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Capone thinks PIRATE RADIO rocks and rolls!!!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
PIRATE RADIO (which was released everywhere else in the world as THE BOAT THAT ROCKED) is writer-director Richard Curtis' AMERICAN GRAFFITI. The difference being that Curtis is showing us his musical history and birth as a lifelong fan of rock n' roll from the perspective of the men who spun the platters and introduced a style of radio broadcast that UK radio had never seen before the late 1960s. Unlike George Lucas, Curtis didn't experience this music on the streets of his hometown where suped-up cars patrol the streets like animals on the hunt. No, Curtis heard The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield, pretty much every American R&B performer or group and, of course, The Beatles through a small transistor radio curled up in his room trying ever so desperately to find exactly the right frequency so that Jimi Hendrix's guitar could splash colors on his brain, or the Beach Boys would pump warm sunshine into his heart, or The Hollies would make him feel alive.
Pirate Radio certainly does have a bare-bones plot about member of the British government (represented by a minister played for broad laughs by Kenneth Branagh) attempting to shut down these kind of broadcaster by essentially passing new laws making it illegal for them to beam radio signals into the UK. But those scenes don't hold a candle to the sex, booze and general bad behavior of a group of DJs playing the best music in the world with all of Britain listening. At its core, the film is a series of vignettes of moments aboard Radio Rock, a crumbling tanker anchored in the North Sea. As the film begins, we meet Carl (newcomer Tom Sturridge), whose mother has sent him to work for the radio station's owner and Carl's godfather Quentin (the unstoppable Bill Nighy) as some sort of punishment for bad behavior in school.
As Carl gets to know the broadcasters and behind-the-scenes folks over the course of the many weeks he's on board, we see event after event played out, each one funnier than the last. The cast is jam packed with some truly talented and funny actors, including Chris O'Dowd, the mysteriously quiet Tom Wisdom, Tom Brooke, Ike Hamilton, newsman Will Adamsdale, Rhys Darby, the lesbian cook Katherine Parkinson, and the man who becomes Carl's sexual mentor, Dave, played to hairy, seductive perfection by Nick Frost. Topping off the splendidly chosen cast is Rhys Ifans' Gavin, who left Radio Rock for work in the States but is returning to reclaim his title as ratings champion on the station; and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the vessel's sole American, The Count, the elder statesman and voice of rock purity.
Curtis is smart enough to know when to just let his cast fly and be free, so there are several sequences that are clearly the result of improvisation and just as funny and poignant as the fully scripted scenes. There's a free-floating quality to the entire film--things just sort of glide effortlessly from one moment to the next. I know some people get hung up on the idea that unless a film has a forward-driven plot guiding it, it's not something worth seeing, and that's just ridiculous (and if Robert Altman were alive, he's slap you repeatedly). The moments I loved most in PIRATE RADIO (both in the film proper and the copious deleted scenes on the UK DVD) are the ones that don't forward the plot one iota. I could have watched these DJs and their antics for an eternity, if only because their behavior would have been accompanied by the greatest 24/7 soundtrack the world has ever known.
I want to spend a minute talking about a couple of performances, beginning with Hoffman, who is in many ways drawing from the same well he did playing Lester Bangs in Almost Famous. He is the authority; he's not quite God, but he'll do in a pinch; he is passion personified; and he is the one who understands that the main reason all of these men have gone to such lengths to play this music is that they are fans above all else--not just of the music they are playing but of the music that 10, 20, 30 years down the road, music they may never get a chance to play. Hoffman delivers a magnificent speech about just that at the end of the film, and it made me realize that there is music today that people feel just as strongly about and connect to as emotionally as folks did in the 1960s.
Tom Sturridge has the great fortune or misfortune of being our eyes into this transitional world. He's often such a silent observer that you don't even notice he's in the room unless someone is addressing him directly, but when you do spot him reacting to some bit of insanity, his reaction often mirrors exactly what we're feeling--shock, amazement, fear, disgust, lust and affection (and those are just the emotions he feels while trapped in a bathroom with a naked Nick Frost). He's a terrific stand-in for us, the viewer. A few choice beauties make their way onto the boat for some extended cameos, including January Jones, Gemma Arterton, Talulah Riley, and a surprisingly loose turn from Emma Thompson. As much as I love the constant site of sexy men crammed onto a small boat, seeing these stunning women made for a nice change of pace.
I guess in the UK, a fuss has been made about the historical accuracy of some of the events that occur in this movie, and frankly I couldn't give a shite. PIRATE RADIO isn't meant to be a documentary. As strange as it might sound, it's a fantasy film that peeks into Richard Curtis' mind and shows us an idealized (and yes, fictionalized at times) version of the events as he remembers them as a young man with a radio to his ear and a wild imagination about what was going on at the other end of that signal. Curtis has spent much of his career in TV and movies, creating such characters as "Black Adder" and "Mr. Bean" in his early years, and penning some remarkable British comedies that somehow often resulted in tears (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, NOTTHING HILL, the BRIDGET JONES movies, THE GIRL IN THE CAFÉ, and his previous directing effort, LOVE ACTUALLY). I love that he's done something very different from what people consider a "Richard Curtis" production.
But more than that, I love that he's made a film about a love that very often lasts longer than most relationships. The impact of the music of our youth stays with us and influences us until the day we die. Other than maybe our parents, we can't say that about too many people. You can't break up with music, at least not easily. I came out of watching PIRATE RADIO with a rekindled romance with the music I grew up listening to, much of which I still sample quite frequently. It's one thing to be thinking about a movie for days after seeing it; it's quite another when that movie inspires you to take stock in a certain corner of your life and bring memories flooding back about what was happening to you when certain songs were at the peek of their popularity or what the first song you heard was when your first girlfriend broke up with you ("Against All Odds"--Phil Collins; just kill me now). My reaction to PIRATE RADIO was something more than just as a movie lover; it got me on a primal level I wasn't expecting and I loved it all the more for it.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com
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First...American Graffiti reference...ok,I'm in....
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When I saw the trailer for this in the theatre, the music track never played. Which made the whole thing a bit disjointed and strange, considering it's a movie about music.
Everyone in the theater knew something was off, but couldn't seem to put their fingers on it. Odd moment. -
"One man and a group of renegades..." STFU
It reminds me of the Mr. Show sketch for Coupon: The Movie. "Now one mom and a ragtag band of kids..." -
stateside. It is a complete mess. Is it just entertaining to hear a British accent for a couple of hours?
The historical inaccuracy isn't really what people were complaining about over here. It was more that the real story and characters would have been an infinitely more interesting, entertaining and funny one. A great sophisticated comedy is waiting to be made about Radio Caroline. Sadly this isn't it, its just a mess with an incoherent plot and the broadest humour possible. The soundtrack is the only thing that makes it remotely worthwhile. Save yourself a trip to the cinema and stick on some of your favourite rock and roll records instead!
Richard Curtis really needs to get his act together. His output has been very poor for a long time (and considering he brought us Blackadder, one of the greatest shows of all time, his career ever since then has been a relative disappointment). -
...not Black Adder.
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designed to push the buttons of a particular demographic. Rock and Roll and rebellion, with liberal doses of drug and sex references in defiance the uptight establishment is as hackneyed as the evil corporation or governments in sci fi flicks.
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...Film came out months ago. I'd rather watch Slade in Flame again. The Pirate Radio sequence looked a bit more convincing than this film's rubbish, and that was all fiction. NEXT!
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Funny how you say that people weren't complaining about how it wasn't historically accurate and then spen the rest of your time talking about how it would've been better if it were historically accurate...
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Capone, you are the best reviewer on this site. You may give too much away at times, but I've never read a reviewer I agreed with more than you.
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Not sure how much has been chopped and changed, though. Mind you, I saw the UK version on its cinema release, and it was appalling. A woeful, misjudged piece of sentimental, over-acted and badly-written shite. Mind you, only two days to the new DOCTOR WHO, which I'm waiting for with childish glee, so what do I know?
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that people listen to with the same passion as the 60s. Examples? (no emo allowed).
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I have seen this movie twice now.and it is the best movie I have seen in years..went to a midnight screening last night..and again this morning at an early morning 10:20 am show...this movie kicks ASS!!! when you see the movie you will know where the ASS comment comes from..(no jokes please ok..I know I set that one up)..but if you see a movie this year..please go see it..cant wait for the DVD..with the directors cut..which there will be..peace out fellow talkbackers...
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The trailer seemed engaging but the movie is truly terrible. Had to stop the pain after an hour.
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The trailer I've seen repeatedly has two jokes: the limp "after I'm dead" line and a guy hitting his head on a lamp post. Is this... as funny as it gets?
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"In a world... where rock and roll is banned... one man... will stand up... on a boat... and inspire a generation." Jesus...
I'm not surprised some people are fixating on the word "ass", since it should be billed as "a holiday movie experience that'll make you feel like you were gang-raped by merchant seamen."
Oh yeah, long live rock or something. -
Hint hint hint.
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I'm not much of a movie snob, I'm very easily pleased when it comes to films. This is the worst film I've seen all year hands down. I never have to turn off films but after the scene where they all one by one agree to carry on broadcasting despite it being illegal over rising triumphant music I just couldn't take it anymore. Daggor that is as funny as it gets honestly. There is a scene where a character who supposed to thick dresses as a rabbit at Christmas, a character says to him "Rabbits are Easter, not Christmas!" He says "oh really" and they all say "He's so thick!" in happy unison while you punch yourself repeatedly in the head in dismay. That's about the level of humor in this film.
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Pretty good, not exactly screaming with historical accuracy. Basically just a bunch of funny stuff that happens on a boat. Really good music. Then halfway through, the bulb on the projector blew and they unceremoniously shoved us out the theater. I got wasted at a bar down the street and spent today with a hangover. The end.
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Just wish they'd stop promoting it as a Seemoore Hoffmun film. It isn't. It is a bloody good ensemble cast.
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in the uk of the latter half of the 20th century. someone should do margrave on the marshes.
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Once again takes any gig going. This film is fucking shit.
And RIP john peel indeed. -
This movie is like a 1960's VW microbus. At first you think it's going to be quaint and fun so you pile on. You start the thing and it starts rolling slowly in 1st gear. No matter how many gears it tries, it plods along like a farm tractor. By the end of 90 laugh-free minutes it because the most excruciatingly slow movie of the year. This movie will FLOP! It does not have a sharp wit, much like the underpowered VW microbus it lacks the energy to get going at a reasonable pace or with any form of reliability. Holy crap, that was over 2 hours of my life that would have been better spent doing almost anything else.
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along with High Fidelity. Those are the two best music based movies in existence. Besides how can you hate something with Philip Seymour Hoffman in it?
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As were other characters.
But this movie was plodding and lacking the sharp Brit "humour" Not as biting as High Fidelity. I was hoping for. $2.8 million opening weekend and sinking like the titanic. -
Nov 16, 2009 10:59:40 AM CST
I read an interview with one of the actual DJs from that time.
by royston lodge
He said the pirate radio ships were "all business" and very professional. They didn't have lots of booze and drugs and slutty chicks. They were out in the middle of the sea! Where the hell would they get booze and drugs and slutty chicks?!
The partying was all done in London, when they were on shore leave. -
If you want to see a great,if mostly forgotten,60s based music flick,buy/download(you decide) Stardust,the early 70s movie starring David Essex.A blast from start to finish.Watched it the other night,35 years on it still stands up.Great 60s soundtrack,and worth seeing just for Keith Moons performance.Watch this one Capone-you will love it.
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