In a few months, Netflix will be graced by Train Dreams, a new film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s award-winning 2011 novella. It stars Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Kerry Condon, and William H. Macy, and the musical side of things is similarly stacked. The National’s Bryce Dessner composed the score, and he teamed up with Nick Cave (not Nic Cage) for the movie’s title track, which plays over the end credits.
The song will be featured on the movie’s soundtrack, which is set for a digital release on November 7 and a vinyl release on November 14. The movie itself is set to hit select theaters on November 7 before making its Netflix debut on November 21.
In a statement, director Clint Bentley spoke at length about Cave’s song, starting:
“When we started thinking about making a song for the film, Nick felt like the perfect artist to do it. It turns out that Train Dreams is one of his all-time favorite books, but he initially feared there wouldn’t be time to do something because he was getting ready to go on tour. Then he watched the film and was inspired to write something and the whole thing came together really quickly.
I knew he would craft something beautiful and resonant, but the film has such a delicate tone at the end, one that was really hard to get right, and I didn’t want a song that would push the audience in another direction emotionally. But Nick and I were very much on the same page from the outset. He read some early lyrics to me that he was working on and I was just really a bit overwhelmed with the whole situation — I’ve been a fan of his for such a long time and there I was, not only having a really lovely conversation with him about life and art, but he was also reading lyrics to me that he was writing for a film I made. It was a really special moment.
He’s a very rare artist and one I admire immensely. There’s no one thing that defines a Nick Cave song — sonically, lyrically, or otherwise — he’s got songs about everything, all the varieties of our experience here. There’s a deep poeticism alongside rock and roll. And that just felt like the perfect fit for a film like this that’s telling the story of this person who lived a beautiful resonant life, even if it did include heartache and pain.”
He also discussed hearing the song for the first time, saying, “I was blown away. It surpassed anything I felt like it might be. It took all the feelings that I was trying to communicate at the end of the movie and expanded them into another place. I was so struck by how the song builds to the end when other voices start to drift in, as if on the wind. His lyrics are so evocative and there’s a deep mystery to the song, especially when thinking about Grainier’s story. Every time I listen to it, I’m more moved by it.”
Of Dessner’s score, he added, “Bryce is such an open and generous artist. This is our second film together and with Train Dreams, there was a lot of back and forth throughout the edit as he sent over different ideas and threads he was working on based on the footage and the script. It really helped shape the rhythm and the feeling of the film and lifted it to a whole new place. His music is transcendent.”
Meanwhile, Netflix describes the film:
“Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier (Edgerton), whose life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th-century America. Orphaned at a young age, Robert grows into adulthood among the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he helps expand the nation’s railroad empire alongside men as unforgettable as the landscapes they inhabit. After a tender courtship, he marries Gladys (Jones) and they build a home together, though his work often takes him far from her and their young daughter. When his life takes an unexpected turn, Robert finds beauty, brutality, and newfound meaning for the forests and trees he has felled.”
Check out the Train Dreams trailer above.
