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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Bullet Train (Dominic Lewis)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you can groove to an extremely unique musical
souvenir from the film, for anyone approaching this set of score and
songs out of context will have no idea why such rowdy insanity plagues
the Earth.
Avoid it... if you require any semblance of an easy listening experience, because Dominic Lewis allows only a few accessible respites in an otherwise maddening but effective mashup of genres and era.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Bullet Train: (Dominic Lewis) Once developed as a
serious story of assassins on a Japanese bullet train, the final
adaptation seen in 2022's Bullet Train devolved into ridiculous
comedy. Brad Pitt (with a reported $20 million payday) is one of many
assassins that stalks the train, counterparts from around the world also
aboard to seek vengeance, money, or other, unknown purposes. Their jobs
all involve some degree of action against each other or the interests of
a Russian leader of a Japanese crime organization who goes by the name
"White Death." As these assassins all fight each other, the role of
White Death in their assembly becomes revealed. That story doesn't
matter as much as the stylish fight sequences and maiming that dominate
the film, the train itself destined to run as far off the tracks as the
script. Leading a lackluster late summer season, Bullet Train
fared reasonably well at the box office but didn't earn much praise in
the process. In fact, the film became the target of accusations
regarding whitewashing, as the original Japanese novel didn't include so
many white characters, especially in the lead. Nevertheless, the
multicultural mayhem provided more than enough color to suffice for the
bizarre set of characters in conflict. Those personalities largely
dictated the soundtrack for Bullet Train, the director, David
Leitch, keen on throwing a wild variety of music at the picture as a
representation of each assassin. Hired to not only write the score but
also guide song placements was Remote Control Productions graduate and
frequent Henry Jackman collaborator Dominic Lewis, whose career was
largely defined by lighter fare but whose shift to action in 2021's
The King's Man with Matthew Margeson earned him valuable
experience tackling more adventuresome sounds. Assignments with such a
wide scope of duties rarely land on any composer's lap, and Lewis took
the opportunity to explore his musical direction side while also
unleashing a torrent of extraordinarily discordant score cues on the
film as well. His involvement in selecting and recording songs for the
film, spotting them with Leitch and choosing how to mingle these
placements with the score, is an extreme rarity in the industry. Lewis,
naturally, took these liberties with good humor and ran amok
stylistically.
The song selections for Bullet Train span several decades and genres, with little rhyme or reason behind them other than particular character traits for each assassin they represent. Some of this material is fresh, including the postmodern "La Despedida," but the most humorous application represents the British brothers, Tangerine and Lemon, that connects them to their favorite childhood soccer team via the vintage song, "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," that is the West Ham team's official anthem. Lewis not only re-records this song with the original performer but he also interpolates it into his score, including a drugged out, groovy rendition in "Bubbles." Other song selections, such as "Stayin' Alive," are more straightforward. Lewis didn't really cross any lines until he proposed using the original theme from "Thomas the Tank Engine" and was rejected due to reasons of licensing and musical sacrilege. His "Momomon" source music is extremely funny. The blending of the songs and score is so extensive that it's not practical to discuss them apart, though listeners did receive the songs and score separately on album. As with the songs, Lewis handled the score as a total mash-up without any anchor, referring to himself as a "mad scientist in his lab" as he blended American, English, Latin American, and Japanese musical genres from throughout the past five decades. While the styles range from hard rock to traditional Russian and Japanese modes, Lewis consciously minimized the Russian influences because of the current geopolitical landscape involving Ukraine. The result of his crazy experimentation sounds like a cross between the most brazenly hip methods of Naoki Sato, Ludwig Göransson, and David Arnold, though the closest sibling may be the Rurouni Kenshin scores by Sato, albeit on an acid trip. Lewis begins with a 1970's retro vibe using a small ensemble to emulate the "Stayin' Alive" instrumentals, extending to early 1990's trip hop and punk tones and eventually throwing in some larger, symphonic recordings in especially the latter half of the work. The amount of digital manipulation involved here is intentionally outrageous, few cues passing without some kind of overt pitch alteration. In fact, the pitch-altering techniques throughout will be a source of madness for some listeners, as they come to define the total nuttiness of the characters and their convoluted plot. Looking for easy tonalities and accessible melodies? Move along. After determining the collection of songs for Bullet Train first, Lewis then approached the movie's score as he would a broad concept album without any intended genre, conceiving of his main theme and most appealing tone of elegance in the "Tentomushi" cue he wrote based on the script alone. The orchestral presence in the whole is quite marginalized, employed for action depth in late fight scenes but making its mark earlier in both positive (the really good but brief transitional moment late in "You're the Diesel") and negative (the really wretched symphonic dissonance in "Polythene Pam") ways. The composer is more intent to throw carefree jam session ideas at each character without the overarching instrumental tapestry, though. For Pitt's Ladybug character, for instance, Lewis applies a vocal idea with upright bass and drum loops joined by a chord on a funk piano like a train bell that is inspired by "Stayin' Alive." The Wolf character is afforded Guatemalan and Peruvian musicians while the Hornet character has Neal Hefti action wackiness throughout "The Hornet Stings." At other times, Lewis throws complete junk at the screen; his own vocals in "Make or Break" are sheer gibberish. Despite all this madness, he does manage to weave two themes and associated rhythmic devices into much of the work. The two themes are tied to their respective rhythms, though the latter are applied on their own. Not only are the two themes rather similar in structure, but the two rhythms are somewhat inverted reflections of each other. All of them seem reliant upon phrasing that exists in increments of two notes, too. Don't be surprised if you find yourself scratching your head as you sort out all of this material. The two rhythms can be distinguished by whether they are ascending or descending in their progressions. The ascending rhythmic motif is loosely associated with the Fate theme eventually coming to represent Ladybug and The Elder character. The rhythm contains ascending six-note phrases with shifting harmonies underneath, and it starts the score in "The White Death," is hinted in the middle of "Royally F#*ked," opens "You're the Diesel" with flashy retro spunk, and becomes extremely manipulated and distorted in "Backpack." This rhythm returns tentatively at 0:31 into "Dochka," turns rowdy at the height of "Anuvva Bruvva," and enjoys its climax at 0:53 into "Make or Brake." While its personality matches that of the Fate theme from Lewis, the two don't significantly mingle in their performances. The Fate theme will mark the highpoint of the Bullet Train score for most listeners, addressing the lead protagonists with the sounds of a Japanese opera joined by a touch of blues spirit. Featuring a traditional Japanese singing method from the 1950's called "enka singing," this material is guided by ascending two-note phrases akin, again, to Sato sensibilities. This theme is teased faintly in the first half of "All Aboard" but debuts fully in the lovely "Tentomushi," joined by some of the few Japanese instrumental accents in the work. This track is the most self-contained, suite-like performance on the album. The idea recurs at 0:11 into "Kyoto Eki" but is overcome by the villain's theme, though the Fate material finally emerges again with distinction in the latter half of "Mr. Death." It is briefly plucked early in "Anuvva Bruvva" before a major fragment later, injects sophistication into the middle of "Make or Brake" before becoming wild, and reprises its operatic female voice at 1:42 into "Fate." On the flip side, the descending rhythmic motif uses four-note phrases in repetition, followed by a longer third phrase. Hinted late in "Royally F#*ked," this motif is briefly distorted near the end of "Yuichi," becomes a humorous pace-setter in the middle of "Toilet Talk," and builds to a crescendo at 3:12 into "Tentomushi." It struggles to emerge in the middle of "Mr. Death," opens "Make or Brake" in choppy fragments, and accelerates to expand upon the "Tentomushi" performance at 3:32 into "Fate." The theme that associates with this descending rhythm is most likely a representation of the primary villain, White Death. As an awkward twisting of the Fate theme, this identity debuts at 1:08 into "The White Death" and is hinted late in "Tentomushi." The villain's theme opens "Kyoto Eki" in shrieking whistling and devolves into a distressful merging with hard rock later. The whistling returns as bookends to eerie effect in "Dochka" and continues early in "Mr. Death," after which the full theme emerges coolly again at 4:01. To close out the score, Lewis offers the villain's theme at 4:46 into "Fate" over the descending rhythmic motif. Don't expect these melodies to carry any semblance of a satisfying narrative in Bullet Train, for the structures here are of minimal importance compared to the style of performance and the distortion of the final mix. Anyone seeking a sane listening experience should be careful with this unruly romp. Ideally, the album presentation would place the songs and score in chronological order to recreate the film's extremely unique use of music. Lewis clearly had a ton of fun with this movie, and the score demands an equally irreverent mood to appreciate out of context. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 56:08
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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