Archive for the ‘Rock Movies’ Category

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Yellow Submarine

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated feature film based on the music of The Beatles. It is also the title for the soundtrack album to the feature film, released as part of The Beatles’ music catalogue. The film was directed by Canadian-born animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists and King Features Syndicate. The Beatles themselves appear only in the closing scene of the film, with the Beatles characters in the film voiced by other actors.

The Beatles’ participation

The Beatles themselves were not enthusiastic about participating in a motion picture at the time; their enthusiasm during the production of their second feature film Help! having waned after they had produced and starred in the disastrous TV special Magical Mystery Tour. They did, however, see an animated film as a favourable way to complete their commitment to United Artists for a third film. Voice actors were hired to imitate the musicians’ voices in the film. The Beatles were impressed after seeing a draft of the film, and agreed to make a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene. The cameo was originally intended to feature a post-production psychedelic background; but due to time and budget constraints, a blank, black background remained in the final film.

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Pink Floyd The Wall

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 musical film by British director Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound. It features very little dialogue and is mainly driven by Pink Floyd’s music. Although it features a linear storyline, in many ways The Wall more resembles a long-form music video than a traditional narrative feature film.

The film contains fifteen minutes of elaborate animation sequences by the political cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe, part of which depict a nightmarish vision of the German bombing campaign over the United Kingdom during World War II set to the song “Goodbye Blue Sky”.

History

Even before the original Pink Floyd album was recorded, a film was intended to be made from it. However, the concept of the film was intended to be live footage from the album’s tour, with Scarfe’s animation and extra scenes. The film was going to star Waters himself. EMI did not intend to make the film, as they did not understand the concept.

Director Alan Parker, a fan of Pink Floyd, asked EMI whether The Wall could be adapted to film. EMI suggested that Parker talk to Waters, who asked Parker to direct the film. Parker instead suggested that he produce it and give the directing task to Scarfe and Michael Seresin, a cinematographer. Waters began work on the film’s screenplay after studying scriptwriting books. He and Scarfe produced a special-edition book containing the screenplay and art to pitch the project to investors. While the book depicted Roger in the role of Pink, after screen tests, Roger was removed from the starring role; he was replaced with the edgy punk musician Bob Geldof.

Since Roger was no longer in the starring role, it no longer made sense for the feature to include Pink Floyd footage, so the live film aspect was dropped. Waters and Parker were not given much of a choice anyway, because the footage culled from the five Wall concerts that were held specifically for filming was deemed unusable.

During production, Geldof suffered a cut to his hand while filming the destruction of the hotel room set as he pulls away the venetian blinds. The footage remains in the film. Also, it was discovered during the filming of the pool scenes that Geldof did not know how to swim. Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios, and it was suggested that they suspend Geldof in Christopher Reeve’s clear cast used for the Superman flying sequences from storage, but his frame was too small by comparison; it was then decided to use a similar mould for Helen Slater from Supergirl, which was a more acceptable fit, and he simply laid on his back.

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This is Spinal Tap

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

This Is Spinal Tap (officially spelled with a non-functional umlaut over the letter n and a dotless i) is a 1984 mock rockumentary directed by Rob Reiner and starring members of the fictional heavy-metal/hard rock band Spinal Tap. The film satirizes the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of hard-rock and heavy-metal bands, as well as the hagiographic tendencies of rockumentaries of the time.

Despite Reiner and the three main stars being credited as the writers of the film, much of it was ad libbed, and several dozen hours of footage were shot before Reiner edited it down to the released film. A 4½ hour bootleg version of the film exists and has been traded among fans and collectors for years.

The three core members of Spinal Tap—David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel—are portrayed by the American actors Michael McKean and Harry Shearer and British American Christopher Guest respectively. The three actors play their musical instruments and speak with mock English accents throughout the film. Reiner appears as Marty DiBergi, the maker of the documentary. Other actors in the film are Tony Hendra as the group manager Ian Faith and June Chadwick as St. Hubbins’ interfering girlfriend Jeanine. Actors Paul Shaffer, Fred Willard, Fran Drescher, Bruno Kirby, Howard Hesseman, Ed Begley, Jr., Patrick Macnee, Anjelica Huston, Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal all play supporting roles or make cameo appearances in the film. Scream queen starlet Brinke Stevens appears in an uncredited cameo as a groupie of the band in an early scene set in a hotel room.

Cast

  • Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins
  • Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel (Tuffy)
  • Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls
  • Rob Reiner as Marty DiBergi
  • Tony Hendra as Ian Faith
  • David Kaff as Viv Savage
  • R. J. Parnell, drummer for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, as Mick Shrimpton
  • Bruno Kirby as limo driver Tommy Pischedda
  • Ed Begley, Jr. as John “Stumpy” Pepys
  • Danny Kortchmar as Ronnie Pudding
  • Fran Drescher as Bobbi Flekman
  • Patrick Macnee as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg
  • Julie Payne as mime waitress
  • Dana Carvey as mime waiter
  • Sandy Helberg as Angelo DiMentibelio
  • Zane Buzby as Rolling Stone reporter
  • Billy Crystal as Morty the Mime
  • Paul Benedict as Tucker “Smitty” Brown
  • Howard Hesseman as Terry Ladd
  • Paul Shortino as Duke Fame

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Singles

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Singles is a 1992 romantic comedy film written and directed by Cameron Crowe. The film stars Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, and Matt Dillon.

Reception

Singles rode on the heels of Seattle’s grunge music boom. The success of and buzz around the film’s soundtrack largely eclipsed the film itself, which was neither as commercially nor as critically successful as either Crowe’s previous film, 1989′s Say Anything…, or his next film, 1996′s Jerry Maguire. Nevertheless, Singles has been credited with inspiring a wave of films marketed towards a Generation X audience, spawning numerous imitators (most notably Reality Bites and Threesome). Tim Appelo wrote in Entertainment Weekly, “With … an ambling, naturalistic style, Crowe captures the eccentric appeal of a town where espresso carts sprout on every corner and kids in ratty flannel shirts can cut records that make them millionaires.” As of June 24, 2008, Singles currently holds a 78% critical approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with 21 out of 27 positive reviews.

Interestingly, Warner Bros. Television tried immediately to turn Singles into a television series. When Crowe balked at the notion, the company proceeded with the idea, engaged a new writing and directing team, changing elements and the name to Friends, which ran successfully on NBC from 1994-2004.

One of the few Seattle bands of this era not to have a cameo was Nirvana, and according to Everett True’s 2006 book, Nirvana: The Biography, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain hated this film

Soundtrack

The Singles soundtrack was released on June 30, 1992 through Epic Records and became a best seller three months before the release of the film. The soundtrack included music from key bands from the Seattle music scene of the time, such as Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. Pearl Jam released two songs on the soundtrack: “Breath” and “State of Love and Trust”. The Soundgarden song “Birth Ritual” and Chris Cornell’s solo song “Seasons” appear on the soundtrack. Paul Westerberg of The Replacements contributed two songs to the soundtrack and provided the score for the film. The Smashing Pumpkins also contributed to the soundtrack with the song “Drown”.

Nirvana (who had gained major success a year earlier with the multiplatinum record Nevermind) was the only major grunge band of the time to not appear on the soundtrack. During production, Nirvana were not yet national stars, but by the time the soundtrack was released, the band’s song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had to be cut because it was too costly to buy the rights.

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Sid & Nancy

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Sid and Nancy is a 1986 film directed by Alex Cox. The film materialized during a time of renewed interest in the period of punk rock, heroin addiction and specifically the life of Sid Vicious. It stars Gary Oldman as Vicious and Chloe Webb as his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.

Factual errors

The film includes a large number of factual errors.

  • One scene shows Spungen giving Vicious the chain and padlock necklace that would become his trademark. This was, however, given to him as a present by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.
  • The film features Sid playing at Winterland, San Francisco with “NANCY” carved onto his chest. This is a distortion of the event as Vicious played at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas with “GIMME A FIX” carved onto his chest.
  • The scene depicting the Pistols playing at San Francisco shows Johnny Rotten saying to the crowd “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”, before the Pistols begin playing “Problems”. However, Rotten actually said this at the end of the gig, just after the Pistols played their final song of the encore, “No Fun”.
  • The movie shows Paul Cook and Steve Jones walking out of the band, leaving John and Sid. This is inaccurate because it was John who walked out on the other Pistols. Steve and Paul stayed with Sid and Malcolm McLaren, appearing in and recording songs for the movie The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle.
  • In the scene where Nancy succumbs to her stab wound in the bathroom, she dies face down on the bathroom floor. In actuality, she died in a sitting position under the sink.
  • In the scene right before Sid is supposed to play bass live for the first time with the Sex Pistols he is shown attacking a journalist (called Dick Dent in the film) with his bass guitar. In fact Sid did attack the NME journalist Nick Kent but this was long before he joined the Pistols; furthermore, he did not use a bass guitar, he used a bicycle chain.

Cast

  • Gary Oldman … Sid Vicious
  • Chloe Webb … Nancy Spungen
  • David Hayman … Malcolm McLaren
  • Debby Bishop … Phoebe
  • Andrew Schofield … Johnny Rotten
  • Xander Berkeley … Bowery Snax, drug dealer
  • Courtney Love… Gretchen
  • Perry Benson … Paul Cook
  • Tony London … Steve Jones

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Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School is a 1979 musical comedy film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Allan Arkush, and featuring The Ramones.

The film starred P. J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, and Clint Howard. Darby Crash and Lorna Doom of The Germs also played extras in this film. It is marketed with the tagline “Will your school be next?”

Production and Success

Executive Producer Corman wanted a latter-day version of his “wild teen” films of the 50s and 60s, and felt that the best way to adapt to the 70s would be to center the plot on the popular music of the day. The production Disco High began, based upon a story by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante. In September of 1977 Richard Whitley and Russ Dvonch, both fresh out of film school, went to Corman’s offices, hoping to find work. As luck would have it, Arkush and Dante happened to be in the lobby and were nice enough to look at their student films. They liked their films enough to give them the script, then called “Girl’s Gym” by Joseph McBride. Whitley and Dvonch were told to take any section and rewrite it as a test. Whitley and Dvonch passed the test and were hired to write the screenplay which became Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.

Arkush, who would go on to direct the film, tells all about the film’s evolution on the DVD’s commentary track, along with Whitley and producer Michael Finnell. The trio tries to maintain an anecdotal train of thought, but they tend to get distracted when certain elements pop up on the screen. This makes for an interruption in their stories, but it also tends to bring light to otherwise obscure trivia. For example, one of the film’s more memorable sequences, the “paper plane” scene, was partially directed by the Zucker Brothers, who would go on to direct, of all things, Airplane! (1980). It also reveals that Dante, who helped write the story, got the chance to direct a few of the film’s sequences while Arkush was out of commission with exhaustion.

The genesis for the plot was a favorite story told to the film’s original writer by his father, Raymond E. McBride of the Milwaukee Journal, who staged a walkout from his Superior (Wis.) Central High school in the 1920s. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School did so well that Arkush and Whitley followed it up with a sequel, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School Forever (1991).

On July 31, 2008, it was announced that actor/writer Alex Winter had been hired to script a remake of the film for Howard Stern’s production company.

Cast

  • P. J. Soles: Riff Randell
  • The Ramones: Themselves
  • Vince Van Patten: Tom Roberts
  • Clint Howard: Eaglebauer
  • Dey Young: Kate Rambeau
  • Mary Woronov: Miss Evelyn Togar
  • Paul Bartel: Mr. McGree
  • Dick Miller: Police Chief
  • Don Steele: Screamin’ Steve Stevens
  • Alix Elias: Coach Steroid
  • Kc Ramone:Extra

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Performance

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Performance is a British film made in 1968 but not released until 1970. It was directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, and stars James Fox and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones in his film acting debut.

Critical reputation

On its release the film received mixed reviews. Most reviewers focused on the graphic sexual elements. One reviewer (Richard Schickel) described it as “the most completely worthless film I have seen since I began reviewing.”

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Performance gradually acquired a cult following on the late night and repertory cinema circuits. By the 1990s the film had undergone a complete critical reappraisal. In 1995 Performance appeared at number 28 in a Time Outmagazine “all-time greats” poll of critics and directors. After Cammell’s death in 1996 the film’s reputation grew still further. It is now frequently cited as a classic of British cinema.

According to the website They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They, which collects ranking from various critics and best-of lists, Performance, as of January 2008 is ranked 195th in the 1,000 Greatest Films of All Time.

Cast

  • James Fox as Chas
  • Mick Jagger as Turner
  • Anita Pallenberg as Pherber
  • Michèle Breton as Lucy
  • Ann Sidney as Dana
  • John Bindon as Moody
  • Stanley Meadows as Rosebloom
  • Allan Cuthbertson as The Lawyer
  • Anthony Morton as Dennis
  • Johnny Shannon as Harry Flowers
  • Anthony Valentine as Joey Maddocks
  • Kenneth Colley as Tony Farrell
  • John Sterland as The Chauffeur
  • Laraine Wickens as Lorraine

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Magical Mystery Tour

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Magical Mystery Tour is an hour-long television film starring The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr) that initially aired on BBC1 on December 26, 1967. Upon its initial showing, the film was poorly received by critics and audiences.

Production

Despite being the shortest Beatles film, nearly ten hours of footage was shot over a two week period. The core of the film was shot beginning on 11 September and finishing on 25 September. The following eleven weeks were mostly spent on editing the film from ten hours to 52 minutes. Scenes that were filmed but not included in the final cut include:

  • A sequence where ice cream, fruit, and lollipops were sold to The Beatles and other coach passengers
  • John, Paul, George, and Ringo each looking through a telescope
  • Happy Nat The Rubber Man (Nat Jackley) chasing women around the Atlantic Hotel’s outdoor swimming pool, a sequence directed by John.

Much of the film was shot in and around RAF West Malling, an airfield in Kent that had recently been decommissioned. Many of the interior scenes, such as the final ballroom sequence for “Your Mother Should Know”, were shot in the disused aircraft hangars. The exteriors, such as the “I Am the Walrus” sequence, and the marathon race, were filmed on the runways and taxi aprons. RAF Air Training Corps cadets can be seen marching in some scenes, and during “I Am the Walrus” an RAF Avro Shackleton is seen orbiting the group.

The mystery tour itself was shot throughout the West Country of England, including Devon and Cornwall, although most of the footage was not used in the finished film. The final striptease sequence was shot at Paul Raymond’s Raymond Revuebar in London, and the sequence for “The Fool on the Hill” was shot around Nice, France. The visual sequence for the instrumental “Flying” uses aerial footage on tinted film originally intended for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Songs

  1. “Magical Mystery Tour”
  2. “The Fool on the Hill”
  3. “Flying”
  4. “I Am the Walrus”
  5. “Blue Jay Way”
  6. “Your Mother Should Know”
  7. “Hello Goodbye” (finale played over end credits)
  8. “Death Cab For Cutie” (written by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by their band, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)
  9. “All My Loving” (orchestrated, as background music)
  10. “She Loves You” (played during the marathon with a carnival-style organ)

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Last Days

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

Last Days (2005) is a film by director Gus Van Sant, and is a fictionalized account of the last days of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. It was released to theaters in the United States on July 22, 2005, and was produced by HBO. The film stars Michael Pitt as the character Blake, based on Kurt Cobain. Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth), Lukas Haas, Asia Argento, and Thadeus A. Thomas also star in the film. Director and friend of Van Sant’s, Harmony Korine, appears in a brief club scene as well, playing a character similar to one in the movie Kids.

Background

Van Sant said he thought about the project for nearly a decade. At one stage, he wanted to do a Cobain biopic, but decided against the idea out of fear of being sued by Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love. He was not sure how Cobain’s fans and family would react to the film. He spoke to Love several times over the years about his project and recently expressed his concern that it may be painful for her to see the film. Actress Asia Argento, who plays a dead-beat character in the film, stated, “It’s been written that I play Courtney Love, and it’s not true. I’m so upset. I don’t know why people say that. I feel very sorry for her. She’s been demonised and I feel sorry for anybody that’s lost like that. But no, I play a character that’s very dorky.”

Filming location

The film was shot in the Hudson Valley region of New York state, although its aesthetic style, due largely in part to cinematographer Harris Savides’ specialized treatment of the film stock, suggests the atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, where both Cobain and Van Sant find their roots.

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La Bamba

Friday, March 6th, 2009
Movies Online

La Bamba (1987) is an American biographical film written and directed by Luis Valdez. The picture features Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Rosanna DeSoto, among others. The drama is based on the real life events that affected the lives of rock star Ritchie Valens, his half-brother Bob Morales, his girlfriend Donna Ludwig and the rest of their families.

Background

This production had the full support of the Valenzuela family. Bob Morales and Connie Valenzuela even came to the set to help the actors portray their characters correctly, and Connie even makes an appearance as an older lady sitting next to Ritchie at the family’s first party.

Phillips even bonded with the Valenzuelas and at one point actually became Ritchie to them which led to an incident involving Ritchie’s sister at the airfield scene. When the actors began boarding the plane for the final fatal flight, the scene was interrupted by Connie Lemos, Ritchie’s real life sister, who was only six years old at the time of her brother’s death. She hysterically tried to keep Phillips from boarding the plane. She was heard to shout, “Don’t go Ritchie! Please don’t get on the plane! Why did you have to die?” Connie admitted to Behind the Music that she realized at that moment that she never fully accepted her brother’s death.

The original title of this film was, “Let’s Go,” named for Valens’ hit song: “Come on Let’s Go!”

All of Ritchie Valens’ songs were performed by Los Lobos. The band has a cameo in the movie where they sang in the brothel ballroom in Tijuana. Brian Setzer has a cameo as Eddie Cochran. Other musicians who portrayed other musicians of the same era depicted in the film, like The Big Bopper, also provided recordings for the film.

Ritchie Valens was only seventeen years old when he died, eight months after he signed to Del-Fi Records and produced three songs that hit the Billboard 100. Don McLean immortalized Ritchie and his friends deaths as “The Day The Music Died” when he chronicled his reaction to hearing about the plane crash in his song “American Pie.”

Cast

  • Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie Valens
  • Esai Morales as Bob Morales
  • Rosanna DeSoto as Connie Valenzuela
  • Elizabeth Peña as Rosie Morales
  • Danielle von Zerneck as Donna Ludwig
  • Joe Pantoliano as Bob Keane
  • Rick Dees as Ted Quillen
  • Marshall Crenshaw as Buddy Holly
  • Howard Huntsberry as Jackie Wilson
  • Brian Setzer as Eddie Cochran
  • Stephen Lee as The Big Bopper
  • Sam Anderson as Mr. Ludwig
  • John Quade as Bartender
  • Noble Willingham as Howard

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