I didn't know it was Levay's work until I looked it up on youtube when searching for footage of the armed and armoured Chevrolet Astro cab.
I remember this film when I saw it back in the 90s on ZDF, German public TV, my source for great film discoveries and an great enrichment of my visual life. I remember six things: 1) I liked the music 2) I liked the film 3) "Hey it's Lando Calrisian in a heroic role from the start of the picture". 4) I liked the music 5) I liked the music 6) I liked the music
The opening credits are a clone of the Airwolf episodes: "Fallen angel" and "Mind of the machine", my two absolute rulers as the most favourite episodes of the "Airwolf" series. I want those tracks as incredibly much as I am sure I will never have them.
Now to that pile of agony comes another I'm sure I'll never have; this:
And the first unimaginative rimking to start about 80s cheese again, gets chain guns, copper heads and a time bomb right between the ears.
These are synths as they should be: first half 80s, an instrument all in its own right and no trying to be a cheap replacement for an expensive orchestra.
I finally got to see the complete movie on youtube. Actually a quite enjoyable and exciting film directed by the late Paul Krasny (d. 2001), with Morgan Fairchild as the bad guy...I mean girl, and with quite a tear-jerking ending.
Levay's score is very good. The main theme is used a little too much though, it's pretty clear that composer and director/producers were pleased with the theme. A very nice "love theme" is of course delivered by Levay, plus another piano-based theme, and an exciting long track towards the end of the film when the good guys are driving over the plains to catch the terrorists.
Another peculiar thing about Levay's scores around this time (same thing happened on Invitation To Hell) is the fact that a full orchestra suddenly may appear for a cue, as if the composer had access to the orchestra for about 5 minutes, so let's get them in there!
I'm positive that a nice 30-35 minute soundtrack album could have been released for Time Bomb. A little repetitive perhaps, but that's a minor problem.
