From the moment we all heard Johnny Cash croon the the wind-burnt, world weary lyrics of “Hurt” in the first trailer for Logan, we knew that Hugh Jackman‘s final outing was Wolverine in the X-Men universe would be an overwhelming audio-visual experience. I saw it Wednesday night and am still in shock at how entertaining, heartfelt, and well-acted the film was, especially given the X-Men franchise’s spotty history.
A major facet of the film’s quality had to do with it’s thrilling music. In addition to it’s stellar soundtrack, the film’s original score gave me the chills. Composer Marco Beltrami (Scream, The Hurt Locker) explained that working on Logan was a demanding project for which James Mangold had a lot of ideas from the outset. Referencing Taxi Driver, The Gauntlet, and Paper Moon, Beltrami says in a statement that he wanted to capture the “directness, rough edges, and unpolished tone” of those films while simultaneously creating a modern score.
In the preview above, you can hear exactly what Beltrami means. The snippets of music from throughout the film show off the unfussy, deceptively simple, yet eerie sonics of a movie that is part Western, part noir, and part superhero film. The southwestern landscapes in the film only enhance the desolation that Beltrami channels through piano, strings, and guitar. It’s perfectly brutal.
Are you stoked to see Logan? Because you absolutely should be. Let us know your thoughts once you see the film in the comments and on Twitter. You can snag a digital download of the soundtrack on March 3, the same day the film debuts.
Image: Fox
Matt Grosinger is the music editor of the Nerdist and will be returning to theaters this weekend to see Logan again. It’s easily the best X-Men film.
