rock movies

NFL Films-Worthy Moments in Rock?

Sep 202012

I was trying to think about what the legacy of recently deceased NFL Films cofounder Steve Sabol means to us, or how we might apply the mythology he built for his industry to myth-making in rock ‘n roll. Fear not, this will not be an attempt to equate football with rock ‘n roll.

For those who don’t know the first thing about Steve Sabol, his father Ed, and NFL Films, it was an small, independent company that won a contract to shoot highlights of NFL games beginning in the early ’60s. By the end of the decade, the company’s innovative, orchestrated, and dramatically narrated weekly highlight reels brought the game to sports fans like never before. Their style became the Look of the NFL, as described below, in a passage by longtime Philadelphia football writer and eventual NFL films employee Ray Didinger. as kids tuned in each Saturday morning then ran out to the nearest open field re-enacting the latest slow-motion sideline catch or safety blitz with their friends while the highlights were fresh in mind. This was what Sabol called the “backyard moment.”

A typical NFL Films piece will open with the pounding of kettle drums and a close-up of a player breathing steam through his face mask. There is blood on his jersey. His eyes scan the field in slow motion. The music swells and just like that, you’re hooked. Even if you know how the game turned out, you keep watching because you never saw it quite this way before.

I really believe a major factor in the surge of pro football popularity over the past 40 years was the influence of NFL Films. No other sport had anything like it. NFL Films took you inside the game and put you eyeball-to-eyeball with the players. They shoved your face in the snow in Green Bay. They made you feel what it’s like to be on the field. Above all, they made you care. – Ray Didinger, CSN Philly

Rock ‘n roll has never had a weekly highlights show (only Top 40 countdowns, which never really took viewers into the studio or on stage), but it does have its share of classic filmed and televised performances. What are the key myth-making cinematic moments in rock? What are the specific “backyard moments” of rock, not entire films or performances but key moments, like Pete Townshend’s slide at the end of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in The Kids Are Alright?

Taking this idea one step further, if we could go back in time, to a time when kids actually cared about rock ‘n roll, and you were asked to launch a weekly rock ‘n roll highlights show, what aspects of musicians playing would you and your crew look to zoom in on and run in slow-motion? Who would be your narrator?

You Oughta Be in Pictures: Live Albums That Could Be Short Films

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 122012

Imagine, if you will, a series of short films documenting classic live albums. Directors would be commissioned to either assemble a concert film from archived or found footage or stage dramatic interpretations of the album. Each film would run the length of the live album’s original vinyl release.

You mission follows:

Suggest a live album for this treatment
Select an appropriate director
Imagine the visual style/storytelling technique for your film.

I’d like to see Paul Thomas Anderson direct a dramatic treatment of Lou Reed‘s Rock ‘n Roll Animal. It would be shot in grainy, washed-out color, somewhere between the porno look of Boogie Nights and the painterly oil drilling scenes from There Will Be Blood.

Staying with Lou Reed, I’d like to see The Velvet Underground‘s Live at Max’s Kansas City directed by Michel Gondry, who would find ways to make the most of the crumbling legacy of an already underground band as they plays what would be their farewell show. Song performances involving puppetry and primitive-futuristic technology would be expected.

The summer tentpole movies of this series would be KISS Alive I & II. I’ll leave it to fans of that band’s live albums to select the director(s) and sketch out the films’ treatments.

I’m sure you’ve got your own classic live album short films to produce.

What’s the Winning Catch Phrase From Almost Famous?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Aug 202012

Look at him, he’s taking notes with his eyes. How do we know he’s not a cop?!?! – Russell, the band member with the friendly mustache

Followed moments later by this:

An Open, Private Letter to My Friend E. Pluribus Gergely Regarding That Dylan Movie, I’m Not There

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Aug 152012

I'm Not You.

My friend,

How’s it going? I know we spoke on the phone last night and I know we discussed plans to get together and hash out some serious stuff, but I miss the private, personal communications we used to have here, in public. I’ve got something I’d like to discuss. Man to man.

I just tried watching a half hour of a movie I’ve put off watching for the last couple of years, a movie I’ve repeatedly been tempted to watch, I’m Not Here, the Dylan movie by Todd Haynes, who’s directed a couple of films I like a lot, especially Safe, that one with Julianne Moore, before she broke through by dropping trou in that Robert Altman flick. Have you seen it? (The Dylan movie, that is.)

RTH Summer Rock Movie Series Must See?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 262012

Have any of you seen something called Heavy Metal Parking Lot? I don’t recall it coming out; heavy metal was and still is off my radar. Looks like it might be worth tracking down and watching. Can anyone recommend this?

I’m also thinking about taking the plunge and watching the Beulah tour doc that came out a couple of years ago, A Good Band Is Easy to Kill. I like those guys and have been interested in tracking down Miles Kurosky for an RTH interview.

Time permitting, I’m thinking about ending the summer by hosting a party in my backyard and projecting a rock movie on my garage wall. Should I be able to organize this, what rock movie (fictional or documentary) should we look to screen?

Late to the Party: Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison’s Living in the Material World

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 062012

I’m finally getting around to watching this George Harrison documentary, having completed the first half on Independence Day. So far it’s great! I’m honestly shocked.

First of all it provides the one thing any Beatles-related documentary or book needs to provide: fresh images of my rock ‘n roll gods. I am pretty easy to please when it comes to Beatles things if I get to see new still photographs and film clips. It’s probably like the thrill some religious people get when they see a new stained-glass window depicting Jesus on the cross or whatever.

Second, the story starts by framing George square in his career with The Beatles—and it’s not from the Woe Is George perspective I was expecting. George is one of the boys, slowly developing his own perspective on the world through the band’s unique experiences. I put off watching this thing for the last year fearing that it would be produced from the perspective of the Mother’s Basement crowd, you know, those thumb-suckers who take the position that George was “screwed” all those years and that his true genius and equal standing among John and Paul finally came to the fore with the release of All Things Must Pass, including side 6’s underrated “Apple Jam.” Hey man, it’s cool that George is a hero to the quieter ones among us, but let’s be real when it comes to the balance of talent and drive within The Beatles. In part 1 of this documentary, George actually comes off better for his efforts, achievements, and examples of quiet leadership without Scorsese feeling the need to make him a victim.

A bonus delight, as far as I’m concerned, Paul McCartney has not yet come off as the glib, self-serving ass I’ve grown accustomed to seeing in these retrospectives.

I look forward to watching part 2. What did you think about this doc?

COMING JUNE 15th: Rock of Ages, a Celebration of All That’s Been Wrong With Rock ‘n Roll Since My Teenage Years

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 142012

Save your soul, this ain't rock 'n roll!

ARE YOU IN? I’M STILL THINKING ABOUT SEEING THIS TURD, EITHER FRIDAY OR SATURDAY NIGHT.

As excruciatingly bad as this upcoming movie Rock of Ages looks—and because of how bad it looks—I can’t wait to see Rock of Ages. First of all it’s a summer movie, not quite a blockbuster (but who knows), starring Tom Cruise. Cruise delivers almost every summer. He was born to act larger than life on a hot summer day when one just wants to duck into a dark, air-conditioned movie theater, eat popcorn, and laugh at the notion of Tom Cruise, American Superhero. Not a spring goes by that I don’t anticipate the summer blockbuster starring Tom Cruise or my other go-to guy for ridiculous acting in preposterous movies, Nicolas Cage! Oh god, if only Cage could appear in Rock of Ages as a dumped-upon, sensitive singer-songwriter like Bruce Hornsby. He’s got the hair.

I know nothing about this coming movie other than it stars Cruise as some kind of badass Bon Jovi character, looks like it was directed by that dickhead who turns “rockin'” Broadway musicals into “rockin'” Hollywood smashes (you know, the guy who made Chicago and the musical version Fellini’s 8½), enables Russell Brand to continue his worthless career, and features a soundtrack that may drive me to shoot holes in the screen as I sit in the theater and watch the movie.

That’s right, I’m pretty sure I need to see this piece of crap and reconnect with the crap music that was popular in my high school years and that drove me to do the Lord’s work I do today here in the Halls of Rock. I need to witness this movie, the way Jimmy Carter used to fly to corrupt South American countries to “witness” their first, somewhat free elections. I may have to bring leaflets to hand out before and after the movie, like some rock ‘n roll Jehovah’s Witness. Save your soul, they might read, this ain’t rock ‘n roll!

Who’s up for joining me to witness this movie when it comes out? If you can’t join me in the Philadelphia or South Jersey area, we can all choose a day to attend and report back, maybe even posting live from our smartphones, like the kidz are purported to do during movies as they text and Tweet to their heart’s delight. I know they give warnings before movies about refraining from such activities, but since this is going to be such a rockin’ movie, do you think anyone will care?

Let me know what you think and we’ll get this bad boy on the RTH Calendar. Thank you.

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