“The Stable Song” - The Peanut Butter Falcon

Film: “The Peanut Butter Falcon”

Director: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz

Music Department: Drew Bayers (Clearance), Zachary Dawes (Score)

“The Peanut Butter Falcon” follows the story of an unlikely friendship between a young man with Down’s Syndrome, Zak, and a thief on the run, Tyler, as they try to make their way to a wrestling camp in North Carolina. It’s a touching story about friendship, independence, and the things that hold us back. For me, the culmination of all of these themes comes into being when Gregory Alan Isakov’s “The Stable Song” starts playing as the three main characters dance and laugh on a makeshift boat of wooden planks drifting through the bayou. But why does this song work so well for this movie?

Most of the film’s score consists of Appalachian and Bluegrass folk/country, befitting the setting of Virginia and North Carolina. Many scenes feel like an homage to the 2005 film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” including its very own “baptism-by-river” scene with a wise blind man. A South African native and Philadelphia resident, Isakov’s presence in the soundtrack feels disjointed at first glance. But his grounded folk music with its plentiful motifs on nature thread seamlessly into this East Coast backdrop.

“The Stable Song” comes from Isakov’s 2006 album, “The Sea, The Gambler.” However, for this movie, the version of the song that is used comes from his 2016 album in which he re-recorded many of his biggest hits with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. This version of the song is much more pared down than the original, even though Isakov has a full orchestra behind him. For most of the song, the only instrument we hear is a mandolin and some steady violins in the background pushing the song forward. As the song progresses, though, the music swells and creates an incredibly, almost overwhelmingly, emotional sound.

The song is simplistic and moving at the same time. It tells the story of a bygone romance that left our narrator feeling hopeless, angry, and eventually resigned. One particularly poignant declaration comes at the very end of the song when Isakov repeats the line “Turn these diamonds straight back into coal.” Though he has everything he could want, he feels disconnected and isolated.

While lyrics don’t have to align with a film’s story in order to make us feel something, the simple lyrics floating in the background of this scene match the grounded, reflective tone of this moment and the film as a whole, creating a resonant feeling of contentedness and release.

This movie is unembellished and charming with big emotional moments that come unexpectedly. The journey to Florida up until this point has been rough. Our lead characters face the muggy, suffocating weather of North Carolina and adamant push-back from Zak’s caretaker, Eleanor. This moment on the boat is pivotal. Eleanor, who has spent so much of her time looking after Zak and trying to protect him, finally lets go a little and sees how happy he is to be on this adventure with Tyler. Tyler learns to mature as well on his trip with Zak. After losing their boat and growing tired of walking, the three of them find a small boat to travel on for a while. Nighttime settles on the marsh and we’re met with beautiful scenery as firelight frames our characters in a moment that seems frozen in time. “The Stable Song” begins to play in the background, Zak and Eleanor share a touching dance on the boat. The tone of the movie shifts right here in this moment as all of our characters step into themselves completely.

One question is asked in this film that encapsulates all its thematic elements and is summed up in the usage of “The Stable Song:” Are you a good guy or a bad guy? The answer is as complex as our characters themselves and the song reflects this. The lyric “Were we the belly of the beast, or the sword that fell?” shows Isakov reflecting on his relationship with this person, wondering whether they were truly good for one another or if they were always destined to end tragically. Tyler is haunted by a past that he can’t shake, and Zak knows only the story that he’s been told about himself his whole life. The beauty of this movie is that our question is never truly answered, but the characters are moved by this very question throughout the rest of the film, as is the audience watching these characters attempt to be better than they were when we found them.

There are plenty of songs out there that could have fit a scene with characters dancing on a boat, but none fit this exact scene and this film as perfectly as “The Stable Song.” The hints of sorrow mixed with the underlying theme of hope in the song fit this coming-of-age story for all our characters in their varying stages of life. Here, they come together to let go of their worries and their pasts to simply exist in the moment and dance in a southern marsh, much like Isakov relinquishes his regrets and anger and resigns himself to simply being as he is.

“The Peanut Butter Falcon” is a beautiful film whose score and soundtrack only ever enhance the beauty of a scene, and that’s captured in its purest form through use of “The Stable Song.”