Lawless Got the Palme d’Or, You Get the Soundtrack

Sony Music announces the release of the Original Motion Picture soundtrack of "Lawless," the true story of the Bondurant Brothers in Prohibition-era Virginia. Based on Matt Bondurant's book, "The Wettest County In The World," the film tells the story of his grandfather and two brothers, whose bootlegging operation brings them into a terrifying collision with the law and with rival gangsters.

Editor-in-Chief Vivian Van Dijk of EYES IN Magazine attended the press screening from the film "Lawless" at Cannes last May 2012 and had the following review:

“The film ‘Lawless’ is an eye opener into an important piece of American history that shows the American Dream; the fight for independence in business and a strong bonding of brotherhood is all packed together in an epic gangster thriller. The film is based on a true story on a book of Matt Bondurant’s “The Wettest County in the World,” a book based on stories about his family. Film director John Hillcoat has managed to reflect in an amazing way on the culture, settings and mindset of that time. The scenes are gorgeous in the background of a rural America with its rough standards for survival. The three brothers Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf) manage to show the strength of protecting each other, the family and its business as a unit.

"The interaction among them is played brilliantly. The legend that the Bondurant family is immortal seems to pretty much come through throughout the whole movie.  Romantic twists brought upon Forrest and Jack by Maggie (Jessica Chastain) and Bertha (Mia Wasikowska), spice up Lawless even further. Lawless is a film both men and women will appreciate. Just remember- don’t be fearful anymore if you ever were, as Forrest says: ‘We control the fear, you understand? Without the fear, we are all good as dead.’”

The soundtrack, with music by Nick Cave (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party) and Warren Ellis (Dirty Three, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Grinderman), is available now. It features music with  Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley and Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees) plus a never-before-released bonus track by Willie Nelson .

Australian born director John Hillcoat first teamed up with long time associate Nick Cave as a scriptwriter on "The Proposition" (2005). Together with Warren Ellis, Cave also composed and performed the score for this poetically violent Western set in the Australian outback. Cave and Ellis also joined forces with Hillcoat to score his next picture "The Road" (2009).

For "Lawless," which was entered for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Hillcoat has assembled a star cast – Tom Hardy ("Star Trek: Nemesis," "Inception," "The Dark Knight Rises") and Shia LaBeouf ("Transformers") play two of the brothers with Guy Pearce ("Memento," "LA Confidential," "The King's Speech") as the demented cop who hunts them down.

Along with producer Hal Willner, Cave and Ellis have created an outstanding soundtrack presenting historical recordings of some of the greatest living American voices. The score has a period feel of country and bluegrass, anchoring the film firmly in its setting: rural Virginia in 1931. Their original music mixed with the innovative vocal tracks are supported by the sound of The Bootleggers, the fittingly named band that Cave and Ellis formed for the project.

The soundtrack includes two versions of Velvet Underground's "White Light / White Heat," one a rollicking gut-bucket  rendition by Mark Lanegan, the other performed by bluegrass veteran Ralph Stanley in his distinctive vocal style. Stanley's appearance is all the more special since he rarely performs music outside his chosen field. Emmylou Harris, one country music's all-time greats, joins The Bootleggers for "So You'll Aim Toward the Sky," originally by Grandaddy, as well as for Townes Van Zandt's "The Snake Song." Mark Lanegan contributes Link Wray's "Fire and Brimstone," and Captain Beefheart's "Sure 'Nuff Yes I do."

To complement these inspired cover-song choices, Cave and Ellis wrote two new songs, "Cosmonaut" and "Fire in the Blood," which comes in three wonderfully contrasting versions: Emmylou Harris sings it beautifully, then Ralph Stanley gives an intense rendering in his haunting and fragile voice, finally Harris repeats it with a greater yearning. The album closes with the plaintive & shimmering strings of Cave and Ellis' instrumental track "End Crawl."

The album also features the bonus track "Midnight Run" sung by Willie Nelson, who was born in the year when the Prohibition ended. The song is the about clandestine transport of moonshine whisky with a driving beat and whining harmonica.

Track list:

01 "Fire and Brimstone"
Written by Fred Lincoln Wray Jr.
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Mark Lanegan

02 "Burnin' Hell"
Written by Bernard Besman and John Lee Hooker
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Nick Cave

03 "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do"
Written by Herb Bermann and Don Van Vliet
Performed by Ralph Stanley

04 "Fire in the Blood"
Written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Emmylou Harris

05 White Light / White Heat
Written by Lou Reed
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Mark Lanegan

06 "Cosmonaut"
Written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Emmylou Harris

07 "Fire in the Blood / Snake Song"
Written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Ralph Stanley

08 "So You'll Aim Toward the Sky"
Written by Jason Lytle
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Emmylou Harris

09 "Fire in the Blood"
Written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Emmylou Harris

10 "Fire and Brimstone"
Written by Fred Lincoln Wray Jr
Performed by Ralph Stanley

11 "Sure 'Nuff 'N Yes I Do"
Written by Herb Bermann and Don Van Vliet
Performed by The Bootleggers · Featuring Mark Lanegan

12 "White Light / White Heat"
Written by Lou Reed
Performed by Ralph Stanley

13 "End Crawl"
Written by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
Performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

14 "Midnight Run"
Words and music by Marc Copely, James Bernard Dolan and Adam Stuart Levy
Performed by Willie Nelson

More About the Film: Cannes Film Festival

Film Info Courtesy: Sony