. This is an action score, pure and simple. The title track, The Dream is one of the more popular pieces, often used in those overly-dramatic sports montages. It starts off sounding like the main titles from Conan the Barbarian but ends right in the beginning.
Tracks like The Big Jump and End of a Dream are chock full of excitement and raw energy. I can only imagine what the National Philharmonic looked like when playing some of these pieces. I'm sure they must have all looked exhausted after a scoring session with this score. This score has set the standards for many of Goldsmith's future scores and rightfully so.
Total time: 40:40
1: The Dream (3:33)
2: The Hologram (5:36)
3: The Big Jump (4:33)
4: The Mutant (3:16)
5: Clever Girl (4:31)
6: First Meeting (1:10)
7: The Treatment (5:30)
8: Where Am I? (3:56)
9: End of a Dream (5:45)
10: A New Life (2:23)