Yes, it’s true. We’ve been hard on Jared Hess’ “Gentlemen Broncos,” cause it just looks… not like our thing… and right now it’s sitting at a rather poor 12% score on Rotten Tomatoes so maybe our prejudging distaste for the silly looking film is very justified (though our reviewer, who didn’t love it, was kinder to it than the consensus).
But we will say this, the music featured in the film is rather excellent and well-chosen. Curated by soundtrack supervisor Randall Poster (every Wes Anderson film), it’s not necessarily articulated in our review, but the writer who saw it emailed me and said the music use was “fantastic.” The score was done by a buddy of ours, David Gordon Green’s go-to composer David Wingo (who’s also in the excellent folky-rock band Ola Podrida), but sadly we haven’t heard any of that music yet.
We checked and realized that there was no soundtrack disc being released so we figured we’d let those that were interested in discovering all the music featured in the film have a peek (make your own disc). It’s pretty inspired intentional cheese and cornball throughout with a lot of relaxation and meditation new age-y music (John Two Hawk and classically trained guitarist and lutenist Ray Lynch) that’s incredibly ridiculous and really amusing to hear.
You never know, you might find you like some of these undiscovered gems. The Zager & Evans’ track, “In The Year 2525” is a particularly kind of Nebraskan ’70s rock-pop awesome (it plays over the opening credits). And the choices are so interesting — a lot of overblown ’70s boogie schmaltz like David Bromberg and Kansas; several tracks by cheesy American Indian flute virtuoso John Two-Hawk; ironic use of Black Sabbath and the Scorpions — we almost want to go out and see the movie to see how the music is used. Much of it is intentionally fromage, like Cher’s very country-like, “Just Like Jesse James,” but we must assume that might help the amusement factor. Just digging up these tracks and listening to them all was a gas, so that in itself is saying something.
All The Songs Featured In “Gentlemen Broncos”
“In The Year 2525” – Zager & Evans
“Act Naturally” – Buck Owens
“What A Town” – David Bromberg
“Cedar Dreams” – John Two-Hawks
“Twilight” – John Two-Hawks
“First Flight” – John Two-Hawks
“Winds of Stillness” – John Two-Hawks
“John Sebastion’s Girl” – Shara Joyce and Rory O’Donoghue
“The Oh Of Pleasure” – Ray Lynch and Tom Canning
“Beautiful Girl” – Studio Musicians
“Wind Of Change” – Scorpions
“New World Anthem” – Jeremy Wall
“Celtic Voyage” – Joel Bevan
“Moment Of Truth” – APM Music
“Celestial Soda Pop” – Ray Lynch
“Tiny Geometries” – Ray Lynch
“Just Like Jesse James” – Cher
“Don Carlo” – RMI Music
“Paranoid”- Black Sabbath
“Carry On Wayward Son” – Performed by Kansas
It sucks? What a shame, I love Jemaine.
Saw it last night with only two other people in the theatre, which was also the case last week when the film opened, a friend told me it was him, his girlfriend…and a little kid sitting alone(!). The film definitely does not suck, weaker than Nacho, sure, better than Napoleon yes. But on it's own, a lesser work from a really talented writer director team but still better than anything in the multiplexes right now. My friend an I were laughing our asses off. Light, weird, goofy fun a la Tim and Eric. Not for everyone, but I sure enjoyed it. BTW played a week here in Montreal with absolutely no advertising that I saw…shame that, it's a really funny film with a killer soundtrack.
One of the funniest films of the year. I was an avid reader of sci-fi novels when I was younger and felt Jared Hess understood the material and atmosphere (warped as is maybe). A fine piece or writing with he's understated humour and sharp dialogue. I have recommended this film to all my friends and feel it such a shame that movies, such as Avatar bloom so much at the box office, but I guess that is what happens when you spend 40 million on marketing to remake 'Dances With Wolves'
I was surprised at how much I liked this movie, considering Nacho Libre was not the least bit enjoyable for me. I was watching the special features and they have a couple more electronic fun jams going on during a making of segment (think Atom and His Package type music).
Any idea where I could find out who/what makes that particular sequence of noises? Thanks!
Pure genius film ! The style, humour, and the general quirkiness. Much better than Nacho ! with the same old Jack Black hypo humour !
Jared Hess as an amazing ability to pick an amazing cast with interesting looking actors.
I think if people don't like this film they generally just don't get it and fly's over there head.
I remember when watching Eagle vs Shark at the cinema and people were walking out because of this…
Great movie. Funny and has heart. I can see why the film might have a limited appeal as not too many people can, or want to,relate to the oddities of sci-fi geeks and even odder peripheral characters. But for those who "get it", it's very funny indeed. Sam Rockwell is a fine comedic actor, which he keeps proving time and time again and in this film, he appears to be having a blast. Strange, yes, and not for everyone. I'm glad there are films like this out there. Some very keen observations about stuff that maybe shouldn't be observed too closely.
–KG