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The Fall Guy: (Dominic Lewis) Inspired by the early
1980's television series of the same name starring Lee Majors, the 2024
cinematic adaptation of
The Fall Guy is more flamboyantly silly
in its bloated comedic sensibilities. It postulates that a struggling
Hollywood stunt man becomes embroiled in a real-life murder plot that
requires him to actually live out the action he usually fakes in movies.
When the lead actor he doubles for goes missing on the production in
which the stunt man's ex-girlfriend is the director, a long and
convoluted tale of betrayal and forgiveness sets forth. Video altered by
artificial intelligence is a key piece of evidence that most of the
characters ultimately chase after in a series of comedy action scenes
worthy of parody status. A few in-jokes await hardcore science-fiction
movie junkies, too. While David Leitch sought to emulate the snazzy
success of
Bullet Train a few years prior,
The Fall Guy
struggled to meet studio expectations despite reasonably positive
reviews. One source of studio angst during production was the film's
soundtrack, which toiled at great lengths to determine the right blend
of classic song usage and the tone of the original score. After their
very successful collaboration on
Bullet Train, Leitch turned back
to former Hans Zimmer realm ghostwriter Dominic Lewis to expand upon a
solo career that has, in the 2020's, been defined more by action than
even Lewis thought possible. To his credit, the composer strives to
write uniquely angled action scores that don't just mimic the usual
Lorne Balfe methodology, yielding some surprising successes like
Violent Night and
The King's Man. His original approach to
The Fall Guy included a more traditional set of themes in his
desired orchestral and rock blend, but Leitch pulled him back with his
insistence that the Kiss song "I Was Made for Lovin' You" become the
backbone of the soundtrack as a whole. Licensing was challenging for the
famous song, resulting in some of the studio angst, but Lewis ultimately
executed a deconstruction and cover version of it to sidestep those
limitations. The production was more successful with the licensing of
other existing songs in the picture, including one prominent placement
for Taylor Swift, though no true song compilation soundtrack was ever
released on album.
Despite all the interaction between the songs and
original score in
The Fall Guy, Lewis manages to coordinate a far
more consistent tone throughout his work compared to
Bullet
Train. The wildly frenetic rock-oriented style may not convey an
overtly intact narrative until its final cues, but the score's
overbearing attitude is really all it needs to remain cohesive. That
demeanor is clearly tongue-in-cheek, with 1980's electronic zingers and
cheesy vocals reminding that Harold Faltermeyer was one of the
composer's inspirations in early iterations of the score. The dominant
personality of the score comes from its synthetic and rock band
ingredients, loads of drum kit, bass, and guitar present throughout. The
orchestra comes in at "Metalstorm" and turns soft for a moment at "Oner
of a Lonely Heart," but it takes until the final third of the work
before that ensemble really tackles the movie's action. Some location or
genre-specific parody employment does exist, ranging from the orchestral
and female vocal presence that asserts a distinctive vibe in "Miami
Grilled Cheese" to the whistling and other Western influences in "High
Noon at the End of the Universe." While most of the press about the
soundtrack for
The Fall Guy will involve either the
needle-dropped songs or vocalizations of "I Was Made for Lovin' You,"
Lewis' adaptation of the Kiss song into his original material is handled
admirably. Both the A and B phrases of the song are explored separately,
and its underlying riff develops into the score's recurring action
motif. During the process of that interpretation, Lewis also conjures an
original primary theme that is very similarly structured to aspects of
"I Was Made for Lovin' You," utilizing chords and progressions that seem
like a natural extension of the song that allows these main pieces to
mingle interchangeably. This original theme slowly emerges over the
score and is smartly integrated into the middle of romantically dominant
orchestral version of "I Was Made for Lovin' You." Aggressive vocals
carry the original melody in "Thumbs Up" against rowdy thrashing while
pieces of the actual song are sprinkled throughout "Ball Biter" with
action flair. Another nicely executed interpolation comes with the more
stylish rendition teasing lines of the theme's intact phrasing in
"Post-It Party." Similar material extends to very slight exploration
late in the suspense of "Ducking Autocorrect."
An important turning point for the narrative of the
score for
The Fall Guy comes in "Miami Grilled Cheese," in which
the original main theme becomes prominently resolute in the middle of
the cue. The Kiss melodic lines, meanwhile, are afforded a really
attractive adaptation for rock and orchestral instruments in "I Was Made
for Lovin' You (Orchestral Version)," the orchestrations proving once
again that damn near any song can be made magnificently grandiose with
the help of a full ensemble. The themes briefly supply some keyboarded
warmth early in "Chef's Kiss" while brass take the main theme vaguely
heroic over most of "High Noon at the End of the Universe." This action
stance continues with the song melodies against forceful drum kit in
"Pyro Prep," and they inform the bloated, vocal-laced throbs of action
in "Wire Straits" with a grand conclusion. The themes culminate in "The
Fall Guy" with a little more obvious posturing for the original main
theme, though performances of that idea at the climax are somewhat
fleeting. Still, the orchestral and rock combination matures really well
in this highlight cue. The accompanying riff is a rhythmic movement
common to the action cues and is based upon the song's bassline. This
action riff introduces itself with some restraint in "Thumbs Up," nimbly
taps late in "Miami Grilled Cheese," slows in "High Noon at the End of
the Universe," lets loose in "Wire Straits," and opens "The Fall Guy."
With no separate song compilation album for
The Fall Guy, a
moderate amount of Lewis' score mixes with a handful of songs to create
a hybrid product. English singer Yungblud performs with perfect
inflection both the straight cover and instrumental versions of "I Was
Made for Lovin' You," the latter recording featuring his wordless vocals
as well. That track better achieves the proper tone of its film than
Balfe's somewhat awkward adaptation of The Beatles' "Now and Then" in
the preceding
Argylle in the same genre. With the tongue still
firmly rooted in the cheek, Blake Shelton offers an amusing cover of
"Unknown Stuntman," the concept's television show theme from early
1980's. Three other songs round out the album without much interest. In
the end, the duo of "I Was Made for Lovin' You (Orchestral Version)" and
"The Fall Guy" will form a superb 10-minute suite of the best music from
The Fall Guy for film music collectors. The remainder, while
accomplishing its task well and proving Lewis as a master of comedy
action style, is a bigger parody challenge outside of context.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on album: ***
- Overall: ***
There exists no official packaging for this album.
