Apr 142010
 

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The other night a couple of Townsmen and I were talking about how hard it is as experienced musicians (to some degree, not accounting for talent or acclaim) to enjoy any dramatic rock movie, whether based on fact or not. We were not talking about rock documentaries or rock operas, such as Tommy, Quadrophenia, or The Wall, but dramatic rock movies centering on the lives of a musician or multiple musician characters. Some we had never seen all the way through, such as The Buddy Holly Story. One of us mentioned The Idolmaker as a relatively accurate portrayal of the lives of rock ‘n roll musicians, but he was the only one of us who’d seen that movie all the way through. The films that immediately came to mind all had major flaws right off the bat that took us out of fully enjoying whatever else the movie had to offer.

We finally agreed that That Thing You Do was a less-objectionable-than-usual portrayal of the lives of musicians. I mentioned that The Germs movie I saw a couple of months ago was impressive for the fact that the actors were probably no less talented than the real members of The Germs. We’d heard that the dramatic movie on Joy Division was supposed to be good in terms of getting the musical stuff right, but we hadn’t seen it. Likewise, none of us had seen that fictional take on The Temptations, The Five Heartbeats, all the way through.

Years ago I remember getting into a big fight with two friends over Grace of My Heart, the dramatic re-telling of a Carole King-like character. I kind of liked the movie thanks to it being stocked with a bunch of actors who get the six-pack from me, but my friends were totally bent out of shape over anachronisms in the model microphones and cut of striped jeans that characters wore. I’ve been there too many times myself when watching rock movies not loaded with six-pack-worthy actors.

I’m sure there some tremendous examples of dramatic rock ‘n roll movies that don’t immediately bum out musicians for their inaccuracies, that do get it more or less right. Truth be told, one of my least-favorite rock movies isn’t so far off the mark in terms of rock ‘n roll when it sticks to the band members’-only dynamic (and when it doesn’t have them sing a completely inappropriate song on a bus trip). We just couldn’t think of them that night, right?

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  13 Responses to “What Dramatic Rock Movies Don’t “Get it All Wrong,” in the Eyes of Musicians, Almost Immediately?”

  1. misterioso

    Well, I don’t have the eyes of a musician (nor the Eyes of Laura Mars) but to my eyes I am pretty much at a loss to come up with a serious rock movie that does not get too much wrong for me to have any regard for it. I thought Grace of My Heart was bloody awful, phony and interminable. When whoever it is sings God Give Me Strength she was only reading my mind.

  2. i love Eyes of Laura Mars.

    24 hour party gets it all right.
    backbeat did a pretty good job.
    michael bay’s eagles biopic looks like it’s gonna be right on the money.

  3. I love the VH1 Movies (Def Leppard, The Jacksons, Temptations, Meatloaf, Beach Boys) where they try to make their story fit into the format of a movie. Writing the hit song in 4 minutes is ususally the best part.

    I bet The Runaways will be like that.

  4. Mr. Moderator

    24 Hour Party People was well done.

    I don’t remember much about Backbeat, only that I was annoyed for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with the movie itself.

    Is there really an Eagles biopic coming? Are they using our casting suggestions from around the time we got the “exclusive” on the Felder bio?

  5. just yankin yer crank Mod.
    and it’s Michael Mann, not Michael Bay.
    I get my directors of shallow, overblown, macho movies confused sometimes.

  6. I thought “Control,” the Joy Division flick was good. “24 Hour Party People” is also good and the commentary track on the DVD is awesome. I’ve never seen “The Commitments,” but an old roommate, who wouldn’t know, said, “it’s just like what happens to real bands.” I interpreted that to mean that it was all wrong.

  7. Who was it that brought up Cotton Candy?

    Roadie is a classic. A classic what I don’t know.

    Rock Star with Marky Mark.

    Hearts of Fire with Bob Dylan.

    Don’t forget the VH1 Monkees movie.

    All dreadful.

    The most accurate one is Walk Hard, of course.

    TB

  8. Is 24 Hour Party People about a band, or is it about the northern London soul scene? Never saw it, but I’m intrigued now that it has some RTH backing. I thought that was the one with a Culkin kid in it.

    The VH1 type movies are the prototype of the painful rock movie. You spend 1/2 the time laughing at the attempts to get the band’s look correct: did they get actors that look close enough, did they get the era’s beard accurate, do they hold their instruments correctly, etc., that you never get absorbed into the movie itself.

    The fan-boy items are usually handled too ham-fistedly to be enjoyable. Harrison telling George Martin that he doesn’t like his tie is true, but when it’s so stagely recreated, it feels false. So many rock movies have the scenes a fan has read about before, but the recreations don’t feel historically accurate like with a war movie. The famous rock quotes have to be verbatim, but that makes the whole thing seem forced.

    The Commitments did get the band dynamic down pretty accurately. The movie is just a tad too cute for my taste. It doesn’t seem fair to pick this one, but even with all the hilarious exaggerations, This Is Spinal Tap seems to be the most accurate rock pic.

  9. BigSteve

    24 Hour Party People is about Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan) and Factory Records and the Manchester scene in the 70s/80s. I just watched it again recently, and it’s quite good.

    One of the more obscure Altman movies is A Perfect Couple, a romantic comedy starring Paul Dooley. The woman he tries to romance is affiliated with a bunch of musicians led by Ted Neeley. His band sings songs that reflect on the events in the movie. It sounds hokey, but I remember really liking it when I saw it over 30 years ago.

  10. BigSteve

    And don’t forget RTH favorite Almost Famous, which veers wildly from completely ludicrous to actually kind of authentic.

  11. Mr. Moderator

    A Perfect Couple, if it’s the movie I’m thinking of, watched for the first time 30 years later, is a spectacle not to be missed! I love Altman’s style, and I found the musical scenes to be like a theatrical representation of The Doobie Brothers. It was one of those “so wrong it’s right” movies for me. The band practices on a stage in a big loft, right?

  12. What did RTHers think of Cadillac Records? Saw it the other day and enjoyed it more than I thought I might. Thought the acting was really good, especially Mos Def as Chuck Berry and whoever it was who played Howlin’ Wolf.

  13. I thought Cadillac Records is the personification of all that is WRONG with musical bio-pics. Every cliché in the book is trotted out. The performers are fine, but the script & the direction is terrible. I was hoping Walk Hard would have driven the final nail into the coffin of this kind of revisionist, simplistic, & ESPECIALLY, clichéd tripe. So, that’s what I thought. Anyone else see it?

    I like ‘Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains’.

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